New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations Online


Volume 27 Number 3	October 2002

Assessing the Benefits of Telework: Australian Case Study Evidence
Gillian Whitehouse, Chris Diamond and George Lafferty
University of Queensland

This paper is part of a three-year research project on the adoption of telework in Australian organisations. In the previous stage of the research, we conducted a national survey of telework in over 2500 Australian organisations. In this paper, we report on the case study stage of the project, which includes interviews and focus groups with managers, supervisors and teleworkers. The paper begins with an introduction to telework research and an overview of the case study organisations. It goes on to discuss the experiences of managers, supervisors and teleworkers in two areas in which telework offers potential benefits: productivity and work-family balance. The paper then addresses strategies for more effective telework implementation.

The Adoption and Retention of Joint Participation Programs: Preliminary Evidence from New Zealand
Clive H.J. Gilson, Terry H. Wagar, and Michelle Brown
University of Waikato, St Mary's University, University of Melbourne

This paper reports on the incidence of adoption and retention of joint participation programs (JPP) in 307 organizations, size 50 and over, in New Zealand between 1995 and 1999. We report an overall survival rate of 75 percent. Using multinomial logit regression the authors demonstrate that JPPs are positively correlated with the maintenance of other HRM bundles of practices in general. JPPs also reflect functional rather than corporate strategic intent. Workforce reduction is a negative association when JPPs have been sustained for the entire period under study. Union status of the organization is not a significant factor in the model. In parallel with this finding, there is no evidence that JPPs are used as a method of union avoidance, even though the New Zealand labour market and legislative context strongly suggests the emergence of a non-union environment. We argue that irrespective of legislative context New Zealand employers appear to be developing their own HRM agenda, which inter alia, includes JPPs.

Underemployment Amongst New Zealand Graduates: Reflections from the Lived Experience
Allana Coulon
Department of Human Resource Management, Massey University

It is generally accepted that one of the most significant reasons many people choose to study today is to improve their employment opportunities. However, in today's competitive market driven economies, western nations around the world report their graduates as struggling to find relevant, graduate level employment upon graduation. In New Zealand, a dramatic increase in education participation rates in the late 1980s and early 1990s has resulted in a potential bottleneck of overeducated people unable to secure employment at their expected credential level.

The problem of overeducation stems from the significant investments in education by industrialised nations and the inability of market economies to absorb the steady increase in supply of well-educated workers. Yet, paradoxically, there is a clear tendency for government policy to emphasize relentlessly the importance of life long learning, through educational reform, in order to improve economic competitiveness. This paper provides an overview of the established theory and research in relation to the lived experiences of underemployed New Zealand graduates.

RESEARCH NOTES:

Business Restructuring Practices in New Zealand's Top Organisations
Jane Bryson
Victoria University of Wellington

In mid 2001 PA Consultants conducted an exploratory survey of recent business restructuring experiences of New Zealand organisations. Victoria University had input to the survey questionnaire and access to the data that was gathered. The survey focused on the use of accepted best practice in the management of restructuring change processes, and the success of the changes. This brief research note reports the results of the survey, analyses (as far as possible) the responses, and makes suggestions for further investigation of this important area of IR and HRM interest.

Unions and Union Membership in New Zealand: Annual Review for 2001
Robyn May, Pat Walsh, Raymond Harbridge* and Glen Thickett
Victoria University of Wellington, *La Trobe University

This paper reports the results of Victoria University's Industrial Relations Centre's survey of trade union membership for 2001 in New Zealand. The survey carries on from our earlier surveys conducted by the Industrial Relations Centre since 1991. As with the 2000 report, 2001 also reports an increase in union membership and density, albeit at a slightly lower rate. Union membership for the year to December 2001 rose 3.6 percent, with the number of unions rising to 165. The percentage of wage and salary earners who are unionised is now 22 percent.

Determinations of the Employment Relations Authority
Ian McAndrew
University of Otago

The focus of this research note is the decisions or "determinations" of the Employment Relations Authority (the Authority) under the Employment Relations Act 2000 (the ERA). But the note also takes a look back to the adjudication decisions of the Employment Tribunal (the Tribunal) to examine whether the switch to the Authority and the change of legislation from the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (the ECA) have made any difference to decision outcomes and remedies in the employment jurisdiction. Some very preliminary comparative analysis was presented in McAndrew (2001), but the present paper takes the comparison much further.

COMMENTARY:

The Rise and Fall of the Career Public Service
Linda Colley
Griffith University

It is easy to criticise the traditional model of public service employment. However its distinctiveness met the particular needs of a political environment and Westminster conventions. It was a bureaucratic model of employment aligned to the bureaucratic form of public administration, based on strong conventions of merit, tenure, political neutrality and a unified service, administered by an independent central authority. This model endured for more than a century. As public administration was transformed into public sector management, public sector employment was varied in pursuit of efficiency and responsiveness, and became an unstable mixture of traditional and new practices. Institutional changes have brought accompanying problems of duplication, lack of strategic direction or monitoring, and decreasing independence from political influences. The current public sector is beset with recruitment difficulties, high turnover in some fields, increasing use of insecure forms of employment, an ageing workforce, and lower morale than many private sector counterparts.

CHRONICLE:

June- September 2002
Erling Rasmussen and Ian McIntosh

A round-up of recent New Zealand industrial relations events.