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Strategic Choices in Pluralist and Unitarist Employment Relations Regimes: A Study of Australian Telecommunications

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  • Peter Ross
  • Greg J. Bamber

Abstract

Using interview data collected between 1992 and 2009, the authors explore how deregulation of the Australian telecommunications sector and re-regulation of the labor market affected employment relations (ER) strategies at Telstra, Australia's former telecommunications monopoly. Labor market re-regulation reversed much of the previous institutional support for union activity, and unions struggled to adjust to this changed institutional context. Telstra's ER strategies included large-scale downsizing and outsourcing. It moved dramatically toward unitarist (anti-union) ER approaches, with a shift away from collective bargaining toward individual employment contracts. This history raises a more general question of the extent to which employers make strategic ER choices autonomously and the extent to which such choices reflect the influence of the national institutional context. The authors conclude that while the changing institutional context—in this case, primarily government regulation—facilitated Telstra's strategic choices, management ideology was an important intervening variable in determining such choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Ross & Greg J. Bamber, 2009. "Strategic Choices in Pluralist and Unitarist Employment Relations Regimes: A Study of Australian Telecommunications," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 63(1), pages 24-41, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:63:y:2009:i:1:p:24-41
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390906300102
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. van Kranenburg, H.L. (Hans) & Hagedoorn, John, 2008. "Strategic focus of incumbents in the European telecommunications industry: The cases of BT, Deutsche Telekom and KPN," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 116-130, March.
    2. Carroll, Glenn R. & Teece, David J. (ed.), 1999. "Firms, Markets, and Hierarchies: The Transaction Cost Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195119510.
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    1. Andreas Kornelakis, 2016. "Inclusion or Dualization? The Political Economy of Employment Relations in Italian and Greek Telecommunications," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 385-408, June.
    2. Michalski, Hans-Jürgen, 2015. "Der Wandel der Telekommunikationsindustrie im 21. Jahrhundert: Eine international vergleichende Analyse der Unternehmensstrukturen und -strategien weltweit führender Telekommunikationskonzerne," Study / edition der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, volume 127, number 296, March.

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