The Impact of Competition and Trade Unions on Workplace Reform and Organisational and Technological Change

Natalia Nunes, Geoffrey Crockett and Peter Dawkins

Australian Economic Review, 1993, vol. 26, issue 2, pages 71-88

Abstract: This article addresses two research questions, firstly to test the hypothesis that organisational and technological changes are more likely to occur in the traded goods sector, in the private sector relative to the public sector and in more competitive product markets. Secondly, to examine whether trade unions have a positive or negative effect on the implementation of different types of workplace reforms, and organisational and technological changes.The analysis supports the hypothesis that workplaces in the traded goods sector are more likely to implement organisational and technological changes. It also indicates that workplaces in the private sector are more likely to implement certain types of reforms, whereas workplaces in the public sector are more likely to implement others. However, this study does not provide conclusive evidence that competitive pressure in product markets increases the probability that a firm will implement each workplace reform mentioned in this study. The evidence on unions provides tentative support to the view that more unionised workplaces are less likely to implement the reforms in question. Copyright 1993 The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.

Date: 1993
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (3) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8462.1993.tb00785.x link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:26:y:1993:i:2:p:71-88

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0004-9018

Access Statistics for this article

Australian Economic Review is edited by Ross Williams, Ian McDonald and Mark Wooden

More articles in Australian Economic Review from The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing ().