Young people and work: pathways to industrial citizenship. This project will address repeated calls for research on young people's work from their own perspectives. It will explore how different groups of youth socialise through early employment and contribute to public policy which aim to enhance educational and employment opportunities for young people.
Customising work through manager-employee exchange. This project will explore how managers and employees customise the terms and conditions of standardised employment arrangements. The results will inform legislation such as right to request provisions and organisational strategies such as manager training which support effective, mutually beneficial manager-employee exchanges.
Employee voice in Australia: the impact of employee participation arrangements on organisational performance and employee well-being. Given the extent of union decline in Australia, there is a need to update policy to reflect the new reality of low unionisation. This project will examine what alternative arrangements exist and their economic and social consequences. It focuses on the employee impacts and employer impacts of these arrangements and will inform current policy debates.
Improving people management systems in emergency services. Improving people management systems in emergency services. This project aims to identify the organisational subsystems that affect the long-term employment of emergency service workers and other individual and organisational outcomes. Operational workloads affect ambulance officers’ ability to work and also contribute to psychological stress. People management systems and support mechanisms are often not configured to minimise these stre ....Improving people management systems in emergency services. Improving people management systems in emergency services. This project aims to identify the organisational subsystems that affect the long-term employment of emergency service workers and other individual and organisational outcomes. Operational workloads affect ambulance officers’ ability to work and also contribute to psychological stress. People management systems and support mechanisms are often not configured to minimise these stressors. This project expects to develop people-management strategies for organisations in difficult environments like emergency services. In turn, emergency service workers should provide better services for patients.Read moreRead less
Taking the Pulse at Work: Employer-Employee Relations and Workplace Problems in Australia Compared to the United States. The project is an in-depth investigation using national surveys and company interviews of the state of employer-employee relations and breadth and depth of workplace problems in Australian enterprises. Topics only lightly covered in previous research get in-depth analysis: the cooperative versus adversarial climate in workplaces; the type and intensity of workplace problems ex ....Taking the Pulse at Work: Employer-Employee Relations and Workplace Problems in Australia Compared to the United States. The project is an in-depth investigation using national surveys and company interviews of the state of employer-employee relations and breadth and depth of workplace problems in Australian enterprises. Topics only lightly covered in previous research get in-depth analysis: the cooperative versus adversarial climate in workplaces; the type and intensity of workplace problems experienced by managers and employees; the effect of deteriorated relations and problems on organisational performance; and assessments of managers’ and employees’ strengths and shortcomings. Similar surveys are done for the USA to benchmark Australian experience and derive comparative lessons. Numerous measures for improvement in practice and policy are identified. Read moreRead less
Unions and Regional Regeneration. Unions face many challenges in older industrial regions, where they previously have had a strong presence. Successful regeneration of such regions depends on the active involvement of unions and their members as well as business. In some places, however, unions have remained marginal to these processes. Not only does this project extend theory on union purpose, capacities and organisation in support of economic, political and environmental change towards sustain ....Unions and Regional Regeneration. Unions face many challenges in older industrial regions, where they previously have had a strong presence. Successful regeneration of such regions depends on the active involvement of unions and their members as well as business. In some places, however, unions have remained marginal to these processes. Not only does this project extend theory on union purpose, capacities and organisation in support of economic, political and environmental change towards sustainable futures, it applies a novel combination of methods. This application examines the consequences of involvement and non-involvement in these processes. The project seeks to extend theories of social change and social mobilisation.Read moreRead less