Some thoughts on our trade unions

Abstract

Punekar represented the first generation of post independence social scientists who began to examine the social implications of urban and industrial growth in our country. Also at the same time some western scholars interested in human and social aspects of industrialization in developing countries introduced their conceptual models and intellectual concerns into the emerging field of urban-industrial social science covering the disciplines of sociology, psycology, etc. The awareness regarding the human problems of modern industry began to influence the minds of the practitioners as well as scholars, as the process of planned industrial development was being launched. The theoretical and prescriptive contributions of the human relations school which posed the social, psycological, cultural needs of the people involved in industrial work as an important determinant of the success and effectiveness of an enterprise, dominated the research efforts of the social scientists. The main lesson of these researches for management practice was that the satisfaction of human needs should be treated as crucial input of the programmes for raising industrial productivity and profitability.