Original scientific paper
Individual Conflicts in Slovenian Industry
Vladimir Arzenšek
; Faculty of Sociology, Political Sciences and Journalism, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
Abstract
The paper is an account of the empirical study of individual conflicts, conducted in 12 Slovenian companies during 1971 and 1972. As the analysis of the documentary material shows, the disciplinary cases are usually led by the companies against the individual worker. The employees start a process because of the allegedly unjust wages. In the majority of cases there was no mediator called to settle the dispute. Severe abuses of the conflict resolving regulations in the organizations were found, as in many cases the workers were denied the presence when their case was discussed. According to the results, one half of the persons interviewed report that the conflict is unjustly resolved, but do not intend to continue the process, as they do not see any possibility of positive outcome. Three quarters of the individuals interviewed and of the managerial staff would favor a change of the industrial relations that could allow the Unions to be representative of the workers' interests in the worker-management conflicts. The correlational analysis of the differences between the companies showed that a higher degree of democracy in conflict resolving was achieved where greater control over the management body was felt. The formal structure of the company was not related to the quality of control. Also the even distribution of power among the management, self-management bodies, experts and sociopolitical organizations did not create more democratic company structure. The character of social processes in the company is more affected by the positive attitudes of the leadership staff towards the institutinalization of industrial conflict. It was also found that democratic control of conflict's in the company was by no means related to the participative management in the organizational units, the fact that points to the importance of formal mechanisms which would regulate conflicts.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
175181
URI
Publication date:
31.3.1974.
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