Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji 2003 1 (25)
BOOK REVIEWS
THE JOB TRAINING CHARADE
By Gordon Lafer. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2002, xii + 297 pp.,
no price stated (hardback)
O
ver the past 20 years or so, many academics have come to accept uncritically
the basic assumptions about education, training, jobs and the economy that
now underpin most industrial countries labour market policies. Others are more
ambivalent. On the one hand, the greater recognition of workers as learners is
welcome, even though contemporary initiatives are far removed from the great
traditions of worker education that emphasised enlightenment and empowerment.
In this view, embedded within workplace learning opportunities is some potential
for workers to develop as individuals, to exercise greater influence over their dayto-day lives at work, and to carry some of the benefits of their learning beyond
the workplace into the home and the community. On the other hand, questioning
commentators are discouraged by the ideology driving the current wave of
enthusiasm for lifelong learning. ‘New,’ neo-liberal inspired human capital
theory affords little or no space to the social domain. Its sole concern is economic performance; its focus is the individual learner; its priority is ‘winning’ in
the new global economy.
There is no hint of ambivalence in the current book. Lafer’s intention is
to provide ‘the first comprehensive critique of the history, track record, and
economic assumptions underlying’ American job training policies since the
early 1960s (page 1). His book delivers on that promise. From cover to cover,
it is an unrelenting, tough, thoroughly documented, passionately argued, and
uncompromising indictment of the politicians, powerful economic interests
and bureaucrats he holds responsible for the policies he so roundly condemns.
Lafer makes no universal claims for his analysis; his focus is strictly limited to
US policies. But readers in other countries will almost certainly find much in
the book that resonates with the political economy of job training in their
own country.
Lafer’s explicitly normative approach is grounded firmly in a powerful labour
studies perspective that asserts a social right to a ‘decently paying job’; a concept
he defines in the first chapter. His central theme is that the assumptions underlying job training policies are fundamentally flawed and that politicians, business,
and bureaucrats have used both the rhetoric and practice of job training in order
to disempower working people both economically and politically. Lafer sees
little hope in relying on politicians to change their policies, especially under the
present Bush Administration, but even under a new Democrat regime. Thus, he
concludes, only a recommitment to collective, industrial and political struggle
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can begin to secure decently paying jobs and meaningful education and training
programs.
Lafer’s first chapter sets the pattern for those that follow. His general approach
is to start chapters and sections with an indictment, add additional charges along
the way, and then marshal a mass of evidence to support his case. The opening
chapter begins with a rather obvious question: ‘How many jobs are there?’ Lafer’s
target is the fatuous claim, repeated by a succession of politicians, that vacancies
advertised in newspapers are proof of jobs that are waiting for those who are not
trained for them. Lafer sets himself two tasks in this chapter. First, he reworks
traditional approaches to the measurement of poverty in order to provide a
working definition of what constitutes a ‘decently paying job’. Second, he
examines, in the light of that definition, the limited available data on how
many people need such jobs and the number of jobs there are. These data, he
concludes, prove that there is a dramatic job gap: far more people are seeking
‘decently paying jobs’ (page 34) than are available.
In the second chapter, Lafer examines another cornerstone of job training
policies: the so-called ‘skills mismatch’. He does not deny that workers require
skills and that those with higher qualifications generally earn more than those
who are less qualified. But there is plenty of evidence in employment statistics,
he argues, to show that other criteria, such as gender, race, age, industry, and
degree of urbanisation, are often just as important as education. Further, he
suggests, that employment growth in the service sector has resulted in jobs
that demand high levels of education, but which pay lower wages than the
manufacturing jobs they have replaced. Lafer holds that the power of education
to determine wages is quite weak. This view and the research that supports it has
been challenged, not unexpectedly, by the ‘mismatch theorists’ (page 49). In
response, Lafer devotes the remainder of this chapter to a painstaking analysis
and rebuttal of their critique. Again he concludes that the main purpose of the
skills mismatch thesis, linked to a ‘language of futurism’ (page 86), has been to
demobilise and disempower working people.
‘Does job training work?’ is the question that sets up Lafer’s third chapter.
His main focus is Ronald Reagan’s Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which
framed federal programs for some 17 years. Lafer argues that the JTPA ‘marked
a radical restructuring of job training programs’ (page 89) in that it shifted
training and related job creation from the public and non-profit sectors to the
private sector. Lafer does not deny that the JTPA initiative may have resulted
in some marginal wage improvements for some low income Americans. But
overall, he argues, it was doomed to fail because neither the program nor the
politicians who created it addressed the deep structural causes of unemployment
and poverty.
Lafer’s fourth chapter tackles another important issue in the job training debate:
high performance workplace systems and the notion of job training as empowerment. He begins with an outline of Robert Reich’s vision of a ‘new economy’ as
sketched in his 1992 book Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century
Capitalism (New York: Vintage) and the possibilities Reich sees for skilled
workers in the ‘re-engineered workplace’. This is followed by a brief theoretical
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note in which Lafer argues that the dynamics of ‘the struggle over wages and
management’s need to control workers’ effort point to the limitations of empowerment’ (page 132). Using familiar examples, such as McDonald’s and airline reservations, Lafer then does a competent job of demonstrating how, for many workers,
the empowerment promise of high performance is simply rhetoric. Lafer appears
less certain in the second half of this chapter than he does elsewhere in the book
as he turns his attention to the more innovative enterprises and workplaces, such
as information technology or sections of manufacturing, in which empowerment
may be more than rhetoric. These situations, Lafer concedes, are much more
complex than those discussed earlier in the chapter. However, he suggests
these high performance workplace systems essentially have three aims: tapping
employee knowledge, developing self-policing employees, and internalising
corporate goals. Lafer elaborates on each of these propositions quite neatly
before concluding that in such enterprises workers enjoy, at best, ‘caged freedom’
(page 149). The chapter ends, not unexpectedly, with the claim that while the
‘nebulous nature of the vision’ promoted by Reich and others ‘insulates it from
empirical rebuttal’ (page 155), ‘high performance’ ultimately fails to deliver on
its promise.
In Chapter 5, Lafer returns more comfortably to the legislative history of JTPA
and the politics of job training. He systematically examines the reasons why job
training emerged in the 1980s as a political response to unemployment and
poverty. Particularly insightful is Lafer’s analysis of the role played by
Congressional Democrats who championed job training and backed Republican
policies in the hope of salvaging some aspects of (their) previous programs.
Lafer concludes that in the end, however, the JTPA was a Republican triumph.
Business secured a privileged position in the new job training regime, public
sector employment was eliminated, and community groups were excluded.
Lafer’s sixth chapter is headed, ‘Job training after welfare reform: Training
for discipline’. This is another very strong discussion that details and appraises
critically the links between job training policies and the 1996 welfare reform
legislation. Lafer’s careful analysis reveals how welfare-to-work policies fundamentally changed the primary purposes of job training programs. Whereas
initially such programs, for all their defects, still had the aim of enabling
‘participants to gain greater leverage in the labor market’ (page 208); since 1996
they primarily have served to discipline low-wage workers and those on welfare,
lower their expectations, and effectively undermine their self esteem.
In his final chapter Lafer concludes that job training is simply a political
diversion. He reviews the findings in his substantive chapters and looks ahead
to the prospects of job training in the new Bush era. The outlook he presents is
pessimistic. What is required, he argues, is not a change in policy but a new
politics: ‘the most important skill for working people to acquire is not the
discipline demanded by employers but the solidarity required for collective
mobilisation’ (page 224).
This book will leave most readers exhausted and depressed. Its strengths are
its clear focus, its sensible arrangement, its insightful analysis, the quality of the
research, and the power of Lafer’s uncompromising labour studies perspective.
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He knows whose side he is on! Of course the book has weaknesses, some of which
are attributable to the lack of reliable data. For example, because Lafer has to
find his evidence where he can, there are sections where he tends to jump from
state to state and one is sometimes left wondering if he is actually comparing
apples with apples. Further, as indicated above, I felt that Lafer struggled to write
with the same authority when he shifted his gaze from job training under the
JTPA to the high performance visions promoted by Reich and others. I have mixed
views about the length of the book and the amount of detail Lafer offers. On the
one hand, I appreciate the scholarly effort he has made to marshal evidence in
support of his indictment. But on the other hand, I was so overwhelmed by it all
that it took several weeks to read the book.
How relevant is this book to Australian and New Zealand readers? We will
probably draw some comfort from the fact that, on the surface, our respective
national policies differ from the US. But there is much in Lafer’s dismal story
that sounds just a tad too familiar not to trouble us. In neither country do we
have a very clear idea of how many ‘decently paying jobs’ are available. We
have no reliable analysis on exactly how important education and training is
in determining incomes. In both countries, without any substantial evidence,
politicians and business lobbies trumpet the ‘skills mismatch’ thesis as loudly as
they do in the US. While a number of unions, supported by labour-oriented
academics, have embraced high performance systems with varying degrees of
enthusiasm, the jury is yet to determine how much worker empowerment
they deliver. And, finally, welfare policies, while not as cruel as those in the US,
nevertheless incorporate job training as a disciplinary mechanism. In sum, much
of the ideology that Lafer critiques is, if in a muted form, active and pressing
within our two countries.
In conclusion, despite its strong US focus, this book is a valuable contribution
to our understanding of the political economy of education and training. As
such, it should be in the university library. Although I teach about worker
education and training at the graduate level, I am unlikely to prescribe chapters
as readings. But I almost certainly will require research students to consult it
and will undoubtedly refer to it myself.
UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO
MENTAL HEALTH
AND
MICHAEL LAW
WORK: ISSUES
AND
PERSPECTIVES
Edited by Lou Morrow, Irene Verins and Eileen Willis. The Australian Network for
Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health, Adelaide, 2002,
xx + 349 pp., no price stated (paperback)
This book represents an impressive attempt to highlight the importance of
mental health and policies for its positive promotion, within a work context. Its
clearly stated intention is to increase knowledge and understanding as well as to
influence the development and implementation of effective strategies for the
promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders. It was
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commissioned by the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and
Early Intervention for Mental Health (AUSEINET) and produced in collaboration with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VICHEALTH).
The book is divided into five sections. The first section explores the current
context for mental health. It takes two very different and synergistic perspectives
in doing this. Dolland and Winefield provide an impressive overview of mental
health and its links with over- and under-employment as well as unemployment.
Waterhouse, however, takes us ‘inside the head’ (his own), of a lecturer who gives
us his thoughts about how it feels to be a ‘reflective practitioner’ who is offered
employment options as casual and contract. This section is a precursor to the
powerful blend of objective scholarship and subjective ‘insider’ perspectives that
characterise the book as a whole.
The second section looks at work and identity. It pursues a very wide range
of themes, including the nature and meaning of career, and the relationships
between race, culture, gender, age and work identity. Also explored are the impact
of the environment, life stage and women’s carer responsibilities on employment
and work identity. While the range of perspectives offered is extremely wide
in terms of content and themes, there are strong unifying conceptual and
analytical frameworks that underpin this section of the book. These reflect an
emphasis on critical theoretical scholarship and radical humanist values.
Section three is concerned with work and safety issues. Radical humanist
values also dominate this part of the book, but its purpose and theoretical stance
is much more functional. Here the emphasis is on legal, social and workplace
interventions that can tackle ‘evils’ such as workplace bullying and workplace
violence (and its impact on onlookers not just victims). As well as traditional
strategies associated with legal sanctions and workplace policies, various authors
point to the need for more innovative and in-depth approaches which recognise
how far bullying at work and other workplace violence can become entrenched
in the fabric and context of workplace practices.
The fourth section of the book is entitled ‘work and emotions’. Here the
diversity of perspectives provides the reader with a unique opportunity to
access the significance of the concept of emotional labour as ‘integral to service
work and the caring professions’. Diversity in both the content of the papers and
their approach is on offer. Approaches range from the poetic insights of
Waterhouse to the experimental design of Hosie et al. and Zammuner et al.
Such diversity does not prevent broad insights emerging from the section as a
whole. In essence, the question posed is how can emotional labour be harnessed
productively and ethically so that organisational performance is improved while
individual mental health is not compromised or even destroyed? Although
this section offers diversity in terms of its analysis and approaches, it is slightly
dominated by its psycho-social parameters. The introduction to this section
of the book refers to the possibility of emotional labour being appropriated by
managers and owners in the pursuit of profit. While this is a theme taken up by
Stack in Chapter 14, it might perhaps have merited further development.
Section five considers a range of workplace-based interventions that can have
positive effects on mental health and well-being. One of the key themes that comes
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through is the importance of caring for the mental well-being of those in the
field of mental health. However, this section also refers to the experiences of other
professions, such as hairdressers who are engaged in giving ‘personal’ services to
their clients. Interventions include those that have a promotional and preventative focus as well as those that might be seen as ‘treatment’ options. The descriptions of such interventions succeed in establishing the nature of the link between
interventions that might at first appear to be palliative, compared with those that
are labelled preventative. The sheer range of interventions, workplaces and staff
groups discussed gives this section a very rich and diverse feel. Common themes
include: first, the importance of the workplace as a setting for interventions related
to mental health and mental health problems; second, the importance of acknowledging how far those engaged in giving direct client care or service have unique
and significant insights on how this relationship impacts on their mental health;
and third, the role of interventions that have an individual focus as well as those
that are focused on changing organisational processes or structures. Certain
tensions are also uncovered. For example, Chapter 22 relates the history,
development and activities of an employee health committee. Its authors
offer the important insight that such a committee must be supported but not
driven by management.
Overall, the range of contributors, theoretical and practical perspectives, experiences and themes pursued in this book is a tribute to those who conceived and
gave birth to it. The challenges of organising and editing the contributions
must have been extreme. It has succeeded in putting issues and problems that
can easily be unseen, ignored, obscured or misunderstood onto the agendas
of managers and organisations. It has also used a wide range of theoretical
frameworks to understand and analyse those issues. Finally, there are some key
messages for those who have responsibilities for action in relation to the issues
that are covered.
UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN
THE ORGANIZATION
PERSPECTIVE
OF
MARY BROOMFIELD
EMPLOYMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL
By Jill Rubery and Damian Grimshaw. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2003,
xxi + 298 pp., £20 (paperback)
Different societies, or what might be more accurately described as lumps of
geography known as nation states, have different ways of doing things and
organising themselves. Their different histories, cultures and access to natural
resources (and other relevant variables you think I should have included) combine in different and unique ways. It is not, however, as if that which occurs in
a particular society is monolithic––there are spectrums of practice and behaviour concerning numerous forms of social phenomena. For example, while we
may think of a certain nation having a particular style of cuisine, it is not as if
everyone, or even a majority, in that said nation eats the same way. There will
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be regional differences. Within the same region, different persons will want or
experience cuisines of different types and compositions. Moreover, it is not as if
cuisine, or any other social phenomena is static. Cuisine is a dynamic social
experience that is subject to change and experimentation by those involved in
its production and presentation.
The same is also true of the way in which employment is organised. Different
societies organise the various ‘dimensions’ associated with work in different ways.
These differences will be such that ‘wise’ persons will describe a particular type
of employment organisation as being characteristic of country A, and another
type as characteristic of country B, and so on. Within any society, however,
there will be a spectrum (or several spectrums) of employment organisational
forms. Moreover, like cuisine, employment organisation, across the spectrum of
practices within a particular society, is subject to change.
How do we acquire knowledge of the ways in which different societies organise
employment? One method would be to compare two or more firms, plants
or workplaces, producing essentially the same product or service, in different
societies. This will be referred to as the ‘micro’ approach. A major problem
here is to what extent is the example (or examples) chosen representative of the
way in which employment is organised in the respective societies? A second
approach could be to examine the way in which different societies approach what
will be called ‘major’ issues connected with employment organisation. They would
include things such as the industrial relations system and legislative environment,
employment and training policies, welfare and taxation, the family and gender
relations, approaches to labour market flexibility, regulation and so on. This will
be referred to as the ‘macro’ approach.
Scholars, and others, have sought to make comparisons and understand why
it is that different societies have different forms of employment organisation.
Embedded in such examinations is a view that such forms of employment
organisations can be classified from ‘good’ to ‘bad’, in the form of an international
league ladder. More generally, the world has found itself subject to the tyranny
of something known as ‘best practice’. The issue of how ‘best practice’ is defined
or ‘known’ will be ignored here. Given a notion of ‘best practice’, is it possible
to transport it from a setting in country A to country B? Can the micro or macro
in country A be taken out of its national context and be relocated neatly and
easily (whatever that might mean) into another or other countries?
These issues are of relevance in examining Rubery and Grimshaw’s book. They
state that their work ‘explores the organization of employment from an international perspective, taking as our main field of vision advanced countries, as
defined by membership of the OECD’ (page xvii). They further maintain that:
‘Comparative texts tend to fall into two categories: either they provide a series of single
country studies, leaving it up to students to do the hard work of comparison, or they take
a relatively narrow focus such as the industrial relations system or the training system’
(page xviii).
Their second approach is a narrower variant of the first approach. In different
ways, both constitute a ‘cook’s tour’ of the world with no attempt at comparison.
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The real second approach is to take a particular theme or issue and compare the
way in which different societies organise themselves.
This is an unconvincing and poor work. There is a tension between the micro
and macro approaches to comparison. A number of problems should be noted.
In the first chapter the authors employ the micro approach in examining
well-known studies which compare employment organisation in two or more
countries. While noting that ‘things’ may have changed since these studies
occurred, Rubery and Grimshaw state they are not prepared to update the
research ‘or comment on the continuing significance of the differences revealed’
(page 7). While the former is defensible, the latter is not; it smacks of intellectual
laziness, and requires of readers something that they are not prepared to do
themselves (and it is not as if information is provided on the said ‘differences’
anyway).
This volume is noteworthy for its inclusion of many long quotes presented in
a boxed form in the text. This is not something that I have seen done before,
and now I know why. Such material or quotes from ‘authorities’ should have been
integrated into the text. More significantly, the inclusion of boxed material
severely interrupts and compromises the flow of the text. After a chapter or
two it is difficult to escape the temptation of not reading the boxed material;
something which should be the antithesis of those who write.
The macro chapters constitute most of the book. Essentially, what Rubery and
Grimshaw have done is to slice-up country-based studies into various bits and
pieces and produce typology after typology and long lists of factors and variables.
One is forever reading lists, which makes for tedium and boredom. The problem
is that the authors have decided to present different positions developed by
different writers over the years. The Organization of Employment contains much
repetition. This could have been avoided by a more rigorous approach to themes
and issues.
Moreover, in producing various views and data the authors’ essential finding
is that the forms of employment organisation adopted in different societies are
based on contingency. While there are external forces for change, at both the
micro and macro levels, within societies, whether or not there will be change
and how it will be mediated will depend on how those within the respective parts
of the social system react to such forces.
The major problem with the book is that it lacks a theoretical or analytical
focus. It combines typologies with ‘mountains of facts’. In their final three
sentences Rubery and Grimshaw state:
Employment is a key determinant of living standards for individuals and the wider society and
a major influence on productivity, efficiency and innovation. It is central to both the economic
and social dimension of policy-making and of equal and major concern to employers and
workers alike. As such, it is time for employment to be considered a core issue in all international and national policy agendas (page 259).
This is something that first-year undergraduates, in courses on work and
employment, are aware of after their first class. Indeed, it may, in fact, be
something that they ‘knew’ even before their first teaching encounter—why
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else would they be undertaking a course concerned with employment
organisation?
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
WORKS COUNCILS
POSSIBILITIES
IN
BRAHAM DABSCHECK
AUSTRALIA: FUTURE PROSPECTS
AND
Edited by Paul J. Gollan, Raymond Markey and Iain Ross. Federation Press, Sydney,
2002, xxvi + 197 pp., $49.50 (paperback)
This is an excellent collection of essays, which canvasses a wide range of views
and issues about works councils and their future prospects in Australia. The
contributors generally argue for federal legislative intervention rather than
management to bring about this reform in Australia. Ron McCallum and Glenn
Patmore emphasise the Commonwealth rather than the states as the forum for
reform due to its Constitutional supremacy. The arguments for works councils
include improvements in productivity and redressing the ‘representation gap’ as
unions decline. Herman Kmusden and Raymond Markey argue that the German
model of works councils is the most appropriate model for Australia, while
Anthony Forsyth notes that despite the problems of transferability, Australian
reformers could adopt elements of the German system.
However, not all of the authors believe this is possible—at least in the short
term. John Buchanan and Chris Briggs note the recent Australian experience with
works council-like strategies has been ineffectual or legitimised management’s
agendas for change. They argue that Australian employers have no commitment
to notions of social partnership and, indeed, have become more belligerent to
challenges to their authority. The danger is that despite Martin Foley’s hopes
that works councils may strengthen the Australian labour movement, employers
in the current climate may use them to further subvert trade unionism. Stephen
Long reminds us that the idea of works councils would find little favour with the
present conservative federal government, which Forsyth observes has wound-back
what limited rights existed in regard to consultation and participation in its
jurisdiction. Possible legislative reform for works councils rests with a future
federal Labor government which sees them as a high priority issue.
My only unease about the subject of this book relates to a feeling of déjà vu.
Works councils were a focus of debate in Australian industrial relations in the
mid-1970s. As a student at my current institution, I can remember both lectures
and essays on the German system of works councils and the Yugoslav system of
self-management.
Writers such as Harvey Ramsay and Chris Wright highlight that there have
been waves of interest in these ideas before. Yet, the book has little to say about
this earlier interest in various forms of industrial democracy and why these forms
did not catch on. There is an unfortunate tendency in contemporary industrial
relations policy research to dismiss sustained historical research due to insufficient
resources, or an assumption that we have progressed to such a degree that
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historical analysis is irrelevant because it captures previously inappropriate
behaviour or presents a different context. As several writers in this book have
pointed out, some Australian employers ‘have gone back to the future’ to reassert
unilateral views of the workplace. An historical approach does not dismiss works
councils or other forms of industrial democracy if they have not been successful
before, but simply asks whether the factors that contributed to failure in the past
are still present today.
Australian employers in the past have been reluctant to embrace earlier waves
of industrial democracy and it may now even be more the case. Significantly, there
are no contributions from employers to this book. Even where employers have
been genuinely interested in forms of industrial democracy that involve unions,
these processes may lapse if a company merges or the sponsoring manager leaves
the firm. Ironically, the argument advanced by Foley that works councils will
invigorate unionism will only enhance employer opposition to works councils.
In the United States, during the 1920s, some employers refused to adopt the
Rockefeller plan of employee representation (which did not recognise trade
unions) because they believed it would enhance collectivism and labour organisation. Given the opposition of employers, the legislative approach as outlined by
the writers in this book may be more appropriate then relying on employers to
voluntarily introduce it. Where federal and state governments have attempted
to introduce forms of industrial democracy through their voluntary adoption by
employers, particularly in the private sector, they have largely been failures.
Favourable legislation, however, is not necessarily a final solution. There has
been legislative interest in forms of industrial democracy before. Influenced by
the Whitley Scheme in England, the 1918 New South Wales Industrial
Arbitration (Amendment) Act tried unsuccessfully to shift industrial regulation away
from industrial arbitration to industrial councils and shop committees. Unless
there is broad community support for the legislation, it can be repealed or
watered-down by alternative governments. Employers, as they have done before
in Australia, can resist industrial legislation through legal challenges or boycotts.
Overall, this is a very interesting and provocative book. I applaud the editors
for incorporating a range of views to stimulate debate. My only major criticism
relates to the strong sense of déjà vu.
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
GREG PATMORE
WORK IN THE NEW ECONOMY: FLEXIBLE LABOR MARKETS
SILICON VALLEY
IN
By Chris Benner. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2002, xviii + 293 pp., $60.45
(paperback)
This book examines the transformation of work in the information economy.
Using the regional economy of the Silicon Valley as a case study, the author has
done an excellent job in examining the general changes brought about by an
increasingly globalised information economy and how these changes have
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impacted on work, employment, and labour markets. Rapid development and
diffusion of information technology (IT) has fostered the breakdown of national
and organisational boundaries, leading to a form of competition which is based
not only on cost, but also increasingly on the time-to-market and the ability of
firms to innovate continuously to satisfy constantly changing market demands.
These changes have profound effects on the nature of work tasks, skill requirements, employment practices and the structure of labour markets affecting, in
the final analysis, individual employers and employees.
One of the great merits of this book is the use of regions rather than firms as
a unit of analysis to examine work and employment problems that have emerged
as a result of the information economy. With rapid advancement of IT and an
increasingly globalised world, economic activities can now be easily carried out
across organisational and geographical boundaries. Competition has been forged
increasingly between networks of firms and is based very much on firm networks’
ability to innovate continuously to satisfy the constantly changing market
demands. A theoretical framework using firms as a unit of analysis could easily
miss the intricate changes in work patterns and the concomitant requirements
in the knowledge and skills needed to perform the work tasks. Benner has done
a very good job in Chapter 2 of documenting major economic and organisational
changes and placing the literature on industrial organisation more centrally into
his analysis of work and employment.
While the author has painted a clear picture of the character of competition
of various industries, including defence, semiconductors, computers and components, and software, which have been driving the economic growth of Silicon Valley
in different periods, competition is more intense than what has been portrayed.
In some of the IT sectors, mere continuous product and process innovation is
not enough to sustain competitiveness. There has been constant competition
among leading IT firms to control and define architectural standards. An
example in the late 1980s was the PowerPC microprocessors, developed by
the Apple, IBM, and Motorola (AIM) alliance, challenging Intel’s Pentium
microprocessors which were the dominant industry standard of microprocessors
at the time. With the emergence of 3C (computer, communications and consumer
electronics), products such as Personal Data Assistants, WebTVs, and smart
phones, there will undoubtedly be a new round of keen competition among
leading companies to control the novel industry standards yet to emerge.
The new character of competition has brought about profound changes to
the patterns of work and types of skills required. This is where labour market
flexibility comes in as firms and their collaborators have tried their best to be
as flexible as possible to cater for a sudden shift in the kind and quantity of
products and services required. Flexibility, as Benner rightly points out, is a valueladen term with different meanings to different parties. Here, he has made a very
useful conceptual distinction between ‘flexible work’ and ‘flexible employment’.
Flexible work is the actual economic tasks which have emerged as a result of
the economic and organisational transformation, itself driven by an increasing
application of IT. In contrast, flexible employment represents the contractual
relationship between employees and employers, which is shaped more by the
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institutional, legal and regulatory framework largely rooted in the ‘old’ industrial
economy than by the sheer impact of IT. The author has argued that imposing
control mechanisms, cutting costs, and shifting economic risks to workers which
are so often associated with flexible employment practices, need not be the
logical outcomes of flexible work.
The book has filled an obvious gap in the existing literature by systematically
classifying labour market intermediaries, such as temporary agencies, consulting
firms, web-based companies, trade unions, professional employers’ associations,
and community-based initiatives. These intermediaries are certainly playing an
increasingly significant role in addressing problems such as risk and increased
transaction costs in a context where flexible use of labour and non-standard
employment is the rule rather than the exception. Readers will find Part II of
the book interesting as it provides a detailed review of the operation of many of
the labour-market intermediaries, which have not been examined thoroughly
before. By making a systematic classification on various types of labour market
intermediaries, setting out the important functions they play in mediating labour
markets, and analysing empirically how these various intermediaries operate,
Benner has undoubtedly made a substantial contribution towards developing a
much-needed theory of labour market intermediation.
Part III of the book provides details of the ways in which the labour market
intermediaries examined help shape labour market outcomes. By influencing
the nature and quality of people’s skills and social networks, and the type of
power they possess, labour market intermediaries are playing an important
role in shaping employees’ work lives and career development. An important
observation made is the contradictory trend found between an increased socialisation of work and an increased individualisation of the employment contract.
While the degree of social interaction and communication in work tasks (such
as in team and project-based work) has undoubtedly increased, more employees
now in temporary, part-time, or even self-employment are feeling more and
more insecure. In some of the recent writings on work and employment, those
who are lucky enough to be in gainful employment have been given advice to
manage their own skill and career portfolios. In contrast to such advice, the
author sees the need to increase the extent of public policy intervention, such as
reforming the existing labour relations system and diversifying compensation
practices, in order to bring greater employment security to workers without
undermining flexibility of work.
The book is very well-written with a tight structure. Benner is able to guide
readers systematically to understand the three major concepts––flexibility, intermediaries, and career––which are seen as the building blocks of the main themes
examined. In explaining the approach he has adopted in writing the book, the
author has challenged himself with a number of provoking questions such as:
Why examine work and employment issues by analysing labour markets at a
regional level? Why examine the labour market conditions in the high-tech region
of Silicon Valley? How generalisable are the outcomes of analysis to other less
technology-intensive regions? To all of these questions, readers are provided with
satisfactory answers. All in all, Benner has written a theoretically important and
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empirically rich book. Readers will find the book interesting and useful to
foster their understanding of work and employment issues in the information
economy.
OPEN UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
TERESA SHUK-CHING POON
IN
AUSTRALIA
By Ashly Pinnington and George Lafferty. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2003,
viii + 319 pp., $49.95 (paperback)
This book joins an increasing number of texts examining human resource management (HRM) in Australia. Many of these texts are adaptations of US books,
generally following a particular format, through basic theories and policies,
before providing a functional approach to the HRM discipline. Some industrial
relations aspects are also included. Another addition to the range of extant HR
texts was, therefore, viewed initially with some trepidation.
Human Resource Management in Australia commences with a brief summary
of a number of theories that have been developed over time in the US and UK.
Reasons for not developing a specific Australian theory are not given, but it is
felt that the development of an Australian conceptual framework would have
enhanced the value of this book.
From this point on, however, the book diverges from the ‘traditional’
approach to the usual range of texts. A substantial component of Part 2, ‘The
Context’, provides a very comprehensive introduction to the environment of
HRM in Australia, Australian industrial relations and labour law. It does
this through an historical development of the discipline, integrating both
the industrial relations roots of the Australian variant of HR, and the differing
philosophies that lead to a unique approach to its adoption in Australia. The
problems with HRM, such as the limited strategic implementation (due possibly
to the pluralist approach in a number of organisations) and the ineffectual
devolution of power to line management from a centralised control, tend to work
against the more idealistic US unitarist framework. This conceptual approach
could provide ample discussion in the appropriate environment. This introduction
is then followed by a brief explanation of the role of labour law in providing
a framework for HRM and industrial agreements, and the growing complexity
of the legal environment with differing forms of agreements and other legislation.
Part 3, ‘Managing Human Resources’, develops the strong theoretical
approach, examining in detail the topics of employee resourcing, motivation,
financial rewards and the relationship to performance, learning and development,
and change management. In these core functional areas, the book generally
maintains its divergent focus from the usual HR text, by concentrating on
differing theories and views of the subject areas, rather than adopting an
operational approach to the material. The thematic linkages between the topics
in these chapters (and the preceding components of the book) are explained,
giving an effective flow to the narrative.
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The chapter on employee resourcing examines the function from three
perspectives––individual, organisational and societal––and provides the reader
with varied analyses of the approaches used. The chapter on motivation discusses
alternative theories and ends with a case study asking the reader to examine the
applicability of the theories raised to an existing situation. In the chapter dealing
with financial rewards and the links to performance, a more practical overview
of the various reward systems and recent performance issues are offered. The
following chapter on learning and development examines a range of learning
options, with their theoretical linkages thoroughly explained. The last chapter
in Part 3 reverts to a conceptual discussion of change management; in particular,
integrating change with the HR concept. It provides a fitting conclusion to the
section, emphasising the need for managers to be aware of both the direction
and the process of change.
The final part of the book deals with future developments in HR, and briefly
reviews the preceding chapters. One advantage is that it includes an extensive
glossary explaining a number of the terms and phrases used in the book. As an
aid to students, the authors have provided a number of case studies and related
questions throughout Human Resource Management in Australia to be used to assist
in the developmental process.
As noted earlier, this book differs from the traditional textbook approach of
many of the competitors in the field. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage to potential users of the text, in that it provides a strong theoretical underpinning to the discipline, as well as an historical development in the Australian
context which is lacking in much of the competition. But as a standard text, it
could easily miss out on its (stated) intended market of undergraduate business
students and MBA students, at least at the introductory HRM level. For students
undertaking a more comprehensive study of the discipline, the book does have
a number of advantages, especially in furthering understanding of strategic HR
directions. For the average student studying HR as an additional unit with no
further interest in pursuing studies in the discipline, the book would only have
a limited appeal. Its role would be more as a supplementary reference tool.
To conclude, the authors have provided an essential text for those interested
in developing their knowledge and understanding of HRM in the Australian
context. However, with many universities and colleges more interested in
teaching the process of HRM (at least at the introductory level) than the theories
and development of the discipline, this excellent book could well have a limited
market in Australia.
CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
DOUG DAVIES
REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS AT WORK: THE ILLAWARRA
REGIONAL WORKPLACE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SURVEY
By Raymond Markey, Ann Hodgkinson, Terri Mylett and Simon Pomfret. University
of Wollongong Press, Wollongong, 2001, xxv + 419 pp., no price stated (paperback)
First, we had the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) in
1990, then another AWIRS in 1995, and now have a regional one—based on the
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Illawarra—which was conducted in 1996. This book follows the methodology
and structure of AWIRS 1995 to develop a comparative analysis of workplace
relations in the Illawarra with those in the rest of Australia. As with AWIRS 1995,
it includes a workplace (over 20 employees) survey, an employee survey and a
small business workplace survey. Unlike AWIRS 1995, however, it cannot include
a panel survey. For research and policy purposes, one of the major problems
with both AWIRS reports was the lack of an explicit regional dimension in the
analysis. Nonetheless, it was possible to obtain some broad regional data from
them. A number of Australian writers (e.g. Bradon Ellem and John Shields at
the University of Sydney) have been critical of the overall absence of a spatial
dimension in Australian industrial relations research together with the simplistic
articulation of the spatial dimension in existing research. Hence, the Illawarra
Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (IWIRS) is timely in that it does give a
spatial dimension to AWIRS, and it does introduce ‘space’ to industrial relations
analysis.
The book is assiduous in providing a comparison with workplace industrial
relations in the Illawarra and the rest of Australia. For the authors there is a
dilemma in this approach. The advantage is the opportunity for comparative
analysis; against this it has to accept the various criticisms and weaknesses that
were associated with the AWIRS methodology. On the comparative methodology,
it was possible to break down the AWIRS results by broad generic regional
groupings (e.g. metropolitan). Breaking down the AWIRS 1995 data set may
have provided a richer pool of data for comparative purposes in the IWIRS
exercise.
There was a timing difference between the second AWIRS and IWIRS
of approximately 18 months. In this time gap, the federal Workplace Relations
Act was introduced and there were some changes to industrial relations
legislation across the states. However, the relevant legislative changes are listed
in Chapter 1. The timing meant that it was too early for any impact from the
federal Act to be gauged and, as the research subsequently reveals, the Illawarra
was in 1996 more tied to New South Wales industrial relations legislation than
to the federal system.
What does the book tell us about workplace relations in the Illawarra? Overall,
the findings are not too dissimilar from the rest of Australia. The Illawarra largely
reflects the developments in the national economy towards more service sector
employment, a growing female workforce and a falling trade union density. The
old industrial sectors are diminishing in terms of employment in the Illawarra
and one valuable contribution of the book is to refute regional stereotyping when
it comes to industrial relations. The image of the Illawarra as coal, steel and manufacturing, full-time male, blue-collar and unionised workers is a thing of the past.
The region reflects what is happening to the nature and characteristics of work,
the workplace and workers elsewhere in Australia.
There are, however, some interesting findings and some deviations in the details
from the national average. The regional labour market has a higher degree
of gender segregation by industry and a relatively higher proportion of
independent workplaces among small, private sector firms. The level of foreign
ownership of enterprises was much lower than in the rest of Australia. Illawarra
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workplaces were less likely to have specialist Industrial Relations/Human
Resource managers and more responsibility in employment matters was assigned
to line managers and supervi
THE JOB TRAINING CHARADE
By Gordon Lafer. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2002, xii + 297 pp.,
no price stated (hardback)
O
ver the past 20 years or so, many academics have come to accept uncritically
the basic assumptions about education, training, jobs and the economy that
now underpin most industrial countries labour market policies. Others are more
ambivalent. On the one hand, the greater recognition of workers as learners is
welcome, even though contemporary initiatives are far removed from the great
traditions of worker education that emphasised enlightenment and empowerment.
In this view, embedded within workplace learning opportunities is some potential
for workers to develop as individuals, to exercise greater influence over their dayto-day lives at work, and to carry some of the benefits of their learning beyond
the workplace into the home and the community. On the other hand, questioning
commentators are discouraged by the ideology driving the current wave of
enthusiasm for lifelong learning. ‘New,’ neo-liberal inspired human capital
theory affords little or no space to the social domain. Its sole concern is economic performance; its focus is the individual learner; its priority is ‘winning’ in
the new global economy.
There is no hint of ambivalence in the current book. Lafer’s intention is
to provide ‘the first comprehensive critique of the history, track record, and
economic assumptions underlying’ American job training policies since the
early 1960s (page 1). His book delivers on that promise. From cover to cover,
it is an unrelenting, tough, thoroughly documented, passionately argued, and
uncompromising indictment of the politicians, powerful economic interests
and bureaucrats he holds responsible for the policies he so roundly condemns.
Lafer makes no universal claims for his analysis; his focus is strictly limited to
US policies. But readers in other countries will almost certainly find much in
the book that resonates with the political economy of job training in their
own country.
Lafer’s explicitly normative approach is grounded firmly in a powerful labour
studies perspective that asserts a social right to a ‘decently paying job’; a concept
he defines in the first chapter. His central theme is that the assumptions underlying job training policies are fundamentally flawed and that politicians, business,
and bureaucrats have used both the rhetoric and practice of job training in order
to disempower working people both economically and politically. Lafer sees
little hope in relying on politicians to change their policies, especially under the
present Bush Administration, but even under a new Democrat regime. Thus, he
concludes, only a recommitment to collective, industrial and political struggle
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can begin to secure decently paying jobs and meaningful education and training
programs.
Lafer’s first chapter sets the pattern for those that follow. His general approach
is to start chapters and sections with an indictment, add additional charges along
the way, and then marshal a mass of evidence to support his case. The opening
chapter begins with a rather obvious question: ‘How many jobs are there?’ Lafer’s
target is the fatuous claim, repeated by a succession of politicians, that vacancies
advertised in newspapers are proof of jobs that are waiting for those who are not
trained for them. Lafer sets himself two tasks in this chapter. First, he reworks
traditional approaches to the measurement of poverty in order to provide a
working definition of what constitutes a ‘decently paying job’. Second, he
examines, in the light of that definition, the limited available data on how
many people need such jobs and the number of jobs there are. These data, he
concludes, prove that there is a dramatic job gap: far more people are seeking
‘decently paying jobs’ (page 34) than are available.
In the second chapter, Lafer examines another cornerstone of job training
policies: the so-called ‘skills mismatch’. He does not deny that workers require
skills and that those with higher qualifications generally earn more than those
who are less qualified. But there is plenty of evidence in employment statistics,
he argues, to show that other criteria, such as gender, race, age, industry, and
degree of urbanisation, are often just as important as education. Further, he
suggests, that employment growth in the service sector has resulted in jobs
that demand high levels of education, but which pay lower wages than the
manufacturing jobs they have replaced. Lafer holds that the power of education
to determine wages is quite weak. This view and the research that supports it has
been challenged, not unexpectedly, by the ‘mismatch theorists’ (page 49). In
response, Lafer devotes the remainder of this chapter to a painstaking analysis
and rebuttal of their critique. Again he concludes that the main purpose of the
skills mismatch thesis, linked to a ‘language of futurism’ (page 86), has been to
demobilise and disempower working people.
‘Does job training work?’ is the question that sets up Lafer’s third chapter.
His main focus is Ronald Reagan’s Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which
framed federal programs for some 17 years. Lafer argues that the JTPA ‘marked
a radical restructuring of job training programs’ (page 89) in that it shifted
training and related job creation from the public and non-profit sectors to the
private sector. Lafer does not deny that the JTPA initiative may have resulted
in some marginal wage improvements for some low income Americans. But
overall, he argues, it was doomed to fail because neither the program nor the
politicians who created it addressed the deep structural causes of unemployment
and poverty.
Lafer’s fourth chapter tackles another important issue in the job training debate:
high performance workplace systems and the notion of job training as empowerment. He begins with an outline of Robert Reich’s vision of a ‘new economy’ as
sketched in his 1992 book Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century
Capitalism (New York: Vintage) and the possibilities Reich sees for skilled
workers in the ‘re-engineered workplace’. This is followed by a brief theoretical
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note in which Lafer argues that the dynamics of ‘the struggle over wages and
management’s need to control workers’ effort point to the limitations of empowerment’ (page 132). Using familiar examples, such as McDonald’s and airline reservations, Lafer then does a competent job of demonstrating how, for many workers,
the empowerment promise of high performance is simply rhetoric. Lafer appears
less certain in the second half of this chapter than he does elsewhere in the book
as he turns his attention to the more innovative enterprises and workplaces, such
as information technology or sections of manufacturing, in which empowerment
may be more than rhetoric. These situations, Lafer concedes, are much more
complex than those discussed earlier in the chapter. However, he suggests
these high performance workplace systems essentially have three aims: tapping
employee knowledge, developing self-policing employees, and internalising
corporate goals. Lafer elaborates on each of these propositions quite neatly
before concluding that in such enterprises workers enjoy, at best, ‘caged freedom’
(page 149). The chapter ends, not unexpectedly, with the claim that while the
‘nebulous nature of the vision’ promoted by Reich and others ‘insulates it from
empirical rebuttal’ (page 155), ‘high performance’ ultimately fails to deliver on
its promise.
In Chapter 5, Lafer returns more comfortably to the legislative history of JTPA
and the politics of job training. He systematically examines the reasons why job
training emerged in the 1980s as a political response to unemployment and
poverty. Particularly insightful is Lafer’s analysis of the role played by
Congressional Democrats who championed job training and backed Republican
policies in the hope of salvaging some aspects of (their) previous programs.
Lafer concludes that in the end, however, the JTPA was a Republican triumph.
Business secured a privileged position in the new job training regime, public
sector employment was eliminated, and community groups were excluded.
Lafer’s sixth chapter is headed, ‘Job training after welfare reform: Training
for discipline’. This is another very strong discussion that details and appraises
critically the links between job training policies and the 1996 welfare reform
legislation. Lafer’s careful analysis reveals how welfare-to-work policies fundamentally changed the primary purposes of job training programs. Whereas
initially such programs, for all their defects, still had the aim of enabling
‘participants to gain greater leverage in the labor market’ (page 208); since 1996
they primarily have served to discipline low-wage workers and those on welfare,
lower their expectations, and effectively undermine their self esteem.
In his final chapter Lafer concludes that job training is simply a political
diversion. He reviews the findings in his substantive chapters and looks ahead
to the prospects of job training in the new Bush era. The outlook he presents is
pessimistic. What is required, he argues, is not a change in policy but a new
politics: ‘the most important skill for working people to acquire is not the
discipline demanded by employers but the solidarity required for collective
mobilisation’ (page 224).
This book will leave most readers exhausted and depressed. Its strengths are
its clear focus, its sensible arrangement, its insightful analysis, the quality of the
research, and the power of Lafer’s uncompromising labour studies perspective.
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He knows whose side he is on! Of course the book has weaknesses, some of which
are attributable to the lack of reliable data. For example, because Lafer has to
find his evidence where he can, there are sections where he tends to jump from
state to state and one is sometimes left wondering if he is actually comparing
apples with apples. Further, as indicated above, I felt that Lafer struggled to write
with the same authority when he shifted his gaze from job training under the
JTPA to the high performance visions promoted by Reich and others. I have mixed
views about the length of the book and the amount of detail Lafer offers. On the
one hand, I appreciate the scholarly effort he has made to marshal evidence in
support of his indictment. But on the other hand, I was so overwhelmed by it all
that it took several weeks to read the book.
How relevant is this book to Australian and New Zealand readers? We will
probably draw some comfort from the fact that, on the surface, our respective
national policies differ from the US. But there is much in Lafer’s dismal story
that sounds just a tad too familiar not to trouble us. In neither country do we
have a very clear idea of how many ‘decently paying jobs’ are available. We
have no reliable analysis on exactly how important education and training is
in determining incomes. In both countries, without any substantial evidence,
politicians and business lobbies trumpet the ‘skills mismatch’ thesis as loudly as
they do in the US. While a number of unions, supported by labour-oriented
academics, have embraced high performance systems with varying degrees of
enthusiasm, the jury is yet to determine how much worker empowerment
they deliver. And, finally, welfare policies, while not as cruel as those in the US,
nevertheless incorporate job training as a disciplinary mechanism. In sum, much
of the ideology that Lafer critiques is, if in a muted form, active and pressing
within our two countries.
In conclusion, despite its strong US focus, this book is a valuable contribution
to our understanding of the political economy of education and training. As
such, it should be in the university library. Although I teach about worker
education and training at the graduate level, I am unlikely to prescribe chapters
as readings. But I almost certainly will require research students to consult it
and will undoubtedly refer to it myself.
UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO
MENTAL HEALTH
AND
MICHAEL LAW
WORK: ISSUES
AND
PERSPECTIVES
Edited by Lou Morrow, Irene Verins and Eileen Willis. The Australian Network for
Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health, Adelaide, 2002,
xx + 349 pp., no price stated (paperback)
This book represents an impressive attempt to highlight the importance of
mental health and policies for its positive promotion, within a work context. Its
clearly stated intention is to increase knowledge and understanding as well as to
influence the development and implementation of effective strategies for the
promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders. It was
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commissioned by the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and
Early Intervention for Mental Health (AUSEINET) and produced in collaboration with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VICHEALTH).
The book is divided into five sections. The first section explores the current
context for mental health. It takes two very different and synergistic perspectives
in doing this. Dolland and Winefield provide an impressive overview of mental
health and its links with over- and under-employment as well as unemployment.
Waterhouse, however, takes us ‘inside the head’ (his own), of a lecturer who gives
us his thoughts about how it feels to be a ‘reflective practitioner’ who is offered
employment options as casual and contract. This section is a precursor to the
powerful blend of objective scholarship and subjective ‘insider’ perspectives that
characterise the book as a whole.
The second section looks at work and identity. It pursues a very wide range
of themes, including the nature and meaning of career, and the relationships
between race, culture, gender, age and work identity. Also explored are the impact
of the environment, life stage and women’s carer responsibilities on employment
and work identity. While the range of perspectives offered is extremely wide
in terms of content and themes, there are strong unifying conceptual and
analytical frameworks that underpin this section of the book. These reflect an
emphasis on critical theoretical scholarship and radical humanist values.
Section three is concerned with work and safety issues. Radical humanist
values also dominate this part of the book, but its purpose and theoretical stance
is much more functional. Here the emphasis is on legal, social and workplace
interventions that can tackle ‘evils’ such as workplace bullying and workplace
violence (and its impact on onlookers not just victims). As well as traditional
strategies associated with legal sanctions and workplace policies, various authors
point to the need for more innovative and in-depth approaches which recognise
how far bullying at work and other workplace violence can become entrenched
in the fabric and context of workplace practices.
The fourth section of the book is entitled ‘work and emotions’. Here the
diversity of perspectives provides the reader with a unique opportunity to
access the significance of the concept of emotional labour as ‘integral to service
work and the caring professions’. Diversity in both the content of the papers and
their approach is on offer. Approaches range from the poetic insights of
Waterhouse to the experimental design of Hosie et al. and Zammuner et al.
Such diversity does not prevent broad insights emerging from the section as a
whole. In essence, the question posed is how can emotional labour be harnessed
productively and ethically so that organisational performance is improved while
individual mental health is not compromised or even destroyed? Although
this section offers diversity in terms of its analysis and approaches, it is slightly
dominated by its psycho-social parameters. The introduction to this section
of the book refers to the possibility of emotional labour being appropriated by
managers and owners in the pursuit of profit. While this is a theme taken up by
Stack in Chapter 14, it might perhaps have merited further development.
Section five considers a range of workplace-based interventions that can have
positive effects on mental health and well-being. One of the key themes that comes
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through is the importance of caring for the mental well-being of those in the
field of mental health. However, this section also refers to the experiences of other
professions, such as hairdressers who are engaged in giving ‘personal’ services to
their clients. Interventions include those that have a promotional and preventative focus as well as those that might be seen as ‘treatment’ options. The descriptions of such interventions succeed in establishing the nature of the link between
interventions that might at first appear to be palliative, compared with those that
are labelled preventative. The sheer range of interventions, workplaces and staff
groups discussed gives this section a very rich and diverse feel. Common themes
include: first, the importance of the workplace as a setting for interventions related
to mental health and mental health problems; second, the importance of acknowledging how far those engaged in giving direct client care or service have unique
and significant insights on how this relationship impacts on their mental health;
and third, the role of interventions that have an individual focus as well as those
that are focused on changing organisational processes or structures. Certain
tensions are also uncovered. For example, Chapter 22 relates the history,
development and activities of an employee health committee. Its authors
offer the important insight that such a committee must be supported but not
driven by management.
Overall, the range of contributors, theoretical and practical perspectives, experiences and themes pursued in this book is a tribute to those who conceived and
gave birth to it. The challenges of organising and editing the contributions
must have been extreme. It has succeeded in putting issues and problems that
can easily be unseen, ignored, obscured or misunderstood onto the agendas
of managers and organisations. It has also used a wide range of theoretical
frameworks to understand and analyse those issues. Finally, there are some key
messages for those who have responsibilities for action in relation to the issues
that are covered.
UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN
THE ORGANIZATION
PERSPECTIVE
OF
MARY BROOMFIELD
EMPLOYMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL
By Jill Rubery and Damian Grimshaw. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2003,
xxi + 298 pp., £20 (paperback)
Different societies, or what might be more accurately described as lumps of
geography known as nation states, have different ways of doing things and
organising themselves. Their different histories, cultures and access to natural
resources (and other relevant variables you think I should have included) combine in different and unique ways. It is not, however, as if that which occurs in
a particular society is monolithic––there are spectrums of practice and behaviour concerning numerous forms of social phenomena. For example, while we
may think of a certain nation having a particular style of cuisine, it is not as if
everyone, or even a majority, in that said nation eats the same way. There will
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be regional differences. Within the same region, different persons will want or
experience cuisines of different types and compositions. Moreover, it is not as if
cuisine, or any other social phenomena is static. Cuisine is a dynamic social
experience that is subject to change and experimentation by those involved in
its production and presentation.
The same is also true of the way in which employment is organised. Different
societies organise the various ‘dimensions’ associated with work in different ways.
These differences will be such that ‘wise’ persons will describe a particular type
of employment organisation as being characteristic of country A, and another
type as characteristic of country B, and so on. Within any society, however,
there will be a spectrum (or several spectrums) of employment organisational
forms. Moreover, like cuisine, employment organisation, across the spectrum of
practices within a particular society, is subject to change.
How do we acquire knowledge of the ways in which different societies organise
employment? One method would be to compare two or more firms, plants
or workplaces, producing essentially the same product or service, in different
societies. This will be referred to as the ‘micro’ approach. A major problem
here is to what extent is the example (or examples) chosen representative of the
way in which employment is organised in the respective societies? A second
approach could be to examine the way in which different societies approach what
will be called ‘major’ issues connected with employment organisation. They would
include things such as the industrial relations system and legislative environment,
employment and training policies, welfare and taxation, the family and gender
relations, approaches to labour market flexibility, regulation and so on. This will
be referred to as the ‘macro’ approach.
Scholars, and others, have sought to make comparisons and understand why
it is that different societies have different forms of employment organisation.
Embedded in such examinations is a view that such forms of employment
organisations can be classified from ‘good’ to ‘bad’, in the form of an international
league ladder. More generally, the world has found itself subject to the tyranny
of something known as ‘best practice’. The issue of how ‘best practice’ is defined
or ‘known’ will be ignored here. Given a notion of ‘best practice’, is it possible
to transport it from a setting in country A to country B? Can the micro or macro
in country A be taken out of its national context and be relocated neatly and
easily (whatever that might mean) into another or other countries?
These issues are of relevance in examining Rubery and Grimshaw’s book. They
state that their work ‘explores the organization of employment from an international perspective, taking as our main field of vision advanced countries, as
defined by membership of the OECD’ (page xvii). They further maintain that:
‘Comparative texts tend to fall into two categories: either they provide a series of single
country studies, leaving it up to students to do the hard work of comparison, or they take
a relatively narrow focus such as the industrial relations system or the training system’
(page xviii).
Their second approach is a narrower variant of the first approach. In different
ways, both constitute a ‘cook’s tour’ of the world with no attempt at comparison.
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The real second approach is to take a particular theme or issue and compare the
way in which different societies organise themselves.
This is an unconvincing and poor work. There is a tension between the micro
and macro approaches to comparison. A number of problems should be noted.
In the first chapter the authors employ the micro approach in examining
well-known studies which compare employment organisation in two or more
countries. While noting that ‘things’ may have changed since these studies
occurred, Rubery and Grimshaw state they are not prepared to update the
research ‘or comment on the continuing significance of the differences revealed’
(page 7). While the former is defensible, the latter is not; it smacks of intellectual
laziness, and requires of readers something that they are not prepared to do
themselves (and it is not as if information is provided on the said ‘differences’
anyway).
This volume is noteworthy for its inclusion of many long quotes presented in
a boxed form in the text. This is not something that I have seen done before,
and now I know why. Such material or quotes from ‘authorities’ should have been
integrated into the text. More significantly, the inclusion of boxed material
severely interrupts and compromises the flow of the text. After a chapter or
two it is difficult to escape the temptation of not reading the boxed material;
something which should be the antithesis of those who write.
The macro chapters constitute most of the book. Essentially, what Rubery and
Grimshaw have done is to slice-up country-based studies into various bits and
pieces and produce typology after typology and long lists of factors and variables.
One is forever reading lists, which makes for tedium and boredom. The problem
is that the authors have decided to present different positions developed by
different writers over the years. The Organization of Employment contains much
repetition. This could have been avoided by a more rigorous approach to themes
and issues.
Moreover, in producing various views and data the authors’ essential finding
is that the forms of employment organisation adopted in different societies are
based on contingency. While there are external forces for change, at both the
micro and macro levels, within societies, whether or not there will be change
and how it will be mediated will depend on how those within the respective parts
of the social system react to such forces.
The major problem with the book is that it lacks a theoretical or analytical
focus. It combines typologies with ‘mountains of facts’. In their final three
sentences Rubery and Grimshaw state:
Employment is a key determinant of living standards for individuals and the wider society and
a major influence on productivity, efficiency and innovation. It is central to both the economic
and social dimension of policy-making and of equal and major concern to employers and
workers alike. As such, it is time for employment to be considered a core issue in all international and national policy agendas (page 259).
This is something that first-year undergraduates, in courses on work and
employment, are aware of after their first class. Indeed, it may, in fact, be
something that they ‘knew’ even before their first teaching encounter—why
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else would they be undertaking a course concerned with employment
organisation?
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
WORKS COUNCILS
POSSIBILITIES
IN
BRAHAM DABSCHECK
AUSTRALIA: FUTURE PROSPECTS
AND
Edited by Paul J. Gollan, Raymond Markey and Iain Ross. Federation Press, Sydney,
2002, xxvi + 197 pp., $49.50 (paperback)
This is an excellent collection of essays, which canvasses a wide range of views
and issues about works councils and their future prospects in Australia. The
contributors generally argue for federal legislative intervention rather than
management to bring about this reform in Australia. Ron McCallum and Glenn
Patmore emphasise the Commonwealth rather than the states as the forum for
reform due to its Constitutional supremacy. The arguments for works councils
include improvements in productivity and redressing the ‘representation gap’ as
unions decline. Herman Kmusden and Raymond Markey argue that the German
model of works councils is the most appropriate model for Australia, while
Anthony Forsyth notes that despite the problems of transferability, Australian
reformers could adopt elements of the German system.
However, not all of the authors believe this is possible—at least in the short
term. John Buchanan and Chris Briggs note the recent Australian experience with
works council-like strategies has been ineffectual or legitimised management’s
agendas for change. They argue that Australian employers have no commitment
to notions of social partnership and, indeed, have become more belligerent to
challenges to their authority. The danger is that despite Martin Foley’s hopes
that works councils may strengthen the Australian labour movement, employers
in the current climate may use them to further subvert trade unionism. Stephen
Long reminds us that the idea of works councils would find little favour with the
present conservative federal government, which Forsyth observes has wound-back
what limited rights existed in regard to consultation and participation in its
jurisdiction. Possible legislative reform for works councils rests with a future
federal Labor government which sees them as a high priority issue.
My only unease about the subject of this book relates to a feeling of déjà vu.
Works councils were a focus of debate in Australian industrial relations in the
mid-1970s. As a student at my current institution, I can remember both lectures
and essays on the German system of works councils and the Yugoslav system of
self-management.
Writers such as Harvey Ramsay and Chris Wright highlight that there have
been waves of interest in these ideas before. Yet, the book has little to say about
this earlier interest in various forms of industrial democracy and why these forms
did not catch on. There is an unfortunate tendency in contemporary industrial
relations policy research to dismiss sustained historical research due to insufficient
resources, or an assumption that we have progressed to such a degree that
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historical analysis is irrelevant because it captures previously inappropriate
behaviour or presents a different context. As several writers in this book have
pointed out, some Australian employers ‘have gone back to the future’ to reassert
unilateral views of the workplace. An historical approach does not dismiss works
councils or other forms of industrial democracy if they have not been successful
before, but simply asks whether the factors that contributed to failure in the past
are still present today.
Australian employers in the past have been reluctant to embrace earlier waves
of industrial democracy and it may now even be more the case. Significantly, there
are no contributions from employers to this book. Even where employers have
been genuinely interested in forms of industrial democracy that involve unions,
these processes may lapse if a company merges or the sponsoring manager leaves
the firm. Ironically, the argument advanced by Foley that works councils will
invigorate unionism will only enhance employer opposition to works councils.
In the United States, during the 1920s, some employers refused to adopt the
Rockefeller plan of employee representation (which did not recognise trade
unions) because they believed it would enhance collectivism and labour organisation. Given the opposition of employers, the legislative approach as outlined by
the writers in this book may be more appropriate then relying on employers to
voluntarily introduce it. Where federal and state governments have attempted
to introduce forms of industrial democracy through their voluntary adoption by
employers, particularly in the private sector, they have largely been failures.
Favourable legislation, however, is not necessarily a final solution. There has
been legislative interest in forms of industrial democracy before. Influenced by
the Whitley Scheme in England, the 1918 New South Wales Industrial
Arbitration (Amendment) Act tried unsuccessfully to shift industrial regulation away
from industrial arbitration to industrial councils and shop committees. Unless
there is broad community support for the legislation, it can be repealed or
watered-down by alternative governments. Employers, as they have done before
in Australia, can resist industrial legislation through legal challenges or boycotts.
Overall, this is a very interesting and provocative book. I applaud the editors
for incorporating a range of views to stimulate debate. My only major criticism
relates to the strong sense of déjà vu.
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
GREG PATMORE
WORK IN THE NEW ECONOMY: FLEXIBLE LABOR MARKETS
SILICON VALLEY
IN
By Chris Benner. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2002, xviii + 293 pp., $60.45
(paperback)
This book examines the transformation of work in the information economy.
Using the regional economy of the Silicon Valley as a case study, the author has
done an excellent job in examining the general changes brought about by an
increasingly globalised information economy and how these changes have
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impacted on work, employment, and labour markets. Rapid development and
diffusion of information technology (IT) has fostered the breakdown of national
and organisational boundaries, leading to a form of competition which is based
not only on cost, but also increasingly on the time-to-market and the ability of
firms to innovate continuously to satisfy constantly changing market demands.
These changes have profound effects on the nature of work tasks, skill requirements, employment practices and the structure of labour markets affecting, in
the final analysis, individual employers and employees.
One of the great merits of this book is the use of regions rather than firms as
a unit of analysis to examine work and employment problems that have emerged
as a result of the information economy. With rapid advancement of IT and an
increasingly globalised world, economic activities can now be easily carried out
across organisational and geographical boundaries. Competition has been forged
increasingly between networks of firms and is based very much on firm networks’
ability to innovate continuously to satisfy the constantly changing market
demands. A theoretical framework using firms as a unit of analysis could easily
miss the intricate changes in work patterns and the concomitant requirements
in the knowledge and skills needed to perform the work tasks. Benner has done
a very good job in Chapter 2 of documenting major economic and organisational
changes and placing the literature on industrial organisation more centrally into
his analysis of work and employment.
While the author has painted a clear picture of the character of competition
of various industries, including defence, semiconductors, computers and components, and software, which have been driving the economic growth of Silicon Valley
in different periods, competition is more intense than what has been portrayed.
In some of the IT sectors, mere continuous product and process innovation is
not enough to sustain competitiveness. There has been constant competition
among leading IT firms to control and define architectural standards. An
example in the late 1980s was the PowerPC microprocessors, developed by
the Apple, IBM, and Motorola (AIM) alliance, challenging Intel’s Pentium
microprocessors which were the dominant industry standard of microprocessors
at the time. With the emergence of 3C (computer, communications and consumer
electronics), products such as Personal Data Assistants, WebTVs, and smart
phones, there will undoubtedly be a new round of keen competition among
leading companies to control the novel industry standards yet to emerge.
The new character of competition has brought about profound changes to
the patterns of work and types of skills required. This is where labour market
flexibility comes in as firms and their collaborators have tried their best to be
as flexible as possible to cater for a sudden shift in the kind and quantity of
products and services required. Flexibility, as Benner rightly points out, is a valueladen term with different meanings to different parties. Here, he has made a very
useful conceptual distinction between ‘flexible work’ and ‘flexible employment’.
Flexible work is the actual economic tasks which have emerged as a result of
the economic and organisational transformation, itself driven by an increasing
application of IT. In contrast, flexible employment represents the contractual
relationship between employees and employers, which is shaped more by the
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institutional, legal and regulatory framework largely rooted in the ‘old’ industrial
economy than by the sheer impact of IT. The author has argued that imposing
control mechanisms, cutting costs, and shifting economic risks to workers which
are so often associated with flexible employment practices, need not be the
logical outcomes of flexible work.
The book has filled an obvious gap in the existing literature by systematically
classifying labour market intermediaries, such as temporary agencies, consulting
firms, web-based companies, trade unions, professional employers’ associations,
and community-based initiatives. These intermediaries are certainly playing an
increasingly significant role in addressing problems such as risk and increased
transaction costs in a context where flexible use of labour and non-standard
employment is the rule rather than the exception. Readers will find Part II of
the book interesting as it provides a detailed review of the operation of many of
the labour-market intermediaries, which have not been examined thoroughly
before. By making a systematic classification on various types of labour market
intermediaries, setting out the important functions they play in mediating labour
markets, and analysing empirically how these various intermediaries operate,
Benner has undoubtedly made a substantial contribution towards developing a
much-needed theory of labour market intermediation.
Part III of the book provides details of the ways in which the labour market
intermediaries examined help shape labour market outcomes. By influencing
the nature and quality of people’s skills and social networks, and the type of
power they possess, labour market intermediaries are playing an important
role in shaping employees’ work lives and career development. An important
observation made is the contradictory trend found between an increased socialisation of work and an increased individualisation of the employment contract.
While the degree of social interaction and communication in work tasks (such
as in team and project-based work) has undoubtedly increased, more employees
now in temporary, part-time, or even self-employment are feeling more and
more insecure. In some of the recent writings on work and employment, those
who are lucky enough to be in gainful employment have been given advice to
manage their own skill and career portfolios. In contrast to such advice, the
author sees the need to increase the extent of public policy intervention, such as
reforming the existing labour relations system and diversifying compensation
practices, in order to bring greater employment security to workers without
undermining flexibility of work.
The book is very well-written with a tight structure. Benner is able to guide
readers systematically to understand the three major concepts––flexibility, intermediaries, and career––which are seen as the building blocks of the main themes
examined. In explaining the approach he has adopted in writing the book, the
author has challenged himself with a number of provoking questions such as:
Why examine work and employment issues by analysing labour markets at a
regional level? Why examine the labour market conditions in the high-tech region
of Silicon Valley? How generalisable are the outcomes of analysis to other less
technology-intensive regions? To all of these questions, readers are provided with
satisfactory answers. All in all, Benner has written a theoretically important and
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empirically rich book. Readers will find the book interesting and useful to
foster their understanding of work and employment issues in the information
economy.
OPEN UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
TERESA SHUK-CHING POON
IN
AUSTRALIA
By Ashly Pinnington and George Lafferty. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2003,
viii + 319 pp., $49.95 (paperback)
This book joins an increasing number of texts examining human resource management (HRM) in Australia. Many of these texts are adaptations of US books,
generally following a particular format, through basic theories and policies,
before providing a functional approach to the HRM discipline. Some industrial
relations aspects are also included. Another addition to the range of extant HR
texts was, therefore, viewed initially with some trepidation.
Human Resource Management in Australia commences with a brief summary
of a number of theories that have been developed over time in the US and UK.
Reasons for not developing a specific Australian theory are not given, but it is
felt that the development of an Australian conceptual framework would have
enhanced the value of this book.
From this point on, however, the book diverges from the ‘traditional’
approach to the usual range of texts. A substantial component of Part 2, ‘The
Context’, provides a very comprehensive introduction to the environment of
HRM in Australia, Australian industrial relations and labour law. It does
this through an historical development of the discipline, integrating both
the industrial relations roots of the Australian variant of HR, and the differing
philosophies that lead to a unique approach to its adoption in Australia. The
problems with HRM, such as the limited strategic implementation (due possibly
to the pluralist approach in a number of organisations) and the ineffectual
devolution of power to line management from a centralised control, tend to work
against the more idealistic US unitarist framework. This conceptual approach
could provide ample discussion in the appropriate environment. This introduction
is then followed by a brief explanation of the role of labour law in providing
a framework for HRM and industrial agreements, and the growing complexity
of the legal environment with differing forms of agreements and other legislation.
Part 3, ‘Managing Human Resources’, develops the strong theoretical
approach, examining in detail the topics of employee resourcing, motivation,
financial rewards and the relationship to performance, learning and development,
and change management. In these core functional areas, the book generally
maintains its divergent focus from the usual HR text, by concentrating on
differing theories and views of the subject areas, rather than adopting an
operational approach to the material. The thematic linkages between the topics
in these chapters (and the preceding components of the book) are explained,
giving an effective flow to the narrative.
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The chapter on employee resourcing examines the function from three
perspectives––individual, organisational and societal––and provides the reader
with varied analyses of the approaches used. The chapter on motivation discusses
alternative theories and ends with a case study asking the reader to examine the
applicability of the theories raised to an existing situation. In the chapter dealing
with financial rewards and the links to performance, a more practical overview
of the various reward systems and recent performance issues are offered. The
following chapter on learning and development examines a range of learning
options, with their theoretical linkages thoroughly explained. The last chapter
in Part 3 reverts to a conceptual discussion of change management; in particular,
integrating change with the HR concept. It provides a fitting conclusion to the
section, emphasising the need for managers to be aware of both the direction
and the process of change.
The final part of the book deals with future developments in HR, and briefly
reviews the preceding chapters. One advantage is that it includes an extensive
glossary explaining a number of the terms and phrases used in the book. As an
aid to students, the authors have provided a number of case studies and related
questions throughout Human Resource Management in Australia to be used to assist
in the developmental process.
As noted earlier, this book differs from the traditional textbook approach of
many of the competitors in the field. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage to potential users of the text, in that it provides a strong theoretical underpinning to the discipline, as well as an historical development in the Australian
context which is lacking in much of the competition. But as a standard text, it
could easily miss out on its (stated) intended market of undergraduate business
students and MBA students, at least at the introductory HRM level. For students
undertaking a more comprehensive study of the discipline, the book does have
a number of advantages, especially in furthering understanding of strategic HR
directions. For the average student studying HR as an additional unit with no
further interest in pursuing studies in the discipline, the book would only have
a limited appeal. Its role would be more as a supplementary reference tool.
To conclude, the authors have provided an essential text for those interested
in developing their knowledge and understanding of HRM in the Australian
context. However, with many universities and colleges more interested in
teaching the process of HRM (at least at the introductory level) than the theories
and development of the discipline, this excellent book could well have a limited
market in Australia.
CURTIN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
DOUG DAVIES
REGIONAL EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS AT WORK: THE ILLAWARRA
REGIONAL WORKPLACE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SURVEY
By Raymond Markey, Ann Hodgkinson, Terri Mylett and Simon Pomfret. University
of Wollongong Press, Wollongong, 2001, xxv + 419 pp., no price stated (paperback)
First, we had the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) in
1990, then another AWIRS in 1995, and now have a regional one—based on the
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Illawarra—which was conducted in 1996. This book follows the methodology
and structure of AWIRS 1995 to develop a comparative analysis of workplace
relations in the Illawarra with those in the rest of Australia. As with AWIRS 1995,
it includes a workplace (over 20 employees) survey, an employee survey and a
small business workplace survey. Unlike AWIRS 1995, however, it cannot include
a panel survey. For research and policy purposes, one of the major problems
with both AWIRS reports was the lack of an explicit regional dimension in the
analysis. Nonetheless, it was possible to obtain some broad regional data from
them. A number of Australian writers (e.g. Bradon Ellem and John Shields at
the University of Sydney) have been critical of the overall absence of a spatial
dimension in Australian industrial relations research together with the simplistic
articulation of the spatial dimension in existing research. Hence, the Illawarra
Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (IWIRS) is timely in that it does give a
spatial dimension to AWIRS, and it does introduce ‘space’ to industrial relations
analysis.
The book is assiduous in providing a comparison with workplace industrial
relations in the Illawarra and the rest of Australia. For the authors there is a
dilemma in this approach. The advantage is the opportunity for comparative
analysis; against this it has to accept the various criticisms and weaknesses that
were associated with the AWIRS methodology. On the comparative methodology,
it was possible to break down the AWIRS results by broad generic regional
groupings (e.g. metropolitan). Breaking down the AWIRS 1995 data set may
have provided a richer pool of data for comparative purposes in the IWIRS
exercise.
There was a timing difference between the second AWIRS and IWIRS
of approximately 18 months. In this time gap, the federal Workplace Relations
Act was introduced and there were some changes to industrial relations
legislation across the states. However, the relevant legislative changes are listed
in Chapter 1. The timing meant that it was too early for any impact from the
federal Act to be gauged and, as the research subsequently reveals, the Illawarra
was in 1996 more tied to New South Wales industrial relations legislation than
to the federal system.
What does the book tell us about workplace relations in the Illawarra? Overall,
the findings are not too dissimilar from the rest of Australia. The Illawarra largely
reflects the developments in the national economy towards more service sector
employment, a growing female workforce and a falling trade union density. The
old industrial sectors are diminishing in terms of employment in the Illawarra
and one valuable contribution of the book is to refute regional stereotyping when
it comes to industrial relations. The image of the Illawarra as coal, steel and manufacturing, full-time male, blue-collar and unionised workers is a thing of the past.
The region reflects what is happening to the nature and characteristics of work,
the workplace and workers elsewhere in Australia.
There are, however, some interesting findings and some deviations in the details
from the national average. The regional labour market has a higher degree
of gender segregation by industry and a relatively higher proportion of
independent workplaces among small, private sector firms. The level of foreign
ownership of enterprises was much lower than in the rest of Australia. Illawarra
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workplaces were less likely to have specialist Industrial Relations/Human
Resource managers and more responsibility in employment matters was assigned
to line managers and supervi