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Strategy in Context: The Impact of Changing Regulatory Regimes on Industrial Relations Management in the Australian Vehicle Industry

University of Queensland

A significant problem with the industrial relations strategy literature of the late 1980s which focused on matching business and labour relations strategies is its highly prescriptive notion that the formulation of sophisticated and well- developed internally focused industrial relations/human resources manage ment (IR/HRM) strategies as a feature of management practice is always necessary and desirable. The purpose of this article is to explore how and why IR/HRM strategies actually emerged historically in the Australian vehicle industry and, more particularly, to situate their development in the context of the changing relationship between the major vehicle industry employers and the Australian state in its various branches. This relationship changed from one of dependency in the first post-war decades to semi-autonomy by the 1980s and 1990s with respect to product markets, labour supply and indus trial relations. As reliance on the state became less intense, so companies in the industry were forced to devote significantly greater attention to IR/HRM strategies to take account of the new circumstances.

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