The aim of this paper is to provide a representation of the employee viewpoint on emerging issues related to HRM practices associated with the ‘new employment relationship’. Data obtained from employees across two studies in two very different countries – South Africa and New Zealand has been used to represent the employee perspective. Interestingly, a number of shared perceptions about these HRM practices are found to exist between employees from South Africa and New Zealand, suggesting the problems employees currently experience with the HR practices in the workplace that aim to promote this new relationship could be more widely shared.

The areas of shared concern highlighted by employees were mainly related to the implementation of HRM practices. For example, insufficient line management commitment, unfairness and inconsistency in the application of HR policies were all issues that were commonly raised, as was poor communication. Employees attributed these problems to the inadequate skills of those responsible for the implementation of HRM, and tended to be of the view that they could effectively be resolved through the HR department playing a more central role in the implementation of HRM in an organisation, training of line managers to carry out their HR responsibilities more effectively and increased consultation with employees.

Employees participating in these studies appeared to demonstrate a surprisingly high level of awareness and cognisance in identifying problems with HR practice and more significantly how these problems might be rectified. This would support the importance of accessing the employee perspective in both the implementation and research into HRM in practice. Based on the issues highlighted by the employees, increased co operation between line management, the HR department and employees is suggested to facilitate the effective design and implementation of HRM practice in this era of new employment relations.

This paper argues that people's careers have great personal significance for them and energise much organisational activity, but that in the context of organisations and management they often appear irrelevant. Contrasting career metaphors are used to show how careers develop through tensions between organisational and social structure, and individual agency. The findings of a New Zealand research study show how new flexibilities and ambiguities in economic and organisation structures result in people developing careers which, like the Australasian “Big O.E.” institution, are mobile, improvisational, and learning-based. A reflexive model is used to show how careers can create organisations as well as vice versa. The implications of new career theories for workers, managers and management educators are indicated. Greater appreciation of career dynamics results in the subversion of some traditional management ideas and the development of new models of self- and organisational management.

Exploratory research into the expectations of advertising managers concerning agency creative work was undertaken as the first stage of a grounded longitudinal study. A series of depth interviews revealed how major advertisers attempt to obtain desired creative work through an extensive agency briefing and response process. ‘Power and influence’ during this process emerged as a key issue for these managers. Analysis of depth interviews with managers with direct responsibility for the commissioning of creative work for major advertisers suggested a range of influence strategies were used in their pursuit of the desired work. Such strategies seemed to follow a pattern of rapid escalation similar to a pattern observed in the management of urgent change.

The last two decades have seen an unprecedented growth in the use of outsourcing interventions in diverse organisational contexts. This phenomenon can be viewed as a means of unbundling the vertically integrated activities of organisations in response to existing strategic wisdoms that focus upon value-creating activities as a means of enhancing an organisation's sustainable competitive advantage. This paper explores the delicate balance between these more conventional strategic motives and the more complex, emergent and interconnected behavioural impacts and considerations in the context of a decision to outsource the meter reading activities of a well-established, publicly listed Australian energy company. By drawing upon the idiosyncratic experiences reported by particular groups of individuals involved in, or affected by, an outsourcing decision, the authors note some important lessons that may inform the pursuit of such decisions in the future.

In recent years the outsourcing phenomenon has fundamentally altered the processing and delivery of a wide range of goods and services by organisations in public, private and not-for-profit sectors (Auguste et al. 2002; Osterman 1998: Industry Commission 1996; Domberger & Hall 1995). Despite the stellar rise of outsourcing as a mainstream management tool, outsourcing's proponents seem unable to successfully distance themselves from ongoing questioning of the rationale for, and fallout resulting from, its adoption (Jennings 2002; Doig et al. 2001; Humphry 2000; Hunter & Gates 1998: Commonwealth Ombudsman 1996; Rees & Rodley 1995).

Much of the debate and research relating to outsourcing has been informed by the principles of transaction cost economics (Williamson 1979; Williamson 1975; Coase 1937) whereby the make-or-buy decision is crystallised by simply comparing the costs of managing transactions (using the market) with production costs (producing internally). In short, the transaction cost approach suggests that markets are most efficient for all transactions, except those that involve assets of a highly specialised nature used frequently as these represent a set of circumstances open to opportunistic behaviour by the market.

However, the hard lessons learned with the passage of time have shown (the informed observer) that managers who limit their sourcing decisions to cost comparisons alone are likely to run the risk of seeing their organisation wither and die: rigorous cost analysis is a part, albeit an important part, of a plethora of other strategic considerations that combine to move an organisation toward its long-term goals and objectives (Fill & Viser 2000: Rule 1999; Meredith 1998; Domberger 1998; Hunter & Gates 1998: Hodge 1996; Koehan et al. 1994). Indeed, this strategic context forms the cornerstone from which this paper proceeds to explore the appropriateness and meaningfulness of the strategic literature's conception of outsourcing decisions for the realities of a complex and dynamic operating environment.

The influence of corporate governance on firm performance has been discussed for a number of years, but mainly in a United States and European business context. This article investigates the composition of boards of directors in large Australian firms and analyses whether board structure has an impact on performance, as measured by return on equity and market-to-book value ratio. The results showed that outsider ratio and female director ratio were positively associated with firm performance, whereas board size and directors' age had no influence on firm performance.

Controversies surrounding the behaviour of ministers and high profile leaders seem to be commonplace in public life. That there has been a resurgence of interest in the study of ethics is not surprising. The spotlight on ethics in the public domain has been due in part to the crisis in confidence about government and a lack of public trust in organisations. Furthermore, a complex organisational environment where managers are being required to juggle a ‘multitude of competing obligations and interests’ (Cooper 1998, p. 244) has provided fertile ground for the emergence of ethical dilemmas. In this paper we put forward a tentative model that reveals important inputs that bear upon an individual, such as a public sector manager, who is confronted with an ethical dilemma. In the final part of the paper we illustrate the model's efficacy with an ethical dilemma described by a retired senior public servant to determine whether the model works in practice.

Theory about what constitutes entrepreneurial success is explored using case studies of the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winners for Australia and New Zealand. Findings suggest the need to more equally emphasize what theory presents as elements of successful entrepreneurship, and importantly, incorporate ethics as a key dimension. Further, the analysis offers insight into how business awards processes in general might be conducted.

Entrepreneurship has long been considered an important economic activity. The past twenty years has witnessed an explosion of research into entrepreneurs and their actions (Venkatarman 1997; Hannafey 2003) with considerable emphasis on the elements that constitute successful entrepreneurship. However, there has been little empirical work substantiating these elements or exploring the extent to which they appear to be considered when judgements are made about entrepreneurial success. Additionally, some entrepreneurs that are judged successful, such as Monty Fu who won an entrepreneur of the year award in the United States, are later shown to be unsuccessful along a number of elements. It may be that some elements are more emphasized when judging entrepreneurial endeavours, than are others. For these reasons, the current paper focuses on the construction of successful entrepreneurship. It addresses the following research questions: Are there some elements of entrepreneurship that appear to be more emphasized than are others when judgements are made about successful entrepreneurs? Would recourse to theory help decide successful entrepreneurship?

Trust is frequently espoused as being critical to effective team processes and performance. Yet, few studies have investigated the relationship between trust and team processes, or team effectiveness. There is currently a need to locate propensity to trust (a personality composition variable) and intragroup trust (an emergent state) within mainstream team effectiveness models, not only to provide much-needed theoretical and empirical support for trust's central role in team effectiveness, but also to increase our understanding of how trust influences team effectiveness. This paper argues that trust is a neglected variable within team effectiveness research that requires further empirical investigation.

This paper examines the learning process within collaborations from a political perspective and explores the implications of power for the process of learning. The central argument is that the processes of collaboration and collaborative learning are inherently influenced by dynamics of power that occur at the organisational, collaboration and collaboration-environment levels. These power dynamics develop as a consequence of the interactions among collaborating organisations and their power bases. The paper presents a theoretical basis for considering the nature and impact of power dynamics at the various levels on the collaborative learning process and outcomes and sets forth some propositions that provide an agenda for future research.

This paper advances the resource dependence and social networks literature by investigating a board's structural social capital created as a consequence of interlocking directorates. Using approaches and measures developed by social network analysis we compare the interpersonal directorship networks of the top 250 companies in the United States and Australia. We find that the smaller, sparser Australian network is only marginally less compact and connected than the larger US network at the firm level of analysis. However, at the director level of analysis the US network is much larger and more connected than its Australian counterpart. As a result, we argue that scholars studying the resource dependence role of boards should consider using measures of interpersonal links as well as traditional measures of inter-firm links.

This research tests the extent to which the social processes of leadership, as derived from the full grounded theory method, may be tapping constructs other than those measured by existing measures of transformational leadership. The impact on work unit outcomes of two measures of transformational leadership and the social processes of leadership scale (SPL) were tested. Comparative structural equation modelling was undertaken. It was found that, with one exception – ‘active management processes’, normally classified as transactional management – measures of transformational leadership are probably pre-existing measures of the social processes of leadership in organisations. The use of the grounded theory method to research leadership is supported. Hierarchy of Abstraction Modelling is useful as a training tool and as a representation of research findings.