Economics - Research Publications

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    How unreasonable are long working hours?
    LOUNDES, JE ; WOODEN, MP (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, 2002)
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    Industrial relations reform and business performance: an introduction
    Wooden, M. ; Loundes, J. ( 2002-02)
    There appears to be widespread consensus, at least in industry and in government, that enterprise bargaining has been beneficial for productivity. Many academics however, have argued that the link between bargaining structure and workplace productivity is a contentious one, and that research has been unable to establish a relationship. This paper re-examines the existing evidence. The review reinforces the need to exercise caution before asserting that enterprise bargaining is necessarily beneficial for workplace productivity. The main conclusion that emanates from this review, however, is not this absence of a clear-cut finding, but how poorly developed the relevant research literature is.
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    Factors Affecting the Industrial Relations Climate in Australian Enterprises
    Webster, E. ; Loundes, J. ( 2002-05)
    This paper uses new Australian enterprise level data to investigate factors that are associated with cooperative industrial relations climates within major Australian enterprises. Climate is commonly measured along a uni-dimensional scale ranging from adversarial to cooperative and there is a view in the literature -albeit not a consensus- that more cooperative climates are more productive. Our results find that organisations which have well-developed and bilateral channels of communication between managers and employees and those companies that use systematic and analytical methods for making major decisions tend to have the most cooperative climate of relations between management, employees and unions.