Nils Timo

How much does labour turnover cost?: A case study of Australian four‐ and five‐star hotels

Purpose – Employee turnover is a significant challenge for human resource management (HRM) strategies and organisational performance. This study seeks to present findings drawn from an extensive survey of labour turnover in the Australian accommodation sector. A particular focus is placed on turnover rates and costs.Design/methodology/approach – Based on labour turnover literature and an industry panel, an online survey was designed and distributed to four‐ and five‐star hotels across Australia. Human resource managers from 64 hotels participated in the survey, providing a representative sample and a response rate of 29 percent.Findings – The research shows that the major costs are attributed to labour turnover. These are costs that both the industry and individual operators should examine closely, as they impact substantially on hotel operating costs and profitability. It also indicates that the levels of service, consumer experience and value may be impacted.Research limitations/implications – A limitat...

The Dimensions of Organizational Climate in Four- and Five-Star Australian Hotels

This study aimed to determine the dimensions of organizational climate within four- and five-star hotels and to assess whether these dimensions vary significantly across hotels. Jones and James’s climate survey was shortened, modified to incorporate the psychometric improvements of Ryder and Southey, and tailored for specific use within hotels. The survey was administered to 1,401 employees from 14 hotels and provided a high index of reliability (α = .959). From items representing 35 a priori concepts, principal components analysis identified seven dimensions, which were labeled leader facilitation and support; professional and organizational esprit; conflict and ambiguity; regulations, organization, and pressure; job variety, challenge, and autonomy; job standards; and workgroup cooperation, friendliness, and warmth. Univariate analyses found each of the dimensions to vary significantly across the 14 hotels (p <.00005).

A survey of employee relations practices and demographics of MNC chain and domestic luxury hotels in Australia

Purpose – The paper aims to examine employment relations practices and labour market features of 4‐5 star luxury multinational chain (MNC) and domestic hotels operating in the Brisbane‐Gold Coast corridor in Australia and discuss the implications that competing on price and quality has on employment, wages and training.Design/methodology/approach – The study used data drawn from a large managerial and employee relations/demographic survey covering wages, employment status, age, gender, working conditions and training, including interview data from hotel HRM managers.Findings – The data showed a persistence of gendered, low waged and segmented labour markets dominated by flexible labour. Competition between MNC and domestic hotels were not found to be the conduit of “new” HRM practices as a competitive edge. Both MNC and domestic hotels shape the hotel labour market in a way which perpetuates cost minimization strategies based on an increasingly skilled, yet flexible and low cost labour force.Research limi...

The management of individualism in an Australian mining company

Over the last decade, there has been a growing debate about the relationship between industrial relations, human resource management and business strategies. For management, this involves an ongoing reappraisal of the balance between individualism and collectivism and a critique of third party intervention in the employment relationship. Describes a case study of CRA/RTZ in Australia and New Zealand and the managerial strategy used to deconstruct collective industrial relations through the use of standardized individualized contracts.

Precarious Employment and Individual Contracts in an Australian Mining Company

Abstract Strong union organisation and activity has been a hallmark of labour relations in the metalliferous mining industry. However, since the 1980s, a number of mining companies such as CRA/Rio Tinto have sought to restructure their labour relations along ‘HRM’ or ‘trust based’ managerial strategies that have as an objective the removal of unionism. The deconstruction of collective labour relations and the reformulation of an employee relations system through the introduction of party-to-party contractual relations through individual contracts is seen by some managers as a key in linking HRM/IR strategy to broader profit strategies. At the core of this reframing of labour relations is the linkage between precarious employment practices and cost minimisation strategies achieved by use of contracts. Contracts allow unilateral managerial decisions about work to go unchallenged and allow labour to become a commodity in a broader ‘asset management’ approach to the bottom line. This paper is a case study of ...

Industrial Change and Structural Efficiency—a Trade Union View

Abstract This paper is an overview of current developments in wage-fixation, the role of state intervention and union strategies. The paper reviews developments in wage-fixation culminating in the August 1989 National Wage Decision. The implications for union strategies are discussed with emphasis on changes in skill and control of work. It concludes by arguing that the Structural Efficiency process is part of a broader agenda which has profound implications for the development of the labour process in Australia.

Book Reviews : Industrial Relations Reform: a Policy for Australia: By William A. Howard and Carol Fox. Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1988, xiii + 112 pp.,

including equal pay, childcare (largely reprinted directly from Caring for Australia’s Children: Political and Industrial Issues in Child Care by Deborah Brennan and Carol O’Donnell), education and health. Only the chapters on equal pay, childcare, and the anti-discrimination and affirmative action legislation give the promised comparative discussion. The concluding chapter examines the current economic context and discusses trade and industry policy in some depth. Overall, the primary argument that women’s inequality can be reduced by their being involved in political unions that shift distribution and welfare issues from the industrial to the political arena is well substantiated. However, the uncritical acceptance of the policy objectives and strategies developed by the political and industrial arms of the labour movement is disappointing, given the growing body of critical analyses of the Accord and particularly given feminist critiques of the Accord, which this work implicitly addresses in large part. A controversial feature of the book is its treatment of the anti-discrimination and affirmative action legislation. Such legislation is dismissed as an ineffective

14.95 (paperback)

crisis and technological change is followed by an account of how traditional approaches to industrial relations in the three countries have changed. In Germany, employers and the state have held their fire against a union movement that is sufficiently incorporated to be seen to pose no threat to adjustment. In Britain and Italy, on the other hand, weakness and division have left unionism excluded from both the broader macro-political debates and from real influence at the shopfloor. Perhaps the most disappointing chapters are the three dealing with technological change and labour relations. The first by Butera and Della Rocca gives a very abstract account of automation and only comes to life when discussing the participative plans of Italian managers. Similarly Papadimitriou’s discussion of deskilling in Germany and Brandt’s analysis of labour market segmentation under technical change tend to be superficial and are overloaded with jargon. If this section of the book was intended to explain the causes of the crisis for unionism, then it lacks conviction. Too much is left out (especially concerning developments in management strategy and the economy); too much depends upon secondary sources that lack empirical foundation; and there is too much ad hoc categorization and analysis. In contrast, the final section of the book comes home strongly. Batstone and Terry offer differing interpretations of evidence upon the failing power of British shop stewards; Heine analyses the problems of Italian factory councils; Regalia points to the need for centralized strategies to counter recession; Accornero discusses how Italian unions need to branch out from their proletarian base; Mueller-Jentsch documents the contraction of membership and militancy in European unionism, pointing to union survival in only a rump of the workforce; and Zoll and Neumann close with a fascinating analysis of the tendency for workers to submit to authority in crisis situations, turning the victims into scapegoats. Collectively these chapters document the failure of the shopfloor-centred strategies that flourished fifteen years ago, while suggesting a few alternative directions that labour might take. In many ways this is an attractive book. Most papers have a strong line of argument, although a few collapse into waffle. They are well marshalled