Personnel Management in the Post-Capitalistic Age

Abstract

The recession that climaxed in 1982/83 tested the management of both large and small companies. Organisations with histories of good industrial relations found that they were forced to layoff staff and, in the midst of these redundancies, found that goodwill and trust with employees and unions disappeared.

This paper examines one Australian Company that was forced to reduce its staff from 971 to 588 and examines the way in which this was done so that trust and goodwill with employees and the trade unions was maintained. From this, using the model designed by Kuhn as a tool, the author examines the implications this has for personnel management in general as we head for the turn of the twenty-first century.

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