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

Abstract

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.

Citation

Novicevic, M.M., Hayek, M. and Fang, T. (2011), "Integrating Barnard's and contemporary views of industrial relations and HRM", Journal of Management History, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 126-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/17511341111099547