This article considers the possibility that'high performance work system' (HPWS) practices generate positive outcomes for employees by meeting their interests (specifically their interest in an orderly and predictable working environment). Utilising survey data on employees working in the...

This article critically addresses the claim that there has been a striking growth in ‘knowledge work’ in advanced economies. Using the Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey, we examine occupational change from 1986 to 2000 to evaluate the support for this claim....

Positive accounts of teamwork emphasise its potential not just to improve organisational performance, but to transform employees' experience of work in overwhelmingly positive ways. The key outcome is said to be enhanced employee discretion, which in turn contributes to satisfaction, commitment...

The shift of an industrial relations system from the centralised settlement of pay and work conditions to the encouragement of enterprise-level bargaining presents industrial relations actors with the opportunity to influence the organisation of work in one of two ways. Drawing on a range of...

The aim of this paper is to assess the validity of the `empowerment thesis': the belief that new forms of work organisation are overturning traditional managerial structures and returning control to employees. Specifically, the project seeks to explore the role of `empowering' forms of work...

Aims to subject to empirical scrutiny the claim that peripheral work is characterized by a range of undesirable characteristics. The analysis of data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (AWIRS) clearly shows that there is a link between peripheral forms of employment and...