Call for Papers
First Asia Pacific Workshop on Teamworking under the auspices of the International Workshop on Teamworking (IWOT) at the University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August 2009 Organised by Centre for Institutional and Organisational Studies, The University of Newcastle, Australia, and The Department of Management, Monash University, Australia
Asia Pacific Workshop on Teamworking
The first Asia Pacific Workshop on Teamworking (APWT1) will be a small, participative event examining issues of teams, their organisation, development and operation, in differing workplace and organisational contexts.
The workshop is associated with the annual International Workshop On Teamworking (IWOT). The 13th IWOT is to be held at Tilburg University in The Netherlands in September 2009 (http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/faculties/fsw/departments/os/research/IWOT13/).
The inaugural workshop will focus on two themes: Partnership and Work Design, and the prospects for Good Work in Teams.
Partnership and Work Design
Partnership between employees, unions, managers and other organisational stakeholders has been a common theme in public policy, an objective of organisational reform and the subject of considerable attention in the academic literature. The focus of much of the research, however, has been on the governance structures themselves and their consequences for the stakeholders. Little attention has been focused on the relationship between these governance structures and the design and implementation of work organisation. Moreover, the term is used in different ways in different countries.
How have partnership arrangements been used to design and implement work reorganisation? Do teams perform better partnership governance arrangements? How can partnership governance arrangements be introduced and sustained to achieve both improved organisational performance and benefits for employees? What lessons can be learned across national contexts.
Good Work in Teams
In the middle of the twentieth century teamworking was promoted as a means of overcoming worker deskilling and alienation and resultant poor performance said to characterise Scientific Management. Teamworking was expected to create multi-skilled and interesting work, expanding employee discretion and autonomy and resocialising the industrial workplace.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, analyses of teamworking suggest it has a very different face. Teamworking is more widely used than ever but its focus is squarely on organisational performance. For many employees teamworking means work role expansion through the delegation of ever increasing job responsibilities, peer pressure over team performance issues, and consequent work intensification.
Can teams still deliver on their promise of good work? Is so, how?
Keynote Speaker
Paul Edwards is Professor of Industrial Relations at the Industrial Relations Research Unit in Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, and a previous deputy director and director of the Unit. He is also a former editor of Work, Employment and Society and associate editor of Human Relations. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy 1998 and was a Senior Fellow in the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM). His current research interests include new forms of work organisation and their implications for employees and for efficiency and comparative workplace employee relations. His work on teams has appeared in journals including the British Journal of Industrial Relations and Work and Occupations.
Possible Workshop Topics
| Partnership and Work Design | Good Work in Teams |
|---|---|
| Cross-national comparisons of concepts of 'partnership' | The Experience of Work in Teams |
| New forms of partnership governance structures | Teams, Organisations and Flexibility Discipline and Control in Teams |
| Labour-management partnership as a context for teams | New Forms of Teamwork (virtual teams, inter-organisational teams) |
| Engaging employees in work redesign | Team Development and Team Processes |
| Prospects for mutual gains under partnership arrangements | Teams and Employment Relations |
| Impact of partnerships on organisational performance and employee benefits | Is 'good' work sustainable |
| The role of the state in sponsoring partnership | Teams, Innovation and Improvement |
Submission of Abstracts and Papers
A short abstract of no more than 500 words should be sent to the convenors as soon as possible.
Each abstract should have a separate title page that includes: paper title, author name(s); affiliation(s); address(es) including fax, telephone and e-mail. If more than one author, please indicate corresponding author.
Full papers (of 4,000-5,000 words) are due by Friday 31 July 2009. These will be distributed to workshop participants. The workshop is limited to 15 participants. Only participants who submit full papers will be included in the program.
Important Dates
- Submission of Abstracts - as soon as possible, by email to both convenors
- Notification of Acceptance - progressive, by email to corresponding author
- Submission of Full Papers - Friday 31 July 2009, by email to both convenors
- Workshop - Thursday 20th and Friday 21st August 2009
NB. The workshop is in the week preceding the 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA), to be held in Sydney, Australia, Monday 24th - Thursday 27th August 2009. http://www.iceaustralia.com/IIRA2009/pdf/IIRA2009_Newsletter_081110.pdf Newcastle is about two hours drive/train journey north of Sydney. There are direct flights from Newcastle (Williamtown) Airport to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Workshop Venue: Level 3 Boardroom, The University of Newcastle city campus, corner of King and Auckland Streets, Newcastle, New South Wales.
Workshop fee: AUD $200, payable to 'The University of Newcastle' following notification of acceptance of papers. The fee includes workshop dinner on Thursday night.