Agency and the deunionisation of managers in an Australian telecommunications company

Abstract

Discussions about deunionisation usually focus on lower levels of the workforce with managers seen as the initiators of deunionisation strategies. Managers, however, occupy contradictory positions as agents of capital, employees and possibly trade unionists. This can place them in the position of being both recipients and conduits in deunionisation strategies. The focus of the study is on Telstra, the major telecommunications carrier in Australia. Using a range of sources such as interviews and company and union materials, this qualitative research shows how between 1992 and 2000 Telstra's senior management's concerns over middle management agency prompted them to reframe the concept of a manager by using a set of managerial practices from the mining company CRA and the provisions of the Workplace Relations Act (1996) to individualise and deunionise their managerial ranks as a precursor to the deunionisation of the wider workforce.

The Impact of Remote Work on Managerial Compliance: Changes in the Control Regime over Line Managers

“…Armstrong’s proposition that managers’ compliance has its own logic has a limited echo in both the subsequent labour process discussions on the core theory (Thompson and van den Broek, 2010) and those few works on middle and line managers (e.g. Barton and van den Broek, 2011; McCann et al, 2008; Narayan, 2022). To study the consequences of remote work on managers’ compliance, this article proposes to adopt Armstrong’s distinction between labour process and agency relationship as necessary to maintain the consistency of LPT.…”

“…When managers’ opposition to companies’ interests is addressed, the focus is put on ‘misbehaviours’, individual actions that do not conform to companies’ expectations (Ackroyd and Thompson, 1999), such as the appropriation of time, work, identity and products (Hadjisolomou, 2019). In contrast, managers’ organised collective actions have attracted scarce attention, partly because of the scholarly assumption that managers have less interest in unions, and by legal prohibitions of manager trade unions in countries such as the United States (Barton and van den Broek, 2011). However, in certain institutional and organisational contexts, trade unions may be a powerful tool for managers to influence their labour conditions (e.g.…”

Importance and performance of managerial skills in the Australian aged care sector - a middle managers' perspective

“…In particular, international and national research has established that middle managers not only communicate information and coordinate activities (Schlesinger & Oshry , Floyd et al . ) but also implement strategies formulated from those above them (Jackson & Humble ), act as change agents and oversee the day‐to‐day running of the business (Barton & van den Broek ). Moreover, in the Australian aged care sector, middle managers are expected to be involved in everyday service delivery (Paulsen ).…”