Workers and Management: A Socio-Historical Perspective

This paper explores the changing patterns of relationships between workers and the management in industry over the last century and half. Three concepts are presented of worker-management relations. Mono-community of works the dual community, and the unified community. Each community has unique structure and relationships. The paper further explores the genesis of the three patterns and differentiates between the Indian and European pattern. It identifies some of the sources of conflict in the context of socio-cultural variables over a period of time. It is hoped that exploration of the socio-historical and developmental perspective may provide a better understanding and appreciation of the multi-faced phenomenon of worker-management relations. The paper suggests that the task ahead of worker-management relations is to create a setting where cooperative effort is unified in a system of belonging, where the roles are differentiated, where a sense of psychological security is generated and where both the organizational and individual goals acquire convergence and fulfillment.