This thesis examines the transformation of work in two public sector organisations, the Commonwealth Employment Service and the Department of Social Security. The analysis considers the impact of organisational and technological change on operational staff at Administrative Service Officer 3 level within these agencies. The relationship between these changes, managerial control and the degree of alienation experienced by staff is highlighted. Considerable transformation of the labour process of workers in both organisations is evident. The most significant cause of these transformations has been facilitated by new technology. New technology has facilitated the reorganisation of work and permitted government policies to reorient the focus of these agencies. In both, a more professional relationship is being fostered between clients and staff, not only through government programs but also through a quality service emphasis. A close relationship between clients and public servants was contrary to all traditional notions of bureaucracy, where impersonality and impartiality are highlighted. This change in focus has been facilitated in the CES by circumstances which rendered newer staff unprepared in the face of increasing client numbers, inadequate training and constantly changing government policy. Staff under these circumstances resorted to empathetic behaviours and emotional labour to offset their deficiencies. These behaviours have now been incorporated into organisational practices. The emotional labour has become regulated empathy. In the DSS regulated empathy has been imposed upon staff as an outcome of new technology facilitating job redesign, and government policy requirements. The utilisation of emotional labour in the DSS is in an embryonic stage consistent with it having been imposed upon workers who were previously all but invisible to their clients. Regulated empathy is argued to be a new type of managerial control in the public sector, incorporating aspects of the worker's personality into the wage-effort bargain. Management has invaded spaces which were once private and has incorporated these into the labour process. Furthermore, it is concluded that the incorporation of these aspects into the wage-effort bargain has the potential to create incompatibilities between constructed work identities and non-work identities, resulting in psychological harm to workers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/195272 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Maconachie, Glenda Jo-Ann, n/a |
| Publisher | Griffith University. School of Industrial Relations |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.gu.edu.au/disclaimer.html), Copyright Glenda Jo-Ann Maconachie |
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