This article repons on the results of a questionnaire survey undertaken in August September 1991 on the employment practices of members of the Auckland Employers' Association. It looks at the ways in which flexibility in employment practices differs amongst Northern employers, and suggests that these vary in different sectors of the economy and in firms of different sizes, with the predominant tendency being towards the adoption of short-term rather than long-tetnz adjustment strategies.

It seems appropriate to reflect on the current state of the Division in our first annual report, prepared 10 years after formation of the Chemistry-Nuclear Chemistry Division in January 1971. On October 1, 1980 two new groups (CNC-3, Medical Radioisotopes Research, and CNC-7, Isotope Geochemistry) were formed in addition to our existing groups (CNC-2, Physical Chemistry-Chemical Physics, CNC-4, Inorganic and Structural Chemistry, and CNC-11, Nuclear and Radiochemistry. See Organization Chart below.) At the end of FY-1980, we had 155 people in the Division, including 95 professional scientists, 75 with the degree of Ph.D. During the year, we had 11 postdoctoral appointees, a postgraduate resident in nuclear medicine, and one of the recipients of the prestigious J. Robert Oppenheimer Fellowship awarded by the Laboratory each year to one or two outstanding young scientists. During the past year

<p>This thesis outlines the nature of human resource management in the Accommodation, Cafes, and Restaurants industrial sector in New Zealand in the late 1990s. Using data collected through postal surveys, interviews and analysis of employment contracts, the thesis utilises Gospel's (1992) analytical framework (which suggests that labour, employment and work are the key areas in which managers must make human resource decisions) to describe prevailing patterns of management occurring in the industry. It suggests that stereotypical conceptions about the nature and structure of employment within the industry do not reflect current day reality, and that deregulation of licensing laws, a rapid rate of growth and the nature of customer demand within the industry have had a significant impact on human resource related decisions. The thesis also attempts to uncover the rationales provided by managers for their employment related decisions. In doing so it finds that while some management decisions are clearly affected by market constraints, others appear on the face of things to be inconsistent with management's express view of their competitive strategy. This is explained with reference to Anthony Gidden's stratification theory of action to support the notion that managerial decision making is not a completely rational and market-related process, but that other factors, including ideology and manager's own conceptions of themselves as social actors, are influential in the decisions that are made.</p>

Since the passage of the Employment Contracts Act in 1991, there has been much debate in New Zealand about prevailing patterns of labour relations. It has been suggested that distinctions can be drawn between those workplaces where the Act has been used to exploit workers in a disadvantaged labour market position, those where the Act has been used to develop more positive relationships, and those where little change has been experienced. The service sector in general and the hospitality industry in particular, is often used as an example of the first of these three strategies but usually first on the basis of anecdotal evidence. This paper looks more widely at the question of labour relations practices, reporting survey evidence from 1100 workplaces in the "Accommodation Cafes and Restaurants" industrial sector in New Zealand, followed up by interviews with managers in the industry. It focuses on the nature of employment contracts, wage determination, and representation in the industry. It concludes that the prevailing pattern of labour relations should be characterised not as exploitative, but rather as a form of benevolent paternalism. It also concludes that there is little evidence to support the contention that the ECA has resulted in an increased amount of real negotiation in the industry.

No abstract

<p>This thesis outlines the nature of human resource management in the Accommodation, Cafes, and Restaurants industrial sector in New Zealand in the late 1990s. Using data collected through postal surveys, interviews and analysis of employment contracts, the thesis utilises Gospel's (1992) analytical framework (which suggests that labour, employment and work are the key areas in which managers must make human resource decisions) to describe prevailing patterns of management occurring in the industry. It suggests that stereotypical conceptions about the nature and structure of employment within the industry do not reflect current day reality, and that deregulation of licensing laws, a rapid rate of growth and the nature of customer demand within the industry have had a significant impact on human resource related decisions. The thesis also attempts to uncover the rationales provided by managers for their employment related decisions. In doing so it finds that while some management decisions are clearly affected by market constraints, others appear on the face of things to be inconsistent with management's express view of their competitive strategy. This is explained with reference to Anthony Gidden's stratification theory of action to support the notion that managerial decision making is not a completely rational and market-related process, but that other factors, including ideology and manager's own conceptions of themselves as social actors, are influential in the decisions that are made.</p>

The celebration of one hundred years of women's suffrage in New Zealand in 1993 has provided a welcome opportunity to undertake something of a "stock-take" of many aspects of women's participation in the social and economic life of New Zealand. Participation in the paid workforce is one of the most important of these, given the centrality of employment and work to social identity and economic well-being. The current re-assessment has, however, raised more questions than it has answered, given the rapidly changing social and economic environment in which women work. This includes the restructuring of the economy, the growth of the service sector, social policy changes in health and education, and the greater emphasis on market regulation of many areas previously subject to legislative regulation.

Over recent years, as interest has grown at a national level in improving productivity and performance, the workplace has received increasing research attention as a unit of analysis. Internationally, the existence of a High Performance Work Systems model has been debated, and there has been an outpouring of articles giving consideration to the range of workplace practices that are associated with this model. This has been facilitated by the existence in many countries of large­scale surveys that provide a systematic and robust evidence base for informed policy making. Within the New Zealand context, however, the empirical basis for drawing conclusions about the nature and spread of a range of workplace practices is sparse, and limited by the data available in official statistics and a continued reliance by researchers on small­scale case studies. This paper considers the limits of our knowledge about the dynamics of New Zealand workplaces, and questions whether the time has come for development of a large scale survey to provide robust empirical evidence to better inform decision­making by policy makers and practitioners.