Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Aged care is a critical public policy issue in Australia. The growing significance of the sector raises important and pressing questions about many aspects of care itself, the size of the labour force and employment relations. Answering these questions is vital, with demand for labour in the sector already outstripping supply and with demand certain to grow substantially. The implications of this labour shortfall for the sector have already been the subject of a number of key government reports. Although these reports have begun to construct a more detailed picture of the issues facing aged care workers and employers, significant gaps remain, most notably any explicit examination of approaches to the management of labour or the importance of labour law in determining these approaches. Despite the obvious importance and critical social and economic significance of the ageing population, we do not sufficiently understand many of the critical labour market features, workplace characteristics or management strategies which are evident in the aged care sector. This study seeks to build knowledge of employment and labour management in this growing and crucial sector at a decisive moment in history. It deepens our understanding of these issues and processes through a study of three residential aged care providers in New South Wales during the period from 2005 to 2009. The thesis specifically examines employer strategy in relation to the management of labour in the three cases. Further, it investigates the impact of the regulatory environment on these approaches. In doing so, the case studies reveal the intricate web of internal and external, direct and indirect, formal and informal regulation which shapes the management of labour within the sector. The complexity of the regulatory web in aged care demands the use of an explanatory framework which recognises that labour-management approaches are influenced by constraints not traditionally associated with the direct, legal regulation of employment relations. Consequently, regulation theory is applied here as an organising framework and as an interpretive prism for the research. This allows for an explicit acknowledgment of the importance of non-legal, informal and indirect regulation ‘at work’ in this sector. The study finds that in the period under review labour law was not the primary determinant of labour-management approaches in aged care. The case studies presented here show that it was, in fact, a second order consideration for aged care providers struggling with what they saw as insufficient funding, onerous ‘paperwork’ and staff recruitment and retention difficulties – in short a range of other regulatory influences. This study also shows that, despite the constraints imposed by these other regulatory modes, employers remained free to exercise their prerogative within the workplace; this, in turn, is revealed as a form of internal regulation in aged care.

This thesis investigates the role of accounting information in the automotive industry restructuring of 2008 and 2009 in Canada. The crisis in the automotive industry led to government-funded restructurings for two of the top manufacturers in North America, effectively adding the government as a third party to the negotiations. Following a series of negotiations that occurred between AutoCo and UnionA, I conduct a case study that examines the individual actors’ use of accounting inscriptions in negotiations, as well as explore the dynamic interaction between accounting and trust at the negotiation table. The use of actor network theory highlights the individual actors, their actor-networks, accounting inscriptions and the continuous translation process inherent in labour-management negotiations. Accounting inscriptions are shown to play a central role in negotiations, particularly as a forum for bringing the actor-networks together. Furthermore, I explicate the notion of tactical trust, as it emphasizes the assessment, monitoring, and adjustment inherent in decisions to trust actors within dynamic business contexts. I also investigate the roles that the Canadian government played throughout the restructuring of the automotive industry. Through an in-depth case study of the restructuring from its antecedents through to outcomes, the research focuses on the roles of the government officials in the negotiations between the company and the unions, and their use of accounting information. The empirics highlight that the government not only acted at a distance but utilized sovereign power and direct intervention to achieve their objectives in the automotive industry restructuring. I find that the accounting served as the flexible substitute for the government’s presence at the negotiations table while they were acting at a distance and is used as an immutable parameter when the government directly intervened. This paper extends the governmentality literature by highlighting the coercive character of government actions, technologies and programs, and the notion of government in action. I consider the implications of these research findings on the labour-management negotiations, accounting, actor network theory and governmentality literature. In conclusion I also highlight various avenues of future research. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-09 20:46:13.009

The aim of this study is to explore what the relevant factors of nurses' attitudes to and at work are. These include the separate but related hypotheses - the nature of the profession and changes in terms of management and training; the nature of the work situation including contracts and pay determination; and the nature of work relations as they impinge on nurse status including relations with co-workers and patients. All of which can be understood and compared with other workers in terms of both labour process and industrial relations as Goldthorpe (1968) did in the study of car workers. In the context of the contemporary Chinese social and political economy, the research also evaluates the roles of the government and how it affects nurses' attitudes to the profession. It is grounded in a case study of 330 nurses in a Chinese public sector hospital, using questionnaires, interviews, and documentary evidence on government policies and hospital practices. The findings suggest that nurses at the case study hospital are frequently put under pressure due to the high number of patients they are expected to care for. This was caused by insufficient government funding for public sector hospitals, and the pressure to improve overall efficiency within the health service. The use of different types of employment contracts for nurses has caused strong resentment among nurses because it fails to award 'equal pay for equal work'. In addition, the current system used in many Chinese hospitals for nurse education, recruitment, training and development, and pay have not helped establish realistic expectations of nursing or rewarded nurses for the work they do effectively.

The problem in the warehouses is that the old and conventional methods which are obsolete are combined with very crowded conditions. Hence there is always a quest for newer and better methods. However, merely installing the newer methods does not mean that the system is effective and efficient, there is also necessity of a strong supervisory organization of the system to make the methods more effective and this also requires lot of training and managing the operations.The purpose of this thesis is to give an overview and to briefly present the concept of warehousing. Analysing the present situation in warehouses by examining four of the biggest retail warehouses in Sweden with the help of a questionnaire given to the respective warehouse managers. Comparing the present situation to the theoretical framework in order to get an idea of the strategies deployed by the businesses.The warehouses today are deploying a mixture of both latest strategies and technologies and the traditional methods in order to have a good efficiency in the warehouses.

The McDonald's model of labour management has been widely adopted throughout the fast food industry. Literature that is critical of fast food labour management policy and practice often portrays employers as offering work that is low paid, unchallenging and uninteresting. However, others argue that the industry provides young workers with: a first resume entry, training opportunities, the chance to develop a career and a path into employment. This study interprets these two perspectives as reflecting either misalignment or alignment of employee/crew and employer preferences. Such an interpretation recognises that fast food work does not represent a career for many who do it but is short term or 'stop-gap' in nature. The study's research question is: to what extent does management preference for elements of work align with the preferred working arrangements of crew at McDonald's Australia? This research subjects McDonald's Australian stores to independent scrutiny. Previous research in this area has mostly used qualitative methods. Earlier studies, by and large, provide descriptive accounts of fast food employment however they often lack the rigour of an empirical investigation. The present research uses a structured survey method to obtain data from crew and managers. Results are analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings focus on three areas of labour management: industrial relations, work organisation and human resource management. Several themes relating to alignment of preferences in the fast food employment relationship are identified. These are: crew have scant knowledge of industrial relations, do not like aspects of work organisation, but respond positively to certain human resource management policies and practices; crew lack knowledge of labour management issues generally; crew work is simple and repetitive; and, many young crew seem to dislike aspects of fast food work as they get older but others, who have distinctive characteristics, appear to continue to like the McDonald's approach as they age.

University of the Witwatersrand Discipline of Psychology MASTERS RESEARCH REPORT / This study conducted a thematic content analysis qualitative methods approach to explore the perceptions of the “Impact of the 2012 Marikana labour unrest on labour and industrial relations in South Africa”. Perceptions of industrial relations stakeholder role efficacy; causes and consequences of labour-management conflict, intra-union conflict and inter-union conflict are discussed. Economic, political, sociological factors as well as the influence of group dynamics are discussed to frame the impact of the 2012 Marikana incident on labour and industrial relations in South Africa.