The Ambiguities of Workplace Co-operation

1
The Ambiguities of Workplace Co-operation

• Professor Mark Bray
• The University of Newcastle
• Public Lecture sponsored by
• the Fair Work Commission The University of
  Melbourne Law School
• 24 May 2013

2
Overview

1. The importance of workplace cooperation
2. Ambiguity in the meaning of workplace cooperation
3. The Pluralist Vision
4. The Unitarist Vision
5. Conclusions
6. References

3
1. The importance of co-operation

• Almost everyone thinks co-operation in the
  workplace is a good idea!

4
1. The importance of co-operation (cont.)

• Governments of both political persuasions see
  co-operation as a central goal of national laws
• Fair Work Act 2009
• S. 3 makes co-operative and productive
  workplaces an object of the Act
• S. 577 and S. 682 as well
• Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act
  2005
• S. 3 retained co-operative workplace relations
  the principal object of the Act
• Workplace Relations Act 1996
• S. 3 The principal object of this Act is to
  provide a framework for co-operative workplace
  relations

5
1. The importance of co-operation (cont.)

• These legislative provisions reflect the views of
  the political leaders who created them
• These politicians also frequently claim that
  workplace cooperation ultimately produces both
• improved organisational performance (including
  productivity), and
• better national economic outcomes

6
1. The importance of co-operation (cont.)

• Much research supports their viewsie. there is a
  positive relationship between workplace
  co-operation and organisational performance,...
  although I do not have the time to detail this
  research today
• But any causal link with national economic
  outcomes is less well proven in research
• ... but it remains an article of faith

7
1. The importance of co-operation (cont.)

• Conclusion?
• Co-operation in the workplace is desirable and
  important
• We need to understand what workplace co-operation
  means ... and how it might be linked to public
  policy
• This is my ambition today!

8
2. The ambiguous meaning of workplace
co-operation

• One of the challenges is that workplace
  co-operation is an ambiguous concept
• It means different things to different people
• How do we understand the many meanings of
  cooperation?

9
2. Ambiguous meaning (cont.)

• The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary defines
  co-operation as
• working together to the same end
• To embellish a little, on the basis of common
  sense
• working together is both a process and an end
  product
• working together is about relationships
  involving mutuality and reciprocity
• the same end implies some consensus about a
  common interest or goal
• both the process and the end imply choice and
  willingness,... something positive and active
  that goes beyond mere compliance

10
2. Ambiguous meaning (cont.)

• However, many unanswered questions, including
• Who is working together?
• What is the same end?
• Who determines what the same end is?
• How does working together work?
• We also need to focus more specifically on
  co-operation in the workplace

11
2. Ambiguous meaning (cont.)

• Long history of scholarship on workplace
  co-operation
• Although much of it uses different (but related)
  concepts
• Industrial goodwill ? Industrial peace
• Industrial relations climate ? Joint
  consultation
• High performance workplaces ? Collaboration
• High involvement workplaces ? The mutual gains
  enterprise
• Union-management partnerships ? Industrial
  harmony
• All of these concepts are relevant and deserve
  attention, but not today!
• My (very selective) account
• is informed by (but does not systematically
  review) this scholarship,
• keeps an eye on its relevance to recent
  Australian public policy

12
2. Ambiguous meaning (cont.)

• Two different meanings of workplace cooperation,
  distinguished by
• the values that underlie different approaches to
  workplace cooperation
• the role they give to employee representation in
  workplace cooperation
• I will refer to these two approaches to workplace
  cooperation as
• The Pluralist VisionCo-operation marked by
  independent employee representation (usually
  unions) based on pluralist values
• The Unitarist VisionCo-operation conceived as
  purely involving direct relationships between
  managers and employees, based on unitarist values
• Analytically, the visions are ideal types...
  ie. extreme simplifications designed to
  characterise

13
Overview

• The importance of workplace cooperation
• Ambiguity in the meaning of workplace cooperation
• The Pluralist Vision
• Underlying values
• Definition
• Implications for Public Policy
• Application to Australia
• Co-operation based on direct management-employee
  relations
• Underlying values
• Definition
• Implications for Public Policy
• Application to Australia
• Conclusions
• References

14
3. The Pluralist Vision of Workplace Co-operation

• Ironically perhaps, the best accounts of the
  pluralist vision come from the USA (eg. Commons
  1919, Golden Parker 1955, Walton McKersie
  1965, Kochan Osterman 1994, Kochan et al. 2009)
  
• Less of a scholarly tradition in Britain, ...
  but the Blair governments union-management
  partnerships generated valuable research (ie.
  Ackers Payne 1998, Oxenbridge Brown 2002,
  Stuart Martinez Lucio 2005, Stuart et al. 2011
  see also Mitchell ODonnell 2008)
• I will come back to evidence of the practice and
  research in Australia

15
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) UNDERLYING VALUES

• The concept of pluralism will be familiar to
  many in the audience
• It is most famously associated with the British
  scholar Alan Fox (1966),... and more recently,
  John Budd and others (eg. Budd Bhave 2008)
• Key elements of the pluralist frame of
  reference include
• Organisations comprise individuals and groups
  with competing and sometimes contradictory
  interests
• Each group and its interests are considered
  legitimate and respected
• Competing interests can sometimes produce
  conflict, ... which must be managed through
  appropriate procedural mechanisms or governance
  arrangements
• Common interests and cooperation can be
  established and developed, ... but they require
  joint decision making and active consent by all
  groups

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3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.)DEFINITIONS

• I could find no explicit pluralist definition of
  workplace cooperation
• Ill try to bring together contributions on
  alternate concepts
• Golden (1955) provides a starting point when he
  defines industrial peace as
• the product of the relationship between two
  organised groups industrial management and
  organised labour in which both coexist, with
  each retaining its institutional sovereignty,
  working together in reasonable harmony in a
  climate of mutual respect and confidence. (p. 8)
• Strengths
• institutional sovereignty recognises competing
  interests, acceptance of separation and the need
  for organisational security on both sides
• reasonable harmony is a measured concept that
  recognises that working together may have
  limits because of potentially conflicting
  interests
• mutual respect and confidence reflects both
  reciprocity and the need for tolerance of the
  other side

17
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.)DEFINITIONS
(cont.)

• Weaknesses
• Conflates cooperation as a process and an end
  product
• While later recognising that peace is something
  more than the mere absence of conflict (p.
  7),... he does not capture the more positive,
  active engagement essential in cooperation
• The pre-occupation with two organised groups
  assumes an exact coincidence of interest between
  unions and workers/members... this
  over-simplifies the complex range of interests in
  workplaces

18
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.)DEFINITIONS
(cont.)

• Walton McKersies (1965) account of
  integrative bargaining is useful, although it
  focuses exclusively on the process of cooperation
  
• They distinguish between
• integrative bargaining (later became
  interest-based negotiation, IBN)
• traditional, distributive or adversarial
  bargaining.
• The process of IBN focuses on the common
  interests in a pluralist relationship
• identify common problems
• explore the interests that underlie them
• develop joint solutions
• Traditional bargaining is also pluralist, but
• focuses on distributional issues
• involves fixed claims and defending positions
• employs more adversarial bargaining process

See Macneil and Bray (2013)
19
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) DEFINITIONS
(cont.)

• Later American writings focus more on the end
  product than the process by using the term
  mutual gains (Kochan Osterman 1994)
• We use the term mutual gains because it
  conveys a key message achieving and sustaining
  competitive advantage from human resources
  require strong support from multiple stakeholders
  in an organisation. Employees must commit their
  energies to meeting the economic objectives of
  the enterprise. In return, owners (shareholders)
  must share the economic returns with employees
  and invest those returns in ways that promote the
  long-run security of the work force. And everyone
  involved in decision making must behave in ways
  that build and maintain the trust and support of
  the work force. (p. 46)

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3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) DEFINITIONS
(cont.)

• Employee representation?
• Pluralists consistently emphasise unions. Why?
• Freeman Medoffs (1984) two faces of unionism
  suggests
• Collective Voice Face
• Unions provide an independent and collective
  mechanism by which employees can voice their
  opinions to managers
• Allows employees to be less guarded in their
  feedback to management
• Potentially valuable role for external union
  officials
• Power/Monopoly Face
• Without the power of a union, employees may not
  be taken seriously by managers
• Union power provides some protection in the
  distribution of economic benefits

21
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) DEFINITIONS
(cont.)

• This pluralist approachs reliance on unions
  raises other issues
• Unions must accurately representing the views of
  employees/members
• The acknowledgement and accommodation of
  different groups on the employee side
• Employees
• Workplace union representatives
• Union officials working outside the workplace
• Is it possible for non-union forms of employee
  representation to perform the same role in
  pluralist workplace cooperation?
• maybe, but they must be independent of
  management
• and they have some power vis-à-vis management
• eg. statutory works councils

22
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) DEFINITIONS
(cont.)

• Conclusion?
• My summary of the pluralist vision of workplace
  cooperation sees it as
• ... a relationship in which managers work
  willingly with employees and their independent
  representatives in a process that supports the
  creation of jointly agreed goals and solutions.
  They do this through governance structures that
  recognise the separate but inter-dependent
  interests of the constituent groups. The outcome
  is the achievement of mutual gains, benefiting
  all constituent groups.

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3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) IMPLICATIONS FOR
PUBLIC POLICY

• How do governments promote the pluralist vision
  of cooperation?
• It is not possible to mandate or compel
  cooperation, because of its voluntary nature
  (see Mitchell ODonnell 2008, pp. 103-4)
• Hard regulation
• The law used to establish employee rights and
  compel employers to
• ... inform, discuss, consult or bargain with
  employees and/or their unions,
• ... based on an assumption this will encourage
  greater cooperation
• Soft regulation Non-binding initiatives used
  to encourage changes in behaviour including
• financial incentives and grants
• the provision of training, expert information and
  advice
• demonstrations of best practice (eg. Stuart et
  al. 2011 Macneil et al. 2011).

24
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) APPLICATION TO
AUSTRALIA

• Have Australian governments tried to promote the
  pluralist vision of workplace cooperation?
• Conservative governments No
• The Howard governments (1996 2007) were
  anti-union and saw little value in promoting
  union-management cooperation
• The May 2013 Abbott/Abetz Workplace Relations
  policy statement says nothing about cooperation,
  with only one exception
• The exception is a point about harmonious
  productivity bargaining,... which seems more
  about productivity than cooperation
• The answer is more complicated for Labor
  governments

25
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) APPLICATION TO
AUSTRALIA

• Labor government (1983 1996) Yes
• Co-operation was a central rhetorical theme
  under the Accord, .. especially during the
  period that Bob Hawke was Prime Minister
• It was pluralist because it recognised
  competing interests of unions and employers ...
  and sought to engage unions and employers in
  decision making
• It was, however, mostly centralised cooperation
  before 1986, ... focusing above the workplace on
  national policy making
• One exceptiondecisions of tribunals to oblige
  employers to consult with employees and unions in
  the event of technological change and/or
  redundancies (Markey 1987)

26
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) APPLICATION TO
AUSTRALIA

• Labor government (1983 1996) continued...
• Workplace cooperation became a stronger theme
  after 1986, ... with several mechanisms used to
  promote it
• Managed decentralism in wage policy... wage
  increases were dependent on managers and unions
  to bargaining over second tier, award
  restructuring and then structural efficiency
  (Bray 1994, Mitchell ODonnell 2008)
• The Keating govts Industrial Relations Reform
  Act (ss. 170MC(1)(d) and 170NC(1)(f)) ...
  insisted that all EBAs include provisions about
  consultation between employers and unions on
  efficiency and productivity within the
  enterprise (Mitchell et al 1997)
• Did good faith bargaining under the IRR Act
  promote of cooperation? (Patmore 2010, pp. 85-6)

27
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor government (1983 1996) continued...
• Another feature of the labour laws of the time
  was their collectivism
• All the legal supports for cooperation relied
  exclusively on unions for employee representation
  (eg. Bray Macneil 2011, Bray Stewart
  forthcoming)
• The exception was non-union collective agreements
  (EFAs),... which were rarely used
• Labor governments also used soft regulation
  (Macneil et al 2011)
• The Hawke/Keating governments Best Practice
  Program during 1990s(see. Rimmer et al. 1996)
• This again promoted unions as the mechanisms for
  employee representation

28
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor government (1983 1996) continued...
• In summary, the Hawke and Keating Labor
  governments
• adopted pluralist visions of cooperation,
• promoted unions as a largely uncontested form of
  employee representation, and
• provided both hard and soft mechanisms to
  promote cooperation

29
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor governments (2007 2013) Maybe
• Key Labor politicians advocate cooperation
• Then-Minister Julia GillardIn the Governments
  view, we simply have to move beyond the
  destructive conflict-based model of workplace
  relations that was Work Choices and instead build
  a productive new workplace relations system based
  on promoting consultation and co-operation at the
  enterprise level. (Gillard 2008)
• Minister Bill ShortenWhat we need is no
  nonsense leadership in the workplace from
  employers and employees. Unions can and do
  promote productivity and have a big role to play
  in building productive workplaces. It starts with
  cooperation... We need to move away from the
  purely transactional model of workplace relations
  and to a much more collaborative approach.
  Valuing the contribution that employees have to
  make is an obvious starting point for improving
  workplace productivity. (Shorten 2012)

30
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor governments (2007 2013)
• Cooperation became an object of the Fair Work
  Act,... but there are few mechanisms by which
  this is promoted
• Consultation and dispute resolution clauses back
  in awards and EAs, ... although now rights lie
  with employees without independent union rights
• FW Commission obliged to perform its functions in
  a manner that promotes harmonious and
  cooperative workplace relations (s. 577)
• FW Ombudsman obliged to perform functions in a
  manner that promotes harmonious, productive and
  cooperative workplace relations (s. 682)
• Both the FWC and FWO are trying, but they have
  little legislative support
• This is, in Forsyth Smarts (2009 142-3)
  words, a lost opportunity

31
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor governments (2007 2013) cont.
• Is good faith bargaining designed to promote
  cooperation?
• Troy Sarina (2013) says yes
• Collective bargaining under Fair Work was
  modeled on a mutual gains or win-win approach
  to bargaining. (p. 404 also 398, 405, 406, 409,
  414, 415)
• I disagree
• Good faith bargaining advances traditional,
  adversarial bargaining
• It is about guaranteeing basic rights for
  employees to be heard by their employer
• These rights are necessary but not sufficient
  for cooperation
• Pluralist cooperation requires more active and
  positive participation by both parties

32
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor governments (2007 2013) cont.
• Unions are also much more vulnerable under these
  Labor governments
• After more than a decade of hostility from the
  Coalition government, the FW Act gave some
  renewed support
• ... but not much (eg. Cooper Ellem 2011, Bray
  Macneil 2011, Bray Stewart forthcoming)
• In the absence of organisational security, can
  unions be expected to embrace workplace
  cooperation?

33
3. The Pluralist Vision (cont.) AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Labor governments (2007 2013)... cont
• Conclusion?
• The current Labor government may adhere to a
  pluralist vision of cooperation, but
• the absence of implementation mechanisms in the
  legislation reveals little about how cooperation
  is to be promoted
• cooperation is mostly conceived as between
  employees and employers
• the limited recognition of unions (ie. other than
  as the bargaining representatives of employees)
  creates organisational vulnerability

34
Overview

• The importance of workplace co-operation
• Ambiguity in the meaning of workplace
  co-operation
• The Pluralist Vision
• Underlying values
• Definition
• Critics
• Application to Australia
• The Unitarist Vision
• Underlying values
• Definition
• Implications for public policy
• Application to Australia
• Conclusions
• References

35
4. The Unitarist Vision of Workplace Co-operation

• A long history in management theory from the USA
  and Britain, from Scientific Management through
  Human Relations to soft HRM (Klare 1988, Keenoy
  2013)
• The most recent version in both countries focuses
  on employee engagement
• The term employee engagement first emerged
  about 20 years ago and has quickly become
  commonplace (Macey Schneider 2008)
• Employee engagement is now a vital and
  everyday part of the vocabulary of human
  resource management... The term... now routinely
  pervades the discourse of HRM across the
  English-speaking world, yet it was virtually
  unheard of a decade or so ago. (Arrowsmith
  Parker 2013)
• Its popularity promoted by the Conservative
  government in Britain (see MacLeod and Clarke
  2009)

36
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
UNDERLYING VALUES

• Rests unambiguously on what Fox (1969) and Budd
  Bhave (2008) called unitarist values
• Key elements of unitarism include
• Organisations are unitary bodies in which
  employees and managers share a common interest
  represented by the organisational goals
• There is a single source of authority namely,
  management
• Conflict is illegitimate and occurs only if
• management fails to lead effectively, or
• external influences enter the organisation and
  disrupt the natural harmony between managers and
  employees
• The realisation of common interests and
  cooperation will flow naturally from effective
  leadership by management

37
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
DEFINITION

• There is still great diversity in the meaning
  attributed to employee engagement (eg. Macey
  Schneider 2008, Keenoy 2013, Arrowsmith Parker
  2013)
• Two components, often conflated
• Employee engagement as an outcome
• Engagement is above and beyond simple
  satisfaction with the employment arrangement or
  basic loyalty to the employer... Engagement, in
  contrast, is about passion and commitment the
  willingness to invest oneself and expend ones
  discretionary effort to help the employer
  succeed. (Erickson cited in Macey Schneider
  2008, p. 7)
• Direct engagement is more the process by which
  management deliver policies and practices which
  produce engaged employees
• Engagement is about creating opportunities for
  employees to connect with their colleagues,
  managers and wider organisation. It is about
  creating an environment where employees are
  motivated to want to connect with their work and
  really care about doing a good job (MacLeod
  Report cited in Keenoy 2013)

38
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
DEFINITION (cont.)

• As a form of cooperation, then, employee
  engagement
• focuses mostly on employees responding positively
  ie. with cooperative attitudes and behaviour
• ... to the leadership of managers and the
  organisational policies and practices they
  implement

39
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
DEFINITION (cont.)

• This leadership comprises both
• the personal attitudes and actions of the
  managers, and
• the policies and practices of the enterprise
• The relevant policies and practices are broadly
  those associated with sophisticated HRM,...
  ranging from effective recruitment and selection
  of employees... to performance management and
  employee development
• By explicit statement or by omission, the
  exclusion of third parties is clear,...
  allowing management to deal directly with
  employees

40
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
DEFINITION (cont.)

• Employee voice mechanisms include
• Employee surveys
• Teams
• Performance management
• Consultation committees
• Informal one-on-one discussions with managers
• Teams and consultation committees can give
  employees genuine decision-making power
• But the other voice mechanisms focus on employees
  providing managers with the information they need
  to make better decisions,
• ... which will improve the performance of the
  enterprise, and
• ... reinforce the engagement of employees

41
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC POLICY

• Some very simple implications for governments
• If they are left alone to deal directly with each
  other, managers and employees will naturally
  work cooperatively
• because managers will provide the appropriate
  leadership, and
• Third parties (ie. unions and tribunals) must
  be excluded from the workplace
• Government therefore should use
• hard regulation (ie. the law) to exclude third
  parties,
• and possibly soft regulation to promote
  appropriate leadership by managers

42
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
APPLICATION TO AUSTRALIA

• Cooperation through direct engagement has been
  promoted in Australia since the 1990s by
• managers of individual companies (eg. Rio Tinto,
  BHP)
• employer associations (eg. BCA, AMMA)
• Coalition politicians (eg. John Howard, Peter
  Reith)
• Arguably, the Coalition was inspired by this
  approach in both
• the 1996 Workplace Relations Act and
• the 2005 Work Choices amendments
• Let me briefly discuss some examples

43
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Australian Mines Metals Association (AMMA)
• AMMA has advocated direct engagement for nearly
  two decades
• AMMAs (2007) Employee engagement A lifetime
  of opportunity is an unusually extended
  exposition of the concept
• The underlying notion of the enterprise is
  clearly unitarist
• ...the essence of a successful work
  organisation is its ability to operate systems
  which allow people who are otherwise unrelated to
  come together to achieve its goals... (p. 31)
• The definition of employee engagement embodies
  the conflation of end product and process
• Engaged employees willingly work to the best of
  their capability in the interests of the
  organisation and are encouraged to do so through
  the leadership, structure and systems of the
  organisation.

44
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Australian Mines Metals Association (AMMA)
  continued
• Clear aims
• This report contends that improving and
  maintaining organisational effectiveness is
  dependent on the level of employee engagement in
  the workplace. A high level of engagement can be
  achieved through the leadership, structure and
  systems. If an organisation actively commits to
  employee engagement as a means of lifting its
  business performance, it cannot delegate the work
  involved to a third party. (p. 9)   
• Need to isolate the enterprise from external
  influences or third parties (ie. unions and
  tribunals)
• Trust between employees and managers is vital
  and flows from
• the personal integrity, behaviour and values of
  individuals, especially the leaders of the
  organisation. (p. 30 see also p. 31)

45
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Australian Mines Metals Association (AMMA)
  continued
• By far the most important organisational
  policy/practice, is Performance Management
  Systems, which
• ... ensure that each employee is clear on the
  work expected in the role how the role fits in
  to the wider purpose of the business how they
  are performing in the role and how they can
  improve their performance. (p. 326 see also pp.
  33 34)
• Employee voice is not mentioned at all, ... only
  brief or superficial references to
• the importance of communication
• the personal involvement of site managers in
  negotiating individual contracts (p. 32) and
• building internal fair treatment systems to
  resolve individual concerns without recourse to
  third parties. (p. 27)

46
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Coalition governments (1996 2007)
• Without using the direct engagement language,
  PM Howard and his Ministers supported the
  Unitarist Vision
• The debate surrounding the introduction of the
  1996 WR Act revealed strong support for
  cooperation in the workplace
• This policy is about ensuring that the focus of
  industrial relations is where it belongs at the
  level of the individual enterprise where
  employers and employees can see clearly that they
  have a common interest in the success of the
  enterprise. (Reith 1996 1)
• Within the enterprise, third parties were
  considered unnecessary
• The bill rejects the highly paternalistic
  presumption that has underpinned the industrial
  relations system of this country for too long
  that employees are not only incapable of
  protecting their own interests, but even of
  understanding them, without the compulsory
  involvement of unions and industrial tribunals.
  (Reith 23/5/96)

47
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Coalition governments (1996 2007)...cont
• The Treasurer even more explicitly articulated
  the Unitarist Vision
• We say to them there is the opportunity for
  cooperation and consensus in the workplace... We
  also say to those in the work force that there is
  an opportunity to build that consensus and come
  to that agreement with a new system of industrial
  relations which can become the model for
  cooperation and which can allow the opportunity,
  free of third-party intervention, for employers
  and employees to agree. (Costello 1/5/1996)
• In July 2005, Prime Minister Howard summed up the
  aims of his governments reforms as changing
• ... the culture of the remote, adversarial and
  legalistic way employment relations were handled
  in the past, replacing it with a system in which
  workers grasp that high wages and good
  conditions in todays economy are bound up with
  the productivity and success of their workplace
  and ongoing productivity growth turns on a
  continuous process of cooperation and commitment
  to implementing change. (cited in Mitchell
  ODonnell 2008, p. 113)

48
4. The Unitarist Vision (cont.)
AUSTRALIA (cont.)

• Coalition governments (1996 2007)...cont
• The hard regulatory changes introduced by the
  Howard government are well known, aimed at (see
  Mitchell et al. 2010)
• Reducing the role of unions
• Sidelining the industrial tribunals
• Promoting individual contracts between employers
  and employees
• Mitchell ODonnell (2008) summed them up by
  arguing that
• ...the Liberal government... did little to
  support the rhetoric of cooperation, apart from
  dismantling or subduing almost all the legal
  institutions and legal rights which supported the
  adversarial model historically (p. 113)
• One minor form of soft regulation was the
  promotion of private alternative dispute
  resolution agents
• ... as competitors to the industrial tribunals
• ... in assisting employers to resolve employment
  disputes internally (Reith 1998, Forbes-Mewett
  et al. 2005)

49
6. Conclusions

• Co-operation in the workplace is desirable and
  important
• If public policy is to be committed to promoting
  workplace cooperation, we must understand it
  better
• A first step is to clarify the competing meanings
  of this ambiguous concept
• The two visions of co-operation reviewed in this
  lecture embody very different
• Value systems
• Approaches to employee
• I hope I have shown how recognising these two
  visions helps to better understand Australian
  public policy

50
6. Conclusions (cont.)

• My examples, however, have mostly been historical
• Ill finish with a current matter of public
  policy where the issues raised in this lecture
  are vital
• the Centre for Workplace Leadership proposed by
  Minister Bill Shorten
• In September 2012, the Minister proposed the
  establishment of a such a Centre, funded with 12
  million over four years (Shorten 2012b)
• The focus of the Centre is to be the leadership,
  workplace culture and management practices
  required to improve productivity
• The role of the Centre includes training and
  education, research and public advocacy

51
6. Conclusions (cont.)

• This Centre can interpreted as soft regulation,
  aimed at encouraging the growth of workplace
  practices conducive to improved productivity,
  including cooperation between employers and
  employees
• My question is
• Which vision of cooperation will drive this
  activities of this Centre?
• The answer will affect
• Whose leadership is to be developed, and
• The model of leadership to be advanced
• The types of workplaces the government is
  promoting

52
6. Conclusions (cont.)

• The future direction of the Centre for Workplace
  Leadership is just another example of
• how recognising the ambiguities of workplace
  cooperation
• helps us to better understand the trajectory of
  Australian public policy

53
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