(1) Workers & their Organisation:- The personal characteristics of workers, their culture, educational attainments, qualifications, skills, attitude towards work etc, play an important role in industrial relations. Workers’ organisations, known as trade unions, are political institutions.

(2) Employers & their Organisations:- The employers are a very important variable in industrial relations & regulate their behaviour for getting high productivity from them. Industrial unrest generally arises when the employers demands from workers are very high and they offer low economic & other benefits.

(3) Government:- The government exerts an important influence on industrial relations through such measures as providing employment, and regulating wages, bonus and working conditions, through various laws relating to labour.