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IR, LR, HR, etc.: What’s in a Name?

IR, LR, HR, etc.: What’s in a Name?. The processes by which human beings and organizations interact at the workplace and more broadly in society as a whole to establish terms and conditions of employment. -- D.Q. Mills. IR, HR, LR, and LIR … What’s in a Name?. I ndustrial R elations

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IR, LR, HR, etc.: What’s in a Name?

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  1. IR, LR, HR, etc.: What’s in a Name? The processes by which human beings and organizations interact at the workplace and more broadly in society as a whole to establish terms and conditions of employment. -- D.Q. Mills

  2. IR, HR, LR, and LIR …What’s in a Name? Industrial Relations (as a field of study) Labor Relations Union Bilateral Rule-Making Human Resources Nonunion Unilateral Rule-Making All aspects of people at work Employment relationships - CB/Negotiation - Labor Law - Contract Admn. - Labor History - Compensation - Staffing - T&D - Benefits

  3. Industrial Relations As A Field of Study -- Definitions • Employment relationships -- relations among workers, employers, their organizations, and government regulators (generic?) • All aspects of people at work (Kochan) • The processes by which human beings and organizations interact at the workplace and more broadly in society to establish terms and conditions of employment (Mills)

  4. IR Systems Concept (Dunlop 1958)Major Elements • Actors (workers, unions, mgmt, government) • Contexts (labor and product markets, technology, community) • Processes (unilateralism, individual bargaining, legislation, adjudication, “CB”) • Ideology (minimal shared beliefs; the “glue” that gives systems stability) • Rules (broadly defined) or Outcomes (pay, benefits, work rules, working conditions, job satisfaction, industrial democracy, peace and conflict, productive efficiency)

  5. IR System Concept Purpose • Purpose: An organizing framework to help us understand variations in rules or outcomes • Across systems • Different companies • Different nations • Etc. • Changes in a given system over time

  6. IR System Concept:A Causal Model Representation(Simplified Version) Actors Contexts Rules or Outcomes Processes Ideology

  7. IR Systems Concept “Notables” • Dunlop (quoting Huxley): “Mountains of facts have been piled on the plains of human ignorance … facts have outrun ideas ... integrating theory has lagged” • Industrial, not capitalist • Varying levels of analysis (e.g., nations, industries, companies), including Katz & Kochan’s strategic, functional, and workplace levels • Arbitrariness: “Dunlop ain’t Moses” • Actors • Labels are convenient and necessary … but • Abstractions conceal much variation within categories

  8. IR Systems Concept “Notables,” cont’d • Contexts (or environments) • Tend to be “givens” in short run • A decisive influence on outcomes or “rules” • Processes • There are many; we tend to think of one • Key question: Why is one favored? Consequences? • Rules or Outcomes • The focal point • Substantive vs. procedural • Ideology: It’s “fuzzy glue?” • Minimal shared beliefs • Not necessarily uniform or stable

  9. IR System Concept Notables, cont’d • Q: In what sense a system? A: In that each part more less intimately affects the others, and together they combine to produce certain arrangements and outcomes (Mills paraphrasing Slichter) • Kochan: A complex social or economic system can only be understood by first standing back and conceptualizing its major components and then examining in detail each component and its interconnections with other parts of the system • Note that text and course layout roughly follow the IR systems framework, but the emphasis is on the labor relations side, “the less familiar terrain”

  10. IR As A Field of Study:Distinguishing Values and Assumptions • Pluralism: There are multiple parties with legitimate interests or goals • No one party’s goals are supreme • There may be conflicting goals (likely) • Labor is more than a commodity • Inherent conflict of interest • Economic (e.g., profit vs. compensation) • Superior-subordinate (“friction”?) • Inherent common interests and interdependence

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