This paper reviews four approaches to the study of strikes, centered on organizational environments, industrial relations institutions, collective interests and consciousness, and approaches from within psychology which have looked at employee needs, or attitudes, in relation to job dissatisfaction, and hence industrial conflict. Despite their identification of salient features of strike causation, none of these approaches has drawn on insights from social psychology, and all have focused on strike causes to the virtual exclusion of strike processes. The paper proceeds to analyze significant dimensions of strike processes, viz. industrial relations climate; the distinctions between triggers, issues, and demands; strike content and context; and transitional and final strike outputs. These and other features are combined into an integrated model supported by evidence from the strikes literature.
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