Learning to Navigate Enterprise Bargaining: The NTEU and Employment Relations in Higher Education

Abstract

This thesis is built on the premise that Enterprise Bargaining is a difficult thing to do. The introduction of Enterprise Bargaining to the higher education sector was a steep learning curve for all parties. This thesis focuses on leadership, strategic decision making and organisation learning in the National Tertiary Education Union. It offers a novel approach to the study of workplace leadership and organisational learning by combining traditional approaches to the study of trade unions with research in the fields of knowledge management and social network theory to study the learning process in the NTEU. Mapping the decision making process over time for four rounds of enterprise bargaining in higher education has shown how learning is cumulative as lessons learned are folded into a collective understanding which guided the NTEU’s approach to the next problem. A further major finding relates to the process of innovation. The process of adapting t o the changing external environment was often accompanied by clashes of opinion and battles for influence as new ideas confronted the collective learning of the past. Finally, the site of innovation can be found at any level of the organisation. In the case of the NTEU, it was often from the periphery of the union, the branches, where the full impact of the changes in the external environment was being felt and where new ideas were being developed to address them.