The impact of deregulation on employment relations in the Australian retail industry

This paper discusses the growth in research on management strategy in the period following the decentralisation of the Australian Industrial Relations system in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While the role of individual company management was minimal in the centralised IR system, the move to enterprise bargaining was designed to facilitate the linking of management’s strategy in employment relations to its overall business strategy. The paper argues that while management strategy did become an area of focus, at least in relation to studies of employment relations practices in the retail industry, most of the studies tend to treat management at ‘arm’s length’, and fail to analyse management’s strategic intentions or choices. It is suggested that part of the reason for this is the focus of the studies on published reports and surveys, rather than the use of case studies that specifically focus on the strategic use of labour in the Australian Retail Industry.