Principal speaker
Dr Johanna Macneil
Abstract: Third parties from private sector consulting firms in the USA and Australia have played a critical role in high profile and complex mixed bargaining processes with a strong interest-based bargaining element (Walton, Cutcher-Gershenfeld and McKersie 1994). Examples include Kaiser Permanente Healthcare (USA) (McKersie et al 2008), Yale University (USA), Nabalco/Alcan (Australia), and Tomago Aluminium (Australia) (see Macneil and Bray 2013 forthcoming). However, little has been written about what these third parties actually do. This presentation draws on three influential typologies from the consulting (Schein 1969), facilitation (Schwartz 2002) and mediation (Moore 2003) literatures to identify the roles third parties might play in this work. These models emphasise some common normative characteristics for a legitimate third party role, for example, an approach that gives priority to understanding and addressing the parties' interests; a focus on providing expertise on process and structure (not content); and the importance of maintaining 'neutrality' and distance from the parties' decision-making. The challenges of carrying out such roles in a union-management context are considered. The presentation then explores what happens in practice, drawing on interview and other data from nine third party 'neutrals' from the USA and Australia, with 179 years experience between them in this role. Results suggest that the common typologies do not fully or correctly capture the lived experiences of these particular third parties and there is much more to be learned about the challenges of their role.
Speaker: Johanna Macneil is a member of the ER/HRM Discipline at The University of Newcastle. Her research focuses on policies and practices (in organisations and of governments) to promote improved workplace co-operation and productivity. Current projects include the one on which this presentation reports - third party facilitators of interest-based bargaining; another (with Mark Bray) on the role of industrial tribunals in fostering co-operation; and a third (with Nigel Haworth and Erling Rasmussen in NZ) on how governments use soft regulation to promote workplace co-operation. Johanna holds a BA, an MBA and a PhD from The University of Melbourne; and worked previously at Monash and Deakin Universities, and as a senior workplace relations consultant. She is currently Convenor of the MHRM Program and Director of Executive and Corporate Programs for the Faculty of Business and Law.
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