Showing papers on "Industrial relations published in 1970"

Human Resource Management: A Critical Analysis

Abstract: Since the 1970-BOs, employment relationships in the western world have been influenced by the emergence of human resource management (HRM) which has, to some degree, challenged the existing order- industrial relations (IR). The debate resulting from the emergence of HRM has kept the academic presses churning. At one Level, there is a 'co-existence' debate which explores the likelihood that HRM will supplant IR. At another Level, debate focuses on the 'distinctiveness' of HRM from IR and/or personnel management theory. However, the debates between the HRM and IR fields have only been intra-discourse; HRM literature has been almost silent on the subject of IR, while IR has had little to say about HRM. This, despite the fact that it could be argued that IR and HRM are simply different views of the same set of phenomena. Neither the HRM nor IR fields seem able to incorporate the strengths of the other. By mapping the underlying paradigms of these two fields, this paper explores the question: 'What makes the fields of HRM and IR unable to articulate?'

An Investigation into Industrial Strike Activity in Britain

Abstract: In the proliferating diagnoses of Britain's post-war economic performance, its system of industrial relations has come under increasing criticism. Practically every day the news media supply us with examples of the most bizarre of employee-management contretemps, so that the general public must be forgiven if it concludes that these incidents are typical of Britain's system of industrial relations. Above all, attention has been focused on the frequency of industrial disputes, and unfavourable comparisons have been made with the strike record of other countries. Notwithstanding increasing public concern over industrial conflict and the availability of a large amount of reasonably accurate data, economists have done little to apply to strike activity those techniques of multivariate statistical analysis that characterize so much of current research in economics. This paper embarks on such a statistical analysis by specifying and testing the implications of a model that has been used to account successfully for work stoppages in the United States. As in other branches of economics, these methods complement and do not supplant other methods of enquiry. Thus, the unresolved questions in this study may prove more tractable when examined by alternative analytical tools. However, an investigation into strike activity employing multiple regression techniques should yield some rewards particularly by affording the opportunity to test some standard hypotheses. For instance, one may ask whether there is a statistical foundation for the common belief that industrial conflict has been tending to increase in recent years. Similarly, is there an association between the frequency of strike action and the ideological complexion of the particular party in power? Do different industries display markedly different strike propensities? This paper addresses itself to these and other questions in the belief that the conclusions which follow are not without value. The plan of this paper is as follows. In the first section, the model is outlined and the question of its applicability to Britain's system of labour-management relations discussed. Section II tests the implications of the model with aggregate data on the number of strikes beginning in each quarter in the period from 1950 to 1967. There follows in Section III an analysis of industrial disputes in four major industries. Finally,

The Contingency Model: Criticism and Suggestions

Abstract: The authors present a critical analysis of Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness. These criticisms are discussed and various solutions are suggested.

Australian Industrial Relations Systems

Abstract: Kenneth Walker's 1956 publication, Industrial Relations in Australia, was acclaimed as the first full-scale analysis of the factors shaping Australian industrial relations. Significant developments during the ensuing years, however, necessitated a thorough reevaluation of the field. In his revised book Walker examines these extensive developments, reorganizes his approach, incorporates much additional material, and, in general, provides a more comprehensive view of Australian industrial relations. The organizing theme of this new work is John T. Dunlop's concept of the industrial relations system, which the author applies to the Australian situation, distinguishing among national, state, industry, and plant systems.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2004

Abstract: This paper reports the results of Victoria University's Industrial Relations Centre's annual survey of trade union membership in New Zealand for 2004. The survey has been conducted since 1991, when the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (ECA) ended the practice of union registration and the collection of official data. This year we report changes in union membership, composition, and density from December 2003 to December 2004, taking an historical perspective to compare the industrial relations periods framed by the ECA and the Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA).

Comparative surveys of managerial attitudes and behavior.

Abstract: : A review of cross-national managerial attitudes and behaviors was organized around eight themes. The eight subject areas were: superior-subordinate relationships; managerial needs or motivation; interpersonal processes; organizational goals; perceptions of equity; decision-making under uncertainty; managerial values; relationship between managerial attitudes and other organizational and environmental variables. It was concluded that while the comparative study of managerial behavior is extremely difficult because the usual research problems are magnified many times. Despite methodological problems, considerable advances have been made in a relatively short time. Several substantive research directions were proposed. (Author)

The Internal Labor Market as a Stochastic Process.

Abstract: : The document contains an investigation into the applicability of stochastic process models in the analysis of corporate internal labor markets Included are applications of the model in manpower forecasting, analysis of career patterns, identification of entry and exit ports, and empirical identification of occupational families (Author)

Labour Market Adjustment and Women in the Service Industry: A Survey

Abstract: The celebration in 1993 of a century of women's suffrage in New Zealand has brought even more sharply into focus the uneven impact of the Employment Contracts Act on the workforce From the outset, debate about the effects of the Employrnent Contracts Act had focused for some on the likely impacts on women workers This study is located firmly within the tradition of national and international literature front a range of disciplines including economics, industrial relations, sociology:- law and history, which describes a segmented labour market and labour process One aspect of labour segmentation theory is gender segmentation, that is, the location of women and men in the labour market and their comparative situations Much theoretical work and empirical research has been done to describe where women are located in the labour market, why they are located there, and that effects that location has upon them Even within this field of study there is a wide range of subjects for analysis For example, the subjects can range from the gender earning gap (Blau and Kahn, 1992) and occupational structures (Terrell 1992) to the challenge of "flexibility" and the pool of labour women traditionally provide (Walby, 1989) Even the concept of skill itself has bad to be revisited by the gender segmentation theorists (Bervoets and Frielink, 1988) Much of the theoretical framework within which these scholars cited have written, along with numerous others, was codified in the 1970s and 1980s in response to Harry BravetJnan's classic mould-breaking \Vork Labor and Monopol)' Capital published in 1974 Writers such as Phillips and Taylor (1980), Cockbwn (1981, 1983, 1985) and Beechey (1982) remain some of the leading contributors to the discussion and ongoing analysis about women in the vvorkforce As industrial relations regimes and bargaining structures have altered in the 1980s and on into the 1990s, the changes have been observed to impact differently upon different segments of the labour market

Labour Market Statistics - Plugging the Gaps

Abstract: Official statistics have not kept pace with the deregulation of the labour market in the 1990s. Beginning in 1992 with the Rose Review' there have been several assessments of the gaps and what is required to plug them. The report of the Prime Ministerial Task Force on Employment in 1994 and the 1996 work of an interdepartmental working group reached similar conclusions about the needs. In the last two years some important advances have occurred. The 1996 Census of Population extended the coverage of education and training topics. Central government funding was obtained for Household Labour Force Survey supplements on education and training (once only) and income (annually). Results from all three supplements will be available in 1997. Feasibility studies, funded by a group of Government agencies, have been done on employer's training practices and expenditure. Statistics New Zealand has developed new classifications for levels of educational attainment and field of educational study. There are still a number of unmet needs, particularly in the areas of labour market dynamics, workplace industrial relations, employment-related business statistics and Maori labour force involvement. Options for funding these have been explored in 1996 with no positive outcomes yet.

Labour Market Adjustment under the Employment Contracts Act

Abstract: The Employment Contracts Act was introduced primarily in response to a perceived lack of progress in the rate of adjustment in the labour market. While product and financial markets had been reformed, the labour market was still regulated by relatively prescriptive legislation. In order to measure adjustment since the Act was introduced, the Heylen Research Centre and Teesdale Meuli & Co. were contracted by the Department of Labour to survey labour market adjustment under the Employment Contracts Act. This report on that survey indicates that various adjustments have occu"ed, particularly in terms of employment contract structures and several important bargaining issues. Enterprises can be categorise4 according to the type of changes they and their employees have undertaken, and their size. Three particularly important outcomes emerge. Enterprise bargaining is now far more widespread. Some enterprises have taken the opportunity to begin or speed up strategic industrial relations reforms, while others seem to have simply removed union rights and cut labour costs in the short term. Finally, while the overall rate of labour market adjustment has increased, adjustment has generally been concentrated amongst larger enterprises.

The first wage round under the Labour Relations Act 1987: changing relative power

Abstract: Labour's 1984 amendments to the Industrial Relations Act 1973 and the replacement of that act with the Labour Relations Act 1987 have altered the power relationship between employers and unions in private sector wage bargaining. It is argued that the changes favour employers. This paper examines the first private sector wage round negotiated after the passing of the 1987 Act offering a detailed analysis of all 588 documents, 246 of which were awards. A decline in the number of settlements overall is explained by the partial demise offormal second tier bargaining in the northern labour district, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Wage flexibility within the wage round is evidenced by 36 percent of settlements being either greater than 8.0 percent or lower than 7.0 percent. The authors conclude that employers have started to use their increased power in bargaining. Evidence for this is that employers were able to gain changes to hours of work provisions in 25 percent of settlements; resisted back-dating of wage settlements in a growing number of settlements; and were able to prevent any upwards wage drift in the settlements over the term of the wage round.

The Other Worker: A Comparative Study of Industrial Relations in the United States and Japan.

Abstract: Professors Whitehill and Takezawa managed to get a thousand American and a thousand Japanese manual workers, all employed in large firms, to sit down and answer thirty questions on a variety of industrial relations matters. They ranged from the proper functions of trade unions, and the part that seniority should play in promotion, to the burning question of whether a worker should give up his seat on a crowded bus to his foreman. An analysis of the answers provides the core of the book. For the most part the answers conform to expectations. The way Japanese workers think things ought to be arranged turns out, by and large, to be the way they actually are arranged in Japan. Likewise American attitudes more or less fit America's different set of institutions. Japanese workers do more often expect to stay employed by the same company for the rest of their lives than American workers do; they are more likely to expect status distinctions to carry over from the workplace to the world outside; they are more prone to accept that seniority and family responsibilities should largely affect wages; they give their work and their duty to the company (the study, unfortunately, does not discriminate between the two) higher importance in the general scheme of their lives. In the words with which the authors sum up the general pattern of national differences, in Japan there is 'a greater degree of mutual shared involvement between the operation of a business organisation and the total lives of its members.' Moreover, as they go on to point out in italics, the greater the involvement of the worker in the firm, 'the greater the degree of achievement of individual needs as well as of certain organisational goals'. Or: the more you live for Mitsubishi, the more what's good for Mitsubishi is good for you.

The Origins and development of the personal grievance jurisdiction in New Zealand

Abstract: This paper discusses the background to the personal grievance procedure introduced in the Industrial Relations Act 1973 and the implementation of the procedure up to the time of the reform of the law in 1987. The central role of the Arbitration Court in developing the minimal legislative framework of the law is stressed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the debate leading up to the reforms and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the procedure at that point.

The Structure of Bargaining under the Employment Contracts Act

Abstract: Under the Employment Contracts Act 1991, the stucture of contracting is left for negotiation beteeen the parties, rhetorically so that the parties can fashion mutually satisfactory arrangements attuned to their particular ne,eds and circumstances. This paper presents survey data that dernonstrates thatJ while the extent of employee concessions differs benveen individual and collective contracts patterns of contract structures are developing by workforce size and pre-Act union strength and show no relationship to the market circunzstances or cost pr,essures under "which firms operate. "Decisions on bargaining structure are at the hean of the management of industrial relations" (Kinnie, 1987:463). The purpose of this paper is to report, through the presentation of research data, on the structure of bargaining, and associated contract structures, emerging under New Zealand's Employment Contracts Act of 1991.

The Employment Contracts Act and Work Stoppages

Abstract: A number of important changes in New Zealand's industrial relations have been credited to the effect of the Employment Contracts Act. Among them has been a decline in the level of industrial action, or as Bill Birch has put it, "a dramatic turn-around from the industrial conflict of the past" This particular change has been attributed by the Government to the establishment of increased and more constructive communication between employers and employees) no longer impeded by the autocratic and unwarranted interference of old style untontsts.

Equal Pay for Women after the Employment Contracts Act: Legislation and Practice - the Emperor with No Clothes?

Abstract: This paper outlines the changes to the Equal Pay Act 1972 and other relevant legislation made at the time of the passage of the Employment Contracts Act and discusses what meaning and coverage remains. It suggests that the legal uncertainties and accentuation, in the current economic and industrial relations climate, of previous difficulties in using the legislation render it almost useless.

Planned organizational change : a study in change dynamics

Abstract: Spanning the work of Durkheim, Hollowell and Levy, this set was published at the inception of Industrial Relations and Business Studies. Sociologists were interested in the effect of economic and business activity on social institutions, and sought empirically to investigate the social consequences of industry and commerce for the community.

Respuestas sindicales ante el desafío de la empresa-red: sector petroquímico y nuclear

Abstract: The network-firm model represents a challenge for industrial relations systems. Collective bargaining institutions were historically conceived within the Fordist model of vertically integrated organizations. However, these institutions do not seem to be adapted to the problems raised in the dispersed enterprise created by outsourcing. Work organizations are increasingly dissociated from the firm, defined as a legal entity and assets owner, and this establishes de facto triangular employment relations between the main company (client), the outsourced company (formal employer) and the worker. We argue that the search for answers and efforts to rebuild work solidarities rely upon action by workers’ representatives and social relations. Based on a qualitative study conducted in two process industries (power generation and petrochemical), the article analyses the effects of the triangular work relation at the plant-level using two experiments of trade unions’ organization and territorial collective bargaining. We question their outcomes and limits in the rebuilding of a “work community” involving outsourced workers.

Unions and Industrial Relations in Papua New Guinea

Abstract: When Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975, it inherited the Australian system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration from its former colonial rulers. This system with the cenrnal reality it ascribes to trade unions as the industrial representatives of workers has been under considerable anack in both Australia and New Zealand in recent years. In Papua New Guinea too its effectiveness has not gone unquestioned. This paper seeks first to provide some background to understanding the evolution of Papua New Guinea's industrial relations system and then looks in detail at some recent examples of its operation.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand 1985-1992

Abstract: The Employment Contracts Act 1991 (introduced on 15 May, 1991) abandoned dependence upon registered trade unions, a characteristic of New Zealand industrial relations since 1894 The detail of this change, and of other extensive changes implemented by the Employment Contracts Act, are outlined elsewhere (for example, Anderson, 1991; Boxall, 1991; Harbridge, 1993; Hince and Vranken, 1991 and McAndrew, 1992) This note is specifically concerned with the impact of the Act on the number, size and membership of trade unions Developments from May 1991 to December 1992 are put in a context with patterns of change emerging in the earlier period, 1985 to 1990

Disclosure of Financial Information - Are New Zealand Employees and Unions Missing Out?

Abstract: New Zealand policymakers have to date paid scant attention to the disclosure of financial information to employees and unions. However, there are signs this could change. Current trends under the Employment Contracts Act towards enterprise and productivity bargaining may well see access to financial information emerge as a domain of increasing interest and significance. The Labour Party's policies for industrial relations reform incorporate proposals for a good faith bargaining requirement, including a statutory duty to supply relevant information. Should any future government contemplate action on industrial democracy, this would also have implications for disclosure. This paper examines existing legislative requirements in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. It is suggested that these provide a useful starting point for those interested in pursuing some New Zealand disclosure iniliatives and that so1ne valuable lessons can be drawn from overseas experiences.

The Pursuit of Flexibility in the New Zealand Supermarket: The Employment Contracts Act, Continuities and Discontinuities

Abstract: This article offers a perspective on the growing debate on the future direction of industrial relations in New Zealand It argues the existence of a significant relationship between the business environment of an industry and the industrial relations practices adopted by its constituent employers In focusing on the pursuit of internal labour market flexibility in the retail food industry it attempts to analyse the various factors that have both impelled and impeded this process It concludes that while the demand for greater flexibility tends to be generated within the industry, its successful implementation is frequently subject to external factors

Conflict in Papua New Guinea Mining: The 1993-95 Porgera Dispute

Abstract: This article examines and assesses the significance of a recent major dispute in the Papua New Guinea (PN~G) mining industry. The Porgera dispute lasted a year and a half and arguably crystallised a new departure in industrial relations in an industry which is the largest single source of private sector en1ployment and export earnings. Although the official eulogies of PN~G as a "n1ountain of gold floating in a sea of oil'' are somewhat exaggerated, the role of mining is paran1ount in what is basically, for 85 percent of the population, a subsistence agriculture economy. In 1993, mining provided 88 percent of the country's export earnings. At the srune time about one-third of PNG's formal sector workforce were employed in mining. 1 Without going into elaborate definitional issues, we argue that, despite imperfections in its institutions, the recent Porgera dispute is evidence of a strengthening of .. pluralism" (understood in terms of collaborative bargaining and compromise in dispute managen1ent), in PNG industrial relations. 2