The successful implementation of new technologies is dependent on many factors including the efficient management of human resources. Furthermore, recent research indicates that intellectual assets and resources can be utilised much more efficiently and effectively if organisations apply knowledge management techniques for leveraging their human resources and enhancing their personnel management. The human resources departments are well positioned to ensure the success of knowledge management programs, which are directed at capturing, using and re‐using employees’ knowledge. Through human resources management a culture that encourages the free flow of knowledge for meeting organisational goals can be created. The strategic role of the human resources department in identifying strategic and knowledge gaps using knowledge mapping is discussed in this paper. In addition, the drivers and implementation strategies for knowledge management programs are proposed.
This paper reports on the preferences and experiences of the councillor level of New South Wales (NSW, Australia) local government, concerning the public service values that guide the council staff working under a politicised employment relationship. The results of the study show that councillors perceive council staff to be as largely neutral in their behaviour as they expect them to be. The paper further reports that the council staff (in the view of councillors) do not politically respond to any unreasonable demands made by elected officials or act as the trustee of the public interest in competition with them. Data for this study were collected through interviews, a survey, and from secondary sources.
Council officers as public managers are expected to work for the community. Yet, it has been argued that council officers working under a politicised employment relationship are likely to be more committed to the elected councillors than to the community. This proposition has been examined through a survey of senior council officers across Australia and the results are presented in this article. This study develops an analytical approach which combines for the first time the multi-focus and the multiple bases of managerial commitment approaches, applies this to the case of Australian local government managers and finds that although most senior council officers perceive that their employment is politicised they remain committed to the community. Based upon these findings, it is argued that a conceptual framework utilising a combined multi-focus and multiple bases approach is more appropriate to the study of commitment of local government managers and to managers in the public sector in general than the use of either approach alone.
1989 was an extraordinary year for trade unionism in terms of both the changes emanating from union activity and the changes that occurred in union organization. It was also a remarkable year if judged in terms of union successes and failures. It marked the end of a decade that will be remembered for the fundamental changes in union form and function that had begun to occur and for the establishment of a solid basis for further change. Australian trade unionism finished the decade very differently from how it had begun. 1989 saw the exodus or imminent departure from the trade unions of most of the remaining few union leaders who had served for a long period, and this movement among the leadership has had significant consequences for union attitudes and behaviours.It was, on the whole, a much better year for the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) than for many of its affiliates, although the same could be said of the past decade. 1989 was a year filled with contrasts. While the ACTU maintained its centralized control over union activities in relation to wages and conditions, there were several very high-profile examples of unions going outside the formal system and suffering greatly as a consequence. While tremendous progress was made in some industries towards closer unionmanagement co-operation, particularly relating to restructuring initiatives, in other instances the distrust and hostility between the parties appeared to reach new levels of intensity. The ACTu continued to exercise considerable power and influence through its negotiations with the Federal Government, which had been a feature of most of the 1980s, while trade unions themselves experienced declining membership numbers and were forced to trade off previously won conditions of employment.In this annual review ACTu initiatives will be considered, and the role of the ACTu in bringing about efficiency restructuring, both in industry and in trade unionism, will be discussed. Union activities concerning wages and structural efficiency will be examined and some aspects of union-government relations will be considered. The rationalization of trade unions occurring through amalgamation, body trading and as an outcome of demarcation disputes will be examined and some of the more interesting features of interand intra-union disputes discussed.
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