Cause of Industrial Unrest
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400105 |
| Author | Florence Peterson |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
25
Cause
of
Industrial
Unrest
By
FLORENCE
PETERSON
U NREST
is
defined
as
&dquo;a
dis-
turbed
state;
disquietude
some-
times
amounting
to
insurgency.&dquo;
It
is
also
a
manifestation
of
mankind’s
eter-
nal
struggle
for
improvement.
Unrest
is
an
active
and
not
a
passive
condition;
it
is
antipodal
to
despair
because
it is
coupled
with
a
hope
and
expectation
that the
causes
of
dissatisfaction
can
be
remedied,
or
at
least
alleviated.
If
the
condition
of
workers
is
so
precarious
that
they
have
no
hope
for
betterment,
their
feelings .
of
utter
despair
can
be,
and
usually
are,
ignored
by
others,
since
it is
a
characteristic
of
any
society
to
maintain
the
status
quo
until
forced
to
change
by
overt
expressions
of
unrest.
Because
it
is
dynamic,
industrial
unrest
thrusts
itself
upon
the
attention
of
the
community
and
thereby
becomes
a
&dquo;problem.&dquo;
But
it
is
not
in
itself
a
de-
structive
force;
its
final
effect
depends
upon what
is
done
about
it.
Strikes
are
one
form
of
expression
of
workers’
dissatisfactions,
and
an
analy-
sis
of
the
cited
reasons
for
the
work
stoppages
which
are
taking
place
would
be
~one
way
to
discuss
the
causes
of
in-
dustrial
unrest.
Such
overt
expressions
of
discontent,
however,
seldom
arise
over
specific
and
immediate
issues
alone,
but
have
their
roots
in
a
subsoil
of
accumu-
lated
dissatisfactions.
To
understand
the
underlying
causes
of
workers’
unrest
it
is
necessary
first
to
consider
their
in-
nate
needs
and
desires,
and
then
to
find
out
why
and
in
what
way
their
condi-
tions
of
work
do
not
satisfy
these
de-
sires.
This
article,
therefore,
’will
be
focused
on
the
question:
What
are
the
basic
drives
in
human
nature
which
seek
satisfaction
through
economic
en-
deavor,
and
how
is
modern
industry
failing
to
satisfy
these
natural
aspira-
tions ?
Four
fundamental
human
needs
have been
selected
for
discussion-the
urge
for
self-expression;
the
desire
for
personal
achievement
and
progress;
the
need
for
group
status;
and
the
longing
for
security.
URGE
FOR
SELF-EXPRESSION
Anthropologists
and
psychologists
agree
that
one
of
the
fundamental
char-
acteristics
of
man
is
his
innate
urge
for
self-expression
and
creative
accomplish-
ment.
To
satisfy
this
urge
one
must
have
a
measure
of
control
over
one’s
work
situation
and
a
personal
relation-
ship
to
the
end
product
of
one’s
labor.
This
basic
satisfaction
is
denied
to
mil-
lions
of
workers
in
our
mass
production
industries
where
machines
are
becoming
more
&dquo;human&dquo;
and
the
workers
are
be-
coming
more
machinelike.
Technology
has
relieved
workers
of
much
heavy,
arduous
drudgery,
but
it
has
also
re-
duced
or
curtailed
entirely
the
oppor-
tunity
for
creative
expression.
The
significance
of
the
change
which
came
about
with
the
introduction
of
power
machines
is
reflected
in
our
ref-
erence
to
it
as
the
&dquo;industrial
revolu-
tion.&dquo;
It
was
intensified
in
what
is
sometimes
called
the
&dquo;second
industrial
revolution&dquo;
which
started
some
fifty
years
ago
with
the
introduction
of
as-
sembly
line
techniques
which
caused
machine
operators
to
become
machine
tenders.
The
term
&dquo;revolution&dquo;
is
not
a
misnomer,
and
its
impact
upon
work-
ers’
relation
to
their
jobs
cannot
be
minimized.
What
has
taken
place
is
a
drastic
change
in
the
job
environment
in
which
millions
of
human
beings
per-
form
their
labor.
In
assembly
line
pro-
duction
the
individual
worker
has
lost
control
over
the
way
he
does
his
job;
muscular
dexterity
has
largely
displaced
use
of
judgment,
and
ability
to
work
at
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