TAKE-HOME EXAMINATION QUARTER 1 2017 SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Unit Name (In Full): IND. RELATIONS & WORKPLACE CHANGE Unit Number: 200719 Due Date: 26 MARCH 2017 Number of Questions: FOUR (4) Total Number of Pages: FIVE (5) including assignment cover sheet Lecturer's Name: DR MICHAEL LYONS INSTRUCTIONS PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING 1 Students are not to discuss ANY aspect of the exam questions with another person before the submission date and time has passed. Administrative questions regarding the exam can be directed to the Unit Co-ordinator. 2 Answers are to be typed, with double spacing and numbered pages. Each exam question answered must be identified: e.g., Question 2, Question 4 etc. 3 Only minimal referencing is required. Citation of material contained in the 200719 Unit Reading Material 2017 Q1 is only necessary if there is a direct quote or close paraphrasing. Citations for the Unit Reading Material need only be simple: e.g., (Bray et al 2014, p. 178) or Auer (2010, p. 372). Students are NOT required consult material not included in the Unit Readings. Material citied from the Unit Readings does not need to be included in a list of references. 4 The exam has four (4) questions. All questions are of equal value. The exam is worth 50% of the total marks for this unit. Students must gain a mark of 22.5/50 in the take-home exam to pass the unit. 5 There are four (4) questions in the exam, but you are required to answer three (3) questions only. 6 The maximum word limit for your exam answers is 2000 words (excluding references). The maximum word limit for any answer to a question is 670 words. 7 The total words used in your exam answers are to be shown: e.g., 1953 words overall. The word amount used to answer each question is to be shown: e.g., 579 words for one answer. If an answer exceeds the word limit the marker will stop reading once the word limit has been reached. 8 Exam answers MUST be submitted by 9.00 pm on 26 March 2017. 9 Exam answers must be submitted, or uploaded, as an “electronic copy” to the 200719 vUWS website (via Turnitin), before the submission date and time. 10 All submitted exam answers must be accompanied with the Assignment Cover Sheet reproduced at the end of the examination paper, containing the relevant details. With exam answers submitted as an “electronic copy” it will be deemed that this method of submission includes a signed plagiarism declaration. Answer any 3 (THREE) questions from the list below. All questions are of equal value. Question 1 Bray, Waring, Cooper and Macneil (2014, p. 50) suggest, “The distinctive feature of unitarist values is the assumption that employment relationships are essentially harmonious, with employees and employers sharing common interests and goals”. Yet Bray et al (2014, pp. 363-64) also assert, “Unitarism, for example, sees … where industrial conflict exists, … [one solution is to] expel the agitators from the organisation … [to] return the employment relationship to the expected equilibrium”. Is it possible to retain the common interests and goals assumptions of unitarist values when management adopts this response to the signs and symptoms of covert workplace conflict? Question 2 Kotter and Schlesinger (2008), unit Supplementary Readings Week 3, argue there are four “most common” reasons why people resist workplace change: (1) parochial self-interest; (2) misunderstanding and lack of trust; (3) different assessments; and (4) a low tolerance for change. Which of these four reasons best explains the reaction of the warehouse employees to the workplace change attempt outlined in the (Week 4) “Introduction of new technology at FoxMeyer Drugs” case study? Question 3 Both Kirsch and Wailes (2012) and Marchington and Kynighou (2012), unit Supplementary Readings Week 8, discuss aspects of the “Varieties of Capitalism” (VoC) framework to explain similarities and differences in management decision-making and industrial relations outcomes. How useful is the VoC framework in understanding contemporary workplace change? In your answer discuss relevant examples. Question 4 Please read the Australia Post case study below: The Australian Medical Association has accused Australia Post of tampering with doctors’ honesty and ethics by seeking second opinions when workers produce medical certificates for sick leave. The postal workers’ union has also banned Australia Post’s new Attendance Improvement Management System, which the union described as ‘a management tool to bully sick and injured workers’. Australia Post says the system is aimed at a “small minority” of its 35000 workforce who abuse leave entitlements and inflate the company’s sickies bill of about $35 million a year. The system, which began last month, targets workers who take 10 days’ sick leave a year or six days’ leave in a month – taken on Mondays, Fridays, pay days or days before and after public holidays. The performances of those targeted are reviewed twice in eight months, then workers involved are sent to a company doctor. AMA vice-president Mukesh Haikerwal yesterday labelled the system as “disrespectful and questionable”. He challenged the role and motive of Australia Post-designated doctors. “It’s really a question of who’s paying the piper and who is best placed to make a decision regarding the health of the patient”, he said. Dr Haikerwal said the duplication of medical resources was wasteful to the company and to Medicare. “But it is also disrespectful to doctors and provides a lack of continuity of care”, he said. Communication Workers Union secretary Joan Doyle said the system had been banned because it discriminated against workers and doctors and abused privacy laws. “What they are really saying is the worker's family doctor is a liar”, she said. “Often Australia Post will send you to more than one doctor until they get the right answer. It’s not just bullying workers, it’s an abuse of the health system.” Ms Doyle said some company doctors were notorious. One was nicknamed Dr Voltaren, after an anti-inflammatory drug. Ms Doyle said the doctor once prescribed the drug to a man whose family doctor later diagnosed a fractured elbow. Australia Post spokesman Matt Pollard said the new system was about counselling workers who appeared to have taken an unusual amount of sick leave, and managing cases to improve their health or family situations. The Australia Post Collective Agreement has a “Managing Change” clause. The clause contains the following paragraph: “The managing change process described in this clause applies to changes in work activities or services, hours of operation or working hours, organisational structure and work processes, technological change or the redeployment of staff members.” The CEO of Australia Post has asked you, the company’s Senior Human Resources Officer, to write a short report of about 650 words addressing the following two (2) issues: (a) Are the changes introduced by Australia Post management covered by the “Managing Change” clause? If so, why? If not, why not? (b) What are the justifications for the Communication Workers Union to be involved with the introduction of the Attendance Improvement Management System? Write the report. END OF EXAMINATION QUESTIONS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET STUDENT DETAILS Student name: Student ID number: UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS Unit name: Industrial Relations & Workplace Change Unit number: 200719 Tutorial group: Tutorial day and time: Lecturer or Tutor name: ASSIGNMENT DETAILS Title: Take-home Exam Length: Due date: 26 March 2017 Date submitted: Home campus (where you are enrolled): DECLARATION I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged. I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment. I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in another (previous or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and with prior permission from the Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit. No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except where collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit Coordinator concerned. I am aware that this work will be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism checking). Student’s signature: Note: An examiner or lecturer / tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been signed. ARO 00380 08/15