A General Theory of (Australian) Industrial Relations

Abstract

Industrial relations is not a discipline which has a strong tradition of developing its own theoretical insights or indulging in the scholastic skill of abstract thought. The major reason for this is that industrial relations scholarship is interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary in nature. While scholars regularly bemoan the theoretical tun dra in which industrial relations finds itself, they seem unprepared to do anything about it. Differences are examined between micro, macro and general models. The distinctive contribution of this article is to develop a general theory of (Australian) industrial relations, based on the analytical concept of an orbit of interaction. Various propositions of the general theory are formally stated and presented.