"This paper describes the original paradigm of industrial relations, as developed in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century. The original paradigm had three faces: science-building, problem-solving, and ethical/ideological. It is argued that the core principle that spans and unites these three faces is rejection of the orthodox economic model of a competitive labour market. This proposition may also be stated as a rejection of the proposition that labour is a commodity. Building on this core principle is the fundamental theorem of industrial relations. It states that a free-market capitalist economic system cannot survive and efficiently perform without the practices and institutions of industrial relations that humanize, stabilize, professionalize, democratize and balance the employment relationship."

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