... Rowena.Barrett@Buseco.monash.edu.au PUT 'EM TOGETHER AND STIR: UNIVERSITY INVOLVEMENT IN INCUBATING HIGH TECHNOLOGY FIRMS AT THE AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY PARK Rowena Barrett & Al Rainnie Working Paper 63/02 November 2002
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By MP Dell and A. Rainnie; Abstract: The study concluded that the Hatfield Polytechnic made a net economic contribution in the local economy.
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Local authority intervention in the local economy has proliferated in recent years and is not, as much work suggests, confined to large Labour controlled authorities coping with inner city problems and/or declining heavy industry; a wide... more
Local authority intervention in the local economy has proliferated in recent years and is not, as much work suggests, confined to large Labour controlled authorities coping with inner city problems and/or declining heavy industry; a wide variety of economic development initiatives are being executed by councils across the political spectrum. This paper examines the notion of growth coalitions and attempts to shed some light on these aspects of neglected research and reasons for local authority intervention, exemplified by the A1M Herts Corridor Campaign, an economic development initiative to attract inward investment to an affluent county.
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PurposeThis paper aims to report on a study that investigated employees' views on the organizational factors that affect their ability to deliver service quality to customers. The study is important because call centers represent... more
PurposeThis paper aims to report on a study that investigated employees' views on the organizational factors that affect their ability to deliver service quality to customers. The study is important because call centers represent unique work environments and they have not been used in the development of service quality theory.Design/methodology/approachTen focus groups of frontline employees who work in a telecommunications call center in Australia were conducted. Data were subjected to content analysis.FindingsNine major themes were identified. Some of these themes are evident in theory arising from service quality gaps, service climate, and service profit chain studies. Other themes include whether managers emphasize sales or efficiency, rather than service quality; approaches to performance monitoring and feedback, role and productivity demands, quality assurance regimes, and employees' experiences of service encounter stress.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings ...
Research Interests: Business, Marketing, Performance Management, Service Quality, Content Analysis, and 15 moreStress, Work Environment, Tourism, Call Centre, Quality Assurance, Services Marketing, Focus Group, Call Center, Profitability, Design Methodology, Performance Monitoring, Employees, Employee productivity, Level of Service, and Uncategorized
The OECD is promoting a new approach to regional development - the 'New Regionalism' - which proposes a new and more positive link between work, worker organisation, community involvement and regional development. This relies upon... more
The OECD is promoting a new approach to regional development - the 'New Regionalism' - which proposes a new and more positive link between work, worker organisation, community involvement and regional development. This relies upon the construction of a shared vision or image of region and its proposed pattern of development. In the first section of this article we provide a brief sketch of the New Regionalism. In the final section, using the Latrobe Valley's development as an example, we examine the link between industrial relations, history, community and locality, and in particular the dominant images or representations of a locality. We argue that these are complex and contested and militate against simple notions of community generated in some versions of the New Regionalism. Part of the problem, we suggest in the second section of the article, lies in the fact that academic approaches to industrial relations have tended to ignore or downplay the importance of place or locality.
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ABSTRACT In this paper we examine attitudes towards work, employment and industrial relations in the Latrobe Valley region of South East Victoria, Australia. The Latrobe Valley is an old industrial area of Victoria, 150 kilometres south... more
ABSTRACT In this paper we examine attitudes towards work, employment and industrial relations in the Latrobe Valley region of South East Victoria, Australia. The Latrobe Valley is an old industrial area of Victoria, 150 kilometres south east of Melbourne, based on power generation connected to open cast brown coal mining. The formerly stated-owned power generator (SECV) was broken up and privatised in the 1990s with devastating employment and social impacts on the locality. Before privatisation, the area in general, and SECV in particular, had a reputation for militant union organisation, leading to the joke that SECV stood for Slow Easy and Comfortable. Despite a radical restructuring of work and employment in the region, and a flurry of academic studies which suggested that the old image of the region as a hotbed of militancy was unwarranted, it is believed in some quarters that the old image of the region deters inward investment on the one hand and local entrepreneurial activity on the other. This paper draws on two pieces of work; firstly an ongoing study of the impact of locality on workplace organisations (see Rainnie & Paulet 2005), and secondly a project on industrial relations in the region (see Rainnie et al. 2004). The project, commissioned by a Victorian State Government Taskforce on the region, was designed to investigate what employers, trade union representatives and most importantly, inhabitants of the Latrobe Valley thought about the image and reality of work, employment and industrial relations in their region. This was in the context of an attempt (the most recent of many) to construct a new non-conflictual image of the Valley that would aid restructuring. Drawing on the work of people such as Bradon Ellem, Ray Hudson and Doreen Massey, we argue instead that attitudes to work, employment and locality revealed in the study point to a more complex and conflictual construction of place. While not denying the possibility of short term, local boosterist, place marketing strategies that promote a collaborative image of place, uniting unions, local employers and government institutions, we point to conditions which also allow for the (re)emergence of a more conflictual future. Unions have drawn on the history and conception of the locality to organise in new and often hostile environments.
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In July 2006, members of Monash University's Australian Centre for Research in Employment and Work (ACREW) joined with colleagues from King's College London to hold a conference focused on 'Socially responsive, socially... more
In July 2006, members of Monash University's Australian Centre for Research in Employment and Work (ACREW) joined with colleagues from King's College London to hold a conference focused on 'Socially responsive, socially Journal of Industrial Relations responsible ...
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Commodity chains that are global in extent have increasingly come to be seen as the defining element of the contemporary globalized world economy. Since the 1990s a body of theory — evolving from global commodity chain analysis to global... more
Commodity chains that are global in extent have increasingly come to be seen as the defining element of the contemporary globalized world economy. Since the 1990s a body of theory — evolving from global commodity chain analysis to global value chain analysis to global production network analysis — has focused upon understanding how such commodity chains function. However, despite providing many important insights, these bodies of literature have generally suffered from a major deficiency in that they have failed to consider labour as an active agent capable of shaping such chains' structure and geographical organization. Here, then, we present a case for locating more centrally labour, in production network analysis.
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Authors’ Note: Earlier versions of this article were presented to the ACREW/KCL Conference on socially responsive, socially responsible approaches to employment and work, July 1–4, 2006, Prato, Italy and the 22nd European Group for... more
Authors’ Note: Earlier versions of this article were presented to the ACREW/KCL Conference on socially responsive, socially responsible approaches to employment and work, July 1–4, 2006, Prato, Italy and the 22nd European Group for Organizational Studies Colloquium, July 6–8, 2006, Bergen, Norway, and we would like to thank the participants for their comments. We would also like to thank all those who agreed to be interviewed and to acknowledge and thank Annie Delaney and Pravin Madhavan for their assistance with data collection. Labor Studies Journal Volume 34 Number 4 December 2009 461-484 © 2009 UALE 10.1177/0160449X08324706 http://lsj.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Community Unionism and Union Renewal
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... Employment and work restructuring in transition. Rainnie, A., Smith, A. and Swain, A. (2002)Employment and work restructuring in transition. In, Smith, A., Rainnie, A. and Swain, A. (eds.)Work, employment and transition: restructuring... more
... Employment and work restructuring in transition. Rainnie, A., Smith, A. and Swain, A. (2002)Employment and work restructuring in transition. In, Smith, A., Rainnie, A. and Swain, A. (eds.)Work, employment and transition: restructuring livelihoods in post-communism. ...
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This paper tries to show that the debate on small firm industrial relations has stalled and argues that little advance of any great significance has been made in the last decade. ... To our knowledge, this item is not available for... more
This paper tries to show that the debate on small firm industrial relations has stalled and argues that little advance of any great significance has been made in the last decade. ... To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there ...
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The contention in this article is that an integrated approach can be used to analyse industrial relations in small firms and to investigate the image of industrial harmony. This integrated approach, incorporating the dialectical... more
The contention in this article is that an integrated approach can be used to analyse industrial relations in small firms and to investigate the image of industrial harmony. This integrated approach, incorporating the dialectical relationship between structural forces and human agency, is underpinned by Marxist labour process theory, and can be used to explain the variety of small firm industrial relations and the conditions under which they are produced. The integrated approach points to a way forward from the old stereotype of `small is beautiful'.
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Agency and regional development has attracted growing attention. The origins of much thought in this area lie in evolutionary economic geography, sometimes with a nod in the direction of geographical political economy. In recent... more
Agency and regional development has attracted growing attention. The origins of much thought in this area lie in evolutionary economic geography, sometimes with a nod in the direction of geographical political economy. In recent literature, there has been a stress on agency in general and local entrepreneurship in particular. Stress is laid on good governance, involving an appropriate mix of stakeholders, and more particularly the involvement of local leaders/entrepreneurs and their communities. However, in this article, I want to argue that, firstly, a focus on local entrepreneurship is too limiting; and secondly, following on from the first point, the concept of agency at a local level is at best undercooked.
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Previously, authors suggested that call centres will tend to evolve into 'knowledge' work (Frenkel et al., 1995). However, more recent studies recognise that call centres are diverse and need to be examined in context (Taylor et... more
Previously, authors suggested that call centres will tend to evolve into 'knowledge' work (Frenkel et al., 1995). However, more recent studies recognise that call centres are diverse and need to be examined in context (Taylor et al. 2002). In relation to regional development, call ...
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Western Australia provides an interesting case study of the outsourcing of human services to the not‑for‑profit (NfP) sector. This article presents and discusses some of the key themes that emerged from a recently completed research... more
Western Australia provides an interesting case study of the outsourcing of human services to the not‑for‑profit (NfP) sector. This article presents and discusses some of the key themes that emerged from a recently completed research project examining one large NfP in Western Australia. Key themes included the recruitment and retention of staff linked to pay and changing funding arrangements, and the sector becoming increasingly corporatised in outlook and goal orientaiton. Despite evidence that the shifting policy and funding environment within the NfP sector has had some negative consequences, the research findings highlight a degree of agency within which organisations can resist or counterbalance these changes. Efforts to avoid this trend, however, are reliant upon a number of factors; for example, a strong commitment to vision and mission supported by skilled leadership and adequate resourcing. Significantly, these factors are unlikely to be readily available, particularly for smaller NfPs. This discrepancy in organisational capacity is set to become more conspicuous with the potential introduction of 'Big Society' policies derived from the United Kingdom, and funding cuts proposed by the Coalition government.
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"In this introductory article, we provide a context for subsequent articles in this special edition. We do not intend to provide a comprehensive overview of the costs and benefits of FIFO. This ground is covered in other articles... more
"In this introductory article, we provide a context for subsequent articles in this special edition. We do not intend to provide a comprehensive overview of the costs and benefits of FIFO. This ground is covered in other articles here (see also Morris 2012). We argue that FIFO represents the third wave in a series of spatial fixes, whereby resource companies mining in far north Western Australia sought to manage relationships between themselves, their workforces, and the communities in which these workers live. We are responding to the demands of Coe (2013) and Kelly (2013) who wish to see Global Production Network analysis move beyond a narrow workplace focus to incorporate issues such as environmental landscapes, households and livelihoods, and social and spatial unevenness of development. In so doing, we develop the form of analysis of GPNs, labour, and uneven development outlined in Rainnie et al. (2011; 2013)."
ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to begin the process of analysing the dynamics influencing the organisation of work research scientists in the industry.
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Focusing on the social, welfare, and community workers who are employed in public, not-for-profit (NFP), and commercial organisations within the human services sector, this article examines the implications of a recent Western Australian... more
Focusing on the social, welfare, and community workers who are employed in public, not-for-profit (NFP), and commercial organisations within the human services sector, this article examines the implications of a recent Western Australian government report 'Putting the Public First', which advocates a further round of public management reform. It explores why the option of outsourcing the majority of state human services activities to NFP organisations, as advocated in the report, raises serious concerns about the quality of service delivery and the conditions of employment for workers in this sector. Drawing on experience from the United Kingdom and Australia, this article explains how this policy will reinforce a shift to a contract culture in the NFP sector that leads to mission drift and role distortion. A central outcome is the further deterioration in the employment conditions of NFP human service workers. This article concludes that, notwithstanding some rhetorical shifts, the present push to transform the human services sector is driven by an adherence to New Public Management principles that, some three decades after their initial ascendancy, remain central to public sector reform processes in Australia.
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Ecological modernisation (EM), in theory and practice, has increasingly become central to contemporary state environmental reform agendas. EM's allure lies in its central tenet that the contemporary institutions of capitalism can be... more
Ecological modernisation (EM), in theory and practice, has increasingly become central to contemporary state environmental reform agendas. EM's allure lies in its central tenet that the contemporary institutions of capitalism can be ecologically adapted to achieve ‘win–win’ economic and environmental outcomes. How government policy can best accomplish this aim is contested, however, with weak and strong EM approaches advocating different roles for the state in facilitating ecological restructuring. The latter approaches argue that for EM processes to be successful, state intervention via ecological industrial policy is required. This article makes a unique contribution to the industry policy and EM debate by assessing the manner in which EM was conceptualised and implemented within the Australian government's automotive industry policy between 2007 and 2013. This analysis raises issues about the institutional capacity of states to pursue either weak or strong forms of EM. 生态现代化在理论上和实践上日益成为当代国家环境改革的中心议题。环境现代化所以诱人在于其核心原则：当代资本主义体制生态上可以取得经济、环境的双赢结果。不过政府政策如何实现这一目标确是挑战，生态现代化有强、弱二途，政府在促进生态重构时扮演不同的角色。按强势思路，要想生态现代化成功，需要国家通过生态产业政策进行干预。本文对2007至2013年澳大利亚政府的汽车产业政策形成和实施的方式做了评估，希望以此对产业政策以及生态现代化的辩论有所助益。本文还提出了国家实施强、弱生态现代化的体制能力的问题。
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This chapter draws on the literature on global production networks and spatiality to examine the development of Western Australia and its relationship with the resource sector, with an emphasis on institutional capture, the dynamics of... more
This chapter draws on the literature on global production networks and spatiality to examine the development of Western Australia and its relationship with the resource sector, with an emphasis on institutional capture, the dynamics of regional development dominated by large external capital, and a contested notion of place.
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Industrial relations (IR) and work-related debates are rarely out of the news in Australia. There have been calls by the Productivity Commission for increasing the retirement age, and business lobbies are requesting the abolition of... more
Industrial relations (IR) and work-related debates are rarely out of the news in Australia. There have been calls by the Productivity Commission for increasing the retirement age, and business lobbies are requesting the abolition of penalty rates, the amendment of unfair dismissal legislation and a reduction in the minimum wage rate (Heath and Greber, 2013; McDonald, 2013). Despite IR not figuring in the recent federal elections, and the coalition claiming that it would not be introducing any significant changes to workplace legislation (apart from its improved national paid parental leave scheme), there has already been a chorus of calls for the government to take the opportunity to deregulate the labour market (Frydenberg, 2013). Alongside the political dimension of IR, there is a challenge for academics and practitioners in accommodating innovations at work, workplaces and in working life. Technology has spawned new forms of work such as telecommuting, homework and mobile work (Commonwealth of Australia, 2006). The workplace has been transformed as contact centres allow the bundling, outsourcing and offshoring of services delivery, and the expansion in the resources sector has seen the growth in ‘fly in fly out’ (FIFO), and temporary migrant visa arrangements to fill skill shortages and move labour into remote regions (Hoath and McKenzie, 2013; Velayutham, 2013). Against this background of extensive change to work and to workplaces, traditional IR issues remain pertinent. These include forms of voice and collective representation in a context of declining trade union density (Wilkinson et al., 2013), the efficiency and effectiveness of enterprise bargaining to accommodate workplace change in a fair and equitable manner (Townsend et al., 2013), new forms of precariousness in the workforce (Wilson and Ebert, 2013) and the rigidity of the gender pay gap despite the growing female workforce share (Wade, 2013).
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Since 1993 and the removal of the separate award system for the Australian State of Victoria, many Victorian workers have been on five minimum conditions and on pay levels well below that of employees in other States. Despite attempts to... more
Since 1993 and the removal of the separate award system for the Australian State of Victoria, many Victorian workers have been on five minimum conditions and on pay levels well below that of employees in other States. Despite attempts to rectify the situation (with Victorian common rule awards), issues of coverage and employer compliance remained. The implementation of WorkChoices legislation in 2006 posed a further challenge to Victorian low-paid workers. Our research found that the impact of WorkChoices on the Victorian low-paid has been largely insidious, surfacing primarily as an increased wage-effort ratio, with people working more unpaid hours and at an increased pace. The implications of this are that these hidden effects are more likely to linger, even with the replacement of WorkChoices with the Fair Work Act, 2009. Furthermore, it appears that employer compliance with minimum conditions requires more adequate enforcement by the Federal Government.
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Neoliberal policies of industrial relations decentralisation and privatisation have transformed the economic landscape of Australia in the last 20 years. The primary objective of these policies has been to enhance wealth and prosperity by... more
Neoliberal policies of industrial relations decentralisation and privatisation have transformed the economic landscape of Australia in the last 20 years. The primary objective of these policies has been to enhance wealth and prosperity by improving productivity and flexibility of the workforce and competition and accountability in the market. Yet the evidence suggests that precarious workers are not benefiting from this increased prosperity, indeed they suffer by comparison with all other workers. Cleaners are a subset of precarious workers who have been hard hit by the dual impacts of labour market decentralisation and privatisation. This study finds quantitative evidence of an increasing gap in earnings between cleaners and other workers in Australia since the onset of workplace relations decentralisation and the proliferation of privatisation in the mid 1990s. We locate our argument in recent debates about the nature of variegated neoliberalism, the emergence of the networked eco...
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Small firms are important and becoming more so. In Australia, as in many other OECD countries, over the last 20 years, small firms have steadily increased their share of total private sector employment. For example, by June 2004 in... more
Small firms are important and becoming more so. In Australia, as in many other OECD countries, over the last 20 years, small firms have steadily increased their share of total private sector employment. For example, by June 2004 in Australia, there were around 1.27 ...
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This paper investigates the operation of the National Agreement in the general printing industry at a time when the future of such agreements is in doubt. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from union representatives, the... more
This paper investigates the operation of the National Agreement in the general printing industry at a time when the future of such agreements is in doubt. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from union representatives, the paper provides insights into the workplace practices of pay, technology, flexibility and work intensification in the context of the National Agreement and local labour market factors. Set against a highly competitive, technologically dynamic environment, the paper demonstrates the general resilience of the National Agreement alongside a complex and uneven picture at the level of the workplace.
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This paper draws heavily on an ARC Discovery application prepared by the author with assistance and support from members of the Victorian Universities Regional Research Network (vurrn.com) - Jerry Courvisanos, Robyn Eversole, Steve... more
This paper draws heavily on an ARC Discovery application prepared by the author with assistance and support from members of the Victorian Universities Regional Research Network (vurrn.com) - Jerry Courvisanos, Robyn Eversole, Steve McEachern, Kevin O'Toole, Al ...
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The Working Paper series is intended for rapid dissemination of research results, work-in-progress, innovative teaching methods, etc., at the pre-publication stage. Comments are welcomed and should be addressed to the individual... more
The Working Paper series is intended for rapid dissemination of research results, work-in-progress, innovative teaching methods, etc., at the pre-publication stage. Comments are welcomed and should be addressed to the individual author(s). It should be ...
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Understanding the role of labour, underplayed in global production networks (GPN) theory, has guided this research on the mining engineering services sector. During the project, the global mining industry entered a downturn. Asking how... more
Understanding the role of labour, underplayed in global production networks (GPN) theory, has guided this research on the mining engineering services sector. During the project, the global mining industry entered a downturn. Asking how mining and engineering firms responded to that downturn is a specific variant of wider questions about the place of labour in GPNs and whether labour can shape the GPNs of which it is part. Based on interviews with union officials, workers and management in Australia, the authors show that cost-cutting by global mining companies impacted heavily on the mining engineering sector, pressuring global and local firms. Labour – be it the work process or workers themselves – was central to how firms reacted. The agency of workers and their union was deeply constrained because of the power of companies in GPNs and the nature of the national state and local economies, areas in need of further theoretical development.