Directorate of distance education master of business administration

Lesson 18 - 
Managing Conflict
Meaning and Definition
         An industrial dispute means any dispute or difference between 
employers and employers or employers and workmen or between 
workmen and workmen, which is connected with employment or non-
employment or terms of employment or conditions of labour, of any 
person.
Every human being (say a worker) has  certain needs. E.g., 
economic needs, social needs and needs for security. When these needs 
do not get satisfied, there arises a conflict between labour and capital. A 
conflict means a struggle or clash between the interests of the employer 
and the workers. When an industrial conflict (which otherwise is general 
in nature) acquires a concrete and specific display or revelation, it 
becomes an “industrial dispute”. A conflict takes the shape of Industrial 
Dispute as soon as the issues of controversy are submitted to the employer 
for negotiations.
The Industrial Disputes act, 1947, defines an industrial dispute as 
“ any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between 
employees and employees, or between employers and employees, which 
is connected with the employment, or non-employment, or the terms of 
employment or with the conditions of work of any person”.