Individualism Rise in Australia - Essay Example

Individualism rise in Australia Over the past years, Australia has been ed to a lot of changes in its workplaces. Although the changes have been very innovative but the way these have been implemented may be debated and are diverse in nature. The management has sought to find new approaches towards establishing its relationships with its employees to emphasize the importance of team work, developing multiple skills in employees and increasing their involvement in the decision making of the company to increase productivity (Badscheck,1995). One of the most helpful frameworks for understanding this change is that of that Western societies have moved from being traditional to post-traditional in the last 30 years. A traditional society is one in which the culture is largely handed on from one generation to the next. In a post-traditional society, however, culture is developed reflexively by individuals drawing on a range of resources. We have seen this change in a great variety of forms. It is evident in people’s eating habits. Eating habits had been handed down from one generation to the next. They changed a little. Cultures are always in flux, and there is a certain open-weave within them which means that individuals make some choices within a limited range. However, within the last 30 years, eating habits have changed greatly in the Western world. Individuals have begun drawing on cuisines from around the globe. They have absorbed into their regular eating habits Chinese and Indian food, Lebanese and Italian food, Greek and Thai dishes, and food from many other cuisines (Kapferer, 1996). The patterns of relationships has also changed although perhaps not so consciously drawing on different cultures. For centuries, the patterns of marriage and the general expectations that the women would prepare food and look after the children and the home while the men would conduct the business and bring home the finance has been the dominant hope, if not always the reality. In poor families, women have long had to help make financial ends meet (Kapferer, 1996). However, within the last 30 years, the patterns of relationship have been blown wide open. Marriage cannot be assumed at all. Relationships take a great variety of forms, some more and some less permanent. Some involve ceremonies of commitment, while others do not. Most still involve a couple, but not necessarily one male and one female. Some couples live in one house, while others chose to get together from time to time (Kapferer, 1996). The roles within those relationships have also been blown wide open. There can be no assumptions about who will get the meal, or look after the children. Indeed, in many relationships, such arrangements change from day to day, and are constantly being re-negotiated. In terms of eating habits, the patterns of relationships and the roles which people adopt in relation to each other, people are writing their own scripts, forming their own ‘cultures’. Traditional patterns provide little more than one of the options they may take into consideration. The individual, not the community, determines the patterns of life (Melleuish, 1996). While religious practice has often been a matter of choice within the open weave of culture, religious identity has become part of life which the individual chooses from a great range of options. In many instances, no particular religious identity is chosen at all, any more than a person settles on the food of one particular nation to constitute the total diet. In post-traditional societies, people draw on the range of religious resources which they consider might be useful, just as they draw on the food of many cuisines (Melleuish, 1996). However, the overall culture of the organisations may not have changed as many workers still feel that they are not taking into consideration while decisions are being made for the company. Furthermore, the employees also believe that they are overworked and stressed because of pressures leading to minimal job security. The changes done at the workplace may be the result of a slow developing process which progresses over a long time to completion. This change has to be adopted by the management, workers and their unions for it to be successful. Yet there are changes that are forced upon workers and unions because for an ailing industry a radical change may be the only option for survival (Badscheck,1995). Workplaces in Australia have seen the combination of both the types of changes being executed over the period of time. To establish a healthy relationship between the employers and the unions, the government is at many stages sought to play a role to foster a collaboration between various parties. However, the government is at many times not clear in their willingness to play that role as the laws that are practiced do not reflect the enthusiasm that is needed. Furthermore, the response by employers has varied in Australia as many in mining and waterfront industries may have decided to take full advantage of the government’s employment relations (Badscheck,1995). Many in the industry of mining and waterfront have for long followed the government’s employment relations and have taken advantage form it as well in order to reduce or eliminate the union’s influence at the enterprise level. However, many other firms in the same industries have been more pragmatic and implemented cooperative approaches to workplace changes. This may be illustrated by the introduction of high performance work systems by Colgate Palmolive at their Greenshield site in Labrador (DEIR, 1986). Within the auto industry, the major companies have continued to collaborate with the unions to introduce teamwork and more flexible forms of work organisation in order to raise the levels of quality and productivity. But on the other hand many companies like Optus have made the connection with their workforce directly to achieve non-union agreements. This agreements have valued working hours for labor and pay more as the working hours increase (DEIR, 1986). It is of that concern that management has introduced many recent workplace changes with little consultation of the workforce. In a period when levels of unemployment remains unacceptably high, many jobs are precarious and an increasing proportions of the work force is employed on a casual basis, workers are more likely to passively accept changes in working conditions which are demanded by employers. For there to be genuinely high involvement and high performance workplace, however, great collaboration is required between employers and employees. This is more likely to be achieved when employees feel that they have job security and a genuine influence over decisions which affect them (DEIR, 1986). While it is unlikely that Australia will return to a highly centralized system of employment relations, a more coordinated approach, which foster labor market flexibility within a strong institutional framework, such as that provided by that AIRC, would provide an attractive alternative to the fragmented flexibility of the current system. The challenge for employers is to win the trust of employees who regard their place in the labor market as increasingly tenuous and insecure. For the union, there is the challenge of how to achieve a more cooperative relationship with the employers while continuing to represent the interests of their members. For the government, the challenge to develop a more effective policy framework, which fosters greater efficiency through workplace innovations while ensuring equity for employees in the new economic prosperity which is achieved (Gray & Lawrence, 2001). As Australia enters the twenty first century, it is timely to consider whether a new social partnership between employers, organized labor and the government could be achieved. While this is unlikely under the current coalition government, a new labour government might find this an attractive option. If this took the form of a new “accord” or social contract, it would need to recognize not only the importance of labour market flexibility for the employers but also the primacy of collective bargaining for the unions. Government can play an important role in providing mechanisms for bringing the parties together, as well as funding independent agencies to assist with coordination of bargaining and dispute settlement (Gray & Lawrence, 2001). This may require new employment relations institutions, which are appropriate to current and future circumstances. It is almost a century since a historic compromise was reached between labor and capital in Australia after the disastrous strikes of the 1890s, and the first Federal industrial relations tribunal was established. Workplace innovation and change in the coming decade will require a similarly enlightened approach, which embraces the contributions and views of all interested parties to achieve both equity and efficiency in the workplace and labor market (Gray & Lawrence, 2001). Word Count: 1,514 Works Cited Badscheck, B. 1995. The Struggle for Australian Industrial relations, Oxford University Press. Department of Employment and Industrial Relations (DEIR). 1986. Policy discussion paper on Industrial democracy and employee participation, DEIR. Gray, I. & Lawrence, G. 2001. A Future for Regional Australia: Escaping Global Misfortune, Cambridge University Press. Kapferer, J. 1996. Being All Equal: Identity, Difference and Australian Cultural Practice, Berg Publishers. Melleuish, G. 1996. The Packaging of Australia: Politics and Culture Wars, UNSW Press. Read More