Are Australians Really Unhappier with their Bosses Because they're working harder? Perspiration and Persuasion in Modern Work
Year: 2002
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: It has been common for analysts to develop typologies of management strategies, distinguishing in some way between employers who exercise close direct control of workers and those who provide greater autonomy and self-direction for workers. The latter group is said to be increasing in incidence relative to the former group. Yet there is also considerable evidence of work intensification, in Australia and elsewhere. Is this a result of employers exercising greater direct control over workers? That is, is work intensification a defining characteristic of a paradigm that encompasses greater exercise of managerial prerogative and which is distinguished from a more worker-friendly, participative paradigm in which employees work “smarter,” not “harder?” Or is work intensification also occurring in workplaces where managers provide greater autonomy and decision-making power to workers – attributes which are increasingly being associated with the term “high performance workplace?” Is dissatisfaction with management growing because of the stress associated with work intensification? Are Australians – and perhaps by implication, workers elsewhere – unhappier with their bosses because they are working harder? Or are there other factors at work? Before we turn to our data, we will expand on some of the background in the literature to this study. Although typologies of managerial strategy differ in their precise content and definition, they all establish some distinction between what Wright (1995) calls “high trust” and “low trust” approaches. Friedman (1977), for
Source: Griffith Research Online
Authors: David Peetz, Cameron Allan, Michael O’Donnell
Language: English
Subfield: Industrial relations
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2116281447