Industrial relations is not a discipline which has a strong tradition of developing its own theoretical insights or indulging in the scholastic skill of abstract thought. The major reason for this is that industrial relations scholarship is interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary in nature. While scholars regularly bemoan the theoretical tun dra in which industrial relations finds itself, they seem unprepared to do anything about it. Differences are examined between micro, macro and general models. The distinctive contribution of this article is to develop a general theory of (Australian) industrial relations, based on the analytical concept of an orbit of interaction. Various propositions of the general theory are formally stated and presented.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, R.J. (1988), 'Desperately Seeking Industrial Relations Theory', Research and Working Paper Series, Faculty of Business, McMastcr University, Hamilton.
2.
— (1993), '"All Aspects of People at Work": Unity and Division in the Study of Labor and Labor Management', in Adams and Meltz (eds), Industrial Relations Theory, pp. 119-60.
3.
Adams, R. J. and Meltz, N. M. (eds) (1993), Industrial Relations Theory: Its Nature, Scope and Pedagogy, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey.
4.
Appleyard, B. (1992), Understanding the Present, Picador, London.
5.
Baritz, L. (1974), The Servants of Power: A History of the Use of Social Science in American Industry, Greenwood Press, Westport, Virginia.
6.
Blain, N. and Plowman, D. ( 1987), 'The Australian Industrial Relations Literature, 1970-1986', Journal of Industrial Relations, June, pp. 295-320.
7.
Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P. (eds) (1992), Reassessing Human Resource Management, Sage, London.
8.
Cappelli, P. (1985), 'Theory Construction in IR and Some Implications for Research', Industrial Relations, Winter, pp. 90-112.
9.
Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR).
10.
Creighton, W.B., Ford, W.J. and Mitchell, R.J. (1993), Labour Law: Texts and Materials. 2nd edition, Law Book Company, Sydney.
11.
Dabscheck, B. (1980), 'The Australian System of Industrial Relations: An Analytical Model', Journal of Industrial Relations, June, pp. 196-218.
12.
— (1989), Australian Industrial Relations in the 1980s, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
13.
Dahrendorf, R. (1959), Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society , Routledge & Kegan Paul, London .
14.
Dimmock, S.J. and Sethi, A.S. (1986), 'The Role of Ideology and Power in Systems Theory: Some Fundamental Shortcomings', Relations Industrielles, no. 4, pp. 738-55.
15.
Drago, R., Kriegler, R., Tulsi, N. and Wooden, M. (1988), The BCA/NILS Industrial Relations Study: An Overview of the Employee Survey, National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University, Working Paper no. 100, September, Adelaide.
16.
Dufty, N.F. and Fells, R.E. (1989), Dynamics of Industrial Relations in Australia , Prentice Hall, Sydney.
17.
Dunlop, J.T. (1958). Industrial Relations Systems, Holt, New York.
18.
Forbath, W.E. (1989), 'The Shaping of the American Labor Movement', Harvard Law Review, April, pp.1109-1256.
19.
Gurdon, M.A. (1978), 'Patterns of Industrial Relations Research in Australia', Journal of Industrial Relations, December, pp. 446-62.
20.
Guille, H. (1984), 'Industrial Relations Theory: Painting by Numbers' , Journal of Industrial Relations, December, pp. 484-95.
21.
Hills, S.M. (1993), 'Integrating Industrial Relations and the Social Sciences', in Adams and Meltz. Industrial Relations Theory, pp. 183-225.
22.
Howard, W.A. (1978), 'Doctrine, Theory and Teaching in Industrial Relations' , in Turkington, D. J. (ed.), 'Industrial Relations Teaching and Research in Australia and New Zealand' , Conference of Teachers of Industrial Relations , Victoria University of Wellington, 10-12 May, pp. 25-43.
23.
Hyman, R. (1980), 'Theory in Industrial Relations: Towards a Materialist Analysis', in Boreham, P. and Dow, G. (eds), Work and Inequality: Ideology and Control in the Capitalist Labour Process, Macmillan , South Melbourne, pp. 38-59.
24.
Hyman, R. (1987), 'Strategy or Structure? Capital, Labour and Control' , Work, Employment and Society, March, pp. 25-55.
25.
Keenoy, T. (1991), 'The Roots of Metaphor in the Old and the New Industrial Relations', British Journal of Industrial Relations , June, pp. 313-28.
26.
Kochan, T.A., Katz, H.C. and McKersie, R.B. (1986), The Transformation of American Industrial Relations , Basic Books, New York.
27.
Kochan, T.A., McKersie. R. B. and Cappelli, P. (1984), 'Strategic Choice and Industrial Relations Theory' , Industrial Relations, Winter, pp. 16-39.
28.
Lansbury, R.D. and Westcott, M. (1992), 'Researching Australian Industrial Relations: Dawn or Twilight of a Golden Age?', Journal of Industrial Relations, September, pp. 396-419.
29.
Larouche, V. and Audet, M. (1993), 'Theorizing Industrial Relations: The Dominance of Logical Positivism and the Shift to Strategic Choice', in Adams and Mettz, Industrial Relations Theory, pp. 255-82.
30.
Lewin, D. (1987), 'Industrial Relations as a Strategic Variable' , in Kleiner, M. M., Block, R. N., Romkin, M. and Salsbury, S. W. (eds), Human Resources and the Performance of the Firm, Industrial Relations Research Association, Madison, Wisconsin , pp. 1-41.
31.
Macintyre, S. and Mitchell, R. (eds) (1989), Foundations of Arbitration: The Origitzs and Effects of State Compulsory Arbitration 1890-1914, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
32.
Niland, J. (1981), 'Research and Reform in Industrial Relations' , Journal of Industrial Relations, December, pp. 482-503.
33.
Orwell, S. and Angus, I. (eds) ( 1968), The Collected Essays. Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Volume III: As I Please 1943-1945, Secker & Warburg, London.
34.
Ross, A.M. (1956), Trade Union Wage Policy, University of California Press, Berkeley.
35.
Shalev, M. (1980), 'Industrial Relations Theory and the Comparative Study of Industrial Relations and Industrial Conflict', British Journal of Industrial Relations, March, pp. 26-43.
36.
Somers, G. G. (ed.) (1969a) Essays in Industrial Relations Theory, Iowa State University Press, Ames.
37.
— (1969b), 'Bargaining Power and Industrial Relations Theory' , in Somers, Essays in Industrial Relations Theory, pp. 39-53.
38.
Taylor, V. and Bray, M. (1986), 'Introduction: Directions in Industrial Relations Research', in Bray, M. and Taylor, V. (eds), Managing Labour? Essays in the Political Economy of Industrial Relations, McGraw-Hill , Sydney, pp. 1-19.
39.
Voos, P. (1993), 'Designing an Industrial Relations Theory Curriculum for Graduate Students', in Adams and Meltz, Industrial Relations Theory, pp. 17-42.
40.
Wedderburn, Lord ( 1986), The Worker and the Law, 3rd edition, Penguin, Ringwood.
