Integrating Barnard's and contemporary views of industrial relations and HRM

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to juxtapose the contemporary views of industrial relations (IR) and human resource management (HRM) with the ideas expressed by Chester Barnard. Design/methodology/approach - The paper analyzes Chester Barnard s views along the four premises that underlie contemporary perspectives on the fields of IR and HRM. Findings - Barnard s main points: that sincerity and honesty of management is crucial to developing an individual employee s will to collaborate, and that collective cooperation is superior to collective bargaining are found to resonate well with the contemporary views and provide a clear indication for Barnard s preference of human resource perspective to the IR perspective. Practical implications - This paper provides Barnard s practical insights into why managing IR and HR by policies leads to poor management. Originality/value - This paper is the first to recognize Barnard s unique contribution to contemporary perspectives on IR and HRM disciplines.