Studying Work in the Post Reform Era

Abstract

This paper emerged from the first stage of what is to be a three-stage multi-disciplinary research project examining work in the 'post-reform era '. The key foci of that research project are the organisation of work, the determination of wages, and the well-being of workers at the workplace level. It will examine how the nature of work varies across workplaces of different sizes and in different competitive environments. The present paper draws on the first stage of the research to share some of the problems experienced while attempting to study workplaces in New Zealand today. It draws on research in 19 Auckland workplaces and reveals serious definitional, theoretical, and methodological problems that are likely to constrain any such research in the present environment. In our case, the problems raised, and the solutions offered, have led to a fundamental rethink of the larger project's research objectives, strategies, and ways to operationalise concepts into empirical measures.