DUNLOP’S APPROACH TO

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Synopsis

• Introduction
• Meaning
• Elements of system approach
• Conclusion

 INTRODUCTION
 The industrial relations can be viewed from various angles which may
range from the economic to the social, political to the legal, psychological
and managerial.


 For instance: an economist tries to interpret the problem of industrial

relations in terms of forces of the law of demand and supply.


 So industrial relations cannot be understood by using any of the

approaches as they are not subject to objective enquiry
 There are various approaches
in industrial relations like
• Psychological approach
• Sociological approach
• human relations approach
• Gandhi an approach
• Human resource management
approach
• System approach
Meaning
 System:


 The term "systems" is derived from the Greek word

"synistanai," which means "to bring together or
combine." The term has been used for centuries.


• A system is a community situated within an environment.

• A system is a dynamic and complex whole, interacting as
a structured functional unit.



 System approach
• A system is basically a combination of parts and
subsystems. Each part may have various subparts. Parts
and sub parts of the system are mutually related to each
other.
•
•
• The concept of system has been defined by many in many
fields such as biology, physics, and psychology,
sociology, and so on as a set of components interacting
within a boundary possessing the property of filtering
both the kind and rate of flow into and out of the
system


•
• Craig (1983), applying the system approach to industrial relations, explains
that a system consists of four basic components


• Internal inputs as summarized by the concepts of goals, values, power of

the participants (actors) in the system, which are conditioned by the
flow of effects from environmental subsystems (external inputs)
•
• The processes or complex of private and public activities for converting
inputs into outputs
•
• The outputs, comprising the material, social and psychological
 rewards employees receive in rendering their services; and


• A feedback loop through which the outputs flow directly into the industrial
relations system itself and also into the environmental subsystem. The
outputs which flow through the feedback loop can shape the subsequent
goals, values and power of the actors in the industrial relations system.
•
 System Approach
 System approach is one of the significant theories of industrial labor
relations was put forth by john Dunlop in 1950’s.


 This approach was quite helpful in studying the industrial relations that is
it focuses on


Ø Participants in the process

Ø Environment forces
Ø Output


 He also states that none of these institutions could not act in an autonomous or
independent . Instead they were shaped at least to some extent by their
market , technological and political contexts
 The basic elements of system approach are


 a) Participants in the system



Ø Workers and the organization

Ø Management and their representatives
Ø Government agencies
 b) Environmental forces


 Dunlop as identified three types of environment forces that

are relevant to industrial relations


Ø Technological characteristics
Ø Market or economic constraints
Ø The locus and balance of power existing in a society

•
• Industrial relations would be very
different in a labor intensive
industry from those of capital
intensive.
•
•
•
• These factors also influence industrial relations, because the
need for labor is closely associated with the demand for the
products.
•
• Existence of competition in market.
•
The locus and balance of power in a society in the form of
power centers

Ø Worker’s organizations
Ø The employers
Ø The government
Ø
Also influences the relationships between the labor and
management
The regulatory role of government is therefore an important part
in shaping the pattern of industrial relations
•
• So, these factors influence the relationships between the
government , business and labor and their interactions lead
to the formulation of rules of behavior.
•
 (like labor laws, collective agreements, codes etc which
govern the behavior of each of the three parties participating in
industrial relations system.)
•
• The output is the result of interaction of parties of the system
which is manifested in the network of rules, country labor
policy and labor agreements etc, that facilitates fair deal to
workers.
•
• The Dunlop’s model gives great significance to external or
environmental forces. In other words, management, labor,
and the government possess a shared ideology that defines
their roles within the relationship and provides stability to
the system.