Sociological approach to the study of interpersonal relations in the management activities of the industrial organization

Over the time of interest to the phenomenon of interpersonal relations in the context of industrial organizations management, the domestic social science had several approaches. During the Soviet Union era the sociometric techniques, borrowed from the American social psychology and intended for the quantitative characterization of the intragroup processes, were influenced by the Marxist ideology. At that time, there were two approaches to the study of interpersonal relations in the system of social relations. The first one considered the interpersonal relations as an external form of the social relations, their skin. The second one believed the interpersonal relationships is an important factor influencing the processes and outcomes of group activities. The review of the sociological literature of 1980-s showed that at that period the study of interpersonal relationships was carried out mainly by the application of psychological methods, which left outside the research many aspects of sociological nature (such as social changes in the team like improving of work organization, professional development of personnel and so on). Due to the deformation of the structure of social and legal norms in the 1990-s the interpersonal relations became ever more important as a regulator of social life, a leverage of public relations. It was at that time when the interpersonal relations became a basis of business relations, which determined their turn into a conflict-generating factor in the production sphere (a striking example is salaries of employees of different categories). The interpersonal relations began to be considered as an independent form of the public relations, with their own development resources and performing certain social functions (motivational and regulative). The results of the researches of the early 21 st century show that there are two trends in the development of interpersonal relations: individualistic (leads to increased competition and, as a consequence, to a decrease of satisfaction with relations with colleagues) and collectivist (is based on the employee’s need for good relations with the teammates).