Sociology

It is interesting to note the results of Grace Kao’s study of a multi-racial group of high school students with focused on how students from different races varied their measurement or definition of success. Individuals have set criteria, which over the years served as the standards in perceiving how one student can consider himself or herself successful. Students have classified their classmates belonging to different race and create mindsets based from physical differences like skin color and from natural origin or based from cultural characteristics.

Changing or modifying student’s perception on success will not be an easy thing. The educator must consider the existing perceptions, skills, and knowledge of the students in attempt to modify their meaning of success.

Every student must be encouraged to discover his or her potential and make use of it to the fullest. Academic institutions should have well rounded programs that will cater to and showcase the students’ unique abilities. In this manner, they will realize that being academically successful does not only pertain to passing a course, attaining high grades, receiving awards, or earning good jobs but more importantly, success is using potentials to their fullest and being satisfied with their performances.

It must also be clear to them that an individual can be considered successful regardless of race or ethnicity. There should also be avenues for knowledge and skills sharing among multi-racial students. In this manner, they will develop appreciation of what they can offer and what others can share with them.  Healthy competition and respect for individuality must be consistently promoted.

There is nothing wrong with multi-racial students setting their own standards of success, but these perceptions should not limit them from being truly successful in life. The challenge for educators is how to create a learning atmosphere that can motivate students to do away with stereotyping based from race and ethnicity and to treat one’s self as a unique individual with a set goal in his or her academics to be successful.

References

Kao, G. (2000). Group Images and Possible Selves Among Adolescents: Linking Stereotypes to Expectations by Race and Ethnicity, Sociological Forum, Vol 15 no 3, 2000. Retrieved, April 17, 2007, from http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~grace2/kao.soc.forum.2000.pdf.

Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved, April 17, 2007, from http://www2.austincc.edu/jtaylor/outlinech9.htm.

Wikipedia. Perception. Retrieved, April 17, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/

Bend it like beckham is based on Jess, a 17 year old British born, Sikh girl who has an undying passion for football, her favourite player is David Beckham and he is exactly who jess wants to be. But jess’s parents have taken every effort to stay in touch with the families Indian heritage. Jess’ father and mother are after their daughter to go to law school, learn to cook a traditional Indian dinner, and settle down with a nice Indian boy — the latter of which is high on the agenda of her older sister Pinky, who is soon to wed her long-time beau Teetu.

However, her family is unaware that Jess has a secret passion ,football. Her parents don’t know that in her spare time she likes to play a friendly game in the park with some of the boys in the neighbourhood. One day, while Jess and her pals kick the ball around, she meets Jules, who is quite impressed with Jess’ skills. Jules plays with a local semi-pro women’s football team, the Hounslow Harriers, and she thinks Jess has what it takes to make the team.

Jess knows that her parents would never approve of their daughter playing football, so she doesn’t tell them, and starts spinning an increasingly complex series of lies as she tries to keep up a double life as a student and a footballer. Jess soon discovers a number of her new friends have their own problems to overcome; Jules dreams of playing pro ball in America, but has to deal with her stubborn and disapproving mother, while Joe, Hounslow’s Irish coach, still struggles with the disappointment of a career as a professional athlete which was dashed by a knee injury.

Throughout Bend it like Beckham, clear sociological factors all appear, from stereotypical ideologies through to race, class and gender, bend it like Beckham is a enjoyable, funny film that can be used to explain more clearly how ideologies, identity, power and social influences all have a part to play in everyone’s lives. Ideologies are beliefs and ideas that people form to give meaning to their life experiences and make sense of the world, there are different types of ideologies, including class, race and gender ideologies and these ideologies form identities. Identity is about belonging, about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others.

At its most basic it gives you a sense of personal location, the stable core to your individuality. But it is also about your social relationships, your complex involvement with others’ (Weeks 1990 p. 88 cited in Rutherford 1990 p. 88) Class ideologies are the beliefs that people have to understand economic inequalities, identify them in terms of their class position and evaluate the manner in which economic inequalities are and how they should be integrated into the organization of social worlds.

Class ideology is not an as important factor in the movie as the other forms of ideology but it picked up upon slightly when the father mentions that they are not rich, also the environment in which the movie is filmed portrayed her family as working class, however she is planning to go to university and wins a scholarship at the end so her education is pretty good. Racial ideology is one of the main ideologies depicted in the movie, it is a set of ideas and beliefs that people use to give meaning to skin colour and to evaluate people in terms of racial classifications.

Racial ideologies vary around the world, but they are powerful when people use them to classify humans into racial categories. In the film, jess is Sikh, this means the family generally follow strict cultural life preferences due to their religion and these preferences cause restrictions in jess’s freedom, she shouldn’t even show as much skin as a football kit reveals in general, let alone play football itself, with girls from other cultural backgrounds, she is seen as disgracing the family for her participation.

Racism is touched upon in a scene during which she retaliates to a tackle and receives a red card, only to find out that she was called a ‘paki’. The coach explains to her that he also received discrimination due to him being Irish. This informs us of the constraints of racial barriers still produced now, even in today’s multi-cultural society.

Another factor in the movie is that Jess and Joe ( the Irish coach) end up falling for each other which is another racial barrier that is not regularly crossed due more to the beliefs and culture of jess and her families religion. Gender ideology is also a set of ideas and beliefs but that masculinity, femininity, and male-female relationships. It is the Basis for defining what it means to be a man or a woman, evaluating and judging people and relationships and determining what is natural and moral related to gender.

The main issue relating the gender ideologies in this film relates to the race ideology and that is that she opposes the obvious stereotype of an Indian woman, An Indian woman’s identity is created by the tradition’s of an Indian woman, for example according to ideologies her job is to cook and look after the house and children. however her interest is not a family and learning how to cook, but to become a professional female footballer and attend university to study for a degree.

By Jess opposing this gender ideology, she is creating her own identity as an Indian woman footballer, trying to keep her femininity by falling for the Irish coach, sticking to her Indian traditions by wearing the clothes and learning to cook, however she does this all and still able to play football up to a scholarship standard, doing the best job to define her own identity. She also defies the stereotypical footballer, which for a start, is male, and is rarely Indian, in English society anyway. , emphasising on her identity as a woman footballer, not a man.

Jess opposes her parents and other groups of people with the same traditions and beliefs, who feel that women shouldn’t play football, and this is a clear example of femininity, also during a scene where jess is involved in a match, the same is being watched by 4 of jess’ male friends who shout sexist remarks at the team members, not in a malicious way but this still shows the males idea of women as an object, during this scene, jess’s secret gay friend ( who is also Indian and therefore causes another constraint in that omosexuality is frowned upon more than it is in other cultures) asks the boys, which are also his friends, as to why they can’t see the woman as footballers, and they all just laugh, which emphasises peoples stereotypical thoughts of women. In the film they also talk about the opinion that even Indian boys should not play football, so for a female Sikh to play is deemed as even worse, Jess is completely contradicting two ideologies, her gender ideology, and her race ideology.

But this way creating her own identity, its is a struggle for Jess to fight all the ideologies present to achieve her goal. Ideologies of women in sport mean that there are several gender barriers to overcome people still feel that sport is male dominant and there are certain sports that are for men, and certain sports that are for women, and bend it like Beckham contradicts this belief.

Power is also noticeable in the movie and there are different power hierarchies, the football coach is male, so still portrays the male dominance in the sport as he is seem as the leader and the team of females still have to do as he says. Also the parents have different levels of parent, jess’s mother seems to have influence over the father, and they both have influence over their daughter. Jess feels that she is being constrained and sees the football team as a social structure; Identity is formed in the relationships between ‘social structures’ and an individual ‘subjectivity’ (Hughson et al 2005 p. 110). She feels she can use this social structure to assert her agency; Jess knows that sporting achievement is a sign of social mobility, therefore she knows that her constraints could decrease in society if she can achieve high in a football career, barriers would decline and she would exceed expectation due to the stereotypes she is grouped in and opportunities in life would come more easily.

So Jess is taking her individualism as a Sikh female to create a relationship with a social structure, which is the football club. and she can achieve all this by the opportunity to play football. The film shows she achieving this to her best of her ability as she gets scouted and wins a scholarship to a top university to play football, where she can individually change peoples perception of Indian woman, and also influence other Indian females to start playing football.

The one key moment in the movie that I felt best exhibits all the main sociological factors of identity, ideology and power comes on 6 minutes into the movie, jess is walking through the local park when her male friend sees her and asks her to join in, as soon as she starts playing to can see power and gender ideologies already, the group of men that she is playing have there tops off for a start, and being able to take there tops off to play football shows male dominance and masculinity, which shows power is present as the men believe they are in charge because they are male.

Also they say sexist comments to jess about her football capabilities as a female for example, one of the men say “ can you chest it like Beckham, you know, give it sum bounce (emphasising on her chest) , it wasn’t malicious as they were all friends but it was another means so showing the gender ideology and male dominance, as well as gender discrimination. The movie continues and jess gets hold of the ball and takes it round all the boys before scoring, unknowingly being watched by Jules, her soon to be football partner and best friend.

Jules runs off and Jess continues to play football. The movie then continues into Jess’s room where she talks to her poster of David beckham, she says “its not fair that the boys never have to come home and help” what she is saying is that because of her families religion, there are rules that must abided to and one of them is that the women are the ones in the home, for cooking and cleaning and the boys are the ones who work..

This is one of the main barriers to participation she has, her ethnicity means she is going against her families beliefs by playing football. She also asks the question, of if she had an arranged marriage, would they let her play football? This emphasises on the constraint that her ethnicity causes for her participation in the sport. Her father then walks in the room and starts to moan about all the posters of ‘a bald man’ on her wall, the opposite of how a man should look like according to her religion.

The clip carries on into the engagement party located at her house, and by the large amount of people in the house, which is small as it is, this can be looked upon as defining her class ideology of a working class family, as they may not be able to afford a bigger area of the night. Now jess is dressed in all her traditional Indian clothing, a big contrast to her shorts and Manchester united top she wore down the park.

Jess is handing out a plate of food and an old lady, says to her that it will be her turn soon to get married and does she want a proper Sikh with a full bear and a turban, the direct opposite to David beckham, this links to race ideology as saying that their religion has a typical man and that her marriage and Sikh life in evitable, it also just hints on the barriers she must overcome to achieve her dream, she doesn’t want the traditional normal life of a female Sikh, she wants to be a professional footballer.

This key moment continues but now the scene is set back at the park, again she is playing football with the same group of topless men, whereas three girls who know jess, are watching on, checking out the men. Jess makes this a stark contradiction to the stereotypical scenario because even though she is female, she is playing football, in her football shirt, with the lads, rather than sit with the girls.

She contradicts her own stereotype by playing football, she is not the Sikh girl everyone wants her to be. Jess finds it easier to fit in with the girls by knowing the boys, he is very much a tomboy who would rather be out getting muddy than buying new clothes. Again contradicting her own gender ideology, she also comes across as gay to many of the Sikhs because of her unorthodox activities.

While playing football Jules goes over to jess, and in front of the lads asks her if she plays for any team, immediately afterwards one of the males says “ yer like who, Southport united sari squad” this is a dig at her ethnicity not at her gender or sex, so this explains my point that she has to overcome two main barriers that are her gender and her ethnicity, both ideologies constrain her from participation, and also male dominance and masculinity also don’t help with her problem of her being a female footballer either and the power influence can be seen underlying the movie.

This is where my key moment ended. In summary, I have learnt that social identities and ideologies are formed from sport societies, in today’s world, Groups and societies are characterised by shared values and conflicts of interest and sports forms are culturally produced, reproduced and/or transformed, sports forms are social constructions that change as power relations change and as narratives and discourses change. n relation to identity, ideology and power, Bend it like Beckham touches on several key sociological dimensions, it mainly focuses on how her cultural identity constraints her from participating in the sport she loves as her parents strict beliefs and traditions and they feel that she should be a proper Sikh and learn to cook Indian food, not play football. She should be focusing on becoming a lawyer according to her parents.

She also has to deal with the fact that she is a woman and football is a male dominated game, therefore, for an Indian female to wanting to play football, she must overcome social barriers and constraints to achieve her goal, and the film is based on her attempt to achieve this. Sport is a very important influence in everyone’s social lives, it effects peoples participation, culture and social groups, is a reflection on peoples social life.

As an intellectual enterprise, contemporary social sciences are replete with claims of social collapse. Over the last 20 years, scholars have proclaimed “the end of history,” “the end of politics,” “the end of work,” “the end of the family,” “the end of liberalism,” “the end of medicine,” “the end of ideology,” “the end of individualism.” There is little doubt that we are experiencing massive social change. As we are approaching the year’s end, something new is emerging, helter-skelter, in our midst that bears little resemblance to any existing political, theological, or sociological model of how the world is supposed to work.

The social shifts are sufficiently different in character to have produced a new social form, one suitably widespread and anchored to become visible. This claim of a new social form lies at the heart of the postmodern contention that we have entered an era of ambiguity, and we argue that postmodernists advance this claim in a way that sociologist cannot ignore. While they are right on target in capturing the spirit of rapid social change that characterizes the present era, their embrace of the resulting “chaos” as a new social form is misguided: they mistake an era of societal transition for a new enduring social structure or even a hybrid of modern society.

In historical perspective, what we are now experiencing bears a striking similarity to the place on the cultural and historical map that created sociology at the end of the last century. Rising suicide rates, the growing prominence of Protestant countries and the subsequent demise of Catholicism’s hold on the Western world, and the movement from agricultural to industrial production all have their parallels in the current social era.

Rather than embracing the change and ambiguity they surveyed, and mistaking it for what “modern” society would be. One of the major tasks of sociology at the turn of this year is to struggle to understand the new institutional and personal structures that characterize contemporary social forms and not abdicate to other disciplines the task of making sense of emergent societal transitions and structures.

A widespread belief seems to be emerging that the U.S. economy is in the throes of a fundamental transformation. The true enthusiasts treat the new economy as a fundamental industrial revolution as great or greater in importance than the concurrence of inventions, particularly electricity and the internal combustion engine, which transformed the world at the turn of the year.

There is no dispute that the U.S. economy is awash in computer investment that productivity has revived. Economists have long been ambivalent about what social interactions constitute the proper domain of the discipline. The narrower view has been that economics is primarily the study of markets, a circumscribed class of institutions in which persons interact through an anonymous process of price formation.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, mainstream economics traded breadth for rigor. In the first half of the century, institutional economics, which thought broadly but loosely about social interactions, gradually gave way to the neoclassical theory of general competitive markets. A pivotal development was the transformation of labor economics from a field narrowly concerned with work for pay into one broadly concerned with the production and distributional decisions of families and households.

The important development was the emergence in macroeconomics of endogenous growth theory. Whereas classical growth theory assumed that the production technology available to an economy is exogenous, endogenous growth theory supposes that today’s technology may depend have been influenced by the past output of the economy. The broadening of economic theory has coincided with new empirical research by economists on social interactions. Unfortunately, the empirical literature has not shown much progress. Economics has sufficed with a remarkably small set of basic concepts: preferences, expectations, constraints and equilibrium.

Widespread literacy is alleged to be indispensable to popular government. Dramatic changes in communication technologies which are said to affect exposure to traditional print media-we need to look afresh at reading’s political impact. Learning to read is a political act. Inability to read limits an individual’s participation in community life. It was probably for this reason that slaves in the antebellum South were kept illiterate. Even today, a connection between literacy and citizenship exists in evidence showing that persons who read are more likely than those who do not identify with larger political communities.

American people are haunted by Old World hegemonies and hence are committed to individualism and modernism for philosophical and practical reasons. American people are a restless and contentious lot producing a kaleidoscope of attitudes about most social issues. The American people can be found in the election turnout figures and in gross economic indicators, to e sure, but they are more than that; they are also the meanings of their behaviors.

Raised on a diet of political supremacy and technocratic invincibility, the American people were shaken to the core by 9/11. Shortly thereafter, a number of bromides caught the national ear: “America has lost its innocence forever,” “this is the first war of the twenty-first century,” “the U.S. just joined the world of nations.” At some point, history may prove these claims true. But 9/111 has already shown something more heartening: the functionality of a longstanding communal discourse. Admittedly, that discourse is shot through with contradictions and impossible overstatements. That contradictions and overstatements can prove sustaining to a people is a curious fact-an American fact.

Reference:

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. Available on-line:

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html.

HRM Approaches in different Work systems: A comparing between fabrication works and name Centre of high street bank

Tinging Wang

As Peter Boxall and John Purcell ( 2008 ) mentioned in literature, work system refers to “choices about what work needs to be done, about who will make it, and about where and how they will make it” . Each work system contains its characteristics to interact with operation picks every bit good as HR direction. This paper chiefly focus on the relationship between work systems and schemes of HR, particularly in comparing 2 different types of work systems and their corresponding attacks to HR. I will explicate this in the chief 2 parts follow a 3-step-way: environment analysis, work system and HR attacks.

Approachs to in fabrication works

Assume there is a new, high engineering and capital intensive fabrication works in York. Since the works is a new entrant in the industry, its purpose is fundamentally cost control and using market portion. The capital intensive, high engineering characteristic and cost control demand find the works has to restrict the figure of employees and heighten their abilities and efficiency in work. As we can see, the works is a typical theoretical account of fabrication houses.

Manufacturing industry ab initio employed low paid labours to carry through merely, repeated work and without a basic cognition demand. It was argued by Watson ( 1986 ) that workers were machines utilizing motor non mental accomplishments. As the engineering developed quickly these old ages in fabrication industry, machines can largely take over the occupations done by labours and force the employees to another degree called “high involvement” ( Lawler, 1986 ) , and other similar attacks as “high commitment” ( Arthur, 1992 ) , “high performance” ( Huselid, 1995 ) or “sophisticated” ( Koch and McGrath, 1996 ) . James, Chester and Robert ( 2002 ) concluded former literatures and described high engagement work systems ( HIWSs ) being utilized by provide employees accomplishments, information, motive, and latitude to derive the work force ‘s fight. The high engagement attacks was discussed by Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman ( 1999 ) based on Lawler ‘ ( 1986 ) high-involvement work procedures, which contains 4 factors as “PIRK” theoretical account. In “PIRK” theoretical account “P” stands for power, “I” means information, “R” refers to honor and “K” is defined as cognition. By this means, a set of HR attacks can be generated through enhance each variable of “PIRK” to accomplish concluding results. For case, developing chances can be used as a HR attack to heighten employees ‘ cognition and straight better their abilities to work out jobs. This is a direct manner of utilizing the theoretical account as Batt ( 2002 ) mentioned in his work, and the indirect manner influence employees ‘ motive and satisfaction to do them experience comfort and safe at work. In general, the HR attacks can be used in a fabrication works includes the undermentioned cardinal patterns:

1. Teamworking. As we mentioned before, the works is extremely concentrated on doing usage of engineering and capital resources, teamworking is a opportunity for employees to acquire involved in of import events in the works. It can impact workers in organisational committedness, work satisfaction every bit good as cognition betterment.

2. Advanced preparation. The works has needs on invention and merchandise design to vie in the market as a new comer, therefore the preparation has to be of some proficient degree which is firm-related and more hard than general preparation. Advanced preparation can break assist employees to derive information and cognition, and cut down the opportunity of turnover.

3. Incentive patterns. In a freshly works, if there is excess budget can be used on wagess, there should hold some inducement patterns. Not merely this method can actuate employees to give more, but besides it can heighten their duties to the works, if the wagess are really portions of the works.

There are much more attacks can be used in this works to better public presentation, nevertheless, the effectivity still becomes an unsure inquiry, since there is no measurings to measure the whole procedure.

Approachs to name Centre for a high street bank

In comparing, we imagine there is a call Centre to be established for a high street bank. Bank industry is more of service-oriented, name Centre in a high street bank is non expected to convey about net income straight. The employees ‘ duties are to work out jobs that already happened in the yesteryear or expected to be happened in the hereafter. They give the replies from a wide-ranging inquiry bank which contains the frequent asked inquiries and high-strung inquiries. All of them attached replies below so that the operators on the phone can reply different inquiries with in a short clip. Besides the replies, operators from the call Centre besides needs to be use properly words, looks, melodies, and purely follow a standardised expression to make the whole telephone communications. The characteristics of call Centre determined the employees they wanted are more general background, better in communicating merely like a good hearer with first-class apprehension and ability of unwritten look.

Service market is more labour intensive compared to fabricating industry, and name Centre can be categorized into the “Tightly Constrained” work systems, harmonizing to Herzenberg ( 1998 ) ‘s typology of work systems. Herzenberg describe this type of service as “high volume, low cost, standardised quality, tight undertaking supervising, low to chair formal instruction of workers, and limited training” . Boxall ( 2003 ) followed Herzenberg ‘s work and defined 3 types of competition and work organisation in private sector services. Based on his definition, call Centre belongs to “Massive service firms” which related to a mix of mass markets and higher value-added sections.

There are important differences in HR schemes between a hi-tech fabrication works and a high street call Centre. Though Boxall ( 2003 ) pointed out that houses aim for high-valued sections in services are more likely to utilize HIWSs attack in HRM, a call Centre still can non suit the HIWSs really good. One of the grounds as I mentioned earlier is that call Centre “is non expected to convey about net income directly” . In this instance, even if utilizing HIWSs to better service quality and heighten employees ‘ felicity index can be worked out, that wo n’t bring forth excess net income for the bank. Customers may take another bank since they discover their current bank truly defeated because of a hapless quality telephone service, but they are less likely to take a bank merely based on its absolutely high degree of telephone service.

After examined the characteristics and work system of call Centre, a figure ( Figure 1 ) will be given out to exemplify the properly attack of HRM which is suggested to be adopted by a call Centre director. The figure contains both the attacks and demands. Left side stands out the cardinal attacks of HR which match the center and right characteristics of employees.

Figure 1: Approachs used in call Centre

The HR attacks are used to heighten either employee competence or committedness to accomplish farther results. They looks much simpler compared with fabrication works, that is because the two houses have different characteristics and results.

Decision

It is evidently that a fabrication works adopts different HR attacks compared with a call Centre. The grounds are assorted and difficult to separate, since there are so many factors inside or outside the houses and interact with each other all the clip. However, there are three chief grounds affect the HR direction within different work systems. First one is production factor. Whether the house is capital intensive or labour intensive determines the graduated table and cost of employees as the former tends to engage fewer employees with high demand and the latter tends to maintain equal employees with general cognition backgrounds. The 2nd factor is merchandise distinction. An industry which requires extremely differentiation merchandise the information and cognition is needed all the clip therefore the HR attack in preparation is intensive and specialized so that the worker can use it to work and heighten public presentation. By contrast, a call Centre offers about the same service to different clients ; therefore the preparation attack is more basic and contains regulations, ordinances to accomplish consistence and homogeneousness. The 3rd factor is profitableness. Profitableness differs in specific types of places ; a research section director in fabrication works normally generates more net incomes than a telephone operator in call Centre. In that instance the director will derive occupation satisfaction through wagess and engagement in concern determination devising, whereas the telephone operator may experience less satisfied in work and has turnover purpose. The ground is merely because houses need to maintain profitable employees stable and disregard or pay less attending on the common employees without competitory advantage. The 3 factors reflects how the work system and HR purposes combined together to impact HR attacks.

These attacks, nevertheless, run into a major challenge of steps. Previous literatures like Arthur ( 1992, 1994 ) , Huselid ( 1995 ) , James, Chester and Robert ( 2002 ) did empirical work on steps to measure effectivity of HR attacks. James, Chester and Robert ( 2002 ) province the relationship between a differentiation-oriented competitory scheme and its public presentation is positive. Whether all these attacks and measurings can be trusted in the bounds of good sense or practicality is a large issue we should concentrate on the hereafter.

Social Facts Durkheim defined social facts as things external to, and coercive of, the actor. These are created from collective forces and do not emanate from the individual (Hadden, p. 104). While they may not seem to be observable, social facts are things, and “are to be studied empirically, not philosophically” (Ritzer, p. 78). They cannot be deduced from pure reason or thought, but require a study of history and society in order to observe their effects and understand the nature of these social facts. In The Rules of Sociological Method, Durkheim begins by noting features such as the following (quote 3): Social Facts.

When I fulfil my obligations as brother, husband, or citizen, when I execute my contracts, I perform duties which are defined, externally to myself and my acts, in law and in custom. Even if they conform to my own sentiments and I feel their reality subjectively, such reality is still objective, for I did not create them; I merely inherited them through my education. (Rules, p. 1). As examples of social facts, Durkheim cites religious beliefs, currency used to undertake transactions, and factors such as “the practices followed in my profession” (Rules, p. 2).

These types of conduct or thought are not only external to the individual but are, moreover, endowed with coercive power, by virtue of which they impose themselves upon him, independent of his individual will. (Rules, p. 2). While obligations, values, attitudes, and beliefs may appear to be individual, Durkheim argues that these social facts exist at the level of society as a whole, arising from social relationships and human association. They exist as a result of social interactions and historical developments over long periods of time, and come from “varying collective representations and diverse forms of social organization” (Hadden, p. 04). As individuals who are born and raised in a society, these social facts are learned (through socialization) and generally accepted, but the individual has nothing to do with establishing these. While society is composed of individuals, society is not just the sum of individuals, and these facts exist at the level of society, not at the individual level. As such, these social facts do exist, they are the social reality of society, a reality that constitutes the proper study of sociology (Cuff et al. , p. 33). The study of social facts is the “distinct object or subject matter of sociology” (Hadden, p. 105). Durkheim istinguishes social facts from psychological, biological, or economic facts by noting that these are social and rooted in group sentiments and values. At the same time, he distinguishes the study of social facts from philosophy by noting that the real effects of social facts are “manifested in external indicators of sentiments such as religious doctrines, laws, moral codes” (Hadden, p. 105) and these effects can be observed and studied by the sociologist. The study of social facts is thus a large part of the study of sociology. In order to do this, the sociologist must “rid themselves of preconceptions” (Hadden, p. 07) and undertake objective study which can “focus on objective, external indicators such as religious doctrines or laws” (Hadden, p. 107). Each social fact is real, something that is constraining on the individual and external to the actor. The social fact is not just in the mind of the individual – that is, these facts are more than psychological facts. That these exist in society as a whole, over time, and sometimes across societies, provides some proof of this. At the same time they are in the minds of individuals so they are also mental states.

Ritzer notes that social facts can be considered to be mental phenomena that are external to and coercive of psychological facts, such as human instincts. The individual mental state could be considered to intervene between social fact and action (Ritzer, p. 105). Durkheim may not have provided a sufficient analysis of the assumptions underlying, or the characteristics of, these mental states. For Durkheim the study of sociology should be the study of social facts, attempting to find the causes of social facts and the functions of these social facts.

Social facts regulate human social action and act as constraints over individual behaviour and action. They may be enforced with law, with clearly defined penalties associated with violation of the sentiments and values of the group. Sanctions may be associated with social facts, for example as in religion, where resistance may result in disapproval from others or from spiritual leaders. Individuals may be unaware of social facts and generally accept them. In this case, individuals may accept the values and codes of society and accept them as their own.

Two types of social facts are material and non-material social facts. Material social facts are features of society such as social structures and institutions. These could be the system of law, the economy, church and many aspects of religion, the state, and educational institutions and structures. They could also include features such as channels of communication, urban structures, and population distribution. While these are important for understanding the structures and form of interaction in any society, it is nonmaterial social facts that constitute the main subject of study of sociology.

Nonmaterial social facts are social facts which do not have a material reality. They consist of features such as norms, values, and systems of morality. Some contemporary examples are the norm of the one to three child family, the positive values associated with family structures, and the negative associations connected to aggression and anger. In Durkheim’s terminology, some of these nonmaterial social facts are morality, collective consciousness, and social currents. An example of the latter is Durkheim’s analysis of suicide. Social facts can also be divided into normal and pathological social facts (Hadden, pp. 08-9). Normal social facts are the most widely distributed and useful social facts, assisting in the maintenance of society and social life. Pathological social facts are those that we might associate with social problems and ills of various types. Suicide is one example of this, where social facts ought to be different. For Durkheim, the much greater frequency of the normal is proof of the superiority of the normal. Durkheim later modified the notion of a single collective consciousness, and adopted the view that there were collective representations as part of specific states of substrata of the collective.

That is, there may be different norms and values for different groups within society. These collective representations are also social facts because they are in the consciousness of some collective and are not reducible to individual consciousnesses (Ritzer, p. 87). The social structures, institutions, norms and values that have become part of the study of sociology can be derived from Durkheim’s approach, and today there is little difficulty distinguishing sociology from psychology. B. Suicide

After Durkheim wrote The Rules of Sociological Method, he tackled the subject of suicide as an example of how a sociologist can study a subject that seems extremely personal, with no social aspect to it – even being anti-social. It could be argued that suicide is such a personal act that it involves only personal psychology and purely individual thought processes. Durkheim’s aim was not to explain or predict an individual tendency to suicide, but to explain one type of nonmaterial social facts, social currents.

Social currents are characteristics of society, but may not have the permanence and stability that some parts of collective consciousness or collective representation have. They may be associated with movements such as “enthusiasm, indignation, and pity. ” (Ritzer, p. 87). Hadden notes that Durkheim wished to show that sociological factors were “capable of explaining much about such anti-social phenomena” (Hadden, p. 109). In the case of suicide, these social currents are expressed as suicide rates, rates that differ among societies, and among different groups in society.

These rates show regularities over time, with changes in the rates often occurring at similar times in different societies. Thus these rates can be said to be social facts (or at least the statistical representation of social facts) in the sense that they are not just personal, but are societal characteristics. This can be seen in the following quote (quote 12): Suicide Rates as Social Facts. At each moment of its history, therefore, each society has a definite aptitude for suicide. The relative intensity of this aptitude is measured by taking the proportion between the total number of voluntary deaths and the population of every age and sex.

We will call this numerical datum the rate of mortality through suicide, characteristic of the society under consideration. … The suicide-rate is therefore a factual order, unified and definite, as is shown by both its permanence and its variability. For this permanence would be inexplicable if it were not the result of a group of distinct characteristics, solidary with one another, and simultaneously effective in spite of different attendant circumstances; and this variability proves the concrete and individual quality of these same characteristics, since they vary with the individual character of society itself.

In short, these statistical data express the suicidal tendency with which each society is collectively afflicted. … Each society is predisposed to contribute a definite quota of voluntary deaths. This predisposition may therefore be the subject of a special study belonging to sociology. (Suicide, pp. 48, 51). Durkheim takes up the analysis of suicide in a very quantitative and statistical manner. While he did not have available to him very precise or complete data or sophisticated statistical techniques, his method is exemplary in showing how to test hypotheses, reject incorrect explanations for suicide, sort through a great variety of ossible explanations, and attempt to control for extraneous factors. Some of the factors that others had used to explain suicide were heredity, climate, race, individual psychopathic states (mental illness), and imitation. As an example of Durkheim’s method, consider how he analyzes cosmic factors, such as weather or season. Durkheim (Suicide, p. 107) notes that in all countries suicide is greater in the summer months, that no country is an exception to this, and that the proportion of suicides in the six warmer months to the six colder months is very similar in each country.

Durkheim notes that this has led some commentators to say the “heat increases the excitability of the nervous system” (Suicide, p. 108). But suicide may result from depression as much as from over-excitement, and heat cannot possibly act the same way on both causes. Further, a closer analysis by Durkheim considers temperature variations and shows that while suicides increase in number as temperature increases, suicides reach a peak before the temperature does. In addition, if temperature is a cause of suicide, warm countries might be expected to have more suicides than cold countries, but the opposite tends to be the case.

A related explanation that Durkheim considers is that great changes in temperature are associated with suicide, but again he finds that there is no correlation between suicide rates and the fact of temperature change. Rather, the causes must be in some factor that has continuity over time. He then notes that the rates are more closely connected to the length of day, with suicides increasing as the days grow longer, and decreasing in number as the length of day declines. But it is not the sun itself which is the cause, because at noontime there are fewer suicides than at other times of the day.

What Durkheim finds is that the factors associated with higher numbers of suicides must be those that relate to “the time when social life is at its height” (Suicide, p. 119). The time of day, the day of week, the season of the year, and so on, are not in themselves the reason for the changes in the number of suicides. Rather, the times when social life and interaction among people are greater, are also those associated with increased suicide. Durkheim concludes this section by saying (quote 13): Four Types of Suicide

The manner in which social integration and regulation work can be better seen by examining the four fold classification of suicides that Durkheim developed. Durkheim ends his discussion of the organic-psychic and physical environmental factors by concluding that they cannot explain “each social group[s] … specific tendency to suicide. ” (Suicide, p. 145). By eliminating other explanations, Durkheim claims that these tendencies must depend on social causes and must be collective phenomena.

The key to each type is a social factor, with the degrees of integration and regulation into society being either too high or too low. (The following discussion is drawn from Ritzer, pp. 90 ff. ). 1. Egoistic Suicide. This is the type of suicide that occurs where the degree of social integration is low, and there is a sense of meaningless among individuals. In traditional societies, with mechanical solidarity, this is not likely to be the cause of suicide. There the strong collective consciousness gives people a broad sense of meaning to their lives.

Within modern society, the weaker collective consciousness means that people may not see the same meaning in their lives, and unrestrained pursuit of individual interests may lead to strong dissatisfaction. One of the results of this can be suicide. Individuals who are strongly integrated into a family structure, a religious group, or some other type of integrative group are less likely to encounter these problems, and that explains the lower suicide rates among them. The factors leading to egoistic suicide can be social currents such as depression and disillusionment.

For Durkheim, these are social forces or social facts, even though it is the depressed or melancholy individual who takes his or her life voluntarily. “Actors are never free of the force of the collectivity: ‘However individualized a man may be, there is always something collective remaining – the very depression and melancholy resulting from this same exaggerated individualism. ‘” Also, on p. 214 of Suicide, Durkheim says “Thence are formed currents of depression and disillusionment emanating from no particular individual but expressing society’s state of disillusionment. Durkheim notes that “the bond attaching man to life relaxes because that attaching him to society is itself slack. … The individual yields to the slightest shock of circumstance because the state of society has made him a ready prey to suicide. ” (Suicide, pp. 214-215). 2. Altruistic Suicide. This is the type of suicide that occurs when integration is too great, the collective consciousness too strong, and the “individual is forced into committing suicide. ” (Ritzer, p. 91). Integration may not be the direct cause of suicide here, but the social currents that go along with this very high degree of integration can lead to this.

The followers of Jim Jones of the People’s Temple or the members of the Solar Temple are an example of this, as are ritual suicides in Japan. Ritzer notes that some may “feel it is their duty” to commit suicide. (p. 91). Examples in primitive society cited by Durkheim are suicides of those who are old and sick, suicides of women following the death of their husband, and suicides of followers after the death of a chief. According to Durkheim this type of suicide may actually “springs from hope, for it depends on the belief in beautiful perspectives beyond this life. ” 3.

Anomic Suicide

Anomie or anomy come from the Greek meaning lawlessness. Nomos means usage, custom, or law and nemein means to distribute. Anomy thus is social instability resulting from breakdown of standards and values. (Webster’s Dictionary). This is a type of suicide related to too low a degree of regulation, or external constraint on people. As with the anomic division of labour, this can occur when the normal form of the division of labour is disrupted, and “the collectivity is temporarily incapable of exercising its authority over individuals. ” (Ritzer, p. 92).

This can occur either during periods associated with economic depression (stock market crash of the 1930s) or over-rapid economic expansion. New situations with few norms, the regulative effect of structures is weakened, and the individual may feel rootless. In this situation, an individual may be subject to anomic social currents. People that are freed from constraints become “slaves to their passions, and as a result, according to Durkheim’s view, commit a wide range of destructive acts, including killing themselves in greater numbers than they ordinarily would. ” (Ritzer, p. , 92).

In addition to economic anomie, Durkheim also spends time examining domestic anomie. For example, suicides of family members may occur after the death of a husband or wife. 4. Fatalistic Suicide. When regulation is too strong, Durkheim considers the possibility that “persons with futures pitilessly blocked and passions v iolently choked by oppressive discipline” may see no way out. The individual sees no possible manner in which their lives can be improved, and when in a state of melancholy, may be subject to social currents of fatalistic suicide. Summary. Durkheim’s analysis of suicide shows the manner n which the social as opposed to the psychological and biological can be emphasized, and how it results in some useful ways of analyzing the actions of individuals. Suicide rates as expressions of social currents are social facts that affect societies and individuals within those societies. The study of psychology is still useful in attempting to determine individual motives and the manner in which the specific circumstances can lead to an individual deciding to voluntarily end their life. But an analysis of these circumstances should be set within the context of the social currents to which that individual is subject.

The method of analysis of Durkheim should prove useful even today. In terms of suicide, the social causes are now well recognized, and any analysis of suicide would have to include these. Some combination of egoistic, anomic, and fatalistic types of suicide may help explain and understand this phenomenon. More generally, the method of Suicide is exemplary in providing researchers with a means of understanding the social factors that are associated with particular phenomena. Durkheim examines patterns on the data in an attempt to determine how social factors can play a role in explaining these phenomena.

This might be applied to sociobiological arguments today. The trends themselves are not the cause, but indicative of a cause, a social explanation has to be found. C. Conclusions about Durkheim 1. Contributions a. Social Facts and Social Aspects. These are real things that do affect people. He had a strong structural view of society, and the manner in which each of us is influenced by these social facts and how we must fit into these. Durkheim attempted to see a role for the social as distinguished from the economic, psychological and biological.

This can be seen in his view of the social influences on suicide rates, where he takes a wide variety of factors and considers their influence on the tendency or aptitude for suicide. The effect of each of these factors is not a simple connection between the factor and the tendency to suicide, but must be mediated by social factors. In particular, the social factors that he identified were the degree of integration and the degree of regulation. For modern theories of sociobiology, and the influence of genetics, Durkheim’s approach could prove a useful counter.

Social Explanation. If voluntary deaths increase from January to July, it is not because heat disturbs the organism, but because social life is more intense. To be sure, this greater intensity derives from the greater ease of development of social life in the Summer than in the Winter, owing to the sun’s position … , the state of the atmosphere, etc. But the physical environment does not stimulate it directly; above all, it has no effect on the progression of suicide. The latter depends on social conditions. Suicide, pp. 121-122). While this is not a proof or determination of what causes suicide yet, Durkheim notes that the causes must relate to collective life and must be such that these time factors can be incorporated into an explanation. But the explanation must be social in nature, and cannot be simply related to natural factors, these natural factors must work socially, and affect some social aspects which are related to suicide. Note that Durkheim ‘s method here is very empirical, and he searches through various sorts of data and evidence to find factors associated with suicide.

But the explanation is not simply a relation between these data and suicides. Rather he is searching for social causes or conditions that are expressed through these. That is, he uses data to discover patterns, but the patterns themselves are not the cause of the phenomenon. Rather the cause is social, and the observed, empirical patterns constitute a means of finding underlying causes. Another factor that Durkheim considers is religion. While he does find that religion is associated with suicide, in the sense that

Protestant countries and regions have higher suicide rates than do Catholic ones, religious doctrines are not an important factor in explaining these differences. That is, suicide is condemned more or less equally in each religion, and doctrinal statements concerning suicide are all negative. If there is a difference between the two religions with respect to suicide rates, it must be in some aspect of social organization that differs between the two churches. But if this is the factor related to suicide, then it is the social organization that is the cause of the difference, not religion in itself.

Giddens notes (p. 83) that Durkheim finds further proof of this in other factors related to social organization, that is, family structure. Where there is more integration in family structure, the suicides are lesser in number. Durkheim argues that the most important aspects of social organization and collective life for explaining differences in suicide rates are the degree of integration into and regulation by society. For Durkheim, integration is the “degree to which collective sentiments are shared” and regulation refers to “the degree of external constraint on people. (Ritzer, p. 90). Catholicism is a more highly integrated religion than Protestantism, and it is in this that the difference in suicide rates is expressed. That is, it is not the religious doctrines themselves but the different social organization of the two religions. As Giddens notes (p. 83), degree of integration of family structure is related in the same way to suicides. Those in larger families are less likely to commit suicide, whereas those in smaller families, or single, are more likely. Over time, various social factors also make their influence felt.

Durkheim notes that there was a decline in the number of suicides in all the European countries in 1848, a year of revolution and political change throughout Europe. Times of political crisis, war, and economic change are also associated with changes in the rate of suicide. Each of these great social movements could be considered to be examples of social currents that have widespread impact within and across societies. Ritzer (p. 89) notes that Durkheim was making two arguments. First, he argued that different collectivities have different collective consciousness or collective representation.

These produce different social currents, and these lead to different suicide rates. By studying different groups and societies, some of these currents can be analyzed, and the effect of these on suicide can be determined. Second, changes in the collective consciousness lead to changes in social currents. These are then associated with changes in suicide rates (quote 14): Sociological Explanation. The conclusion from all these facts is that the social suicide-rate can be explained only sociologically.

At any given moment the moral constitution of society established the contingent of voluntary deaths. There is, therefore, for each people a collective force of a definite amount of energy, impelling men to self-destruction. The victim’s acts which at first seem to express only his personal temperament are really the supplement and prolongation of a social condition which they express externally. … Each social group really has a collective inclination for the act, quite its own, and the source of all individual inclination, rather than the result.

It is made up of the currents of egoism, altruism or anomy running through the society under consideration with the tendencies to languorous melancholy, active renunciation or exasperated weariness derivative from these currents. These tendencies of the whole social body, by affecting individuals, cause them to commit suicide. The private experiences usually thought to be the proximate causes of suicide have only the influence borrowed from the victim’s moral predisposition, itself and echo of the moral state of society. (Suicide, pp. 299-300).

References

1. Cuff, E. C. , W. W. Sharrock and D. W. Francis, Perspectives in Sociology, third edition, London, Routledge, 1992.
2. HM66 P36 1984 Durkheim, Emile, The Division of Labor in Society, New York, The Free Press, 1933.
3. Referred to in notes as Division. HD 51 D98 Durkheim, Emile, The Rules of Sociological Method, New York, The Free Press, 1938.
4. Referred to in notes as Rules. HM 24 D962 Durkheim, Emile, Suicide: A Study in Sociology, New York, The Free Press, 1951. Referred to in notes as Suicide.
5. HV 6545 D812 Giddens, Anthony, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1971.
6. HM19 G53. Ritzer, George, Sociological Theory, third edition, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1992.  HM24 R4938.

The Sociological perspective stresses the social context in which people live. In other words it’s why we do the things that we do, such as our beliefs, attitudes, and guidelines we live by. It examines how these contexts influence people’s lives. It can also be defined as understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context. At the center of the sociological perspective is the question of how groups influence people, especially how people are influenced by society. A society is a group of people who share a culture and a territory.

Sociology is similar to the other social sciences; it is also different as well. The other social sciences include anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology. Like sociology, anthropology studies the culture within. It also studies a group structure, belief systems, and deals with communication. Economics is similar to sociology because if refers to how societies goods and services are distributed, and how that distribution results in inequality. With political science you study how people govern one another, and how those in power affect people’s lives.

Last but not least there’s psychology. Like sociology, psychology studies how people adjust to the difficulties of life. With similarities come all kinds of differences in most cases. Sociologists focus primarily on industrialized societies unlike anthropology which focus on tribal people. Economists and political science focus on more than one social institution, sociology focus on a single institution. Unlike psychologists, sociologists stress factors external to the individual to determine what influences people and how they adjust to life.

Psychologists focus on the internal parts of your life. Most of the questions on the common sense quiz were a little shocking. Half of them were really shocking to me. One that surprises me was number two. One thing that really surprises me is the fact that women’s earnings have only gone up slightly. You would think that in the world we live today it would be equal well, to me it should be. It’s been many years since women have not been treated equally. I like to treat everyone equally, that should be the way of life.

The fact that crime rate outside of fast-food restaurants is higher than crime rates outside of topless bars is very surprising and somewhat funny. I can see why though, sort of, like it said; topless bars hire security so I guess that’s the reason why the crime rates higher at a place that doesn’t have any security at all. It’s funny because there’s usually a lot of people outside of a fast-food restaurant and what are they going to do run through the drive threw and steal your food. Extensive testing of Islamic terrorist’s shows that they’re more normal then mentally ill.

Get out of here, someone that wants to kill their own race and sacrifice themselves is most certainly mentally ill. Ok, there doing it because they think that that’s what there god wants. I just think that someone that wants to sacrifice themselves to their gods is mentally ill; to me it’s just not the way of life. Another one that was shocking to me was that bicyclists today that wear helmets are more likely to have a head injury than the bicyclists that don’t wear a helmet. I can see that the reason why is because the ones that wear the helmet are more likely to do something crazy than the ones without.

It just really surprises me cause you think the ones not wearing a helmet would cause more head injuries. I’m terrified to do something crazy on a bike therefore I don’t need a helmet but you should always wear one. In conclusion sociology is a lot more interesting to me than any other science. It studies why we do the things that we do, and why different cultures have different ways of life. I know I’m really going to enjoy the rest of this class and will learn many new things that I never thought of before.

Introduction

“Human Resources Management” and “Industrial relations” has different concepts about the determination and functions of the both spheres. The essay deliberates the on the key features of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations in academic fields. Definitions of terms HRM and IR will be identified through the review of the origin and development of these two areas. Moreover, I have pointed out the theoretical scope of the two subjects and key features of HRM and IR.

Finally, there is comparison and contrast between given subjects through the historical retrospective and paper review. Definition of Industrial Relations Why don’t we mention the fact that Industrial Relations have become a subject of scientific analysis since the end of the nineteenth century, when Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1984) couple published their studies of the regulation of employment in Britain. According to Dale Yoder,” industrial relations” describe “relationships between managements and employees or among employees and their organisations that characterise or grow out of employment. The study of industrial relations may therefore be described as a study of the institutions of job regulation” – suggested Flanders (1965, 10). It is prevailed for a time is beyond satisfaction of the academic study at present. “The view that IR is the study of processes of control over work relations, and among these processes, those involving collective worker organization and action are of particular concern is more adaptable to generalise specific and precisely for the subject”. Hyman, 1975) Definition of Human Resource Management Progression of the Human relations movement in the USA was the key point of the HRM terminology’s emergency. There have been a large amount of published studies investigating the definition of HRM in diverse standing and approaches, since the first British book on HRM published in the late 1980s, which was notably known as New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Storey 1989).

Storey (1989) considers that HRM can be regarded as “set of interrelated policies with an ideological and philosophical underpinning”. However, He determined HRM as a specific approach to employment management which aims to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce, using an integrated array of culture, structural and personnel techniques, which is a comprehensive understanding of HRM. Storey (2007).

Sisson (1990) sees HRM of four aspects of employment practice: an integration of HR policies with business planning; a shift in responsibility for HR issues form personnel specialists to line managers; a shift from the of management and, finally, an emphasis on commitment has further understanding of HRM. Ackers (2003) provided a general term on the definition of HRM, “HRM refers to all those activities associated with the management of work and people in firms and in other formal organisations”.

Basic Research Interest of Human Resource Management

The emergence of courses and models in HRM in universities and colleges is related to the fact that two influential journals, Human Resource Management Journal, edited by Keith Sisson at Warwick University, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, edited by Michael Poole at Cardiff were launched in 1990. The amount of literature was increased. Among these papers two appreciable theories is predominant leading, Fombrun et al (1984) matching model and the Harvard framework.

Matching model focused on the connection between organizational strategy and HRM, in the meanwhile Frombrun et al divided HRM into four integral parts – selection, development, appraisal and reward stressing the significance of efficiency of work performance enhancement. (Marchington, 2005) On the other hand, the Harvard framework (Beer et al, 1985) involve six basic components with a broader expand from the inside out , that is, situational factors, stakeholder interests, policy choices, outcomes, long-term consequences and a feedback loop.

However, neither of the models pays close attention to the respects of employment relationship. John Storey’s (2007) model is worth considering framework in HRM studies. Four key elements are summarized as foundational structure of HRM, that is beliefs and assumptions, strategic qualities, critical role of managers and key levers which activate HRM as an essentially tool and techniques for use by practitioners. However, currently HR changes and extends its functions beyond simple administration and personnel management.

This area is becoming one of the strategic and reactive activity in the management of both organizations and other bodies. Basic Theory of Industrial Relations Colling et al (2010) comment that “Academic industrial relations is now outdated” either the problem of the “human factor” in work have all been solved, or they are better addressed by new approaches such as “human resource management” or “organisational behaviour”’, however, in the statement by the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA), they strongly disagree the claim. BUIRA) During the initiative academic research in IR, predominant focus upon collective institutions and processes which embody trade unions, collective bargaining and strikes are the mainstream scope of IR study. Compared with the origin IR, modern IR emphasized on the experience of work, both individual and collective, and with all sources of the rules that govern the employment relationship. Therefore, IR was widely regarded as having two major subdivisions within it.

The first dealt with the management of labour, the second with collective bargaining and methods of workforce governance (Russell Sage Foundation, 1919). It should be pointed out, that industrial relations today are in “crisis”. In academia, its traditional positions are threatened on one side by the dominance of mainstream economics and organizational behaviour, and on the other by postmodernism. The importance of work, however, is stronger than ever, and the lessons of industrial relations remain vital. Purcell) Comparison and contrast of Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations The interrelation between HRM and IR is complicated. From the one sight, HRM was considered as one of the branch of IR in the early 1960s for majority of scientists, then in modern conditions HRM has largely been regarded as a separate subject underlying distinguish perspectives and points of the field. However, HRM and IR do have some parallels and common ground in employment issues, concerns about personnel and departments and humane labour.

From the above, it can be concluded that to a large extent HRM has an “inside” view of the problem according to the employment, highlighting and labour issues. While IR takes an “external” prospective with an emphasis on workers and communities. The purpose and functions are not one and the same for the two spheres. The main purpose of personnel management is an organizational effectiveness using an instrumental approach to the promotion of employees nd interest. As for the IR, the goal “is a combination of organizational performance and employee well-being, as well as the workers’ interest priorities. Generally, IR provides a multi-layer discernment of employment relationships and interconnections between the workplace, the company, the sector, the national regulatory framework in the light of multi-disciplinary approach involving sociology, political science, economics, history and law.

HR assumes conflict not inevitable and can be minimized by management; IR sees conflicts as inevitable requiring third-party intervention. HRM and IR are distinguished in various respects with different standpoints and approaches. (Sisson) Frequently, HRM teaching accepts management’s objectives uncritically, concentrates on activities at company level without exploring the societal and institutional environment, and has its disciplinary basis primarily in psychology and organizational sociology rather than the social sciences more broadly.

Despite of the inevitable irreconcilable antagonisms between the two subjects, there is a closely link of HR and IR providing a complementary foundation of the exchange and development of the employment issues. (Ackers) Conclusion The essay discusses the definition of HRM and IR and significant features in academic fields largely through an historical analysis of the two fields’ respective origins and development. HRM and IR fields are distinguished by numerous differences in their approach to research and practice.

Reference

1. Ackers, P. and Willkinson, A. 2003. Understanding Work and Employment, Oxford University Press Bach, S(ed), 2005,
2. Managing Human Resources, 4th edition, Balckwell Publishing Boxall, P and Purcell, J, 2008,
3. Strategy and HRM, 2nd edition, Palgrave Bruce E. K, 2001,Human resources and industrial relations Commonalities and differences, Human Resource Review, 11(2001) 339-374 BUIRA 2008.
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7. A Marxist Introduction to Industrial Relations. Basingsotoke: MacMillan. Paul Edwards edit , Industrial Relations Theory & Practice in Britain, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1995
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9. Sisson, K. (1990) ‘Introducing the Human Resource Management Journal’, Human Resource Management Journal, 1(1):1-11 Sisson K. “In Search of HRM”, op. cit. at 209
10. Strorey, J(ed), 2007, HRM : A critical text. 3rd edition, Routledge Redman, T . Wilkinson. A, 2001,
11. Contemporary Human Resource Management, Financial Times Yoder Dale, 1948, Personnel Management and Industrial Relations. 3rd edition, New York, Prentice-Hall,Inc.