Organizational Change
Abstract
Australia has undergone key economic structural changes over the last 15 years. Against this background, this article reports the results of empirical research that explores perceptions and attitudes of Australian managers to managing people and organizations. Results are compared with the literature on Australian people management. Many of the findings of the study are consistent with previous studies, including a strong humanistic orientation, first reported more than 25 years ago. Results also suggest that Australian managers have a relatively low level of commitment to their organisations. The implication of this finding for the psychological contract is examined.
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INTRODUCTION
Key political, economic, legislative and structural changes have occurred over the last 15 years in Australia. With the view to exposing the Australian economy to international competition, successive governments of different political persuasions initiated a series of macro-and micro-economic reforms including floating the dollar, phasing out tariffs, waterfront, shipping and air-freight reform, financial deregulation and the gradual freeing up of the labour market (Edwards O'Reilly and Schuwwalow 1997). Workplace change, together with public sector reform and privatisation, were also key elements of the micro-economic reform agenda (ACIRRT 1999). During this period the so-called 'Australian settlement' has been transformed by these policy reforms to a new 'post industrial settlement' Australia, in which traditional manufacturing industries-the old protected 'smokestack' industries-have been replaced by the so-called 'elaborately transformed manufactures' (ETMs) and service sector (Burrell 1999).
As a result of profound and often painful structural reforms instigated by the Hawke, Keating and Howard governments, Australia...
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