The Nature of Workplace Relations: A Typology of Social Relations and Analysis of Industrial Relations Systems

There has been growing concern over the role of industrial relations arrangements in the workplace in Australia. In response more industrial relations research has focused on the workplace over the recent past. Although this work has centred on a range of themes, it has however relied on essentially the same theoretical framework or industrial relations paradigm. The basis of which is the analysis of bargained rules — the result of the joint-regulation of employment and workplace practice. In other words, the bargaining paradigm focuses overwhelmingly on one type of labour-management relation — viz. bargaining. This paper proposes a typology based on a number of types of social relations in order to broaden the basis of industrial relations analysis. It is used to analyse the characteristics and dynamics of a number of industrial relations systems currently under debate in Australia over the reshaping of industrial relations.