Hi,
The quick answer is that it may not be possible to understand much
about the United States or its people without knowledge of its
industrial system. For better or worse, economic issues have been at
the heart of most of the major changes in American society during its
history. The labor union movement, civil rights, the women's movement,
Social Security, welfare reform and many other issues all have a
strong economic component. Most of the political issues that face the
country also have a strong economic component. Just look at the
headlines of recent days -- the Iraq War came about in part because of
the economic importance of Middle Eastern oil, the SARS scare is
having an economic impact on the travel industry, the great health
debate, the airlines are losing money -- or take a look at the 2004
elections, and you'll see economic issues at the heart of discussions.
Industrial relations is, of course, a broad term, although it
frequently focuses on issues such as labor-management relations and
other factors that affect the ability of workers to work and investors
to make money.
Managers can find study useful because their job is to make money for
the company. A major key to that is doing what can be done to help
workers be productive. This can involve such activities as labor
negotiations, providing incentives and rewards for workers, scheduling
workers, and improving retention.
Workers too can benefit from knowing how the system works. For
example, it isn't very helpful for workers to demand what the company
cannot afford or what isn't practical. By knowing how they fit in the
system, workers are in a better position to bring about change and
decisions that will benefit them.
Knowing about industrial relations is important to me because I like
to know how our society functions so I can have a positive influence
on it.
I hope this helps.
To get an idea of what the various aspects of industrial relations
are, I did a quick search on Google doing the term "industrial
relations":
://www.google.com/search?q=industrial+relations&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I looked at two sites in particular to get an idea of the various
issues that are involved:
Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy & Society
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0019-8676
Institute of Industrial Relations
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0019-8676
Best wishes in your studies!
Mvguy-ga |
