Industrial relations as a social system

Abstract

The article starts with a criticism of John Dunlop's systems theory of industrial relations. The article argues that some of the weaknesses of Dunlop's approach can be overcome by a systems theoretical conceptualisation of industrial relations based on Niklas Luhmann's theory of autopoietic social systems. It discusses five types of social systems that Luhmann's theory offers to characterise industrial relations as a social system: a set of interaction systems, an organisation system, a conflict system, an immune system and a function system of society. The article proposes to adopt a view of industrial relations as a fully-fledged function system operating within the world society. In its last part it sets out the major characteristics of such an autopoietic industrial relations system.