Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources

Studies of Human Resource Mangement (HRM) are both more relevant and more interesting if analysis is emphasised before prescription. This article argues that a more analytical approach to HRM can be constructed from 3 areas of study: the traditional reviews of 20th century management thought; comparative and radical studies of managerial strategy; and new developments in organisation theory. These demonstrate both the com plexity of HRM, (policies vary in different contexts, the same policies can generate different results), and suggest hypotheses to explain the variations found. By pulling this type of analysis into the study of HRM, management education can become more relevant, and managerial prescriptions less prone to error.

Following various recent proposals to reform Australian industrial re lations and personnel practices, this paper explains the rather different British approach. They place more emphasis on voluntary collective bar gaining, conciliation and improving the practice of Human Resource Man agement (HRM), with arbitration reserved as an instrument of last resort. The British have recently been innovating by using mediation as a stage between conciliation and arbitration. Pendulum arbitration is another in novation, whereby an arbitrator has to make a forced choice between either the employer's or the union's final offer or claim.

Unlike the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the British Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) explicitly aims to advise practitioners how to improve HRM. Certain companies in Britain are adopting some elements of a Japanese-style HRM. The author shows how these approaches may include an emphasis on participative management and employee involvement, possibly to complement a pen dulum arbitration procedure.

The author does not suggest that ACAS could be transported to Australia. But Australia is trying to increase the efficiency of management and work practices, as one way of revitalising manufacturing industry. Therefore, there would be a constructive role in Australia for some kind of neutral agency which could help to improve HRM. There is considerable scope to put more emphasis on 'fire-preventative' HRM policies rather than con tinuing to be preoccupied with 'fire-fighting' dispute-settlement practices.

In the mid-1970s unions began a campaign to achieve reduced working hours. A central plank in this campaign was that it would create em ployinent. A decade later it becomes possible to examine the economic impact of that campaign. This paper reports some of the findings of a study recently undertaken with financial support from the Reserve Bank. The results obtained suggest that no general relationship existed between working time changes and employment levels but rather varied between industries. The potentially divisive issue of the funding of work-time changes is also examined. The results should be of interest to practitioners in the field of labour force management.

The dominant corporate strategy pursued by public and private sector organisations in Australia has shifted significantly over the last forty years, and these shifts have had marked effect on the status of the personnel functions and on human resource management strategies and practices. Personnel has developed from a relatively minor 'housekeeping' and 'mind ing' function to playing a major contributing role in the design and implementation of corporate policy. In this paper the author presents a compact analytical review of this evolution.