INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Prepared by :
Dr. Manjula Gupta
Assistant Professor
Commerce
SCOPE
Industrial relations are relation between employee and employer in their day-to-day work. Hence,
it is continuous relationship.
The scope of industrial relations includes:
(a) Relationship among employees, between employees and their superiors or managers.
(b) Collective relations between trade unions and management. It is called union-management
relations.
(c) Collective relations among trade unions, employers’ associations and government.
Scott, Clothier and Spiegel remarked that industrial relations has to attain the maximum
individual development, desirable working relationships between management and employees
and effective moulding of human resources. They have also asserted that either industrial
relations or personnel administration is primarily concerned with all functions relating man
effectively to his environment.
Thus, the scope of industrial relations seems to be very wide. It includes the establishment and
maintenance of good personnel relations in the industry, ensuring manpower development,
establishing a closer contact between persons connected with the industry and that between the
management and the workers, creating a sense of belonging in the minds of management,
creating a mutual affection, responsibility and regard for each other, stimulating production as
well as industrial and economic development, establishing a good industrial climate and peace
and ultimately maximising social welfare.
OBJECTIVES
Objectives of IR:
The primary objective of industrial relations is to maintain and develop good and healthy relations
between employees and employers or operatives and management. The same is sub- divided into
other objectives.
Thus, the objectives of IR are designed to:
1. Establish and foster sound relationship between workers and management by safeguarding their
interests.
2. Avoid industrial conflicts and strikes by developing mutuality among the interests of concerned
parties.
3. Keep, as far as possible, strikes, lockouts and gheraos at bay by enhancing the economic status of
workers.
4. Provide an opportunity to the workers to participate in management and decision making process.
5. Raise productivity in the organization to curb the employee turnover and absenteeism.
6. Avoid unnecessary interference of the government, as far as possible and practicable, in the
matters of relationship between workers and management.
7. Establish and nurse industrial democracy based on labour partnership in the sharing of profits and
of managerial decisions.
8. Socialise industrial activity by involving the government participation as an employer.
According to Krikaldy, industrial relations in a country are influenced, to a large extent, by the form
of the political government it has. Therefore, the objectives of industrial relations are likely to
change with change in the political government across the countries.
