Human Resource Management And The New Industrial Relations

Abstract

Abstract ‘Human resource management’ and the ‘new industrial relations’, like most terms in the field of management and organization, originated in the United States. Those using the terms were not doing so with a concern for precision; nor were they proposing any tight distinction between them. Rather, they were seeking to convey to a predominantly management audience a sense of innovation and change. There appear to be no compelling reasons why we should therefore seek to impose artificial boundaries of our own. However, ‘human resource management’ generally conjures up an image of a high technology non-union environment while the use of the term ‘industrial relations’ inevitably implies that trade unions or some other form of workforce representation are involved. In considering human resource management and the new industrial relations, it is on this absence or presence of a trade union and its consequences for policy, practice, and performance that we will concentrate.