Supply chains and responsibility for OHS management in the Western Australian resources sector

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse human resource supply chains and the responsibility of occupational health and safety (OHS) management using Australian evidence from two unrelated research studies in the resources sector. Design/methodology/approach - The analysis is based on additional findings from the research projects using qualitative case study methodologies. The paper draws on interviews with the underground mining manager in study 1 and the OHS manager in study 2, together with current literature on supply chains and OHS responsibility in Australia. Findings - The paper uses examples drawn from two research studies conducted in the resources sector in 2011 to present the notion that there has been a shift in responsibility and management of OHS from the top of the supply chain to the bottom. Research limitations/implications - The paper draws on two unrelated studies that investigated different issues in OHS management. There is a need to undertake specific research to confirm the argument that suggests that the OHS management systems are improving for the bottom of the human resources supply chain in the resources sector. Practical implications - Findings suggest that in the middle tier resources sector the bottom of the human resources supply chains have robust OHS management systems and induction training, contrary to the weakening of OHS management in typical supply chains in other sectors. Originality/value - Unlike manufacturing, healthcare, the public sector and transport, there is little research conducted in the resources sector researching supply chains and OHS management. This paper provides limited evidence of a differing picture in the resources sector than other industries; however, it argues that further studies should be conducted

ALL CITIES ARE DIFFERENT: Moving creative workforce research forward to a new specificity

The cultural sector and its workforce are often positioned as economic drivers, and important themes within this discourse have included relationships between the cultural sector and human capital, urban regeneration, community engagement, branding, and image. Little of the research underpinning these arguments has documented the work practices, orientations, attitudes, career trajectories and skill requirements of individual creative workers, and even less has considered the spatially specific nature of labour conditions and career trajectories to produce a differentiated analysis of work and career. What happens within any locality over time will partially result from the changing roles it plays within the broader spatial divisions of labour within which it is emplaced. However, we argue that it is insufficient to claim that all cities are different; rather, there is a need to examine the specificity of work in each location.In this paper, the second in a series that examine specific elements of creative work, we consider spatiality with specific reference to the use of networks. Drawing on a case study of the film and television industries in Perth we raise the possibility of approaching such research by combining the global production network approach, labour process analysis, and research that looks within individual practice

Rediscovering Braverman?: Political Economy, Skill, and Skill Shortages

The debate over skill and skill shortages is full of complexity and contradiction. For example, just what is meant by skill and skill shortages is, at the very least, open to debate (Shah and Burke 2005). Furthermore, at the same time as Grugulis and Lloyd (2010, p. 92) point to a shift away from attempts to locate skill within a broader analysis of capitalist development and towards a narrower explanation of particular trends and concepts, theories are emerging about the changing nature of the economy - the knowledge economy, for example - which have major implications for the nature of skill and skill formation. Skill shortages are used to justify importing skilled labour from outside the state and country, echoing more generally a disproportionate focus on supply side issues in the debate (Hall 2011), at the same time as skill itself, once seen as a driver of prosperity, is placed alongside productivity as the driver of prosperity (Keep and Mayhew 2010). Internationally, this is reflected in policy documents which are 'couched in terms that ring with evangelical zeal' about the competitive and social importance of the supply of skills (Hayward and James 2004, p. 1)

Guest Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue on FIFO Work

This special edition of the Australian Bulletin of Labour is concerned with the recent and much-hyped phenomenon of Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) workers. We stress that our focus is on FIFO, not on the related question of work and employment in the resources sector, or on the broader impact of the resources sector on the regions and communities where it is located. There have been recent special editions of other journals on these matters: one assessing the impact of the Australian resources sector on rural societies (Rural Society 22, 2 2013) and another examining the dynamics and pattern of development in the Pilbara (Australian Geographer 44, 3 2013), as well as an inquiry—reported in 2013—undertaken by the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia (FHRE 2013)

Creative Labour: Towards a Renewed Research Agenda

This article focuses on the role of creative labour, which has figured prominently in narratives of ‘new capitalism’ that promise to change standard employment relations and generate new modes of innovation. To move beyond such broad claims a more detailed picture of the characteristics and dynamics of work and employment of creative workers in different industries and groups is required. In this paper we begin by outlining our theoretical approach based on a combination of global production analysis, labour process analysis and a relational view of territorial networks. We proceed by examining the definitions used to define particular industries and workers as cultural or creative and then review recent analysis of work and employment relations in the cultural sector

Small business revivalism: employment relations in small and medium-sized enterprises

This e-special issue focuses on employment relations in the context of ‘small business revivalism’ and an ‘enterprise culture’ that has sought to establish a so-called ‘entrepreneurial economy’. Economic restructuring and other political, social and economic changes in the 1970s and 1980s led to an increase in the number and prominence of small and medium-sized enterprises, with implications for the working lives of many people who are now more likely to work as selfemployed, freelancers or members of smaller organizations. This e-special issue presents research from Work, employment and society that considers important elements of these changes, including debates about the influences of businesses’ external and internal environments, family relations and government policy. This introduction provides a general overview of the field of employment relations in small and medium-sized enterprises and the 11 articles included in the e-special issue

Symbolic Analysts in the New Economy? Call Centres in Less Favoured Regions

Previously, authors suggested that call centres will tend to evolve into 'knowledge' work (Frenkel et al., 1995). However, more recent studies recognise that call centres are diverse and need to be examined in context (Taylor et al. 2002). In relation to regional development, call centres have contributed to job creation in Europe (Richardson et al., 2002). However, despite a large increase in the general literature on call centres, and investigation of the regional implications of the growth of call centres in UK, the literature on place and location is very limited, especially in Australia (Barrett, 2001). In contrast, researchers have demonstrated a high level of interest in regard to questions of control, surveillance, work intensity and stress (Callaghan & Thompson, 2001; Kinnie et al., 2000; Taylor & Bain, 1999), but the literature has included few details about employees beyond age, gender and whether they work full- or part-time. Knowledge of employees' work histories, including their previous employment status, occupations and industry of work would provide a more comprehensive comparative basis from which more precise conclusions might be drawn. Our major aims in this study were therefore threefold: firstly, to establish the background of a new call centre in a less favoured region in Australia; secondly, to identify the personal characteristics and employment records of a sample of employees from the call centre; and thirdly, to explore the employee data in relation to their responses to the new work environment. Data were collected in three phases comprising semi-structured interviews with senior and middle managers (nine interviews), a survey of frontline employees (N=142, 365) and focus groups (ten groups with a total of 54 participants). Key findings are that the costs and benefits of the call centre are consistent with the framework of Richardson and Belt (2001), suggesting that the reality of the new call centre in a LFR is more mundane than that suggested by the rhetoric about knowledge workers and high technology investment. Secondly, the respondents to the survey produced a picture of workers who are female, young and with relatively low education levels. Many were previously unemployed and the majority came from low skilled jobs in retail, government, and service industries. They could not be classified as `knowledge workers'. Finally, the majority of respondents found both the terms and conditions worse, and stress levels higher in their new work environment, than in their previous one. Patterns appear to exist in relation to specific industries and are supported by employees' responses to open-ended questions

Absenteeism from the frontline: explaining employee stress and withdrawal in a call centre

This paper reports on a study which investigated employees' views on why they find call centre work more stressful than other types of work and the reasons for high levels of absenteeism in their workplace. Data were collected from frontline employees (n = 58) of a telecommunications call centre during ten focus groups. Content analysis of the data identified nine major themes. Overall, the study suggests that employee stress results from managers' emphases on sales and efficiency demands, directed by specific targets and high levels of electronic monitoring. Additionally, employees vary in their ability to provide emotional labour and deal with the stress of customer interactions. Other themes focused on call centre support processes and structures, teams, insufficient rest time, inadequate communication systems and human resource management issues. All the themes contributed to accumulated stress. Absenteeism was explained in terms of the accumulated stress, the perceived hygiene of the centre, proximity to others and employees' lack of identity. Finally, decreased employee commitment and withdrawal were attributed to perceived inequities in the workplace. The paper concludes with a discussion of managerial applications

Bricolage as Survival, Growth and Transformation:the Role of Patchworking in the Social Agency of Migrant Entrepreneurs

This article examines the patch-working strategies of migrant entrepreneurs as a form of social agency. ‘Patch-working’ – the reliance on supplementary forms of income to support business activity – is often seen as a means of cushioning the financial vulnerability of small firms. However, the mechanisms and forms that patch-working takes tend to be overlooked. Evidence from 42 West Midlands’ firms shows that, despite the highly constrained operating environment, the exercise of social agency can help to cushion against disadvantage and to rework their current conditions through patch-working. This allows for business growth, and even transformational growth in some cases, rather than sheer survival. Even so, our findings show that the agency of migrant entrepreneurs brings about only minor improvements in revenue and is certainly not capable of fundamentally changing either the nature of the sector or the structure of the labour market in which they are embedded