Taller 1

This thesis situates itself in the nexus between participative workplace change and organisational justice in the HE sector. Chapter 2 reviewed the key literature on organisational change and determined that workplace change was most effective, and better received by employees, when those affected by the change participated in the decision making associated with the workplace change. Chapter 3 then moved to examine the international literature on employee participation finding that there is considerable evidence that supports the participation of employees within organisational decision making although there are contested views on the degree and form that this participation can and should take. This chapter has also determined that participation is a key element of organisational justice because it enhances employee voice and contributes to procedural and interactional justice, two elements which predict the success of organisational decision outcomes.

It remains now to consider the nature of change, participation and fairness in the HE sector. As has been indicated in Chapters 2 and 3 the HE sector has experienced considerable level of workplace change during the last 20 years and in addition there has been some debate over the nature of employee participation and in particular, whether there has been a decline in collegial decision making.

Beyer & Lodahl (1976) outlined the relationships between management and employees in the HE sector in the US and the UK, highlighting the importance of participation in the decision making processes. The authors approached the research on participation in the sector from the perspective of organisational culture. In essence, the study indicated that the HE sector had evolved from a traditionally pluralistic decision making environment where there were expectations that major decisions would feature a strong degree of participation not only by those affected but by all interested parties within the organisation to an environment in which decisions were made by a limited number of managers in senior positions with little opportunity for broader consultation or important.

In the Australian HE sector, Williamson (2005) found a relationship between the changing nature of academic work and the weakening of favourable perceptions of

procedural justice. Williamson (2005) undertook a study of performance management in the context of a move to individualised employment conditions which involved interviews of staff from four universities. Williamson (2005) found that there was a ‘level of management desire to remove certain elements of procedure’ in implementing performance management schemes. He indicated that the rationale by management in doing this was for the purposes of efficiency but that: ‘the genuineness of this assertion has not yet been tested (2005:630)’.

Williamson (2005) identified that the changes to the nature of the ‘collectivist employment relations history’ is not only evidenced by perceptions of academic employees in the move to a less fair workplace but is also one that undermines the concept operating in a collegial manner. The notion of collegial decision making was canvassed in Chapters 2 and 3 in a discussion of universities being environments where there has been a tradition of pluralistic decision making. Beyer and Lodahl (1976) defined the concept of collegial decision making as a relationship between the amount of influence exercised by unit heads relative to that exercised by faculty members. If the unit head had more influence than faculty members, then the unit was considered bureaucratic. Where faculty staff possessed more influence then the unit was considered collegial (1976:111).

In a further case of a perceived decline in collegial decision making and associated staff perceptions of unfair workplace change, Kenny (2008) explored the introduction of a workload allocation model in an Australian university. Kenny (2008) highlighted that despite endorsement for a particular model coming from affected staff the management chose a different course of action and that this was unable to be challenged due to: ‘no mechanism was in place to hold management to account and limited opportunities existed to question decisions’. Kenny (2008) attributes this to the decline of collegiality and the: ‘trend of individualising the workplace’ (2008:17).

Van Rhyn & Holloway (2004) also explore the loss of employee participation and the decline of collegial decision making in the context of a restructure in an Australian university. They describe the adverse reaction of staff to the process as follows:

The saga to date was consistent with the literature, a classic one of a top down change management process which was on the verge of a significant breakdown because of the continued alienation of staff from any meaningful engagement with the process (2004:8).

Van Rhyn & Holloway (2004) go on to advocate a process for managing workplace change within higher education which is consistent with more traditional collegial decision making and that recognises that: ‘the best approach to change management is one that actively involves all staff’ (2004:9).

Karriker (2007) also explored the relationship between organisational justice, workplace change and collegiality in a recent study that examined attitudes towards workplace change that had occurred after a structural realignment in a teaching school within a United States public university. In this study he examined the impact on perceived levels of fairness after a change process where there had been detailed engagement and consultation with the affected staff. On assessing the reason for the perception of fairness and an apparent increased sense of collegiality as a result of the communication that took place between the leadership and those responsible for the implementation of the structural change, he concluded that ‘proactive procedural justice’ can result in employees viewing organisational change within HE more favourably. Karriker (2207) described the relationship of procedural fairness to collegiality in the context of achieving ‘buy-in’ from employees: ‘Perhaps it is justice- induced acceptance or ‘buy-in’ that leads to organisational effectiveness, well beyond what might be accomplished with change alone’ (2007:340).

It has been contended that the collegial structure of universities is likely to contribute to more highly developed organisational justice environments than other organisational structures (Ambrose & Schminke, 2003). In making this connection the authors described two organisational structure types: the mechanistic and the organic. Mechanistic organisational structures were described as featuring stringent rules and bureaucratic structures and were found to be less likely than organic organisations (less formalised and more flexible in nature) to have a positively moderating effect on organisational justice. This finding is important in a consideration of organisational justice in the HE sector, given that the implication arising from this research is that

the bureaucratic nature of the HE sector is in itself a mitigating factor against an organisationally just environment.

The issue of organisational justice within the Australian HE sector is considered in the context of the relationship between transformational leadership and resistance to change in a study undertaken by Cheng and Petrovic-Lazarevic (2004). This study argued that public universities had been confronted with the requirement to ‘do more with less’ and that the response to this had been a series of restructures and downsizing activities (2004:2). This study considered the adverse impact of change and the varying impacts that it had on the differing dimensions of organisational justice:

When change is definite, organisational justice on the fairness dimension of both the outcome of change and the process of change becomes important in mediating consent or resistance to change. Distributive injustice leads to the seeking of retributive justice by employees, whilst procedural injustice also gives rise to interactional injustice being perceived by employees (2004:4)

This research provides some insight into the limited application of organisational justice literature in the Australian HE sector, with the key finding that change in the HE sector has significantly dismantled any notion that collegiality operates as a form of employee participation. This finding reinforces the themes explored through Chapters 6, 7 & 8 in respect to the empirical work undertaken for this thesis on the perceptions of fairness of HE staff in relation to workplace change.