Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research - Research Publications
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ItemIndustrial relations reform: who are the pro-reformers( 2003-04)There have been considerable changes in the industrial relations landscape in Australia over the past 15 years. This paper utilises a recent survey of large Australian organisations to investigate the characteristics of the organisations that have embraced the industrial relations reform agenda. We find evidence that certain industries, such as Mining, have embraced the reform agenda. We also find that organisations who have embraced the reform agenda tend to have rather different human resource management practices to those who have not
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ItemConflict inflation: estimating the contributions to wage inflation in Australia during the 1990s.( 2003-03)One of the major emerging macroeconomic problems during the century has been the tendency for inflation to accelerate under prolonged periods of full employment. According to Isaac (1977) and Kaldor (1996, 5th Lecture), this arises from the process of wage determination common to most western economics. They argue that there are three major objectives of wage earners that are in competition with one another. First, the desire to maintain relativities; secondly, the desire to have a 'fair' share of companies profits; and thirdly, a reluctance to allow any encroachment on achieved standards due to unfavourable (exogenous) events. If companies have differing rates of profit then the first objective will conflict with the second. If there are adverse changes the terms of trade, then the third objective will cause inflation. This paper tests how well the three objectives of wage earners cited above in the context of their power to effect these objectives, explains wage inflation in Australia using a times series of micro wage rate rates for detailed occupations and industries for the period 1989 to 2000. We find that wages are sensitive to the three major objectives, but not occupational unemployment rates.
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ItemIndustrial relations reform at the enterprise and workplace( 2003-03)This paper compares attitudes and perceptions to industrial relations reform between senior management at large Australian organisations on the one hand, and their associated workplace managers on the other. We find that significant differences exist in the opinions and policies of workplaces and enterprises. In particular, marked differences exist in the attitudes towards human resource management and industrial relations reform. These results suggest that we may conclude that in terms of human resource management and industrial relations it appears there is no corporate culture that is carried over from head office to the workplace