Question

Weekly question: The impact of economic and social events on ideas

The Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War were associated with a rapid growth of unions, and a much larger federal government -- one that assumed responsibility for the overall economy and for protecting particular groups, like the aged and unemployed.   How did this influence dominant ideas in the field of industrial relations? How do those ideas correspond with what happened in "the real world" in this period?

Answer 1

Industrial relations deals with the employment relationship such as the relationship between employees and employers. Trade/labor unions and organizations and the state.

Due to the large scale unemployment which accompanied the Great depression and the impact of the Second World War. People were far more concerned regarding where they are going to earn their living from and thus job security started to come into the picture. Non organized sectors were also influenced by the organized sectors in the market. It led to the rise of concession bargaining, importance being given to non-union labor force and led to workplace innovations. As people wanted a sense of security.

Thus the ideas led to a New Deal Industrial Relations System in the real world where the administration enacted laws which granted workers the ability to organize into unions and led them to engage in collective bargaining. There were minimum wages set which acted as a price floor and unemployment insurance and social security measures were set in place in order to bring stability among the workforce. The government also set forth in organizing the unskilled labor force who were not represented before. This led to employment generation and workers not being manipulated or being paid extremely low wages.