‘Try, Learn, Adjust’: it’s time to bring workers into disability support policy

Aotearoa New Zealand is on the verge of significant change aimed at increasing disabled people’s access to and control and choice over the support they receive in order to have the flexible, high-quality care that enables them to lead ‘good’ lives. However, the system changes – Mana Whaikaha – designed to enact the Enabling Good Lives policy has its roots in neo-liberal funding and policy approaches that undervalue support work, and has largely overlooked workers and workforce development. The lack of recognition of the disability support workforce in this policy development threatens the success of the programme to provide quality support to disabled people

Regulation and Voice in Residential Aged Care in New Zealand

This paper seeks to explain why employment conditions have persistently remained low in this sector. It does this through examining employee voice (representative and direct) in residential aged care. This paper presents findings on the role of employee voice in four case studies of four New Zealand residential aged care facilities. It examines voice at both the organisational and national level and identifies key barriers to improved conditions for employees in residential aged care

Changing Parental Leave Orientations in New Zealand

New Zealand first introduced legislation for parental leave in 1980, with the Maternity Leave and Employment Protection Act. This Act provided up to 26 weeks of employment protection and unpaid leave for women only. Eligibility required 18 months of continuous employment of 15 hours or more per week for the same employer. Subsequently, there were two major developments in the legislation. In 1987 the introduction of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act gave men the right to parental leave and reduced eligibility requirements. The second major change was in 2002 with the introduction of paid parental leave in the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave) Act. This paper applies Baird’s (2004) typology of maternity leave orientations to analyse the fundamental debates occurring for each of these changes in legislation. An historical approach is used to gain a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of the development of parental leave in New Zealand. Baird’s (2004) typology posits that the debate can be categorised into four orientations. Each represents different stakeholder ideologies towards the Australian debate on paid maternity leave in 2002. This paper illustrates through historical analysis of the social commentary surrounding the aforementioned legislation in New Zealand, that Baird’s typology also accurately portrays the changing orientation towards parental leave and employment protection in New Zealand over time. However, in contrast to Baird’s analysis, where she proposes that the orientations describe the viewpoints of different parties within the debate, we have found that one orientation dominates the attitudes behind each major change in legislation. Specifically, this study finds that the Bargaining orientation encompasses the dominant arguments, mechanisms and outcomes of the 1980 legislation; the Business orientation maps well to the 1987 legislation; and the Welfare orientation conveys the development and implementation of the 2002 legislation. The New equity orientation, due to the underlying push for equality which led to the instigation of parental leave in the first instance, is applicable to all of the legislation to some extent.The symposium is organised on behalf of AAHANZBS by the Business and Labour History Group, The University of Sydney, with the financial support of the University’s Faculty of Economics and Business

Regulation and Voice in Residential Aged Care in New Zealand

This paper seeks to explain why employment conditions have persistently remained low in this sector. It does this through examining employee voice (representative and direct) in residential aged care. This paper presents findings on the role of employee voice in four case studies of four New Zealand residential aged care facilities. It examines voice at both the organisational and national level and identifies key barriers to improved conditions for employees in residential aged care

Improving Productivity Through Enhancing Employee Wellbeing and Participation

This paper outlines the rationale and methodology for an international comparative project investigating the links between workplace productivity and employee wellness and well being via the operation of representative employee participation structures in Denmark and New Zealand. It will define and discuss the often contentious terms of productivity, wellbeing and participation and how employee participation and wellbeing and the work environment impact on productivity. This paper employs a multi-dimensional theoretical framework and will assess the significance of the issues examined: analyse the impact of employment practices and quality of the work environment on productivity: and as a result present the methodology developed for the project

Improving Productivity Through Enhancing Employee Wellbeing and Participation

This paper outlines the rationale and methodology for an international comparative project investigating the links between workplace productivity and employee wellness and well being via the operation of representative employee participation structures in Denmark and New Zealand. It will define and discuss the often contentious terms of productivity, wellbeing and participation and how employee participation and wellbeing and the work environment impact on productivity. This paper employs a multi-dimensional theoretical framework and will assess the significance of the issues examined: analyse the impact of employment practices and quality of the work environment on productivity: and as a result present the methodology developed for the project

Productivity, participation and employee wellbeing in the Residential Aged Care Sector

The way in which employee participation, productivity and employee wellbeing interact is shaped by power relationships in the workplace and its broader political and economic environment. This thesis investigates the relationship between employee participation, productivity and employee wellbeing at an organisational level. It also examines the role that the external environment has on the relationship between employee participation, productivity and employee wellbeing in organisations. It does that in the context of a highly feminised, low paid sector: residential aged care. The analysis of this specific relationship is guided by a feminist epistemology. This facilitates examination of the role of gender and power. A feminist epistemology focuses the investigation on the experiences of the participants and the formal and informal processes that form the context for that experience. A multiple case study approach of four residential aged care providers is used to gain the contextual information necessary for this research. Sources of information at each organisation include interviews with employees and managers; organisational documentation; and a survey developed specifically for this thesis. The case organisation information is compared with information at a sector level. This includes information from interviews with owners’ associations and union representatives, public reports and academic research. The findings of this thesis show that the relationship between productivity, employee participation and employee wellbeing is one in which all three aspects are integral to each other. In particular, the productivity approach of managers influences the way in which employee participation is implemented in the workplace. Effective representative participation does have a positive influence on employee wellbeing. However, the best employee outcomes resulted from multiple participatory practices including union and non-union, direct, and representative participation. Managers’ choices were pivotal to employee participation but they were guided by organisational structure and external factors. This thesis extends traditional concepts of power which do not pay sufficient attention to the role that gender plays in the relationship between employee participation, productivity and employee wellbeing. Gender regimes in society were found to result in under-valued work. This in turn limited employee participation at both organisational and sector levels. Limited employee participation and associated lack of employee power meant that employee outcomes were continually overlooked in favour of organisational outcomes

Eisenhardt's impact on theory in case study research

This article summarizes the key points of Eisenhardt's (1989), "Building theories from case study research," and its impact on research in management and marketing. The present article uses citation data from the Web of Knowledge database which shows that Eisenhardt (1989) has 2509 citations to the end of 2008, and that the articles first citing Eisenhardt (1989), most frequently citing Eisenhardt (1989), and most recently citing Eisenhardt (1989) appear in high-ranking journals. The citation impact for Eisenhardt (1989) far exceeds that of other articles appearing in the same issue of the Academy of Management Review. Eisenhardt (1989) continues to receive high numbers of citations annually. The use of citations indicates an increasing engagement with Eisenhardt's (1989) framework, and an influence across several business disciplines. In a comparison with Armstrong's (2003) measure of important findings, this present study concludes that Eisenhardt's (1989) article is important in terms of the replication, validity, usefulness, and surprise values of her findings.Case study Theory building Citation analysis