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Tariffs, Subsidies, And Profits: A Re-Assessment Of Structural Change In Australia 1901–39, David Merrett, Simon Ville
Tariffs, Subsidies, And Profits: A Re-Assessment Of Structural Change In Australia 1901–39, David Merrett, Simon Ville
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
We re-interpret the drivers of structural change in Australia from Federation to World War II. Manufacturing increased its relative share of output and employment, the farm sector and mining contracted. Conventional wisdom contends these shifts largely resulted from government policy, particularly increases in trade barriers. We contend that the connection between tariffs and increased profitability is conceptually weak and not supported by extant evidence. We argue that exogenous shifts in consumer preferences, the adoption of new technologies, changing factor proportions, and greater specialisation in manufacturing and services were responsible for manufacturing increasing its share of the economy's resources and output.
Working At The Coalface: Being A Miner In Times Of Change, Peter D. Mclean, Patrick M. Dawson
Working At The Coalface: Being A Miner In Times Of Change, Peter D. Mclean, Patrick M. Dawson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
A case study analysis of the introduction of a new system for appraising worker performance in an Australian coal mine is used to explore the related concepts of identity and culture that are central to explaining individual and group behaviour in organizational context (Irrmann, 2002: 164). The change initiative was initiated by management following a search and evaluation of the general business environment to see what other organizations were doing to improve their operations. There was no prior consultation with employees, nor were any attempts made to involve mine workers before implementing what management described as a more ‘scientific’ and …
Fair Value Accounting In China: Neoliberalisation And Accounting Change, Ying Zhang, Jane L. Andrew, Kathleen M. Rudkin
Fair Value Accounting In China: Neoliberalisation And Accounting Change, Ying Zhang, Jane L. Andrew, Kathleen M. Rudkin
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper explores the tension between neoliberal theory and practice by using China as an example. This paper investigates the implementation of Fair Value Accounting (FVA) in China and argues that market share prices are not ‘fair values’ of companies’ financial position as theories of FVA assume, rather, they project only the distorted share price movements caused by the strong intervention of the Chinese government with its multiple and often competing agendas. By positioning this regional event in a broad neoliberal context, this paper argues that the accounting term ‘fair value’ is imbued with assumptions about the state and the …
Understanding The Australian Environmental Volunteering Market: A Basis For Behavioural Change And A Sustainable Future, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar
Understanding The Australian Environmental Volunteering Market: A Basis For Behavioural Change And A Sustainable Future, Melanie J. Randle, Sara Dolnicar
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The world is facing an environmental crisis. Long-term environmental sustainability requires social change: individuals need to take personal responsibility for the environment and change their behaviour. Environmental volunteering organisations play a key role in this process: they create opportunities for individuals to improve their natural environment, they facilitate behavioural change. Successful facilitation of behavioural change requires in-depth understanding of the environmental volunteering market to identify those individuals most likely to volunteer, compete successfully and create targeted, motivating marketing campaigns. The present study (1) assesses the usefulness of a novel method (PBMS) to explore volunteering markets, and (2) provides insight into …
Malmquist Indices Of Productivity Change In Botswana's Financial Institutions, Boitumelo Dudu Moffat, Abbas Valadkhani, Charles Harvie
Malmquist Indices Of Productivity Change In Botswana's Financial Institutions, Boitumelo Dudu Moffat, Abbas Valadkhani, Charles Harvie
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The productivity and efficiency of the financial sector is pivotal to the attainment of economic growth and development in developed and developing economies alike, and is of particular interest in the wake of financial sector reform and restructuring. This study applies the Malmquist productivity index to measure and decompose the total factor productivity change of ten financial institutions in Botswana in its post-reform era, covering the period 2001-2006, into a 'catching up' or efficiency change, and a 'frontier shift' or technological change. The robustness and sensitivity of the empirical results presented are assessed by comparing outcomes from different input and …
Digital Ecosystems: Ict’S Contribution To Addressing Climate Change, Helen M. Hasan, Alanah Kazlauskas
Digital Ecosystems: Ict’S Contribution To Addressing Climate Change, Helen M. Hasan, Alanah Kazlauskas
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
One of the most pressing challenges facing humankind is climate change, but it is a wicked problem. While the complexity of this problem can be overwhelming there are means through which the problem can be understood and advances made towards a solution. This paper applies a holistic theoretical sense-making framework and an ecosystem approach to research and practice on ICT issues in the climate change problem. It demonstrates how end-user tools and Web 2.0 technologies, which are embedded in digital ecosystems that include the social context, can play a positive role in the global challenges of climate change.
Innovative Workplace Change: Social Well-Being And Health, Patrick M. Dawson, Michael Zanko
Innovative Workplace Change: Social Well-Being And Health, Patrick M. Dawson, Michael Zanko
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Since the industrial revolution a chief concern of business organizations has been how best to organise work to maximise productivity and minimise costs. Securing and maintaining competitive advantage through new methods of work organization and systems of operation have largely centred around commercial and financial concerns rather than on the well-being of employees. Issues of occupational health and safety (OHS) have arisen in a range of working environments and legislative change has sought to ensure that safe and secure working conditions are a mandatory requirement of modern business. However, implementation of these mandates generally rests with management and whilst procedural …
Simulation Modelling And Strategic Change: Creating The Sustainable Enterprise, Patrick M. Dawson, Trevor A. Spedding
Simulation Modelling And Strategic Change: Creating The Sustainable Enterprise, Patrick M. Dawson, Trevor A. Spedding
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper highlights the benefits of using discrete event simulation models for developing change management frameworks which facilitate productivity and environmental improvements in order to create a sustainable enterprise. There is an increasing need for organisations to be more socially and environmentally responsible, however these objectives cannot be realised in isolation of the strategic, operations and business objectives of the enterprise. Discrete Event Simulation models facilitate a multidimensional approach to enterprise modelling which can integrate operations and strategic considerations with environmental and social issues. Moreover these models can provide a dynamic roadmap for implementing a change strategy for realising the …
Choice And Context In Studying Change, Creativity And Innovation At Work: Call Off The Search For Excellence, Question Combinational Perspectives, And Loosen The Straightjacket Of Polarised Views, Patrick M. Dawson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This article draws attention to debates on studying change, creativity and innovation at work. Attention is given to 'stable' and 'process' views of organizations and how these positions influence research objectives, methodological approach and findings. The paper is critical of those who seek to hold to a superior position - a one best approach for all; as well as those who seek the best from all worlds - a combinational approach that services both quantitative and qualitative research. In drawing on over 25 years of field research on change management, the paper also seeks to explore the broken links between …
Social Innovation, Sustainable Futures And Commercial Concerns: People, Profits And Social Well-Being, Patrick M. Dawson, L. Daniel
Social Innovation, Sustainable Futures And Commercial Concerns: People, Profits And Social Well-Being, Patrick M. Dawson, L. Daniel
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper draws attention to the growing interest in social innovations as they seek to improve the well being of people, communities and society. Social innovations are recognised as the development of new concepts, strategies and tools that support individuals and groups to achieve improved well-being. We examine here the growing interest in social innovation before turning our attention to more theoretical and conceptual concerns. We examine the link between the social and technical dimensions of innovation and identify how the scope of our definition is important in delineating our phenomena of interest. Some of the earlier academic work on …
People And Process: Making Sense Of Change Management, Patrick M. Dawson
People And Process: Making Sense Of Change Management, Patrick M. Dawson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper is about the ways that we seek to manage, steer, resist and make sense of change. It views change as a fluid process that may take unexpected turns. In clarifying what we mean by change and challenging linear stage models, a more dynamic perspective is advocated. A short case study is used to highlight the political aspects of change and to raise critical awareness of some of the key issues that can arise. The paper concludes with some practical guidelines arguing that it is the processual nature of change that makes it both a difficult yet fascinating area …
Tariffs, Subsidies And Profits: A Re-Assessment Of Structural Change In Australia 1901-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville
Tariffs, Subsidies And Profits: A Re-Assessment Of Structural Change In Australia 1901-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper offers a re-interpretation of the drivers of structural change in Australia from federation until the outbreak of World War II. The broad story of structural change is that manufacturing increased its relative share of both output and employment while the share of the farm sector and mining contracted. The large tertiary sector, including construction, oscillated around its mean. The conventional wisdom is that these shifts were largely the result of government policy, particularly the increase in trade barriers that stimulated import substitution by manufacturers. However, if the unit of analysis is the firm rather than the economy then …
Whose Story Is This? The Selective Retelling Of Organizational Change, Patrick M. Dawson, David Buchanan
Whose Story Is This? The Selective Retelling Of Organizational Change, Patrick M. Dawson, David Buchanan
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Organizational change is a multi-authored process in which respondent and research narratives have causal as well as documentary and explanatory properties, shaping reputations and seeking to colour the nature and direction of future actions. We argue that academic case study narratives are too readily excluded from analysis and regarded as unproblematic solutions to logistical questions of data analysis. However, intervention narratives typically rely on respondent accounts that exhibit inconsistencies and are attributable to personal sense making, impression management, and political agendas. By drawing on processual and narrative approaches, we show how coherent narratives of change are achieved despite such inconsistencies …
Change Management, Patrick M. Dawson
Change Management, Patrick M. Dawson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
A key aim of change management is to manage processes towards a future that, even when anticipated and planned for, can never be fully foreseen. It is a paradox that continues to generate considerable debate and conceptual and definitional confusion.
N-Gens Of Change: Personal Response Systems And Net-Generation Students, Brian Murphy, Ciorstan J. Smark
N-Gens Of Change: Personal Response Systems And Net-Generation Students, Brian Murphy, Ciorstan J. Smark
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Personal Response Systems are a technology similar to use to a television remote control or a mobile telephone for sending SMS messages. They enable almost instant communication between student and instructor in lecture situations. This paper examines the claims made by Personal Response Systems and considers whether they may be especially appropriate to the preferences and expectations of Net- Generation students. The Net-Generation (also known as N-Gens) is made up of students born between 1981 and 2001. They now make up the bulk of finance students in universities across our region. But have we really adapted our lecturing styles to …
Changing Manufacturing Practices: An Appraisal Of The Processual Approach, Patrick M. Dawson
Changing Manufacturing Practices: An Appraisal Of The Processual Approach, Patrick M. Dawson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
There has been a longstanding interest in human factors and the processes of change in manufacturing organizations. This paper focuses attention on the establishment and contribution of a processual perspective to understanding change. A history of the processual approach is outlined and some of the main defining elements and ongoing developments are appraised. Field data drawn from a study of cellular work arrangements at a mirror manufacturing plant is used to highlight the interlocking and overlapping dynamics between substance, context, and politics. In advocating the benefits of a processual perspective, it is argued that during the uptake of cellular manufacturing …
The Way It Really Happened: Competing Narratives In The Political Process Of Technological Change, Patrick M. Dawson, D. Buchanan
The Way It Really Happened: Competing Narratives In The Political Process Of Technological Change, Patrick M. Dawson, D. Buchanan
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Corporate narratives concerning technological change are often constructed around a linear series of events that show the organization in a positive light to internal and external observers. These narratives often sanitize the change process, and present data from which commentators can formulate neat linear prescriptions on how to implement new technology. In contrast, this paper draws on processual-contextual theoretical perspectives to argue that technological change is a more complex political process represented by multiple ongoing narratives which compete with each other for dominance as definitive change accounts. A central aim of this paper, therefore, is to demonstrate the analytical significance …
Business Profitability And Structural Change In Interwar Australia, Simon Ville, David Merrett
Business Profitability And Structural Change In Interwar Australia, Simon Ville, David Merrett
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The Australian economy of the interwar period experienced noteworthy cyclical and secular trends. Severe cyclical fluctuations were associated with the international depression, often referred to as the ‘Great Slump’, which particularly afflicted Australia’s large traded sector, especially its cornerstone primary exporting industries. In the midst of this apparent dearth, however, came the ‘plenty’ of the initial stages of modernisation, which resulted from the broadening of the country’s economic base into new manufacturing industries. The general trends of economic activity are captured by national income data, while the expansion of particular industries has been contextualised by several authors, most notably Forster …
Cointegration And Structural Change In The Exports-Gdp Nexus: The Case Of Iran, Mosayeb Pahlavani
Cointegration And Structural Change In The Exports-Gdp Nexus: The Case Of Iran, Mosayeb Pahlavani
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This paper examines the major sources of economic growth in Iran using annual time series data (1960 to 2003). The time series properties of the data are analysed by Perrons innovational outlier and additive outlier models.
An Activity Theory Analysis Of A Case Of It-Driven Organisational Change, Wannapa Suratmethakul, Helen Hasan
An Activity Theory Analysis Of A Case Of It-Driven Organisational Change, Wannapa Suratmethakul, Helen Hasan
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The paper describes unexpected problems encountered in the automation of a scheduling process using an IT application already in use in other similar organisations. A grounded theory approach was used to collect and categorise data on the case. Activity Theory was then used to analyse the attempt by management to implement organisational change through the introduction of the system. The findings suggest that it is inadvisable to impose organisational change through the introduction of a complex IT system, particularly when this disrupts entrenched decision-making processes of the organisation.
Scientists, Career Choices And Organisational Change: Managing Human Resources In Cross Sector R&D Organisations, Tim Turpin, Samuel Garrett-Jones, Kieren Diment
Scientists, Career Choices And Organisational Change: Managing Human Resources In Cross Sector R&D Organisations, Tim Turpin, Samuel Garrett-Jones, Kieren Diment
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The resource based view (RBV) of the firm has drawn attention to the role of human resources in building innovative capacity within firms. In ‘high technology’ firms scientific capability is a critical factor in achieving international competitiveness. Science, however, is a costly business and many firms are entering into cross sector R&D partnerships in order to gain access to leading edge scientific capability. The Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program is typical of the ways many governments are seeking to promote such cross-sector R&D collaboration. Scientists are key resources in these organisational arrangements. However, there is only fragmentary information available …
Designer Deviance: Enterprise And Deviance In Cultural Change Programs, R Badham, Karin Garrety, V. Morrigan, M. Zanko, Patrick Dawson
Designer Deviance: Enterprise And Deviance In Cultural Change Programs, R Badham, Karin Garrety, V. Morrigan, M. Zanko, Patrick Dawson
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
This article explores the value of investigating cultural change programmes as exercises in engineering deviance. It does so through a case study of an organizational development cultural change programme at Sprogwheels, a large Australian corporation. Drawing on and extending the classic work of Becker (1966), the article details how the programme combined a moral crusade against what it sought to have labelled as the ‘deviant conservatism’ of the existing organizational culture with social support for ‘deviant radicalism’, in the form of a counter-cultural, self-enterprising set of middle managers promoting corporate change. The article explores the complex and contradictory ideas of …
Telling Tales: Authoring Narratives Of Organizational Change, Patrick M. Dawson, David Buchanan
Telling Tales: Authoring Narratives Of Organizational Change, Patrick M. Dawson, David Buchanan
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
The aim of this paper is to explore the challenges of authoring case study narratives of organizational change in a processual perspective. Most theoretical and managerial accounts of change are narrative-based. They tend to begin with a problem period, then describe interventions, and end with an assessment of outcomes and 'lessons'. However, in the construction of coherent and credible narratives, the voices of competing accounts of change may be silenced. Evidence suggests that accounts of change compete on at least four dimensions, concerning assessments, interpretations, facts, and audiences. The framework developed by Deetz (1996) is used to illustrate how narratives …
Structural Change And The Older Male Worker In Australia, Martin J. O'Brien
Structural Change And The Older Male Worker In Australia, Martin J. O'Brien
Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)
Unfavourable changes in the industry composition of employment overt he last two decades has been suggested as a reason for structural unemployment and declining labour force participation of older males in Australia. In this paper, the author explores this proposition by analysing employment data for older males over the 1984 to 1999 period. Standard shift-share analysis findings suggest that, although older males are over-represented in stagnant or declining industries and under-represented in growth sectors, the net aggregate effects of structural change for older males' employment trends are minimal. However, alternative methodologies presented reveal a number of interesting insights into the …