Theoretical Approaches to Employment and Industrial Relations: A Comparison of Subsisting Orthodoxies

Abstract

OPEN ACCESS Theory could be viewed as a coherent group of assumptions or propositions put forth to explain a phenomenon. A theory is an abstraction of reality and is synonymous with perception, viewpoint, assumption, frame of reference or a perspective. The relevance of theory in any field of endeavour cannot be over emphasised. Theory attempts to observe, understand, explain, predict and control events or phenomena. “It helps in our understanding of events and problems in the practical world” (Fajana, 2000, p.21). Without theory, there is no practice, thus, according to Luthans “it has often been said (usually by theoreticians) that there is nothing as practical as a good theory” (Luthans, 1998, p.13). Hyman (1975, p.12) argues that the whole point of an explicit theoretical perspective is to provide a framework within which the complex detail of the real world can be organised. Hyman (1975, p.2) further asserts that “those who glory in their pragmatism and insist that they are immune from theory are simply unaware of their own preconceptions and presuppositions”. Without theory men cannot act, for a theory is a way of seeing, of understanding and of planning. Phoenix (1964) as cited in Asika (1995, p.53) opines that “a theory or model provides an abstract pattern whose structure in relevant respects is congruent with the structure of the physical (and social) world, as demonstrated by agreement between observations and predictions made from the theory or model”.