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Agency and the deunionisation of managers in an Australian telecommunications company

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 08:43 authored by Ruth BartonRuth Barton, Van den Broek, D
Discussions about deunionisation usually focus on lower levels of the workforce with managers seen as the initiators of deunionisation strategies. Managers, however, occupy contradictory positions as agents of capital, employees and possibly trade unionists. This can place them in the position of being both recipients and conduits in deunionisation strategies. The focus of the study is on Telstra, the major telecommunications carrier in Australia. Using a range of sources such as interviews and company and union materials, this qualitative research shows how between 1992 and 2000 Telstra's senior management's concerns over middle management agency prompted them to reframe the concept of a manager by using a set of managerial practices from the mining company CRA and the provisions of the Workplace Relations Act (1996) to individualise and deunionise their managerial ranks as a precursor to the deunionisation of the wider workforce.

History

Publication title

Journal of Management & Organization

Volume

17

Pagination

210-225

ISSN

1833-3672

Department/School

TSBE

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

© Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2011

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Employment patterns and change

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