Factors Affecting Industrial Relations

“Living in an advancing technological age” when hearing this statement the first thing that come to mind is what is the technological age we are living in? Technological age or the information age as its also called is a period of time in which information became easily accessible through publications and through the manipulation of information by technology which comes in the form of computers and computer networks, and information being any useful data, instruction, or meaningful content. (Freedictionary.com).When examining the term industrial relations it can be separated into two sub categories industry and relations. Industry according to vocabulary.com is a group of manufactures or businesses that produce a particular kind of goods or

Industrial Factors: These include items like state policy, labour laws, voluntary codes, collective bargaining agreements, labour unions, employers organisations / federation etc. 2. Economic Factors: These include economic organisations (socialist, communist, capitalist) type of ownership, individual, company – whether domestic or MNC, Government, co-operative, ownership, nature and composition of work force, the source of labour supply, labour market relative status, disparity of wages between groups, level of unemployment, economic cycle, the global economic changes and the impact of World Trade Organisation (WTO). 3. Social Factors: Social Factors like social group (like caste system or joint family system) creed, social values, norms, social status etc. influence industrial relations in the early stages of industrialisation. They give rise to relationships as master and servant, have and havenots, high caste and low caste, etc. but with the acceleration of industrialisation, these factors gradually lose their entity but one cannot overlook their importance. 4. Technological Factors: These include methods, type of technology used, rate of technological change, R & D activities, ability to cope up with emerging trends, etc. These factors considerably influence the patterns of industrial relations as they are known to have direct influence on employment status, wage level, and collective bargaining process in an organisation. 5. Psychological Factors: Such factors include items pertaining to industrial relations like owners‟ attitude, perception of workforce, their attitude towards work, their motivation, morale, interest, alienation, dissatisfaction, occupational stress and boredom resulting from man-machine interface. 8 OSN Academy, Lucknow 6. Political Factors: Political institutions, system of government, political philosophy, attitudes of government, ruling elite and opposition leaders towards labour problems affect the state of industrial relations. For