Brave New Workplace: How Individual Contracts are Changing Our Jobs

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the knowledge management (KM) and strategic business network literatures from the viewpoint of SMEs.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a typology of KM and strategic business networks; thus the paper is based on a literature review and analysis.

Findings

The paper provides a typology of the strategic SME network types and their key KM challenges based on a synthesis of existing literature.

Research limitations/implications

It is suggested that longitudinal case studies of KM practices in strategic SME networks should be conducted. An empirical multi‐case study has already been started.

Originality/value

The presented SME network typology can benefit SME managers facing networking and KM challenges. Besides, it is suggested that a common strategy should be developed for all types of networks to enable the creation of knowledge‐based competencies and capabilities.

Citation

Burchielli, R. (2007), "Brave New Workplace: How Individual Contracts are Changing Our Jobs", Management Research News, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 609-611. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170710773733

David Peetz's (2006) Brave New Workplace (BNW) is a fascinating examination of the current face of Australian employment relations – characterised by the individualisation of work contracts, along the lines of those adopted by other advanced industrial economies – which analyses the background, significance, social implications and possible responses to this latest “development” in Australian industrial arrangements. The author states at the outset that this book is not about WorkChoices, but rather about the “individualisation …  that is core to the agenda” of the WorkChoices legislation. However, the book's message makes no bones about the fact that individualisation at work is intended to weaken worker coalitions, destroy unions and remove the possibilities for amassing any worker privilege in order to favour and strengthen the benefits of corporations. Thus, while not directly about WorkChoices, Peetz's commentary alludes eloquently to this legislation as embodying the latest attack on Australian worker freedoms and rights by conservative governments and corporations.

Peetz contends that individualisation threatens to create a bleak and increasingly disempowered and mono‐cultural society in which only the strongest and soul‐less (read corporations) can thrive. In this sense, Peetz's thesis shares some crucial parallels (not to mention the borrowing of a killer title!) with Aldous Huxley's (1932) dystopic vision of a Brave New World, consisting of a monochromatic and compliant society, assiduously manipulated and enslaved by a calculating, self‐serving government. Undoubtedly, Huxley's broad philosophical reflection on freedom, the individual and society provides a suitable allegory for Peetz to reiterate and reflect on similar questions – in the context of contemporary Australian workplace changes. Importantly, Peetz's discussion, based on what appears to be a life‐time of research in industrial relations, draws from the evidence of his own and other's scholarly research to argue optimistically that in spite of individualisation, there may yet be hope for workers and for society at large. While optimistic and encouraging, Peetz is clearly not ingenuous as he argues that the scope of the challenges and prevailing hostility of the “new workplace” may only be countenanced by great courage or “bravery”. This thesis is put forward via a carefully constructed argument along the following lines:

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  Contrary to certain opinions, collective behaviours and cooperative values are not in decline (p. 37)

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  Individualisation is a “discursive trick  …  designed to subsume us into a new collective identity” (p. 4).

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  Corporations, “today's dominant institution” (p. 12), aided by neo‐liberal governments, are using the rhetoric of individualisation in order to shape the identities of workers and gain their allegiances (p. 122).

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  Corporations, motivated by profit, have been using “individualisation” and other devices, in order to increase their power (p. 151).

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  Power is available to workers through mobilisation (p. 158), and the birthing and development of collectives, such as unions (p. 171).

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  Unions and other collectives are effective structures to balance the agendas of corporations, and to nurture and sustain a level of diversity in communities.

In the course of shoring‐up the evidence for his arguments, Peetz engages in a dialogue with many and varied erudite and stimulating voices across history and disciplines, spanning the arts, as well as the social and physical sciences, which share a common concern with the broader, key issues of life, such as the motivators of individuals, the interface between individual and society and the general direction of society. For example, in his discussion on the persistence of collective and altruistic behaviours and values, Peetz borrows extensively from research in evolutionary theory (p. 33) and the “new biology” which suggests that the reciprocity and altruism inherent in cooperation, as opposed to competitive behaviours, can best ensure the survival of biodiversity.

For me, BNW is captivating because it engages with themes underpinning current debates in different parts of the world. Interestingly, BNW was published soon after the release of Frank Furedi's (2005) “Politics of Fear”, a text arising from the UK about fear and the disengagement of individuals in public life. Furedi's book argues that fear is constructed by “leaders” using rhetorical devices to confuse, confound and ultimately exhaust and disempower individuals in society: “Jargon is used to obscure reality …  political rhetoric today continues to justify the indefensible …  the word “choice” …   tends to signify the absence of alternatives” (Furedi, 2005, p. 6). In a similar vein, in the chapter entitled “War is Peace”, Peetz documents the mis‐use of language, referring to the “double‐speak” used by corporations to enable concealment, deception and illegal activity against workers and unions (p. 152). Moreover, he comments on the deliberate twisting of language by the Australian government in the naming of the WorkChoices legislation: while the rhetoric suggests that the “individualisation of empt relations was meant to enhance human rights …  the evidence of this chapter must make us think again about that claim” (p. 151). In spite of these similarities, Furedi's book seems both far less optimistic than Peetz's and far more misanthropic in its relentless depiction of society as an inchoate collection of unhappy and aimless individuals.

In one of the central chapters of BNW “What are you worth?” Peetz documents the negative effects of individual contracts in an extensive discussion of the mistreatment and abuse of employees; the negative changes to workers pay and conditions; the loss of flexibilities which benefit workers, (such as parental leave and training); the conversion of permanent workers into casuals; the loss of decades of hard won struggles by unions. The most crucial losses through the “wider use of registered individual contracts” are summed up in the words of Ron McCallum: “the bargaining power, the dignity and the citizenship of individual workers” (p. 115). In response to this crushing evidence, the last two chapters of BNW concentrate on viable solutions: “Mobilising workers” engages with the literatures on mobilisation and organising; and “Finding the way” echoes many of the ideas and strategies of union activists such as Michael Crosby (2005), where the way forward is forged through techniques for building a sense both of individual and collective power in workers. These chapters instil hope and provide a sense of balance.

BNW is excellent reading for anyone interested in industrial relations, social change and changes to the world of work. It will easily satisfy academics, practitioners and observers since it achieves an easy mix of rigorous research and an accessible, conversational style, peppered with both passion and humour. I found it hard to put down because of its underlying concern with broad social issues as well as the more urgent, immediate questions about how we might begin to be brave in our own “new” workplaces.