Trade unions and industrial relations in New Zealand

Abstract

Industrial relations involves primarily group relationships and we usually think of it as something on an industry-wide front. But on both sides the groups begin with the individual enterprise and its community of people. To get to the heart of industrial relations, therefore, we have first to consider people in their work situations. We can understand the way they organise themselves, and the way they behave or express themselves through organisation, only if we understand their backgrounds and circumstances and the things that create attitudes, produce reactions, and give shape and quality to associations within the workplace and beyond it.