ABSTRACT
This chapter examines at some length the system model of industrial relations and its claims for theoretical status in the systematic study of trade union action and behaviour. The novel elements of Dunlop's paradigm comprised mainly the comprehensive range of factors identified, the synthesis of propositions and schemes of thought which had far earlier origins and the adaptation of ideas of the principal analytical sociologist of the post-war period, Talcott Parsons, to the study of industrial and labour relations. Parsonian structural-functionalism, which was embedded in a conception of society in terms of social systems, thus was very closely interwoven into Dunlop's specific conception of an industrial relations system. With special reference to British scholarship, the main criticisms and subsequent refinements of the systems analysis of trade unionism will be appraised. There have been several writers, too, who have commented upon Dunlop's inadequate treatment of the sub-institutional level of analysis in relation to trade union action and behaviour.
