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    Testing the concept of the 'good employer' in a small enterprise context : central North Island : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Human Resource Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Coetzee, Deirdre
    The assumption that small enterprise (SE) employers are paternalistic and favour an individualistic approach to managing the employment relationship and occupational health and safety (OHS) risk and, consequently, that SE terms and conditions of work are generally inferior to large enterprises (LEs) has not been tested in SEs in New Zealand. This study examined the concept of a 'good employer' regarding employment relations (ER) and OHS practices in SEs in New Zealand. It explored this concept through a framework developed from the International Labour Organization's (ILO) socially Decent Work Index (DWI) (Bonnet, Figueiredo & Standing, 2003; Standing, 1997) and the work that was carried out by Bewley (2006), Boxall (1991), and Hull and Read (2003). A qualitative approach was adopted which involved conducting semi-structured interviews with 12 SE employers. In an attempt to capture high and low OHS risk industries, as well as a range of unskilled to highly skilled jobs, three employers from: the construction, manufacturing, service, and retail industry sectors were interviewed between July and August 2010. The interview schedule was developed from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 (WERS) (Kersley, Alpin, Forth, Bryson, Bewley, Dix, et al, 2006) to explore the key dimensions of a 'good employer': employment security, voice security, income security, skill reproduction security, and work security. The employers predominantly perceived the need to: promote a collaborative culture, adopt fair and understanding employment practices and provide a good work environment. How these 'good employer' perceptions, attitudes and beliefs were implemented in practice were explored by testing the adapted ILO framework of socially decent work. The main themes emerging from the employers' perceptions corresponded with the two dimensions of the 'good employer' prioritized by the ILO (Bonnet, et al, 2003): employee voice security and work security, which are embedded in the Employment Relations Act (ERA) and Health and Safety in Employment Act (HSEA). Overall, these employers were considered as 'good employers' relative to arguments that a 'good employer' complies with the statutory employment minimum. However, when the characteristics of a 'good employer' were examined more closely subtle differences appeared between employers and these are best described on a continuum. At the one end employers appeared to be just compliant with basic statutory requirements while employers at the other end demonstrated higher levels of the characteristics that fitted with the concepts developed in large enterprises and the public sector.
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    Perceptions, practices, and productivity : an assessment of personnel management in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1990) Toulson, Paul Kilsha
    The aim of this thesis is to assess the contribution and role of personnel management through an empirical examination of some of the major variables in the organisation, and how the personnel function affects them. Contemporary organisation theory suggests a contingency approach to the influence of the organisation on the personnel function, and recognises the multivariate nature of organisations, in as much their resultant productivity will depend on the relationship between the employees' (attitudes) and the way they are managed (practices). The practice of personnel management is therefore the selection of the most appropriate practices for outcomes which will produce the greatest productivity. A research model was developed to explore these relationships, using employee attitude and personnel practice as the independent variables, and productivity as the dependent variable. Buchholz's Beliefs About Work Scale and the Litwin and Stringer Organisational Climate Scale were used as measures of employee attitude, and were administered to a sample of 2,111 members of the New Zealand work force from 40 work organisations. Measures of personnel practice were developed from structured interviews with each of the 40 organisations, and a set of productivity data was requested from each organisation. It was concluded that while psychological measures of employee attitude can be obtained satisfactorily using scales that have been developed in previous studies, and that measures of personnel practice can be developed, the same cannot be said for productivity. The paucity of the productivity information is indicative of the current status of personnel management in New Zealand, with implications for both psychology and personnel management. These implications are discussed in this thesis.