Justice and Change in Australian Higher Education

This study examines the extent to which the Australian HE sector makes provisions for participative workplace change, the extent to which participants within the sector perceive participative workplace change as providing fairness, and practices that can facilitate and foster participative workplace change. The provisions for participative workplace change are examined through a longitudinal study of enterprise bargaining agreements across all public universities in Australia for the period of 1997-2006. The perceptions of participative workplace change are examined through an attitudinal survey of management and union executives within all public universities in Australia. The practices for participative workplace change are examined through twenty semi-structured interviews with management and union executives drawn from amongst the respondents to the attitudinal survey. The study concludes that it is a combination of fair processes and fair interactions which are most effective in facilitating workplace change and fostering employee participation in the Australian HE sector and which in turn are seen to be able to contribute to shared perceptions of organisational justice.