INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

also called Organizational Relations, the study of human behaviour in the workplace, with an emphasis on the influence such relations have on an organization's productivity. Classical economists treated workers as an instrument of production, subject to the same economic laws of supply and demand as raw materials and finished goods. In the 1890s the American industrial engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor devised a system of scientific management that carried this conception to its logical extreme. Taylor used time and motion studies to analyze jobs by breaking them down into their constituent tasks and timing each movement. From such studies Taylor derived the most efficient approach to both individual tasks and the organization of a factory as a whole. This individualistic approach did not consider how workers might be encouraged to work together more efficiently. In the late 1920s Elton Mayo studied productivity at Western Electric Company's Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Ill., U.S. Mayo hoped to discover optimum levels of plant illumination and proper timing of rest periods by experimenting with selected groups of workers. He discovered that it did not matter how the workers' environment was altered; merely being chosen for an experiment improved their productivity (the Hawthorne effect). Although this conclusion has been challenged, it nonetheless marked the beginning of the systematic study of industrial relations. Workers came to be seen as responding to psychosocial, as well as economic, stimuli. The Industrial Revolution brought large numbers of workers together under anonymous, frequently unpleasant circumstances. As industrial firms grew larger, a hierarchy of managers and foremen became increasingly necessary to discipline and coordinate workers. A variety of management strategies evolved. Management styles fall into two major schools, the laissez-faire and the paternal. The former is characterized by a devotion to the rigours of the free market; such managers feel no obligation to their employees outside the workplace, since the primary aim of a firm is the maximization of profit. The paternal style of management, however, assumes that the firm has obligations to its workers outside the workplace and to the larger community. Cultural factors influence management styles as well. Many North American firms are characterized by managerial decentralization, reflecting the population's mobility and a cultural preference for individualistic self-reliance. In Latin America and Europe, decision making is more centralized, and hierarchy is comparatively rigid. Japanese managers emphasize cooperation and consultation; workers often think of their firm and fellow workers as a second family. Japan's economic success has forced American managers to encourage more cooperation among workers and managers, although cultural differences make this difficult. Workers are motivated by a number of factors besides wages and fringe benefits. Incentive systems, which adjust pay according to productivity, can be important spurs to worker performance. Management discipline is an important variable; the amount of direct supervision and the ratio of supervisors to workers varies from firm to firm. The relations of management with labour unions involve elements of both conflict and cooperation. Most unions have been organized to demand from management improvement in pay scales and working conditions. Negotiation has become a chief function of union representatives, and most negotiators are willing to compromise, especially if management moves to temper conflicts. Some firms continue to fight unions, from the first stirrings of organization through every subsequent negotiation. The relations between managers of different divisions of a firm and the relations of managers to their superiors are as complex as manager-worker relations. For example, sales executives must be concerned with quality control, production schedules, and customer service; plant managers must answer to vice presidents as well as foremen. Thus, managers find themselves subject to a complicated set of demands. An individual firm's style of management is determined on every level by the nature of the industry as a whole; the firm's profitability, competitive situation, and culture or style; the personalities and preferences of senior managers; and the characteristics of the firm's home country or region. also called organizational relations the behaviour of workers in organizations in which they earn their living. Scholars who study industrial relations attempt to explain variations in the conditions of work, the degree and nature of worker participation in decision making, the role of labour unions and other forms of worker representation, and the patterns of cooperation and conflict resolution that occur among workers and employers. These patterns of interaction are then related to the outputs of organizations. These outputs span the interests and goals of the parties to the employment relationship, ranging from workers' job satisfaction and economic security to the efficiency of the organization and its effects on the community and society. Additional reading Important works in the field of industrial relations include Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, Industrial Democracy, 2 vol. (1897, reissued in 1 vol., 1965), a classic theory in the British socialist tradition; John R. Commons, Institutional Economics: Its Place in Political Economy (1934, reissued 1961), a summary of the theoretical ideas of the father of American industrial relations research; John T. Dunlop, Industrial Relations Systems (1958, reprinted 1977), a theoretical model that shaped the study of industrial relations between 1960 and 1980; Jack Barbash, The Elements of Industrial Relations (1984), a modern statement on the nature of the employment relationship; Richard Hyman, Industrial Relations: A Marxist Introduction (1975), an interpretation by a leading contemporary Marxist; Thomas A. Kochan, Harry C. Katz, and Robert B. McKersie, The Transformation of American Industrial Relations (1986), a study offering a strategic-choice model for interpretation of industrial relations; and Richard E. Walton and Robert B. McKersie, A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations: An Analysis of a Social Interaction System (1965), a classic theory of the dynamics of negotiations. Taishiro Shirai (ed.), Contemporary Industrial Relations in Japan (1983), is a survey of the evolution of industrial relations in the country from World War II to the end of the 1970s; and Wolfgang Streek, Industrial Relations in West Germany: A Case Study of the Car Industry (1984), is an in-depth look at the German industrial system.Leading works in the area of organizational behaviour include Chester I. Barnard, The Functions of the Executive (1938, reissued 1979), a classic statement on the nature of organizational relations by a prominent executive of his time; Michel Crozier, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (1964; originally published in French, 1964), an insightful study of the organizational behaviour in France; James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations (1958), a theoretical analysis based on a decision-making approach; Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise (1960, reprinted 1985), a study of two contrasting sets of assumptions managers make toward employees' motivations and of the effects of these assumptions on managerial behaviour; Industrial Democracy in Europe (1981), a comparative empirical study of worker participation conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from 12 European countries; Michael J. Piore and Charles F. Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity (1984), a discussion of the changes in work organization and relations in response to changing technologies and market conditions; Edward B. Roberts (ed.), Generating Technological Innovation (1987), a collection of articles on the movement of new products and technologies from the laboratory to the market; and Andrew M. Pettigrew, The Awakening Giant: Continuity and Change in Imperial Chemical Industries (1985), a detailed study of the process of organizational change based on an example of a large British firm.For studies of the changing work force, see Jeylan T. Mortimer and Kathryn M. Borman (eds.), Work Experience and Psychological Development Through the Life Span (1988); Gordon E. O'Brien, Psychology of Work and Unemployment (1986); Charles H. Savage and George F.F. Lombard, Sons of the Machine: Case Studies of Social Change in the Workplace (1986); Marc L. Silver, Under Construction: Work and Alienation in the Building Trades (1986); Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Alice S. Ilchman, and John J. Sweeney (eds.), Family and Work: Bridging the Gap (1986); Jon Miller, Pathways in the Workplace: The Effects of Gender and Race on Access to Organizational Resources (1986); Clark Kerr and Paul D. Staudohar (eds.), Industrial Relations in a New Age (1986); Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn, The Responsive Workplace: Employers and a Changing Labor Force (1987); Mary Ann Von Glinow, The New Professionals: Managing Today's High-Tech Employees (1988); Lois Farrer Copperman and Frederick D. Keast, Adjusting to an Older Work Force (1983); Steven H. Sandell (ed.), The Problem Isn't Age: Work and Older Americans (1987); and Helen Dennis (ed.), Fourteen Steps in Managing an Aging Work Force (1988). Thomas A. Kochan