Managing the Employment Relationship on Greenfield Sites in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Utilising a two dimensional framework of analysis of the employment relationship on greenfield sites first tested in a Scottish study (Leopold and Hallier, 1997), this study develops that framework and applies it to companies operating on greenfield sites in Australia and New Zealand. Examples are analysed of companies attempting break with the past; replication of a high commitment style; and continuing traditional approaches. The point made in the earlier study that not all greenfield site management seek to establish a new philosophy is reconfirmed. There is also evidence of the tendency for companies to attempt replication of successful philosophies that are judged to be robust and universal. Difficulties in sustaining such approaches caused by adverse product market fluctuations lead to the preferred philosophy being reformulated, re-stated and re-sold to the workforce as it cannot be abandoned on any site or it would lose claims to universality. A 'crisis of employee expectations' in high commitment is also identified and analysed. As in the Scottish study, it is concluded that problems of consolidation and the possibility of periodic market instabilities pressures that require adaptation of policy and practice on both replicator and philosophy sites.