Meaningful and effective consultation and the construction industry of Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Consultation between employers and employees is mandated under Australian occupational health and safety legislation. For consultation to be considered meaningful and effective, it is generally accepted that moral and ethical principles such as trust, honesty, commitment and respect need to be recognized and applied by individuals during consultation. It is also considered that an organization’s level of cultural maturity is an important element in the ability of individuals to freely engage in meaningful and effective consultation. If the value of consultation is best reflected in the degree of input and control that workers have regarding the very decisions that affect them, and if the level of worker involvement is a reflection of an organization’s level of cultural maturity, it is debateable whether the notion of applying moral and ethical principles during consultation, and the adoption of the paradigm of organizational and cultural maturity, have been successfully developed and embraced in the commercial and industrial sector of the construction industry of Victoria, Australia.

Keywords:

• Occupational health and safety
• organizational culture
• participation
• trust

Acknowledgement

This paper is based on Gerard Ayer’s PhD thesis titled ‘Consultation and organizational maturity in the Victorian construction industry’, which was undertaken at the University of Ballarat and completed in July 2011. His supervisors were Professor Dennis Else, Associate Professor Jim Sillitoe and Dr John Culvenor.