Jim Kitay

Take the money and run? Organisational boundaries and consultants' roles

Criticisms of management consultants are increasingly common, but are also frequently based on simplistic assertions that powerful consultants exploit uncertain or ignorant clients. We argue that considerable insight to the tensions between consultants and clients can be gained by focusing on the boundary relationship between them. Using the work of Granovetter, we explore how organisational boundaries vary in their permeability. Consultant roles vary from that of ‘outsider’, based on simple market exchange of payment for advice or service, to ‘insider’, in which a web of social ties develops in what are often long-lasting relationships. Although criticisms of consultants are sometimes based merely on misunderstanding the nature of these roles, we argue that tensions frequently arise through the activities of both consultants and clients in terms of their boundary relationships.

Developing conceptions of teaching and the scholarship of teaching through a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education

There is increasing pressure toward professionalisation of university teaching, through the attendance of academic development courses and programmes. This is based on the expectation that such courses lead to more student‐focused perspectives on teaching and learning and more effective teaching and learning practices. In this study we interviewed alumni of a Graduate Certificate programme, to explore its effects on teachers’ self‐reported experiences of teaching and the scholarship of teaching. This suggested that the programme had been successful in fostering the development of more complex experiences for most interviewees. En Australie comme à l’étranger, les pressions visant la professionnalisation de l’enseignement universitaire se font sentir, en particulier par la participation à des cours et des programmes de développement pédagogique. Ceci repose sur la prémisse selon laquelle les cours de développement pédagogique dans l’enseignement supérieur, du certificat postgradué au niveau master, mènent au développement de perspectives pédagogiques qui sont davantage centrées sur l’apprenant, de même qu’à l’adoption de pratiques pédagogiques davantage efficaces. Dans le cadre de cette étude, nous avons effectué des entretiens auprès de diplômés d’un programme de certificat postgradué de façon à explorer si le programme affectait les expériences d’enseignement et de Scholarship of Teaching de ces enseignants, telles qu’ils les rapportaient. Les témoignages autour de ces expériences suggèrent que le programme a réussi à favoriser le développement d’expériences davantage complexes pour la majorité des personnes interviewées.

Expertise and organizational boundaries: the varying roles of Australian management consultants

The diversity of management consulting has long been recognized by mainstream commentators, but the more critical literature often overlooks this feature. This article explores different consulting roles by developing a typology based on two dimensions of consulting work: the nature of the knowledge base that consultants purport to use in their work, and the extent to which the boundaries between consultant and client are permeable. Based on interviews with a cross-section of Australian consultants and clients, features of four main consulting roles are outlined. Key developments that are highlighted include the increasingly structured nature of much consulting work and the growth of client-consultant relationships based on social rather than purely market exchange criteria. It is shown that the diversity of consulting roles has developed over time in response to both client demands and consultant initiatives. The analysis raises questions about the nature of expertise and the structure of organizations.

Spreading the Word Gurus, Consultants and the Diffusion of the Employee Relations Paradigm in Australia

Using Guillén’s concepts of ‘management intellectuals’ and ‘practitioners’, this article highlights the differing roles played by gurus and consultants and their interaction at different levels and stages of the knowledge diffusion process. This is done through a case study of the adaptation of an American management model in the Australian business context. Analysis of guru texts and interviews with practitioner consultants reveal a strong emphasis on and affiliation with the ideological components of this new management model. Rather than viewing these actors as simple conduits in the transfer of new management practice, our study suggests greater attention needs to be directed to their role as advocates and proselytizers of managerial ideology. Our study reveals that in the process of seeking to convince others of the benefits of new ideas and practices, consultants also convince themselves.

A Review and Critique of Workplace Industrial Relations Typologies

Over the years, there have been a number of attempts to construct typologies of workplace industrial relations. Each of these typologies has been useful in helping us to differentiate between workplaces, but we have doubts about the comprehensiveness and applicability of these typologies, and concerns that authors do not justify why they have chosen to focus on certain variables to the neglect of others. The aim of this paper is to offer a review and critique of some of the most widely quoted typologies of workplace industrial relations, before putting forward our own ideas. We have constructed a typology for understanding and predicting how the process of industrial relations change will proceed at workplace level, which is illustrated by examples from our own research. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate further discussion about the nature of typologizing as well as contribute to our understanding of workplace industrial relations.

The Impact of Globalisation on Employment Relations: Some Research Propositions:

While there is widespread agreement that changes in the international economy associated with globalisation have important consequences for employment relations, there is less consensus about their nature and significance. One view is that globalization has created pressures for convergence between different countries in regard to employment relations. Another is that national level institutions play a mediating role in maintaining cross-national differences, leading to divergence. A third school rejects the convergence/divergence dichotomy and argues that complex interactions between global and national (or local) forces shape employment relations outcomes. Results outlined in this paper of a preliminary study of employment relations in the auto and banking industries in Australia and Korea reveal evidence of both similarities and differences on a range of dimensions. This implies that the relationship between globalization and employment relations is best explained by an interaction approach.

Analyzing Workplace Industrial Relations: The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey Typology

Devoting a special issue of the Journal of Industrial Relations to the main report of the findings of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, published as Industrial Relations at FVork (Callus et al. 1991), indicates the importance of this project to industrial relations research in Australia. As other contributors to this issue make clear, AWRS has greatly expanded our empirical knowledge of the Australian workplace. A second contribution of A\VIRS is that Callus et al. seek to further our conceptual understanding of workplace industrial relations. In chapter 7 of Industrial Relations at IVork, they develop a classificatory framework for Australian workplaces based on their industrial relations characteristics. In so doing, they take a step beyond the type of analysis provided in the main volumes reporting on the British Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys (Daniel & Millward 1983; Millward & Stevens 1986), which provided a point of departure for AWIRS. This framework will be the focus of my attention. In the first section of this article, I examine a number of employment relations typologies that have a bearing on the workplace Consideration is then given to the typology in Indirstrial Relations at Work, focusing on the dimensions that form the framework and the terms used to construct them. In the next section, I examine the AWIRS framework methodologically, raising questions about the way the dimensions were constructed. Finally, using the AWIRS framework as a reference point for assessing the state of industrial relations theory in Australia, I question the explanatory power of the model of industrial relations employed by the authors, with particular reference to the challenge posed to the discipline of industrial relations by the growing popularity of human resource management.

Australian Workplace Industrial Relations: A Rejoinder to Zappala

a Conceptual Framework’ (JIR, December 1989) was to stimulate debate concerning workplace labour relations. The work of Zappala and, recently, of Roy Green (1990), indicates that we have helped to carve out a track that is critically important if Australian industrial relations is to theoretically reinvigorate itself. On that point Zappala and we can agree. There are three major areas of disagreement:

Book Reviews : Small Firms and Industrial Districts in Italy: Edited by Edward Goodman and Julia Bamford with Peter Saynor. Routledge, London, 1989, xiii + 273 pp.,

a major influence, it is criticized by the authors for introducing ’overbureaucratised participation laws’ rather than changing the way in which work and organizations are designed. Furthermore, the authors argue, industrial democracy needs to expand its horizons to include ’humane economic strategies’. While these are laudable objectives, the book lacks a comprehensive explanation of what these strategies entail and how they are to be achieved. What Karasek does advance in this book, and in other recent publications, is the concept of ’New Value’, which emphasizes socially creative productive relations rather than conventional materialism. This is certainly a wider concept than industrial democracy, but it is difficult to translate into tangible form. The final chapter of the book is entitled ’Jobs of the Future and the Global Economy’. The authors provide a useful summary of the costs of modern production organization in terms of job insecurity and heart disease. They also outline the requirements for ’worker friendly jobs in the future’. Finally, they also lay out future choices in terms of the types of jobs we will have in the future. This brings attention back to the core message of the book concerning the need for ’healthy jobs’, not only for the sake of the individuals who perform them, but also in the interests of a productive economy in which people will be motivated to perform at their highest level and maximize their potential. This book deserves a wide readership and should stimulate action on the part of management, unions and governments to improve both the nature of jobs and the environments in which work is performed. It should also help to bridge the gap between the various professional and academic groups with an interest in this important field. University of Sydney RUSSELL LANSBURY

105.00 (hardback)

Charles Whalen’s book identifies avenues leading to the revitalization of industrial relations as an academic discipline. The contributors, a stellar assemblage of the field’s leading scholars, demonstrate there is much work to be done: the scope and intellectual content of industrial relations need to be reconsidered; academic and social institutions must be reshaped; and new conceptual and practical issues demand attention.