Undercover boss: what Australian employees think about their managers

This paper presents the results of research on the attitudes of Australian employees to three key aspects of management behaviour: workplace consultation, trust in managers and perceptions of fair treatment. It was found that managerial and non-managerial employees share quite high perceptions of trust, fairness and consultation; managerial employees have higher perceptions than non-managerial employees. Factors such as length of job tenure, age, size of establishment, form of employment, industry sector, union membership, opportunities to negotiate pay and conditions, as well as perceptions of job security and workplace safety risk were found to be linked to employee perceptions of management. A number of important implications for employers, trade unions and government policy-makers are highlighted.
INTRODUCTION The discovery of large differences in the experience of and attitudes to work between workers and managers and owners, and the economic and social implications of this is a [...]