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Changing Patterns of HRM and Employment Relations in New Zealand: The Large Hotel Industry
Author(s) -
Haynes Peter,
Fryer Glenda
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1177/103841119903700204
Subject(s) - industrial relations , workforce , business , human resource management , marketing , collectivism , order (exchange) , principal (computer security) , trade union , control (management) , public relations , management , economics , political science , economic growth , market economy , finance , individualism , computer science , international trade , operating system
Relatively little is known about the overall extent to which New Zealand employers have taken up the opportunities afforded by the Employment Contracts Act 1991 to innovate with high commitment employee management strategies. This study investigates changes in patterns of employee management in the large hotel industry in Auckland in order to illuminate developments in employee management at the enterprise level within an industry. Semi‐structured interviews with managers, union officials and industry association officials, as well as management and union archives provided the principal sources of data. The research suggests that, notwithstanding considerable variation of approach underlying the maintenance of collective bargaining and management‐union relations in the large hotel industry, there has not been a complete displacement of the traditional New Zealand pattern of collectivist relations. Rather, there has been some move to improve communication with the workforce, but without ceding the level of management control typical of the industry. Human resource management practices have not changed in ways that indicate a desire to secure the commitment of the workforce on a long‐term basis.