Australian Workplace Industrial Relations: Towards a Conceptual Framework

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Although there is a rapidly growing level of academic research on, and interest in, workplace industrial relations in Australia, there has been little attempt to develop a conceptual framework for analysing workplace industrial relations that takes account both of overseas literature and local institutional patterning. This paper seeks to address this problem. We begin by assessing the more influential overseas literature, some of which-notably the bargaining model-has been uncritically introduced into Australian research. After identifying the limitations of the bargaining model, the control/resistance model and Edwards's modification to the latter, we consider an approach, developed by Anthony, that focuses on regulation. This forms the basis for suggesting a typology of workplace industrial relations relevant to Australia. While not ignoring bargaining, our typology places emphasis on the broader notion of regulation (and associated questions of enforcement). It is argued that a typology of workplace industrial relations must take account of the regulatory role of the state, especially Australia, with its reliance on arbitration. The paper concludes by examining further theoretical developments that are required, especially how to provide a more dynamic and causal model for understanding workplace industrial relations.

This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit: