Industrial relations: changing trends across theory, policy and practice

The pioneers of the field used the term industrial relations (IR) in a broad and interdisciplinary sense, covering the practice and study of all aspects of work and employment. In the UK, the field developed from the work of Fabians Sydney and Beatrice Webb (1894; 1897), while, in the USA, it was developed by institutional economists, notably John R. Commons (1909; 1934). These public intellectuals and their associates sought to understand and influence IR in ways that distinguished their normative, theoretical, and methodological approaches from Karl Marx (1849) on the one hand, and classical or neo-classical economics (Marshall, 1920) on the other. Subsequently, the field has developed considerably by incorporating concepts and methods from other disciplines too, for example accounting, history, law, management, political science, psychology and sociology. This has made the field multidisciplinary.