Katherine Ravenswood

The Role of Unions in Achieving a Family-friendly Workplace

The role of unions in achieving a family-friendly organization can be pivotal through bargaining for family-friendly provisions. This role is determined not only by union monopoly power and the gendered structure of collective voice of the workforce, but also by national trends in the organization of work and the role of trade unions, as well as the relationship between individual unions and organizations. This case study of a New Zealand local government organization particularly focuses on the contrasts in family-friendly provisions of collective agreements negotiated by different unions at the same workplace. Using Gregory and Milner’s (2009) framework of ‘opportunity structures’, the article confirms that unions may have a key role in the provision of family-friendly policy, and provides a contextual picture of the relationships between family-friendly policy and organizational and union characteristics. This article suggests that strengthening the positions of unions and collective bargaining may be an effective route for the instigation of family-friendly policy.

Glass slippers, Holy Grails and Ivory Towers: gender and advancement in academia

Australasia, as with other western countries, has experienced gender differentials in the advancement of women through academia. Some of the barriers to advancement that have been identified in the literature include unconscious attitudes towards work organisation and the value of work performed by men and women. Further, concepts of ‘meritocracy’ may in fact hide gender discrimination and also obscure the role of informal networks in disseminating information and knowledge that privilege some groups over others in the appointment processes. This article draws on in-depth interviews with 32 male and female research active academics across all faculties of a New Zealand university. This article uses the metaphor of fairy tales to explore and explain gendered experiences of academic advancement. The use of a different context to analyse our findings not only protects the anonymity of participants, but uncovers assumptions of work and merit in academic advancement.

Influence at work and the desire for more influence

What determines whether workers want more influence in their workplace? Much of the literature on employee voice assumes that employees desire a say in how they do their work, and that where they lack influence they are more likely to desire a greater say. This econometric study of 536 Danish and New Zealand employees in four industries indicates that workers’ desire for more influence was not dependent on how much influence they thought they already had. What mattered was age, length of service and specific organisational characteristics. Those who wanted more influence were not learning new things and did not feel that they received sufficient information about the workplace, and those who felt appreciated by management did not desire more influence. The results support human resource management literature that suggests the importance of integrated and mutually supportive ‘bundles’ of employment practices to support high performance.

The role of government in influencing labour conditions through the procurement of services: Some political challenges

The increasing complexity of the employment relationship in supply chains poses challenges to the protection of labour standards internationally. While there is significant research on labour standards in international supply chains, there is much less on domestic supply chains and public procurement. Furthermore, the role of government in supply chain labour standards is under-researched. This article uses the context of residential aged care in Australia and New Zealand to highlight the inadequacy of the current role of government in promoting decent labour standards in domestic supply chains. We argue that the role of government in the employment relationship needs to be reconceptualised in order to recognise its agency as an indirect employer, and its consumer power, in public procurement.

Missing in Action: Building a Case For Culturally Diverse Osh Committees in New Zealand Hotels

Abstract The hospitality sector in New Zealand is characterised by high turnover, long hours and a diverse workforce. Rather than being perceived as problematic, these aspects are usually regarded as cultural norms in the industry. In addition to these conditions, common occupational safety and health issues for employees in the industry include intense emotional labour, physical and verbal abuse from customers, and physical injury. These concerns are not always addressed in the workplace, despite employee participation in occupational safety and health being legislated for in New Zealand. This paper presents findings from in-depth interviews with employee representatives on occupational safety and health committees in the hospitality industry. The paper considers why those committees may, or may not, be effective for what is an increasingly diverse workforce. The findings suggest that existing occupational safety and health committees do not adequately address the needs and representation of diverse employees in the industry.

Managing diversity in the South Pacific

This chapter examines the approaches to diversity management in the South Pacific, specifically New Zealand, Australia and two French Pacific Territories – Polynesia and New Caledonia. The focus of the analysis is on gender and racial equality. The chapter will examine the legislative requirements promoting diversity and equality; organizational programs to promote diversity and equality; and the equity and diversity challenges confronting each of the countries/territories. In terms of equity and diversity there are three common features across the region. All have indigenous populations with unique cultures and histories that have in general been marginalized in terms of access to jobs and wealth. All have a colonial legacy as European settlement was imposed across the region in the 18th and 19th centuries and, to different degrees, indigenous communities and lifestyles have been irrevocably altered. Finally, immigration from Europe, and more recently from Asia, has been an ongoing feature of the region. Diversity management and equal employment opportunities (EEO) issues are important across the region with major inequalities by gender, race, age and ethnicity in terms of employment access and labour market outcomes.

Gender and voice in aged care: embeddedness and institutional forces

Abstract Little is known about the role of gender in employee voice which is a particular research gap in feminised industries such as residential aged care. This article employs a multiple case study method to examine employee voice in residential aged care in New Zealand. It investigates the role of ‘embedded’ voice mechanisms, with a focus on informal voice and managerial agency as well as the impact of the external environment on organisational voice. This article questions the role of voice in maintaining low wages in residential aged care; and what role gender has in the embeddedness of voice. It finds that managerial agency is important at an organisational level, but that gender regimes influence institutional forces that have a greater influence on employee voice.

Academic careers and parenting: identity, performance and surveillance

ABSTRACT This paper explores the experiences and perceptions of parent academics and their colleagues, and argues that in the absence of institutional support and guidance, self and peer assessment of academic identity in relation to performance becomes a measure against which academics assess their own academic careers and the academic careers of others. The context of the study is contemporary neoliberal academia in which competition is encouraged, driving individuals to actively self-manage their own academic careers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 32 senior lecturers and associate professors, both parents and non-parents. Three distinct social identity groups were found among the participants: those who placed parenthood ahead of their career; parents who performed ‘despite’ their children, and a third group of ‘surveillers’ of other academic parents and their careers. Perceptions of parenthood as detrimental to academic careers was enforced through these identity groups, particularly the ‘surveillance’ of academic parents by their colleagues.

Caring on the clock. The complexities and contradictions of paid care work

between the domestic and market spheres’; and finally Whitehouse provides a cross-national comparison aimed at capturing ‘differences in regulation content across regime types’. Each of these chapters thus focuses on combining what are more often treated as separate analysis and policy domains, on putting gender alongside class, the domestic and/or welfare sphere alongside the labour market, employment and work–life balance alongside pay gaps, thereby reinforcing not only the scope for differential gender equality outcomes but also illustrating the ever changing dynamics of gender equality. The second part of the book provides six carefully selected case studies of three regulation-proximate and three regulation-distant occupations, with one female-dominated, one male-dominated and one mixed occupation in each category. The male-dominated and the female-dominated include one manual and one white-collar/service occupation (mining and senior execs for men, textiles and clothing and public sector professionals for women) but the mixed occupations are both higher level service jobs, academics and film and television work. Each chapter provides its own story, primarily in relation to the Australian experience, but there are some general themes, in particular that although there are gains, there are also new problems and barriers. These occupational stories emphasise the tendency for the path to gender equality to be far from linear, more a case of two steps forward and one step back. The unevenness of the path forward and the presence of countervailing tendencies is also emphasised in the editors’ last concluding chapter; social norms and the content of regulation have brought gains for women but these have been offset to some extent by more regulation distance. In short, it is rare to find such a neatly constructed edited book project. The framework applied here stands up very well to empirical exploration and is thus ripe for use in other geographical and occupational contexts.

Physical and verbal abuse, work demands, training and job satisfaction amongst aged-care employees in the home and community sector

ABSTRACT While the aged-care workforce undertakes a core societal role, it is a job with some challenges including working with difficult clients. This study focuses on physical and verbal abuse of aged-care employees in the home and community sector, and its relationship with work demands, training and employee outcomes. It extends the job demands–resources model into the seldom studied areas of aged-care work in the home and community sector and the issue of abuse from clients. This study uses structural equation modelling to test a mediated model with a sample of 574 aged-care employees and finds that training is highly beneficial, enhancing job satisfaction and decreasing incidences of abuse. Further, it finds that job demands have a negative impact on physical and verbal abuse, and that physical and verbal abuse has a detrimental impact on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. These findings are an important start in understanding the impact of work conditions (training, work demands, abuse) on employee outcomes (abuse, job satisfaction, intention to leave) with implications for the management of home and community aged-care employees. The findings contribute to our knowledge of physical and verbal abuse in healthcare, focusing on aged-care work in the home and community sector.