Reconciling the Conflicting Views between Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations: Critical Perspective

This study is primarily designed to shed light on the conflicting views between the human resource management (HRM) and industrial relations (IR) and how these two concepts can be reconciled through providing evidences and literatures. Further, it also discusses the critical points and arguments that support the claim that these two terms are separate and independently applied in business context but at the same time can be combined to attain higher rate of success. To achieve the research objective, this study made use of secondary data to gather information from books and articles and to lay out the arguments supported with appropriate theories and literatures. The findings revealed that indeed there is difference in the concept between HRM and IR as well as its applicability although these two terms are both used in businesses. However; it is suggested that extensive studies can be conducted to gather more evidences to link these two concepts and considering that arguments were mainly interpreted by the author, different perspectives are welcomed to evaluate further its relevance especially in Sultanate of Oman where IR is perceived to be in infancy stage.