Since the mid-1980s, the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system has experienced significant reforms in terms of policies and regulatory frameworks, resulting in a system characterised by demand-side requirements that seek to cater to the needs of industry and employers. This...

Academic and other research has consistently shown that the work of child care workers has historically been undervalued due to its feminised nature, its charitable origins and a low rate of unionisation. However employer submissions to wage fixing tribunals have both challenged a higher...

Since the 1970s Australia has been one of the few countries that has progressively advanced the concept of gender pay equity. This achievement has largely been due the centralised, industrial tribunal-based, wage fixing system. The wage rates created by industrial tribunals have been able to...

The combination of the flow-on effect of the 1972 federal wage fixing principle to State tribunals and State government's passing legislation to implement the International Labour Organization's (ILO) 1951 Convention No. 100 Concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of...

As knowledge-based economies emerge and develop there should be increasing interest in the knowledge work of individuals, groups or organisations. This issue prompted a review of recent research efforts to determine what the term ?knowledge work? means and how this term has been used. The review...

According to the Howard government and some 'small business' organisations, the changes made to Australian industrial relations arrangements by the 2005 'Work Choices' Act will be of particular importance to small and medium sized establishments (SMEs). Specifically, the dilution of the...

This paper reports on a study into student perceptions of a Socratic approach to teaching business ethics. The paper lays out a criticalist proposition that there is a discourse of ?ethics-in-business? in which ethics are, pragmatically, subsumed by a more strategic economics focus to business...

Hotel management is characterised by a fast pace, diversity of tasks and people, with a specific focus on service quality delivery. (Eddystone & Nebel 1991). Major contributors in the effort to provide quality service to hotel customers are the managers and supervisors of hotels. These middle...

This paper develops a conceptual framework to examine the factors impacting on the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its impact on retail supply chain performance. RFID has been applied successfully in closed systems for some time. However, recent technology improvements and...

This paper shares experiences from action research carried out by the author in an SME business setting where collaboration is becoming a strategic necessity. Many industry participants are interested in entering a collaboration, but are concerned about issues of trust, particularly where a new...