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Industrial Conflicts

Introduction

Industrial conflicts can best be described as the range of different behaviors and attitudes that communicate opposition and conflicting orientations between two groups of people, wherein the first group includes the owners and managers of an industry and the second group includes the working people in that industry and their organizations. (Karen, pp 36)

Industrial conflicts can be formal and even informal and can occur for a number of reasons between the workers and their employers. The reasons for these conflicts can be wage related demands of the workers, or management policies, or dissatisfaction of the employees due to the working conditions in the organization, or even political and social issues.

Discussion

Forms of Conflict

When a conflict occurs in an organization, the range of behaviors and attitudes of the employees as a result if these conflicts are not restricted to only strikes and lockouts, but also includes absenteeism, work bans and work limitations to an extent, sit ins, wastage of materials by the employees, inefficiency and labor turnover.

The industrial conflicts can occur in different forms. Some conflicts are individual conflicts, some are collective conflicts, some are proactive and some defensive. In individual conflicts, only one individual takes action, such as absenteeism. In the collective conflict, a number of people take action and support a common claim or grievance, such as organizing a stop work meeting or sit ins. The proactive conflict is about improving working conditions, earnings and other areas of the employment relationships. In the defensive behavior over some conflict, the workers protest against certain decisions made by the management o the authority of the organization that affects the working or employment conditions.

All these behaviors come under the Overt and Covert forms of industrial conflicts. The overt form of conflict is the organized kind of conflict that takes place in the open and is easy to identify. It is collective in nature, and includes small or big groups of employees or trade unions. This kind of conflict makes itself visible through strikes, lockouts, bans on overtime, limitation of output or some kind of a political action. This form of conflict serves the interest of a wider society. It first makes clear on what grounds the conflict has taken place between the two groups and bring the issues out in the open so that everybody knows about it and can give their opinion on the matter. Then it tries to come up with a quick solution and in this process, also makes it very clear about which group hold what kind of power in certain areas. This kind of organized conflict also helps in bringing loyalty and consistency between the groups. Basically, this organized kind of conflict improves the operations in the industry rather than worsening them.

The covert kind of conflict is the unorganized type of conflict that is individual in nature and involves single employees only. It is normally suppressed or hidden and not everyone can see it occurring. This form of conflict ...