What Are Good Industrial Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

What Are Good Industrial Relations - Essay Example Industrial relations involve efforts to create workable solutions between conflicting objectives and values, between incentive and economic security, discipline and industrial democracy, authority and freedom, and between bargaining and cooperation (â€Å"Industrial Relations†, 2012). They not only affect the interests of labor and management but also the economy addressed by the government. They denote matters such as the right to organize, freedom of association, and collective bargaining and arbitration between various levels of the economy (Sivarethinamohma, 2010). As seen in the above definitions, industrial relations are chiefly the relations between employers and employees, reflecting the outcome of human resources management. Their main emphasis is to accommodate the interests of other parties and maintain a harmony through problem solving between employers and employees. Industrial relations are governed by policies, rules, regulations, agreements, mediations, acts an d awards concerning workplace and working community. Industrial relations analysts have described three major theoretical approaches that are different in explaining and analyzing relations at workplaces. These are pluralist theory, unitarism, and radical perspectives. Each one provides a unique understanding of relations at workplaces and therefore, uniquely interprets factors such as conflicts, the role of trade unions, and work regulation (Barbash & Barbash,