Contents Page: NZJER, 2017, 43(1)
Name

Title

Willoughby Moloney,
Peter Boxall, Matthew
Parsons, and Nicolette
SheridanWhich Factors Influence New Zealand
Registered Nurses To Leave Their
Profession?

1-13

Gaye Greenwood andJarrod M. Haar

Understanding the effects of Intra-Group
Conflict: A Test of Moderation andMediation

14-35

Jean Martin and Sarah
WrightThe Application of Cameron’s Positive
Leadership Model in a New Zealand Law
Enforcement Organisation

36-55

Roy
Smollan
Edwina Pio

and Organisational change, identity andcoping with stress

Page
Numbers

56-82

The ‘Danish Models’ of labour market
Herman Knudsen and regulation and their status after recent
Jens Lindchanges

83-98

Nadia Dabee

99-105The New Perils of Being Unsafe

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13

Which Factors Influence New Zealand Registered Nurses To Leave
Their Profession?
WILLOUGHBY MOLONEY*, PETER BOXALL**, MATTHEW PARSONS***and NICOLETTE SHERIDAN****
Abstract
In the context of a looming shortage, this study uses qualitative data to understand why
registered nurses leave the profession in New Zealand, and identify what can be done to retain
them. Our analysis points to a set of factors that is positive for retention, including theopportunity to express a value of caring, supportive relationships, and career development
prospects. If not experienced, however, these factors can repel registered nurses from theprofession. A second set of factors is clearly negative, such as heavy workload demands,
bullying, and problems of work-life balance while a third set is economic and demographic.
Key words: nursing shortage, employee retention, occupational commitment, health sector

Introduction
A fundamental challenge for the health sector lies in the demographic shift affecting both thecommunity (the potential patients or clients) and the workforce that serves them. As in otherdeveloped economies, the New Zealand population is aging because of increased life expectancy,
advances in medical technology, and declining fertility rates (Bascand, 2007; Joumard, Andre, &Nicq, 2010). The number of New Zealanders aged 65-plus is projected to climb from 650,000 in2014 to more than one million in the late 2020s (Statistics New Zealand, 2014). As a directconsequence, the prevalence of chronic disease is increasing dramatically, with a growing
number of people experiencing multimorbidity (Banerjee, 2015). The economic effect of aging
populations and the increasing prevalence of chronic disease is a major concern for healthsystems in all developed countries (ibid). These costs can include direct costs (subsidisingproviders, pharmaceuticals, providing income support), underlying costs (capital and equipment)
and indirect costs (reduced employment or social productivity) (National Health Committee,2005).
The nursing workforce plays a critical role in providing health care, not only in traditionalsettings, such as hospitals and long-term care institutions, but increasingly in primary care and inhomecare settings. But like the population they serve, New Zealand’s registered nurses (RNs) are*

Dr. Willoughby Moloney, Lecturer, School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of
Auckland**Prof. Peter Boxall, Business School, University of Auckland***
Prof. Matthew Parsons, School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland****
Prof. Nicolette Sheridan, School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Massey University

1

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
aging, with 46 per cent aged 50-plus (Ministry of Health, 2014). Research has shown a steadydecline in the retention of RNs from the age of 50 years (Nursing Council of New Zealand,2011). North, Leung, and Lee (2014) reported that, in New Zealand between 2006 and 2011,
one-quarter of RNs aged 50-plus left the workforce. Permanent leaving rose sharply at 64 years,
as retirement fund-eligibility (at 65 years) approached. Any escalation in rates of resignation orretirement of RNs potentially threatens the viability of the health and disability system, whichhas prompted actions to increase the training of new RNs in combination with efforts to increase
the retention of those currently in the profession.
Aging populations and an increasing prevalence of chronic disease continue to increase thedemands on healthcare services and, thus, place pressure on health systems to ensure asustainable supply of nursing staff who are willing to work in the system. Although there is aplethora of research on the career behaviours of RNs, the focus has largely been on
organisational, rather than occupational, turnover. Occupational commitment is linked withvarious positive outcomes, including lower absenteeism and higher work engagement (Freund,2005) and is inversely linked with intentions to leave a profession (Hackett, Lapierre, &Hausdorf, 2001). Current understandings of why RNs leave the profession remain limited(Gilmartin, 2013; van der Heijden, van Dam, & Hasselhorn, 2009), partly due to a lack of indepth qualitative analysis. More research is needed because occupational turnover results not
only in withdrawal from the specific healthcare institution but also in withdrawal from thenursing profession itself.
To some extent, the looming shortage has been alleviated by recent economic events. Following
the onset of the Great Recession in 2007, the number of RNs in paid employment increased(Buerhaus, Auerbach, & Staiger, 2009). In the United States, hospital employment of RNs
increased by an estimated 243,000 in 2007 and 2008, the largest increase during any two-year
period in the past four decades (Buerhaus, 2012). Similarly in New Zealand, the number ofpractising RNs per 1000 population increased from 10.6 in 2009 to 11.5 in 2015 (Ministry of
Health, 2016). However, commentators point out that RNs who re-entered or extended theirinvolvement in the workforce because of negative economic effects on their family may be more
likely to leave their jobs or reduce their hours once the family’s financial situation improves(Buerhaus et al., 2009; Staiger, Auerbach, & Buerhaus, 2012). The temporary reprieve in
workforce stability is not likely to last and we would be very unwise to ignore the longer-run
trend.
Solutions that address the anticipated nursing shortage are likely to focus on the motivations of
RNs and incentives to recruit and retain them despite their changing circumstances. Many RNs
think that they are unfairly financially rewarded for their efforts, or they have conflicting
expectations with their managers and cannot provide the comprehensive care expected, so are
disillusioned with the profession (Buerhaus, 2009; Cohen, Stuenkel, & Nguyen, 2009). They
often have intense and demanding workloads, which result in them feeling emotionally andphysically exhausted (Huntington, Gilmour, Tuckett, Neville, Wilson, & Turner, 2010). Manyothers experience bullying by their peers (Foster, Mackie, & Barnett, 2004). It is unlikely that
simply training more RNs will help avoid a shortage; therefore, policy development needs toaddress the ‘discontents’ of current RNs and consider innovative ways to retain them. Increasing
the inflow into any critical profession addresses only one side of the problem. We need to2New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
complement this with actions that reduce the outflow. Finding ways to delay the retirement ofRNs, for example, is an important factor in addressing the issue of nursing shortages(Hasselhorn, Muller, & Tackenberg, 2005).
In this context, our goal is to better understand why RNs leave the profession. In this paper, we
report findings from a set of qualitative interviews designed to examine the occupational
commitment of New Zealand RNs: what draws them to nursing as an occupation and what repels
them from it? We begin by describing our method and then explain the results of our data
analysis. This leads into our discussion, limitations and conclusion.

MethodOur study adopts a critical realist perspective. Critical realism is committed to ontologicalrealism (where there is a reality, which is structured and layered and independent of the mind),epistemological relativism (where beliefs are socially produced) and judgemental rationalism(that there are justifiable grounds for preferring one theory over another) (Bhaskar, 1989;
Patomaki, 2000). Researchers working within this philosophical schema understand that there
are many approaches to research, which cross the traditional quantitative–qualitative divide andthat the differences between methods are not always as extreme as they are made out to be(McEvoy, 2006). This article reports an exercise in qualitative data gathering and analysis, whichbrings its own insights and which can help to inform subsequent quantitative research. Researchcommenced after ethics approval from The University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics
Committee (Ref 9447).
SampleTo understand the factors that might affect the decisions RNs make around leaving theprofession, we conducted interviews with purposively-selected RNs and nursing leaders (n=24)
working in Auckland, New Zealand. A framework was developed to ensure that the sample wasdiverse in terms of hierarchical levels, different areas of nursing practice (hospital, community
and residential care) and different stages of career. Interviews were held with 12 RNs working in
non-leader roles, seven in operational management roles, and three in executive management
roles. Seven interviews were with those working within a tertiary hospital setting, 10 within a
primary care or community setting, and five within the residential care setting. Participants werefrom Māori, Pacific Island, Asian, Indian and European descents. Two additional interviews
were conducted with health leaders from Health Workforce New Zealand and the Nursing
Council of New Zealand. Two participants were men and 22 were women. Sampling continued
to the point at which no new information was obtained and data saturation had been reached(Polit & Beck, 2012).
Data collection
Semistructured interviews were undertaken in 2013 at a time and place convenient toparticipants. Participant information and consent forms were provided in English. Written
informed consent was gained on the day of the interview. Face-to-face interviews were regarded3

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
as the best method of collecting qualitative data because of the quality of information they yield(Polit & Beck, 2012). Confidentiality was ensured.
An interview schedule comprising 12 open-ended questions guided a focussed interview
exploring issues related to RN retention within the profession. The interview schedule wasinformed by relevant literature related to the study objectives but we were careful not to impose
too much academic structure on the process. We wanted to hear in their own voices what RNs
wanted to say about working in their profession and the reasons for leaving it. Examples ofquestions include “What do you think motivates nurses to work in nursing?” “Could nursing
work be restructured to better suit nurses at different life stages?” “What do you think are themain reasons nurses choose to leave the profession?” and “What could be done to ensure thatyour future nursing career is effective and satisfying?” Interviews were digitally recorded andthen transcribed verbatim.
Analysis
A general inductive approach was used to thematically analyse the data obtained from theinterviews (Thomas, 2006). The purpose of such an approach is to condense raw textual data intoa brief, summary format. The general inductive approach provides a systematic set of procedures
for analysing qualitative data. Thematic analysis is not wedded to any pre-existing theoreticalframework, and can be used within different theoretical frameworks, including “contextualist”
methods, such as critical realism (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Qualitative data were entered into
Microsoft Word, read many times to form codes and then condensed into themes. Links werethen established between the research objectives and the themes. External corroboration of thethematic analysis was undertaken between the authors to validate the identified themes. Any
discrepancies were discussed and the codes and themes adapted accordingly.

Findings
What, then, does our sample of New Zealand RNs have to say about the factors that affect theiroccupational commitment? Reflection on the voices in our data suggested a threefold
categorisation of the forces influencing the retention of RNs. One set of forces, relating to workvalues, supportive relationships and prospects for career progression, is attractive or has thepotential to be attractive. These are factors that participants see as consistent with their personalgoals or supportive of their longer-term commitment to the profession. A negative experience
with these factors, however, can repel them from the profession. A second set, relating toworkload, bullying and work-life interference, is more obviously negative and clearly has thepotential to repel: they account for why many RNs have become disillusioned with theirprofession. Finally, there is a set of forces that relate to the characteristics of the economic
climate and the demographic profile of RNs, and where the impacts on retention are more
ambiguous. More minor factors, or factors mentioned by only a small number of participants, are
not reported here.
Work Values, Supportive Relationships and Career Progression

4New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
Value congruence
Many RNs choose nursing because of the opportunity to help others, which they identify with
employment in a healthcare organisation. Thirteen participants from across hospital, community
and residential care settings, and from across non-leader, operational management and executive
management positions, made comments to this effect. For example, one RN commented “I workin nursing because I enjoy working with patients and trying to make a difference in their healthoutcomes,” and one executive manager said “what motivates nurses is actually making a
difference.” This factor, which typically attracts altruistic people into nursing can, however, repel
them from it if the lived reality of nursing does not fulfil the expectation. For example, one RN
said, “We are not patient-centred anymore. We are document-centred.” Another commented that
their work involves “more paperwork than patient care.”Colleague support.
The voices across hierarchies and areas of practice were united on the importance of having goodworking relationships with other RNs, as well as the wider interdisciplinary team. Fourteen
participants discussed how their work colleagues were supportive. For example, one RN statedthat “communication with other workmates is always helpful,” and another said, “your resources
are your colleagues that you’re working with because you’re always going to them if you need toknow anything.” One health leader noted that, “nurses draw on the comradery, the professional
identity and the professional esteem and the kinship you get from other nurses.”
The importance of teamwork was also identified. One executive manager felt that RNs get
satisfaction from “working in a team of like-minded people who have a collective goal to make adifference to patients.” Another RN thought that “having that team support is really invaluable,
so you do not feel isolated.” Sentiments of “valuing each other” and “caring for each other” wereidentified as needed in nursing teams.
Supervisor and managerial support
The other source of direct support comes from the immediate line manager and from those at
higher levels of the hierarchy. Eleven participants discussed the importance of these
relationships. RNs in executive management roles talked about the need to have “good strong
leadership that has a collective vision toward supporting and progressing nursing,” and argued
that managers “need to be passionate about what they do and share their knowledge and skills,
rather than it being a very hierarchical structure.” On the negative side, one health leader
commented on the lack of support for younger RNs: “nurses often expect our young to hit thefloor running and we don’t cut them a lot of slack.” This was supported by one RN who said that“nurses are not getting the support and education and mentorship they need.”
Fifteen of the participants commented on the need for healthcare organisations to invest more
fully in developing the leadership capabilities of nursing managers. Suggestions included “morenurse mentor figures that people could go to” and “harnessing good leaders who make things
work well on the floor.”5

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
Career progression
This attractive force came through comments from participants regarding their opportunities toadvance their career. For some participants, this meant progressing into higher-level nursing
roles (‘moving up the ranks’), whereas for others it meant moving across specialisations or into
other domains or types of organisation within the health sector. A younger RN, for example,
thought she might leave nursing to move into health management or education, stating, “I do notthink I could be on the floor for the rest of my life giving enemas.”
Four RNs discussed their frustration at the pace with which they were able to progress into new
nursing roles, which they considered a potential reason for RNs to leave the profession.
Comments included “it is slow to move up in the ranks,” “you have to be kind of committed to
one area to earn your right to move up in the ranks and it is a bit disheartening,” and “it is very
hard to go up, there are not many positions you can rise to.”Workload, Bullying and Work-life Interference
A second set of factors emerged around the demands and stresses of contemporary nursing andthe ways in which they affected the rest of the RN’s life.
Quantitative demands
Fourteen participants across hierarchies discussed consistently heavy workloads that led to stressand feeling burnt-out by the end of the shift. They identified this as a reason to leave theprofession. For example, one RN commented, “there are never any light days and you are
constantly all-go from when you start to when you finish and you can get quite exhausted.”
Another RN noted the link between workload, decision-making and stress by stating, “…having
a heavy workload seems to be the biggest challenge. It can be a stressful environment with someof the decision-making because of the type of issues we are dealing with.” Participants
acknowledged that RNs might leave the profession because of burnout caused by the emotional
challenges of caring: “caring all the time is hard.”
Nine of the participants connected workload to inadequate staffing levels. For example, one RN
stated, “there never seems to be a day when you are fully staffed, so you are always playing
catch-up.” Participants in managerial roles described the impact increasing workloads washaving on the ability of RNs to develop therapeutic relationships with patients. One operational
manager stated, “…nurses frequently tell me that they do not have that time to sit down and talkto patients.” Other concerns related to skill mix: “we will often have one senior nurse working
with a lot of junior nurses and quite a lot of new grads.”
Bullying
The issue of bullying between RNs, and between management and RNs, was identified by 15 of
the participants. This was acknowledged as a problem by participants from all practice settings
and all hierarchies. This was the converse or ‘dark side’ of the supportive relationships referred
to above, and included reference to ‘horizontal violence,’ which participants saw as contributing
6New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
to RNs leaving the profession. Statements included “nursing is notoriously known for bullies,”“nurses are their own worst enemies,” and “bullying is everywhere.” One participant likened thebullying culture in nursing to one of domestic violence, explaining that “the cycle of bullying
continues in nursing, until somebody steps in and breaks the cycle.” Suggestions for dealing withbullying included “expectations around the cultural environment” that demonstrated zerotolerance for “unsupportive derogatory negative behaviors” and a “process for consequences”
when there are breaches in behavior.
Flexible working hours and work-life interference
Seventeen of the participants discussed the importance of flexible working hours. For example,
one RN stated, “for me it is all about the flexibility, the fact that I can do the hours that suit me,
obviously to fit in with family.” The challenges of shift work and having to work nights orweekends were reasons to consider leaving the nursing profession. One RN talked aboutcolleagues who had left nursing because they “could not cope with the shift work” or because
they had to work “hours that do not necessarily fit with their family.” The majority of comments
indicated that there was insufficient flexibility around working hours to accommodate those withfamilies and older RNs wanting to reduce their hours. The effect of greater flexibility was
summed up by one RN who said, “…if you give people the hours that suit them, people staylonger.”
For many RNs, there exists the need to combine work and family demands, and with theproliferation of dual-career couples, balancing work and home responsibilities has become
increasingly difficult, leading to the occurrence of work-life interference. Nine participants
discussed the complications around childrearing and working, despite nursing remaining a
predominantly female occupation. One RN talked about the pressure on RNs to “manage really
big and busy jobs and to manage home lives,” and others discussed how their colleagues had left
because the organisation was not “family-friendly.”Economic and Demographic Factors
A final set of factors relates to the changing economic context, to the impact of pay levels, and toage profiles in the nursing workforce.
Effects of the recession
Sixteen participants commented on the impact of the economic climate. One operational
manager said they had a “really high retention rate at the moment” because of “the financial
crisis.” An RN suggested that the recession had slowed turnover because “once you have got agood job you kind of want to stay there because you have got a stable job and you should be
grateful.” Others talked about how the recession had affected families, suggesting that women
increased their hours or returned to nursing “when their husbands lost their jobs.” One RN talked
about the risk of RNs leaving the profession as the economy improves because “if they do notneed to put in those amounts of hours, and their husbands are back full-time and have job
security, they probably will look at leaving.”

7

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
Pay
The impact of pay levels divided our participants. Four RNs said that the pay in nursing was now
good, with one stating that it “pays more than anything else that I would have skills to do out
there.” For seven others, pay was still an issue, with one citing that, although “the salary is a lot
better than it was several years ago, it is a pretty basic salary, so it has to be something you reallywanted to do.” Another RN talked about how the “step up” in pay was very slow, and one
operational manager thought that primary care is “not as well paid as the hospital.”
Age
Eighteen participants across hierarchies and practice settings commented on how the age of RNs
might affect their motivations to work but, again, their views on how it did so were varied. Somethought that younger RNs might be motivated by money and travel and were, therefore, likely toturn over more regularly, whereas older RNs were less motivated by pay and were challenged by
the demands of work, so consequently wanted to work less. Other participants did not think thatthe age of RNs affected their working motivations, instead saying it was more about “teamwork,
appreciation and appropriate workload.” Most participants agreed that older RNs should continue
to have an important role within nursing and that attention needed to be placed on developing
more innovative roles, such as mentorship. One health leader commented that they wanted to see
more “innovation” in how to “use the wisdom of our older nurses without burning them out.”

Discussion
In this discussion, we seek to integrate our findings in a way that would help healthcare
providers to foster better RN retention in New Zealand. On the one hand, our analysis points topositive factors, which should be capable of retaining RNs. This includes being able to fulfil acherished sense of caring, which is in line with the concept of value congruence where the valuesof RNs fit with those of their employer and are able to be realised in the work environment(Dotson, Dinesh, Cazier, & Spaulding, 2014). The findings regarding the importance of goodworking relationships with colleagues resonates with the role of social support at work inpositively improving wellbeing and performance and reducing burnout and absenteeism (Frese,1999). Additionally, the importance of experiencing supportive relationships with managers
resonates with those studies that find that RNs with supportive supervisors and senior managers
are more satisfied with their work and are more inclined to stay in their job (Ogle & Glass, 2014;
van der Heijden et al., 2009). As with the preceding factors, findings that highlight the desire towork in a sector in which career development is fostered can ‘cut both ways’. Where RNs do
perceive advancement opportunities, rather than intimidating barriers, these opportunities canmake a positive impact on job satisfaction and occupational commitment (Price, 2001). These
are factors that can be expected to attract RNs to the profession and to retain them in it.
However, our results also indicate that all these factors can turn out to be negative, repelling RNsfrom the profession. This occurs when the altruistic promise of a nursing career is dashed by areality of excessive bureaucracy and unrelenting pressure, making it difficult to express a caredriven ethic. Similarly, the kind of collegial support one is primed to expect from workmates and8New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
managers can be dashed by a reality of bullying, either because RNs are deficient ininterpersonal skills in conflictual situations or are simply too busy to express themselves morecompetently. Furthermore, a desire for career progression can be unfulfilled due to barriers suchas a lack of opportunity for vertical movement, caused by tight budgets, or lack of opportunity
for lateral movement, caused by excessive regulatory requirements. The difficulty with our first
set of factors is not that they are a threat to professional retention but that the experience of themcan become negative in a heavily constrained or poorly managed environment.
Our second set of factors is more obviously negative and threatening in terms of RN well-being.
They relate to heavy workload demands and to the relatively high incidence of bullying among
RNs, which is likely to be associated, at least in part, with tensions relating to sharing theworkload, and to the difficulty of achieving work-life balance. As in the research of Huntington
et al. (2010), who reported that RNs had intense and demanding workloads, resulting in themfeeling emotionally and physically exhausted, our findings point to the impact of workload in
generating job dissatisfaction and an intention to leave the profession. Likewise, the findings ofthis study are consistent with research demonstrating that the level of abuse RNs are subjected toby patients and/or by colleagues connects to intentions to leave the profession (Sofield &Salmond, 2003). In addition, our findings are consistent with the view that work-life interference
is associated with lower job satisfaction and greater turnover from the profession (Greenhaus,
Parasuraman, & Collins, 2001). These are inherently unattractive aspects of working in thenursing profession in an era in which health demands are growing and in which bureaucratic
demands on professionals are escalating, making it more difficult to focus on care-giving. On topof these negative trends, RNs are often employed in organisations that have 24/7 needs forpatient care, making rostering issues problematic, and potentially conflictual, in any context. The
challenge is one of managing these negative features of the work environment such that their
negative impact is minimised or such that RNs regard them as positively managed in theirorganisation and in the nursing profession more generally.
Our third set of factors may seem to stand apart from the first two kinds, but this is notnecessarily the case. In respect of the impact of a changing economic context, this may becomeless relevant if RNs are attracted by good opportunities for ongoing career development andconsider that their needs for flexible working conditions are well-handled. Older RNs may be
more inclined to stay if organisational practices in the area of work-life balance are sensitive totheir desire to work fewer or more convenient hours or to play a mentoring and less hands-on
role (Graham et al., 2014). Similarly, pay levels will be more positively regarded if RNs seethem as fair compensation in the labour market and consistent with their level of skill,
responsibility and experience in the health system itself.
Clearly, there are systemic issues involved in dealing with the factors identified, which present
serious governmental, managerial, professional and personal challenges. Given the centrality ofworkload issues, the question of the adequacy of government funding of the health system needs
to be at the top of this list. The level of funding leads, via the budgets of health careorganisations, to staff/patient ratios, thus determining the quality of time that RNs have available
for providing the kind of care that respects patients’ values, needs and preferences (Boyle,
Dwinnell, & Platt, 2005; Gerteis, Edgman-Levita, Daley, & Delbanco, 1993). Our results
indicate that whether RNs feel that they have the time to express patient-centred values is
9New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13
directly related to their level of occupational commitment. An associated issue for government is
the impact of bureaucratic models of managing healthcare providers, which involve targets andbureaucratic controls. Although often established with good intentions, these forms of control
can undermine the quality of professional work (e.g. Green, 2008) and, perversely, take timeaway from the ‘real job’, as our participants indicated.
Government funding, of course, will always entail some limit and governments are entitled tobelieve that at least some of the problem can be addressed by actions that health managers can,and should, take with a given level of funding to reduce nursing turnover and its costs. This
includes, for example, better processes for training and support of RNs working in supervisory or
management positions to help them to perform well in these roles. Supervisory and managerial
support, like the quality of care, is another variable that can attract or repel. In partnership witheducational institutions, unions and RNs themselves, management is also in a position to develop
better approaches to bullying to assist RNs with conflict management under conditions ofpressure. It is also open to management and unions to review current policies affecting work-lifebalance, which continue to frustrate the RNs in our sample. Scheduling flexibility, and workloadbalancing, is a complex issue but our results indicate that it is one of the keys to retaining RNs intheir profession. Two groups stand out as needing special attention. One is that group of RNs
seeking to balance career development, financial needs and care-giving for dependent children,and the other is the older cohort of RNs, who may be motivated by an ongoing interest in thework but who are averse to inflexible schedules or simply to too much work. Given that worklife interference increases intention to leave the profession (van der Heijden et al., 2009), thisissue should be commanding a high level of attention in the health system.

Limitations
During the data collection, the interviewer’s personal attributes such as age, body language,
experience, or profession could have impacted on study participants’ behaviour and responses.
Because of the nature of this study, employees might have been hesitant to discuss sensitive
issues regarding their employment for fear of jeopardising it. Confidentiality of participants was
ensured to help counter this.

Conclusion
The combination of an aging population, the increasing prevalence of chronic disease andmultimorbidity, and an aging nursing workforce are contributing to a looming global shortage of
RNs. Our analysis of qualitative interviews of New Zealand RNs and nursing leaders has pointed
to three sets of interrelated factors affecting nursing retention. There is a set of potentially
positive factors, which should be capable of improving the retention of RNs, such as theopportunity to express a cherished value of caring, the experience of supportive relationships
with work colleagues and managers, and the prospects of career development within and acrossthe health sector. In an ideal world, these inherently attractive factors would underpin healthy
levels of retention of RNs in their profession. The data show, however, that all these factors, if
not experienced in reality, can turn out to be negative, repelling RNs from the profession.
10

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 1-13

A second set of factors is more obviously negative and unattractive, relating to heavy workload
demands, to the relatively high incidence of bullying among RNs, which is likely to be related towork pressures, and to the difficulty of achieving work-life balance. Health funders, healthmanagers, nursing unions, educational institutions and RNs themselves all have a role to play inaddressing these threats to RN retention such that their negative potential is minimised or suchthat RNs regard them as positively managed in their profession.
A third set of factors concerns the impact of economics, in terms of the wider economic climate
and the fairness of pay within the sector, and of nursing demographics. Dealing more effectively
with the first two sets of factors should reduce the risks presented by these factors. Overall, ourmessage is that RN retention is likely to improve when the inherently attractive features of theprofession and the health sector are experienced as such and when the unattractive features of theprofession and the sector are managed as positively as possible.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35

Understanding the effects of Intra-Group Conflict: A Test ofModeration and Mediation
GAYE GREENWOOD* and JARROD M. HAAR**
Abstract
Intra-group conflict represents the dysfunction that can exist within a team and is likely to leadto poor outcomes including functioning and performance. The present study explores the links
between intra-group conflict and job satisfaction, where we expect individual team members
to be less satisfied when they perceive greater intra-group conflict. We extend understandingby testing negative affect (mood) as a mediator, suggesting the fighting within teams leads tobad moods that subsequently, lower job satisfaction. We also test supervisor support,suggesting it might moderate the influence of intra-group conflict, reducing detrimental
influences. Using a sample of 130 New Zealand employees working in teams, we find that
intra-group conflict is significantly related to negative affect and job satisfaction (positively
and negatively), with negative affect partially mediating the influence of intra-group conflicton job satisfaction. Similarly, we find supervisor support is significantly related to negative
affect (negatively) and job satisfaction (positively), as well as moderating the influence of intragroup conflict on negative affect. Ultimately, the interaction shows that high supervisor support
buffers the influence of intra-group conflict on negative affect. We discuss the implications of
intra-group conflict and the role of supervisors in aiding work and wellbeing outcomes.
Keywords: Intra-group conflict, job satisfaction, negative affect, supervisor support, mediation,

moderation.

Introduction
Workplace conflict is dynamic, relational and interpretive. Thomas (1976) said conflict was“the process which begins when one party perceives that another has frustrated, or is about tofrustrate, some concern of his/hers” (p. 891). Literature consistently defined conflict as a‘process’ involving a dynamic sequence of events, with cognitive, behavioural, emotional andinterpersonal responses between individuals and groups (Jehn, 1997; Rahim, 2002). Conflict
emerges from interpretation of differences “about interests and resources, beliefs, values orpractices that matter to individuals and teams” (De Dreu & Gelfand, 2008, p. 6). However,conflict about what ‘matters’ is not always a negative phenomenon – thus the dichotomy ofconflict is complex. For example, conflict might lead to new solutions and thus improve
performance, while at other times conflict might be strictly detrimental (Spell, Bezrukova,
Haar, & Spell, 2011). Authors have conceived conflict as both a destructive problem (Pondy,1967) and an opportunity (Walton 1969; Deutsch, 1973), the influence of workplace conflicton individual wellbeing functioning and performance is an important field of research.

*Mediator and Senior Lecturer in the Management Department in the Faculty of Business Economics and Law
at Auckland University of Technology**
Professor of Human Resource Management, Department of Management, AUT University, Auckland, New
Zealand14

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Pondy (1967) asserted organisational conflict was a negative experience on a continuum frompassive resistance, to aggression involving emotions, perceptions and behaviours in response
to conditions (e.g. a lack of resources) and/or the affective state of individuals (e.g. stress,
tension, hostility). Others identified conflict as an opportunity for creativity and learning about
different perspectives (Levine, Resnick, & Higgins, 1993; Nemeth, 1986). Debate about
conflict as a breach of expectations, behaviour or procedure (March & Simon, 1958) wasaligned with competitive negotiation behaviour as a threat to collaboration (Carnevale &Probost, 1998).
Early conflict research focussed on factors that contributed to escalation of conflict and how tomanage conflict within organisations. Walton and Dutton (1969) were concerned with theevents or stages of conflict, types of antecedents and interdependency of factors duringorganisational conflict. Thomas (1976) focused on the role of cognition in shaping negotiationand conflict behaviour. Carnevale and Probost (1998) found when people were engaged in
hostile negotiation, cognitive flexibility and creative thinking were disrupted. However, thetraditional focus on workplace conflict as a negative phenomenon was critiqued by Jehn (1995,
1997) who found aspects of conflict in teams positively correlated with idea creation andprevention of group think (Janis, 1982). In flat-structured organisations, task and interpersonal
conflict enabled positive interdependence (Janssen, Van de Vliert & Veenstra, 1999). Research
about the role of the devil’s advocate suggested individuals made better decisions when theirideas were challenged (Schwenk, 1990).
The present paper argues that the managerial challenge is how to engage in constructive
conflict behaviours and prevent or transform dysfunctional conflict. We explore, using asample of New Zealand employees who conduct their work in teams, the role of intragroupconflict and its influence on the job satisfaction of workers. Meta-analysis by Judge, Thoresen,
Bono, and Patton (2001) support a significant and moderate positive relationship between job
satisfaction and job performance. Hence, exploring job satisfaction is important because it
represents a positive outcome for both employees and employers. The present study contributes
to the conflict literature by exploring antecedent and consequences of conflict, and the potential
role of support as a buffer. It enhances our understanding of the detrimental links of conflict in
the New Zealand workplace, but also provides useful directions for organisations on how tobetter manage such relationships.

Conflict Management
Behavioural, process and structural models have influenced conflict management literature.
The 1970s and 1980s focus was on conflict-handling modes or styles of dealing with conflict(Rahim, 1983); such as the conflict management taxonomy/grid (Blake, Mouton, Barnes, &Greiner, 1964) and the dual concern theory (Pruitt & Rubin, 1986; Thomas & Kilmann, 1977).
Common dimensions of conflict handling ‘styles’ were collaborating, yielding, forcing or
avoiding. Deutsch (1973) investigated the conditions under which colleagues developed acooperative or competitive relationship, by experimentally studying individual communication
behaviour. The typology of conflict that emerged was a style-based set of characteristics
focusing on roles and strategies that influenced outcomes. He proposed trust emerged fromongoing interaction and noted interdependence between context and process on outcomes.
Deutsch’s (1973) focus on relationships was influential but critiqued because interactions were
simulated in the laboratory and not observed in the context of organisations.

15New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Research concerning negotiation as a process for conflict management covers a broad range ofapproaches. From behavioural decision-making (Lax & Sebinius, 1986; Raiffia, 1982) andmulti-party decision-making (Neale, & Bazerman, 1992), to the psychology of decision,
making in dyadic bargaining (Neale & Northcraft, 1989), the common aim was to ascertain
strategies and tactics for substantive and relational gains. The study of individual personality
differences (Gilkey & Greenhalgh, 1986), the structural approach (Pruitt, 1981) and thecommunications approach (Putnam, 2004) focussed on how to conduct effective negotiation
across human and contextual differences. Experimental methods continue to apply behavioural
game theory to organisational conflict, social dilemmas, intra-group conflict, strategic
decision-making, workplace aggression and attitude change during negotiation (Lewicki,
Saunders, & Barry, 2016).
However, Jehn (1997) questioned studies that framed conflict as negative phenomena without
addressing the positive effects of conflict on performance and teamwork. Rahim (2002)
asserted there were dual aims of conflict management “to enhance learning and groupoutcomes, including effectiveness or performance…limiting the negative aspects of conflict
while increasing the positive aspects” (p. 208). Thus, conflict management was viewed as a setof dynamic learning processes. Costantino and Merchant (1996) proposed a learning approach,to negotiating workplace conflict where leaders modelled collaborative values and behaviours
in their everyday lives. The idea was to move away from hierarchical, authoritarian decision
making to consensus building and joint problem solving in teams, thereby building the capacity
for early conflict resolution through organisational practices.

The Present Study
The present study focuses now upon intra-group conflict, which is the disruptions that occur
within a team. We explore a process model whereby the detrimental influence of intra-groupconflict might be better understood as working through negative affect, and also posit the roleof supervisor support – given the importance noted above – as interaction and buffering the
detrimental effects of intra-group conflict. This builds on New Zealand research, where
Greenwood (2016) found conflict contagion (Jehn et al., 2013) in teams had detrimental
impacts, including resignation and dismissal. Our theoretical model is shown below in Figure
1. We detail the specific literature and hypotheses below.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35

Intra-Group Conflict
Jenn (1995) defined intragroup conflict as disagreements or incompatibilities over work or nonwork-related issues within a team. For example, team members arguing over workload andeffort would signal intra-group conflict. Intra-group conflict influences individual satisfaction
and team performance. There is evidence of a negative relationship between conflict, teamproductivity and satisfaction when conflict produces tension, antagonism and task distraction(Gladstein, 1984; Saavedra, Earley, & Van Dyne, 1993; Wall & Nolan, 1986). In effect, it ishard to be focused on the work and be satisfied with one’s job, if the team one works in are
arguing and creating friction and hostility. The literature on intragroup conflict initiallycategorised this as relationship and task conflict (Guetzkow & Gyr, 1954; Amason, 1996; Jehn,
1994). Relationship conflict referred to affective elements based on feelings of tension andfriction, annoyance, frustration and irritation, while task conflict involved differences andviewpoints about tasks without interpersonal negative emotions of relational conflict.
Jehn (1994; 1995; 1997) identified the dynamic nature of team conflict finding relationships
between different stages and types of teamwork. Relationship conflict was associated withdecreased satisfaction and interfered with task performance but task conflict during complex
non-routine tasks was beneficial for creativity, innovation, learning and development. Others
concurred with Jehn (1994, 1995), finding task conflict could have positive effects on teamperformance (Amason & Schweiger, 1997; Simons & Peterson, 2000; Van de Vliert & De
Dreu, 1994). Jehn (1997) identified process conflict as a third dimension to team conflict. Jehn,
Northcraft and Neale (1999) defined process conflict as awareness of controversy about how
tasks would be accomplished.
Following the investigation of antecedents of productive and destructive conflict in university
MBA teams, Jehn and Mannix (2001) proposed managerial encouragement of open discussion
norms, high levels of respect among members and asserted a cohesive supportive teamenvironment would have a positive effect on team performance. They advised, managers andleaders should conduct conflict training at the early stages of group formation. However, anoversimplification of task conflict as functional and relational conflict as dysfunctional has
been questioned.
Meta-analysis of the task-relationship conflict–team performance-satisfaction literature led De
Dreu and Weingart (2003a, 2003b) to find both task and relational conflict to be equally
disruptive suggesting the intensity of conflict matters. While conflict is less likely to disrupt
routine tasks - a little conflict may be beneficial in complex tasks - these positive effects quickly
breakdown as conflict becomes more intense. This is because the cognitive load increases,
information processing is impeded, and consequently, team performance suffers (De Dreu &Weingart, 2003b). De Dreu and Weingart (2003b) meta-analysis found that team conflict was
related negatively to both team performance and satisfaction, confirming a negatively link withsatisfaction – the focus of the present study.
A subsequent meta-analysis of intra group conflict conducted by De Wit, Greer and Jehn (2012)
found that intragroup conflict was significantly and negatively related to satisfaction. While
this is typically satisfaction with group members, other studies have supported positive links
between intra-group conflict and job satisfaction (Acuna, Gomez, & Juristo, 2009) and work
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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
satisfaction (Cox, 2003). For example, Medina, Munduate, Dorado, Martínez, and Guerra(2005) found a significant relationship between intragroup conflict and job satisfaction (r= .27, p< .01).
Locke (1969) defined job satisfaction as “a pleasurable emotional state resulting from
employees’ favorable appraisal of their job, achievements, and job-related value” (p. 309).
Hence, it is a positive emotional state occurring when an employee appraises their job experiences(Locke, 1976). With regard to intragroup conflict and job satisfaction, McLaney and Hurrell(1988) tested both intergroup and intragroup conflict towards job satisfaction, and found bothsignificant, with intragroup being the slightly more powerful predictor. Thus, employees whose
work experience with their team is one where members fight about their work, havedisagreements about the work processes and the work that each member should do, are likely
to be left with a feeling of disappoint and reduced satisfaction about their job. In this regard,
the intragroup conflict diminishes the emotional state with regard to their job. Thus, we posit
the following.
Hypothesis 1: Intragroup conflict will be negatively related to job satisfaction.

The Mediation Effect of Negative AffectWatson (2000) defined mood as “transient episodes of feeling or affect” (p. 4), with the two
types of affect - positive and negative being theoretically and empirically proven (Watson,
Clark, & Tellegen, 1988; Stoeva, Chiu & Greenhaus, 2002). We seek to extend the linkages
between intragroup conflict and job satisfaction by exploring negative affect (mood) as amediator. De Witt et al. (2012) suggested that, amongst other factors, affect may play a role inunderstanding the influence of intragroup conflict on outcomes. Jehn, Greer, Levine, andSzulanski (2008) found intragroup conflict and negative emotions were highly related and wesuggest that negative affectivity might be a useful mediator for exploring the intragroupconflict-job satisfaction relationship, given the pleasurable emotional state (Locke, 1969)aligned with job satisfaction.
An explanation as to how mood may operate as a mediator was proposed by Friede and Ryan
(2005), who proposed that individuals with different general dispositions – such as highnegative affect - may interpret the same situation more detrimentally. Cropanzano, James andKonovsky (1993) noted that employees who report high levels of negative affect are likely tobe anxious, afraid, and angry. Thus, we suggest that the relationship between intragroupconflict and job satisfaction might be better understood by considering what effect mood –specifically negative affect – plays in this relationship. In effect, the detrimental influence of
intragroup conflict on job satisfaction is likely to be exacerbated by higher negative affect.
Given the direct effect of negative affect to job satisfaction is well established with metaanalytic support from Connolly and Viswesvaran (2000) at -.33, we expect negative affect tobe linked to job satisfaction and to mediate the influence of intragroup conflict on job
satisfaction. Such relationships have been confirmed, for example Kafetsios and Zampetakis(2008) found affect mediated the influence of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction.
Similarly, we expect intragroup conflict to be positively related to negative affect – as theinfighting within a group increases, so too will the bad mood of the individual. Furthermore,
as negative affect increases then satisfaction with one’s job will reduce, and through thismechanism, negative affect will mediate the influence of intragroup conflict on job satisfaction.
This leads to the following.
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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Hypothesis 2: Intragroup conflict will be positively related to negative affect.
Hypothesis 3: Negative affect will mediate the relationship between intragroup conflict and job
satisfaction.

The Role of Supervisor Support
Perceptions of supervisor support during relationship conflict were investigated on 562
employees by Way, Jimmieson and Bordia (2016). Supervisor style had far reaching effects on
employees exposed to relationship conflict and mental health issues (anxiety/depression). The
authors suggested the efficacy of supervisor support is more influential when there is strong
intragroup conflict, otherwise support may come across - in low conflict situations – asunwelcomed and unwanted. In their meta-analysis, De Church, Doty and Mesmer-Magnus(2013) identified two important factors around team conflict. Importantly, neither factor
included the role of the supervisor, and we suggest that supervisor support may play a role in
influencing the detrimental effect of intragroup conflict on job satisfaction. In a meta-analysisof over 32,000 employees, Ng and Sorensen (2008) and found the relationship between
supervisor support and job satisfaction was significant and strong (r= .52). In effect, employees
who have supportive supervisors are more likely to be satisfied in their jobs. As such, we argue
that supervisor support will play a role in the relationships between intragroup conflict and job
satisfaction.
While support can include supervisors, managers, and co-workers, Lee and Ashforth (1996)
argued that supervisor support is the most common form of support tested, and there is evidenceof it having direct effects towards conflict (Way et al., 2016) and buffering effects on
relationships (Cohen & Willis, 1985). Within New Zealand, Haar and Roche (2008) foundsupervisor support was positively related to job satisfaction directly and moderated theinfluence of organisational support for work-family factors towards job satisfaction. Thus,
there is potential for both direct and moderating effects from supervisor support towards job
satisfaction. Similarly, towards negative affect, Wong, Cheuk, and Rosen (2000) found thatsupervisor support buffered the detrimental effects of job stress to negative affect, while
Kammeyer-Mueller, Wanberg, Rubenstein, and Song (2013) founds links between affect andsupervisor support. Similarly, Nifadkar, Tsui, and Ashforth (2012) found supervisor support
was negatively related to negative affect.
Overall, we expect supervisor support to be negatively related to intragroup conflict, similar to
Way et al. (2016). In addition, we expect supervisor support to buffer the relationships between
intragroup conflict and both job satisfaction and negative affect. Furthermore, given thesignificant direct effects between supervisor support and job satisfaction and negative affect,
we also predict those here. Thus, we posit the final set of hypotheses.
Hypotheses 4: Supervisor support will moderate the relationship between intragroup conflictand (a) job satisfaction and (b) negative affect.
Hypotheses 5: Supervisor support will be related (a) negatively to intragroup conflict, (b)negatively to negative affect, and (c) positively to job satisfaction.

19

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35

MethodSample and Participants
New Zealand employees were recruited to participate in the study after a series of telephone
calls from one of the authors. We used a data collection procedure that has been widely
employed in other research and is similar to that of Liao (2007) and Bezrukova and colleagues(2010). We had one entry criteria and that was that they were currently working in a team witha minimum two other workers. Those that were interested had the study outlined andrequirements established (e.g., over 18 years of age, employed at least 20 hours a week, andworking in a team). In total, 130 employees completed the survey over the phone. Our sample
worked in a variety of industries (e.g., police department, manufacturing, construction,
medical, insurance etc.).
Age of respondents ranged from 19 to 65 years, with an average age of 34.9 years (SD=13.2
years). Average tenure in their organisations was 6.2 years (SD=7.2 years) and tenure in theirteam was on average 4.9 years (SD=8.0 years). By gender, the sample was fairly evenly split
with 55% female. On average respondents worked 34.3 hours a week (SD=13.2 hours) andthere was strong diversity, with only 53% of New Zealand European descent, with theremainder Asian (19%), Maori (8%), Indian (9%), Pacific peoples (7%) and others (4%). By
education, the majority had either high school education only (49%) or a university degree(44%).
Measures
Intragroup Conflict was measured with four items by Jehn (1995), coded 1=strongly disagree,
5=strongly agree The items were 1) Members within different subgroups fight about how to do
the work. 2) Members within different subgroups disagree about the process to get the work
done. 3) There is disagreement about task responsibilities within different subgroups. 4) There
are frequent disagreements about who should do what within different subgroups
The measure had excellent reliability (α= .92).
Supervisor Support was measured using three items by Yoon and Lim (1999), coded
1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree. The items were: 1). My immediate supervisor can berelied upon when things get tough on my job. 2) . My supervisor is willing to listen to my jobrelated problems. 3). My supervisor really does not care about my well-being (this one isreverse coded. The measure had adequate reliability (α= .78).
Negative Affect was measured using five items of the Negative Affect Schedule by Watson,
Clark, and Tellegen (1988), coded 1=very slightly, 5=extremely. The five items were from ashorter version used by Song, Foo, and Uy (2008) with sample items being “upset” and“irritable”. The measure had good reliability (α= .83).
Job Satisfaction was measured using three items by Judge, Bono, Erez, and Locke (2005),
coded 1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree. A sample question was “Most days I am
enthusiastic about my work”. The measure had good reliability (α= .87).
We control for the following variables: Education (1=high school, 2=technical college,
3=university degree, 4=postgraduate) and Team Tenure (in years). We suggest more educatedemployees are likely to have greater job challenges and thus be more satisfied in their job, andthose with longer team tenure to have greater job satisfaction.
20

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Measurement Models
We confirm the nature of the various study constructs using confirmatory factor analysis in
SEM with AMOS 24. For SEM studies, Williams, Vandenberg, and Edwards (2009) offer thefollowing goodness-of-fit indexes and their thresholds: (1) the comparative fit index (CFI≥.95), (2) the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA ≤.08), and (3) the
standardized root mean residual (SRMR ≤.10). The hypothesized measurement model and analternative model are shown in Table 1. Overall, the hypothesised measurement model was thebest fit for the data. Models 2 and 3 tested alternative measurement constructs and theseresulted in a poorer fit (Hair, Black, Babin, & Anderson, 2010). Thus, we confirm the distinct
nature of our study constructs.
Analysis
Hypotheses 1 to 5 were tested using SEM in AMOS including mediation effects. We follow
Haar, Russo, Sune, and Ollier-Malaterre (2014), and run the final model with the interaction
effects based on the findings of the mediation effects.

21New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Table 1. Results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Model Fit Indices

Model Differences

Model

2

df

CFI

RMSEA

SRMR

2

df

p

Details

Model 1Model 2

141.9
397.1

98
101

.96
.74

.06
.15

.07
.17

255.2

3

.001

Model 1 to 2

Model 3

299.7

101

.82

.12

.12

157.8

3

.001

Model 1 to 3

Model 1=Hypothesised 4-factor model: supervisor support, intragroup conflict, negative affect and job satisfaction.
Model 2=Alternative 4-factor model: supervisor support, intragroup conflict and negative affect combined and job satisfaction.
Model 3=Alternative 3-factor model: supervisor support and intragroup conflict combined, negative affect and job satisfaction.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35

Results
Descriptive statistics for the study variables are shown in Table 2. Table 2 shows thatsupervisor support is significantly correlated with intragroup conflict (r= -.35, p<.01), negative
affect (r= -.39, p<.01), job satisfaction (r= .30, p< .01) and intragroup conflict is significantly
correlated with negative affect (r= .28, p<.01) and job satisfaction (r= -.25, p< .01). Finally,
negative affect is significantly correlated with job satisfaction (r= -.36, p< .01).
Structural Models
A number of alternative structural models were tested, to determine the most optimal model
based on the data, and results are shown in Table 3. Overall, the direct effects model (model 1)
and the full mediation model (model 2) are significantly worse fits to the data compared to thepartial mediation model (Hair et al., 2010). Overall, with the control variables included, thestructural model is still robust and meets the minimum goodness-of-fit indexes noted above(Williams et al., 2009): 2 (df) = 150.8 (107), CFI=.96, RMSEA=.06, and SRMR=.07.
Aligned with the recommendations of Grace and Bollen (2005), unstandardised regression
coefficients are presented in Table 4. Table 4 shows that in model 1 (direct effects model),there are consistent effects from supervisor support, being significantly related to intragroupconflict (path coefficient = -.35, p<.001), negative affect (path coefficient = -.37, p<.001), andjob satisfaction (path coefficient = .35, p<.001). This supports Hypotheses 5a, 5b and 5c. Model
3 was found to be the best fitting model and this confirmed that when negative affect is included
as a mediator, it partially mediates the effects of intragroup conflict on job satisfaction. In
model 2, intragroup conflict was negatively related to job satisfaction (path coefficient = -.27,
p<.001) and this reduced to path coefficient = -.15 (p<.05), when negative affect is included asa mediator. Furthermore, intragroup conflict was related to negative affect (path coefficient =.25, p<.001), and these effects support Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3. Finally, Hypothesis 4 related tothe moderating effects of supervisor support on intragroup conflict were tested, and this was
supported towards job satisfaction only (path coefficient = .06, p<.05) – supporting Hypothesis
4b. We graphed the interaction effects (Figure 2) to allow understanding of the significant
interaction.
The interaction shows that at low levels of intragroup conflict respondents score high levels ofjob satisfaction, although respondents with low levels of supervisor support report higher levels
than respondents with high supervisor support. However, at high levels of intragroup conflict
respondents report a drop in job satisfaction with those with low supervisor support reportinga much more significant drop and ultimately the lowest levels of job satisfaction. The decreasein job satisfaction is much more modest for respondents with high supervisor support.
supporting our hypothesis that supervisor support would buffer the detrimental effects of
intragroup conflict on job satisfaction.
Overall, the models account for modest amounts of variance towards intragroup conflict (r2 =.17), slightly higher levels of negative affect (r2 = .24), and larger amounts of variance for job
satisfaction (r2 = .33).

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Table 2. Correlations and Descriptive Statistics of Study Variables
Variables
1. Education
2. Team Tenure
3. Supervisor Support
4. Intragroup Conflict
5. Negative Affect
6. Job Satisfaction
N=130, *p<.05, **p<.01

M
6.1
3.4
3.5
3.9
4.1
3.9

SD
8.2
.90
.96
.87
.80
.79

1
--.00
-.09
-.10
.04
-.27**

2

3

4

5

6

--.04
-.34**.12.18--.35**-.39**.30**-.28**-.25**--.36**--

Table 3. Model Comparisons for Structural Models
Model Fit Indices
Model
df
CFI
2

RMSEA

SRMR

Model 1Model 2Model 3

.06
.06
.06

.09
.10
.07

163.8
161.9
150.8

109
109
107

.95
.95
.96

Model Differences
2
df

1.9
0
13.0
2
11.2
2
All models include control variables: Education and Team Tenure covary with the other variables.

p

Details

nil
.01
.05

Model 2 to 1
Model 3 to 1
Model 3 to 2

Model 1 = A direct effects model where supervisor support predicts intragroup conflict, negative affect and job satisfaction.
Model 2 = A full mediation model where supervisor support predicts intragroup conflict, and intragroup conflict predicts negative affect, andnegative affect predicts job satisfaction.
Model 3 = A partial mediation model where supervisor support predicts, intragroup conflict and both predict negative affect and job satisfaction,and finally negative affects predicts job satisfaction.

24

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Table 4. Final Structural Model Path Results

Variables

Unstandardised path coefficient
Direct Effects Only Partial Mediation(Model 1 + 2)
(Model 3)

Controls:
Education  Job Satisfaction
Team Tenure  Job Satisfaction-.17**.02**-.19**.02*

Model 1Supervisor Support  Intragroup Conflict
Supervisor Support  Negative Affect
Supervisor Support  Job Satisfaction-.35***-.37***.35***-.33***-.25**.25**

Model 2Intragroup Conflict  Job Satisfaction-.27***-.15*

Model 3Intragroup Conflict  Negative Affect
Negative Affect  Job Satisfaction
Interaction EffectIntragroup Conflict x Supervisor Support  Job
Satisfaction
r2 Values:
Intragroup Conflict
Negative Affect
Job Satisfaction.25***-.32***

.06*

.17
.24
.33

*p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001.
Note: we include Model 1 (direct effects model) to indicate the mediation effect of negative
affect on relationships.

25

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
Figure 2. Interaction between Intragroup Conflict and Supervisor Support with Job Satisfaction as the Dependent Variable

4.5

Job Satisfaction

4
3.5

Low Supervisor
Support3

High Supervisor
Support2.5
2
Low Intragroup Conflict

High Intragroup Conflict

26

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35

Discussion
The present study contributes to the literature in several ways. It adds strength to the importanceof intragroup conflict, providing useful insights into the effects, and finding it is a strong
predictor of job satisfaction, although better understood as working through negative affect. In
addition, we find that supervisor support is a significant antecedent of intragroup conflict, andby including negative affect as a mediator, and finding partial mediation effects towards job
satisfaction, we better understand the process of intragroup conflict. In the present study, thissuggests a supervisor who provides support to workers provides useful benefits (Way et al.,2016; Haar & Roche, 2008), such as reducing the conflict that occurs within a team, and in
turn, this intragroup conflict leads individuals to negative moods, which in turn leads lesssatisfaction with the job. In addition, supervisor support is still directly related to job
satisfaction, highlighting its important influence. The sophisticated structural equation
modelling allows us to explore different models and determine that our final model – withpartial mediating effects from negative affect – and supervisor support moderating, was asuperior fit to the data.
The finding of mediation effects from negative affect provides us with greater knowledge andinsight around the process by which employees who have conflict around their team, are likely
to experience worse moods and then be less satisfied in their jobs. It also confirms the outcomes– particularly job satisfaction – from a New Zealand sample, and supports similar findings
internationally (Jehn, 1995, 1997). It confirms Jehn et al. (2008) suggestion that negative
affectivity might be a useful mediator for exploring the influence of intragroup conflict on job
satisfaction. This also reinforces the emotional state aligned with job satisfaction as suggested
by Locke (1969). Importantly, it builds our understanding of antecedents of intragroup conflict,and highlights the important role that supervisors may play – when being supportive – in theway that teams work and maintain stability (and create less conflict) within themselves. Thatsaid, the present study focused only upon supervisor support and other forms of support mightalso be relevant for future researchers, such as organisational support (Eisenberger,
Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986).
In addition, the benefits of supervisor support were found to extend beyond direct effects andalso included moderating effects, which replicates buffering effects found in other studies(Cohen & Willis, 1985; Haar & Roche, 2008). Our interaction effects showed that when
intragroup conflict was high, respondents with low supervisor support reported the lowest
levels of job satisfaction, and these levels were, on average, significantly lower than reported
by employees with high supervisor support. Thus, we find supervisor support not only has
direct effects – towards reducing intragroup conflict and negative affect, and enhancing job
satisfaction – but also by interacting with intragroup conflict. Thus, the present study makes anumber of contributions regarding supervisor support, intragroup conflict, and the process bywhich intragroup conflict influences job satisfaction.
Implications
Job Satisfaction is a fundamental area of focus for organisations and researchers, and has beenfound to be an important predictor of job performance (Judge & Bono, 2001; Judge et al.,2001). The present study emphasises the importance of intragroup conflict and highlights the
detrimental effects that fighting within a team can play, including team performance (Jehn,
1995, 1997). Given conflict is interpretive and dynamic, one implication of these findings is
the important role that supervisors play. Supervisor support had direct effects – towards
27

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35
reducing intragroup conflict and negative affect, and enhancing job satisfaction – but also byinteracting with intragroup conflict; suggesting the supervisor might play a pivotal role ininterpreting, managing, and preventing conflict contagion (Jehn, et. al 2013). The nature ofsupervisor support (Yoon & Lim, 1999) suggests that showing interest in difficulties, listening
to problems and demonstrating care about well-being, and indicates that interpersonalcommunication skills such as attentive listening are important attributes for supervisors. This
would suggest that training and development for supervisors around managing the intragroupconflict of their teams might provide valuable results towards a number of outcomes including
satisfaction and performance.
Given supervisor support buffered negative affect associated with intragroup conflict - such as
members fighting about tasks, how work is done, disagreements about processes,
responsibilities and roles (Jehn, 1995) - infers conflict management skills may be importantdimensions of the supervisor toolkit. De Dreu and Weingart (2003b) suggested the way tomanage intra-group conflict was characterized by collaboration rather than contention to“minimize if not reverse the negative effects of task conflict” (p. 747), and Greenwood (2016)claimed reflexive conversations between leaders and team members protected against conflictcontagion (Jehn, et al., 2013) associated with negative emotional responses to conflict. Overall,
we suggest a key to managing intragroup conflict may lie with supervisors and providing themwith enhanced tools to manage better.
Future Research
Future studies might want to explore additional mediators. For example, while the present study
focused on negative affect, Watson et al. (1985) also addresses the positive side of affectivity,and future studies might include that. Furthermore, other forms of support might be explored
including organisational and co-worker support. For example, supervisor support might
influence organisational support – which has meta-analytic support (Kossek, Pichler, Bodner,& Hammer, 2011) – and in turn these might influence intragroup conflict, affectivity and job
satisfaction, which similarly has meta-analytic support (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). Futurestudies might also explore these relationships at the team level, including intragroup conflictand support perceptions and thus a multi-level data approach would add to the understandingof these relationships. Finally, future studies might also seek to explore other antecedents of
intragroup conflict including leadership styles and moderators including other team factors,
such as group conflict norms (Jehn, 1995), as well as conducting longitudinal research, perhaps
testing the effects of supervisor support pre- and post-training in conflict management.
Limitations
Like most studies, the present study does have some limitations particularly around the crosssectional nature of data collection. Haar et al. (2014) notes that issues around common method
variance (CMV) can be alleviated by using higher order statistical analyses, specifically using
CFA to confirm the measures, and then SEM to analyse the data. This is because the CFA
calculations could identify issues of CMV where constructs would begin to overlap and beindistinct. In addition, the present study tested moderation effects, which Evans (1985) asserts
reduces the chances for CMV when significant interaction effects are found. Overall, oursample size is modest (n=130) although this is similar in the size of other New Zealand studies(e.g., Haar & Spell, 2001). Furthermore, our sample does have a good range in respondent
occupations, education, ethnicity and sector, making the sample more generalizable to the New
Zealand setting.
28

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 14-35

Conclusion
In conclusion, the present study sought to explore the role of intragroup conflict in influencing
the job satisfaction of New Zealand employees, including a process model with an antecedentand mediator. While strong support was found for links between intragroup conflict and job
satisfaction, analysis showed that supervisor support plays a key role in reducing intragroupconflict and negative affect, and building job satisfaction, with negative affect also having a
mediating role. Furthermore, the moderating effects of supervisor support on intragroupconflict towards job satisfaction, builds on the direct effects of supervisor support, highlighting
the key importance that supervisor support appears to play. The implications is that team andany accompanying conflict can be detrimental, although the role of supervisors appears toprovide clear evidence of minimizing these negative links.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55

The Application of Cameron’s Positive Leadership Model in a New
Zealand Law Enforcement Organisation
JEAN MARTIN* and SARAH WRIGHT**
Abstract
This study explored the implementation of Cameron’s (2008) positive leadership model. The
model consists of four strategies: fostering a positive climate, developing positive relationships,
engaging in positive communication, and reinforcing positive meaning. Two practices wereadded as adaptions to the model: setting an Everest goal, and conducting personal management
interviews. Journals were kept by each leader, and individual interviews were held with leadersand officers to capture their lived experience of implementing the model. Operational data werecollected to indicate achievement of the Everest goal. The experience of implementing the model
challenged existing leadership practices, but overall it was a valuable exercise, in terms of
positively influencing performance.
Key words
Positive leadership, positive behaviours, Cameron’s positive leadership model, law enforcement

Introduction
This study explores the experiences of leaders in their implementation of Cameron’s Positive
Leadership Model ([CPLM]; Cameron, 2008; 2013) in a law enforcement organisation.
Responding to the call from Cameron, Mora, Leutscher, and Calarco (2011) noting the limited
research on how to assist organisations in implementing positive practices, we traverse the lived
experiences of those leaders who implemented the model, as well as those they led. Leaders’behaviours can have a substantial effect on employees and organisational outcomes (Waldman,
Ramirez, House, & Puranam, 2001). Therefore, exploring the practical application of CPLM
provided a rare opportunity to work with leaders to understand their experiences of
implementing positive leadership in their organisation. Through the application of a qualitative
phenomenological approach, the aim of the research was to elicit the lived experiences as themodel was implemented. We contribute to the literature by providing empirical data related tothe implementation of CPLM, and add practical value for human resource practitioners on how
to engage with, and implement, positive leadership strategies and practices.
As the foundation for this study, positive leadership is defined as “the ways in which leaders
enable positively deviant performance, foster an affirmative orientation in organisations, andengender a focus on virtuousness and eudemonism” (Cameron, 2008: 1). Cameron (2008)*

Department of Management, Marketing & Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, New ZealandDepartment of Management, Marketing & Entrepreneurship, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, email:sarah.wright@canterbury.ac.nz**

36New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
contends positive leadership does not imply that “leaders should just smile and that everything
will be fine” (p. 104). Rather, positive leadership necessitates ‘positively deviant performance’;that is, more rigorous standards of performance than normal expectations. Positive leadershipshares a common intellectual ancestry with authentic leadership in that both have emerged fromstudies on transformational leadership. However, underpinning positive leadership are theconcepts embedded with positive organisational scholarship, which has an explicit focus onunderstanding flourishing in organisational contexts, and builds on individual and collective
strengths. Positive leadership has a clear focus on positivity: on achievement of results, and on
enabling positively deviant outcomes (e.g. human flourishing, achieving excellence). Flourishingrefers to being in an optimal range of human functioning and is indicated at the individual level(generativity, growth) and at the organisational level (e.g. group creativity, innovation, growth,or other markers that a collective is healthy and has ‘positively deviant’ performance). Positive
leadership is criticised as being a North American cultural approach with critics claiming thatmost of the benefits are actually for the enhancement of leaders and organisations, rather than tothe employees (Fineman, 2006). Other criticisms are that there is little evidence that positivity isbeneficial, and could actually be harmful to organisations (Ehrenreich, 2009). However, much of
the writing on positive leadership is conceptual, with very little empirical work to support orrefute its claims (for a full review of positive leadership see Martin, 2015).
The CPLM has four key strategies that can be used to implement positive leadership in theworkplace: fostering positive climate (cultivating compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude in theworkplace), developing positive relationships (leader modelling of positive energy, encouraging
high quality relationships), engaging in positive communication (a critical enabler of positive
leadership, occurs when affirmative and supportive language replaces negative and criticallanguage), and reinforcing positive meaning (engendering and nurturing purpose and meaning
into the work that employees do). To support the practical application and implementation of
positive leadership and provide concrete actions for the CPLM strategies, Cameron suggests a
number of positive practices, including the Everest goal (Cameron & Levine, 2006) and thepersonal management interview ([PMI] Boss, 1983; Goodman & Boss, 2002).
To harness the energy of the positive leadership strategies, Cameron and Levine (2006)
recommend leaders should set Everest goals. They contend that such goals represent an ultimate
achievement, an extraordinary accomplishment, or a positively deviant outcome. The concept is
one method of providing both a foundation and a focus for the outcomes sought in the CPLM,
and for shaping and driving performance towards those outcomes. Personal management
interviews (PMI; Boss, 1983) are regular face-to-face meetings between a leader and a direct
report. The PMIs are not appraisal sessions; rather they are opportunities to clarify expectations
and support operational goals. One differentiating attribute of positive leaders is they provide
opportunities for others to receive developmental coaching so that employees feel encouraged(Cameron, 2013). Previous research provides indirect support for implementing PMIs in tandemwith positive leadership; Czech and Forward (2013) found employees seek clear role
expectations, and when these are met employees are often more effective and satisfied with theirjobs (Snow, 2002). Although limited literature exists on the practical application of PMIs, Latif(2003) advocates for the incorporation of supportive communication principles into regularlyscheduled PMI sessions.

37New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
We now describe the study we undertook to understand the lived experiences of the leaders who
implemented the CPLM, and the experiences of Customs officers. To assist practitioners, we also
provide detail on the implementation process and context of the study.

Research Approach
An inductive, interpretative approach was chosen because it sits within the interpretivist
philosophical paradigm adopted by the authors, and is in keeping with the exploratory nature of
seeking to understand the lived experiences of the participants. The approach supported theresearch objective of understanding unique interactions in a specific setting (Patton, 2002) andenabled a focus on interpretation of phenomena in their natural settings (Denzin & Lincoln,2005). This research approach aligned with the researchers’ value system of doing-with-not-to
philosophy, which essentially means working with people to make changes rather than imposingchanges on them. In hindsight, the choice of an interpretative phenomenological approach wasadvantageous, because of the unfolding context resulting from natural disaster events that
occurred during the study, and the ability of this method to help contextualise the impact fromthese disasters.
During the research, particularly throughout the analysis process, the researchers adopted aconscious awareness of the importance of bracketing, or epoché (Tufford & Newman, 2010),
meaning to refrain from judgement. This process is central to phenomenology and involves theresearcher consciously suspending their presuppositions, prejudgements, and interpretations sothat they can be open to the aspects of meaning that belong to the phenomena of the lived
experience of the participant (Creswell, 2007; Moustakas, 1994). We explored and discussed
preconceptions we had about the research topic, the participants, and later, about the emerging
data. A number of self-management strategies, such as staying aware of personal biases, werenoted and discussed during the research process.

Context of the Study
The research was conducted within the Customs offices at Christchurch International Airport,
New Zealand, employing 10 leaders and 75 Customs officers (21 work on a contingent basis).
All participants worked rostered 10-hour shifts, six days on, four days off. The officers weredivided into four teams, each led by two front-line leaders. Their responsibilities included theprocessing of arriving and departing international passengers, profiling, collecting duty, andprotecting the border from importation of illicit substances, prohibited items, and prohibited
persons. Over the duration of the study, a total of 803,222 passengers were processed.
The motivation for the study was the desire by a number of Customs leaders to increase
performance in a number of critical operational areas. These leaders had been introduced to thepositive leadership approach through the Customs in-house leadership development programme.
After the first researcher gave a presentation to a Customs leadership forum detailing theknowledge acquired from participating in the University of Michigan positive leadershipprogramme, several of the leaders requested assistance to implement Cameron’s positive38

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
leadership model in the airport to work on improving operational performance. This presented
the opportunity to take the positive leadership approach further through the application of thisconceptual model.
Three days after the study began the region experienced a high magnitude earthquake, followed
by several months of significant aftershocks. The fatal earthquakes devastated buildings andinfrastructure throughout the region. During this period, each significant aftershock resulted in
the closure of the airport for runway inspections. Customs staff also managed the influx ofinternational rescue teams and facilitated the departure of victims and their families throughout
the duration of the study. The disrupted operational environment also increased the likelihood ofinternational criminal activity by those attempting to bring in prohibited substances and/or
attempting to enter the country illegally under various guises of earthquake recovery activities.
The ethical dilemma following the initial earthquake event was the desire to continue with thestudy against the reality that all leaders would need to focus their energies in leading in thisunprecedented environment. The dilemma was resolved through advising the leaders that it was
their decision to continue, delay, or abandon the implementation of the CPLM. The leaders madean independent and unanimous decision to continue with the implementation.

MethodParticipants
The 10 participants in this study represented the entire leadership team for the regional Customs
service. Leaders were e-mailed personalised invitations to participate and all accepted. The
average age of the leaders was 58 years, with the average time working for Customs being 22
years. All had considerable leadership experience averaging 15.5 years across the group. There
were eight men and two women leaders; gender-neutral language is used to prevent identifying
individual participants. As part of the implementation design, leaders chose 20 officers to be
involved in the positive management interview program. At the conclusion of theimplementation, 10 officers were chosen randomly to participate in an individual semi-structured
interview with the first author. All 10 accepted the invitation. Six of the 10 were female,averaged 37.6 years, and averaged 5.3 years of service at Customs.
Research Process
The study consisted of three interrelated phases: pre-implementation planning, field
implementation (six-months duration), and post-implementation individual interviews withleaders and followers (officers). Three data sources contributed to the qualitative analysis in thisstudy: semi-structured face-to-face interviews with leaders, leader e-journals, and face-to-faceofficer interviews who participated in the PMI process.

39New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
Pre-implementation Planning
The first phase involved the preparation of leaders for the implementation of CPLM, withworkshops being facilitated by an external consultant. The reason for the workshops was todiscuss the practical aspects of implementing CPLM and resulted in an agreement between theleaders to add the Everest goal and PMI practices into the model. The rationale for this was thathaving a goal with a set of operational measures to indicate achievement supported the leaders’desire to improve operational performance. In the pre-implementation workshops, the notion ofactively identifying and working with both high-achieving employees and under-achieving
employees had an immediate accord with all of the leaders. This was in contrast to theopportunity to participate in an exercise using the reflective best-self tool, (Roberts, Dutton,
Spreitzer, Heaphy, & Quinn, 2005) which was unanimously rejected by the leaders, as primarilya ‘North American approach’ (Leader F). The majority of leaders considered soliciting feedbackon their best-self was not an approach they were comfortable with. Additionally, the notion of
keeping a gratitude journal and/or expressing gratitude was considered by the majority of leaders
as unnecessary. On the other hand, the notion of using descriptive and supportive communication
to address poor operational performance found favour with the leaders, as did managing
inappropriate behaviour such as incivility (Sguera, Bagozzi, Huy, Boss, & Boss, 2016) andhabitual under-performance of some officers.
The final workshop was self-facilitated by the leadership team to encourage ownership over the
implementation, and to finalise the Everest goal, the data needed to measure this goal, and theprocess for implementation. It is important to note that the researchers did not facilitate theimplementation of the CPLM. Rather, it was the leaders who navigated the practicalimplementation with their staff, with the researchers’ providing resources and support whenneeded.
Rather than informing staff of the Everest goal and the decision to work with positive leadership,
it was agreed that leaders would introduce their own team(s) to the goal, the eight measures thatwould indicate achievement of the goal, and the PMI process. Each leader quietly worked at
implementing positive strategies.
Implementation and Resources
During the planning phase, the leaders were given Cameron’s (2008) book to read. Additionally,
there was a need for practical information to facilitate implementation of the CPLM. To meetthis need, a guide was created for the current study giving examples of positive leadershipbehaviours that are inherent in each of the four strategies in CPLM (see Table 1). Monthly
sessions between the leaders and the officers provided an opportunity to have a structured
conversation regarding their work, the work environment, and their career. A template wascreated to help leaders direct the conversation on team climate and wider work environment,
work relationships, communication, meaning/contribution in the workplace, feedback on job
performance, progress towards performance goals, accountability, and training requirements.
Together these resources provided the ‘how’ for the leaders in implementing CPLM, who may
have floundered without guidance, and provided more standardised data for the study. A

40

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
potential disadvantage in providing leaders with templates is that it narrowed their focus to only
the items within those templates.
Table 1 Guide to positive leadership behaviours developed for the study
Positive climate
Positive relationships Positive
communication

Positive meaning

Positive noticing andexpressing verbal or
writtenthanks/appreciationtoothers for their actions
Encouraging
andreinforcing
positive
performancethroughverbalor
writtenfeedback
Expressing empathy andresponding
withempathy, and providing
support for issues

Actions
towards Have descriptive and Reinforce the overall
othersthatbuild supportive
contribution the work
positive
workplace conversations
makes to others and therelationsstrategic outcomes of theorganisation/Everest goal
Leader facilitation of Describe what was Reinforce meaningfulness
and modelling of observed and/or what of the work individuals
positive energy
behaviour is expected, do, and the team does
rather than passing
judgement
Recognizing
and Describe observation Encourage the generation
addressing
poor rather
thanmake of ideas and support for
performance.
assumptions
about implementation
Reinforcethose behaviourmodelling
good
performance.
Strengths based approach Focus on strengths Use more positive–
recognisingand and give time to words than negativebuilding on strengths strongest performers
words
inobserved in others
communication
withothersMake opportunities
for what people dobest

Data Collection
Leader Interviews
Semi-structured interviews were held between the first author and the 10 leaders during theimplementation and post-implementation. All interviews were held onsite at the Customs’ offices
within the airport. The interviews focused on in-depth exploration of their experiences of
implementing CPLM in applying positive strategies/practices in their workplace, theirperceptions of the Everest Goal, what went well/not so well, and whether they noticed anychanges to their leadership practices/style.
Leader e-journals
Collecting data from journals for phenomenological analysis has been advocated by Creswell(2013). A template helped guide the leaders to reflect daily on their use of positive strategies, the41

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
positive behaviours (see Table 1), the CPLM model, the measures for the Everest goal, and the
PMIs. The degree of journal completeness varied from one line entries to comprehensive
narratives that included validating evidence, such as emails from officers in response to leader
actions. Leader e-journal data provided rich data about the day-to-day implementation of themodel.
Officer Interviews
Semi-structured interviews were conducted post-implementation to explore officer experiencesof having an Everest goal and being involved in PMI sessions, as well as their observations on
any differences they noticed in the workplace over the past six months. All interviews wererecorded and transcribed.
Everest Goal Measures
Leaders agreed on eight operational measures that would indicate achievement of their Everest
goal (recognition of [the] International Airport as being the model airport in the country by endof the study period; ‘model’ being defined as exceeding national operational performancerequirements). Six of these measures related to increasing quality, productivity, and timeliness ofprocessing procedures, and two measures related to reducing sick and vacation leave balances(see Table 2). Data were obtained from the Customs electronic operational management systemat the commencement and conclusion of the study.
Table 2 Outcomes of the Everest goal measures

Everest goal measures

Baseline measures

Reduce average sick days per officer
by 1.2 from 9.2 to 8 average sickdays per officer
Reduce vacation leave balances by 1
average day per officer from 24.2 to23.2 average days per officer
Quality assurance check 50% of
officer notebooks
80% of officer notebooks checked
are at accuracy standard

9.2 average days per 14% reduction to 7.9 average
officerdays per officer = measureexceeded
24.2 average days per 10% increase to 26.6 average
officerdays per officer = measure notachieved
30%
quality 80% quality assurance checked =assurance checkedmeasure exceeded
66% of notebooks 81% of officer notebooks
checkedareat checked were at accuracy
accuracy standard
standard = measure exceeded
30% currently quality 67% of activity and alert reports
assurance checked
quality assurance checked =measure exceeded
78 reports on work 60 reports on work queue = 23%
queue
reduction, measure exceeded
7% data mismatch
5% data mismatch = 2%
decrease, measure achieved
18%
non-accuracy 21% non-accuracy = 3% net
primary processing
increase measure, not achieved

50% of activity and alert reports are
quality assurance checked
Reduce outstanding activity andalert report on work queue by 20%
Decreasedata
mismatchtointervention by 2%
Decrease non-accuracy of officer
primary processing by 2%

Results - post implementation

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55

Data Analysis
The aim of interpretative phenomenological analysis is to explore in detail the experience ofphenomena from the perspective of the participants, and to make sense of that experiencethrough an interpretative process (Patton, 2015). Under this paradigm, data analysis followed thesix-step process suggested by Smith, Flowers, & Larkin (2009: 79-107) and Creswell (2007:
159). The process involved first analysing the data for each participant, then moving to analysing
the data across each participant group, then working with the overall data set seeking emergent
patterns and themes. The officer interview transcripts were processed separately from the leader
data.
The first three steps focused on the individual participant experience, and included reading andre-reading, initial noting observations in each data source (reflective engagement conducted
several times for each data item, e.g. interview transcript, e-journal entry), and developing
emergent themes from initial noting, annotations and patterns within each data item. The fourth
step was to bracket each data item before moving onto the final steps of assessing the key
emergent themes for the group of data as a whole. These final steps involved searching forconnections across the leader and officer data through clustering themes, collating findings, andinterpreting patterns and reflecting on the data through re-reading literature.

Results and Discussion
Four consistent themes were central to the stories that emerged as the essence of the participants’experiences: (1) structure and focus in chaos, (2) working with positive strategies, (3)compassion and connectivity, and (4) affecting performance for the better. These themes, alongwith the addition of leadership behaviours, the Everest goal and PMIs are shown in the adapted
versionofthe
CPLM(Figure1).

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
Figure 1: Adapted Version of Cameron’s Positive Leadership Model to include positive behaviours.

44New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
Theme 1: Structure and Focus in Chaos
Implementing CPLM was a major undertaking for the leaders. In channelling their attention
toward leadership behaviours, all of the leaders noted they had more focus on people. Mostconsidered that this focus made a difference to how their leadership team operated in that they
had a clear goal that gave focus to their activities. ‘… [there was] more emphasis on our common
purpose” (Leader J). Most described how other leaders were listening more in meetings andthere was more communication between the leaders.
Having an Everest goal and a set of measures on which they had collectively decided acted as acentral pillar. On this foundation, they could then focus their own and their teams’ behaviour,
especially in the midst of a chaotic environment. The centrality of the goal and the meaning it
provided for the leadership team as well as for the officers is a consistent theme articulated by
the leaders.
… timely in some ways that we had that [the Everest goal] when the earthquakes weregoing on. We still managed to fit it in in a very demoralising time and situation that wewere living in. We still knew how important it was so everybody was still focusing on
achieving what we set out to do. It was very positive from our own management team,and having a goal uplifted each team as a whole (Leader J).
All 10 officers articulated high awareness and importance of the Everest goal and measures intheir interview. Officers considered that it had made a difference to how their leaders worked. In
their view, having the goal provided opportunities for officers to become involved in thegeneration of ideas for productivity and workflow improvements.
I think it [having an Everest goal] was of use because it gave us something to aim
towards. I know that [leader] was right on top of it all the time. Then I started looking at
it too and it became something that I’m aware of to keep an eye on…it gave us something
to aim towards. I thought it was great because it, um – otherwise you just walk in walkout… (Officer C).
Together, the Everest goal and the structured PMI sessions provided a common purpose, gave adegree of legitimacy, and provided structure and focus for the leaders in a chaotic environment.
These findings emerged from interpretation of the references by both leaders and officers as tothe experiences of implementing CPLM at such a chaotic time, and to the focus that thisprovided for them.
I think certainly for us when dealing with a lot of negative issues … using positive
leadership stuff made the going a lot easier to stay out of the doom spiral, andconcentrating on what you are contributing to the overall bigger picture to improve theoverall environment (Leader A).
These findings concur with those of other researchers such as Locke and Latham, (1990; 2002),
Kelloway and Barling (2000a; b), and Kelloway, Weigand, McKee, & Das (2013), who contend
that goal setting and goal clarity are important features of ongoing high performance. Where
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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
there is a strong contribution goal toward results (such as the Everest goal), a higher degree of
meaning has been found to be present, compared to when self-interest goals predominate (Niiya& Crocker, 2008). This contributes to positive meaning and was a key strategy used by theleaders in this study. In addition, Cameron (2008; 2013) contended that, in the implementing his
model, leaders who enable meaningfulness and emphasise contribution goals are more likely toexperience higher individual and organisational performance. Additionally, leaders have an
important role to play in influencing subordinates’ beliefs about the worth of a goal and about
their ability to achieve that goal (Jackson & Parry, 2011).
Theme 2: Working Differently with Positive Strategies
All of the leaders described, in varying degrees, that they had a higher awareness of self andincreased the range of leadership behaviours they used in the workplace. Initially, many foundthe change in behavioural orientation challenging. Many reflected that they were more aware of
their own behaviours and, therefore, more conscious of giving positive feedback as well as
expressing appreciation and empathy.
It has made a difference, I am more aware of myself. I know myself that I’m more awareof what the officers are doing and conscious to pat them on the back when they have donea good job (Leader C).
I’m not terribly empathetic…I learned to be a lot more empathetic with people… (Leader D).
The majority noticed that implementing CPLM had made a difference to how they managed theirrespective teams. Where leaders considered they had not noticed a positive change in their
behaviour, colleagues and officers noted that in fact they had changed.
It was different to get our ideas out and be asked for what we think and then getting it done
(Officer G).
All leaders were able to describe how they used positive strategies, suggesting they learned newleadership behaviours. Verification came mostly from the leaders’ journals and the officer
interviews, with examples of positive leader behaviours. These findings corroborate a point of
convergence between Cameron (2008; 2013), and Youssef-Morgan and Luthans (2013) who
contend that positive leadership behaviours can be learned. Overall, the leaders’ implementation
approach was to establish a positive frame of thinking and to model positive leadershipbehaviours in their interactions with others. In doing so, the leaders’ approach influenced
positivity in others. This supports other research suggesting that, when leaders establish a frameof thinking, it can influence the self-construct in followers (Hannah, Woolfolk & Lord, 2009),
and that leaders can affect the self-strategies of followers through the modelling of behaviours(Gardner & Avolio, 1998; Lord & Brown, 2004). Furthermore, the implementation structure (e.g.
behavioural focus, structured PMI sessions, Everest goal) provided the leaders with a degree ofindividual and team psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999; Park, Kim, Yoon & Joo, 2017) torisk working differently from workplace norms; and learning different interpersonal modes that
accentuated psychological capital (Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman, & Combs, 2006). This isconsistent with research that high quality relationships contribute both directly and indirectly to46

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
psychological safety, which is associated with facilitating learning behaviours (Carmeli,
Brueller, & Dutton, 2009).
The data showed a consistent trend of leaders applying positive strategies that fostered positive
interactions with officers, which was noticed as being different from their usual interaction withleaders. They also used positive strategies to encourage increased performance and express
appreciation. When officers described these changes, they noticed “just little things like giving us
a comment when we were working” (Officer J). Officers also described having more contact with
their leaders and having increased opportunities to work in different areas of the workplace.
Leaders were “definitely checking on how we all are, letting us do things more. [Name ofleader]sorted for me to do some time in the control room, had been wanting to have that forages” (Officer G).
One of the most visible indicators that leaders were working differently was theirimplementation of the PMI practice. The addition of the PMI practice to the CPLM was a coreenabler to implement positive strategies directly with their teams. A positive response regarding
PMIs was evident from all 10 officers in terms of the positive impact it had on their motivation,
job satisfaction, and career development.
To be able to sit down and have [leader] show an interest in what you’re doing kind of
motivates you more to think, oh, well I could be doing this, or I could be applying forthese jobs, or I should go on this course, rather than just forgetting about those sort ofthings and just carrying on with your normal [work routine] (Officer D).
The consistent leader and officer statements relating to the PMI strongly suggest that thispractice was a positive addition to CPLM, in that they fostered positive workplace interactions.
Leaders received feedback from officers that acted as positive reinforcement for them tocontinue the sessions, despite the time constraints. Prior to the implementation, this type of
regular meeting did not occur. The structure of the meetings, the focus on development and goal
achievement, as well as the opportunity to receive and give timely feedback, was considered by
all who participated, especially the officers, as different and valuable.
…by using those strategies, constantly using them, I could see the positive reaction fromthe troops, their behaviours – they were more professional in their approach to their job.
They were taking ownership. I think it gave them more confidence when they realisedthat they could achieve and it also made them realise that they had to do the full job
rather than rely on their [leaders] to do part of it for them. That was different than before(Leader F).
The data suggest the leaders did view leadership differently and, in so doing, acted differently.
Taking such a perspective assists with understanding how to unlock potential, reveal
possibilities, and move along a more positive course of human and organisational functioning(Spreitzer, Lam & Quinn, 2012).

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
Theme 3: Compassion and Connectivity
When the CPLM implementation process commenced, the leaders’ primary focus was toincrease operational performance to achieve their Everest goal. However, the earthquakes, inconjunction with learning positive leadership behaviours, resulted in them having to deliberately
focus on demonstrating compassion and optimism in the workplace. In so doing, leaders had tobalance workplace compassion with their prime legislative responsibilities of ensuring continuity
and rigor of operational delivery.
I have become much more conscious of learning what their [the officers] personal
circumstances are. I can … anticipate when they are becoming stressed because of theirfamily circumstances. It can dictate what jobs I put them on. So if I think they are stressed,
I’m not going to put them into a public role, so I might put them in the control [room] role
where they are away from the public and their patience is not being tested and that sort ofthing. It [implementing CPLM] has raised the consciousness of people’s circumstances…I
made an effort to know what their individual circumstances were (Leader D).
The findings suggest leaders consciously paid attention both to responding to officer needs andto positively reinforcing the reciprocal nature of the situation for everyone in the workplace, forexample, “I just keep saying the value that they add through turning up” (Leader J). Officers
noticed and appreciated the consideration: Checking in with us to be sure we were okay andthanking us for coming on shift when we had quakes and aftershocks happening and would
rather be at home” (Officer J).
In times of trauma, experiences of compassion at work are likely to influence deeper affective
commitment to the organisation and engender positive emotions (Lilius, Worline, Maitlis,
Kanov, Dutton, & Frost, 2008). If compassion is accepted as being the empathetic reaction toobserved suffering (Lazarus, 1991) and the actions taken to alleviate the pain (Frost, Dutton,
Worline, & Wilson, 2000) then the conditions for compassionate responding to emerge (Madden,
Duchon, Madden, & Plowman, 2012) in this study were opportune.
Leaders also made particular efforts to provide opportunities for officers to come together forsocial events (e.g. “[Name of leader] appeared and shouted1 coffee for all those working. Good
spirit of goodwill, camaraderie, and cooperation exists” (Leader D). This consideration ofcollegial social interaction increased connectivity in the workplace. The commonality of theearthquake experience and the implementation of the positive strategies in CPLM provided theopportunity for a mutually reinforcing workplace environment that strengthened and intensified
caring, compassion, and optimism. In essence, in the chaotic external environment, theworkplace became a ‘safe haven’ for leaders and officers. This intensified the likelihood ofreciprocal positivity which, in turn, had the propensity to absorb and, to a degree, protect or
distract people, from the trauma of the constant natural disaster events while in the workplace.
This acted as a ‘buffer’ between the people in the workplace and the constantly occurring natural
disaster events. This sense of support contributed to resilience, social connection, and a sense of
belonging in the workplace.
1

The word shouted is local dialect meaning to have bought something for someone else with no gain to oneself

48New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55

Theme 4: Influencing Performance for the Better
Leaders deliberately emphasised the meaning and importance of the work their teams were
doing. The data, particularly from the leader e-journals and officer interviews, indicates thatleaders used positive communication strategies in a number of different ways to create a link
between performance and meaning. “Our work is important and everyone has a role to play, we
have different roles but they are all important in doing what we do. I really emphasised that for
the guys” (Leader J).
All officers noticed increased focus on people and achievement. Data indicate that, for many
leaders, there was a fundamental change in how they recognised and endorsed performance andin how they addressed non-performance. The focus was on using descriptive rather thanevaluative statements describing the performance or behaviours desired, rather than stating what
they did not want (which was the cultural norm). Surprisingly, all of the leaders describedinstances of applying supportive and descriptive communication to address performance issues
and inappropriate behaviours. “[Name of officer] is quite a de-energiser in the team, so over thelast couple of months I have focused on the positive with this officer and given her positive
feedback about work undertaken and also discussed future opportunities with her in a positive
manner. There have been noticeable changes in the officer’s attitude since that time, however, it
will be important to maintain the positive leadership principles otherwise I suspect that theattitudes may revert back” (Leader B).
The findings indicate that the leaders applied positive communication strategies to reinforce theimportance and meaning of the work to encourage high performance and to address nonperformance. When positive behaviour is modelled by leaders, it impacts on interactions withothers at work (Cross, Baker & Parker, 2003; Gerbasi, Porath, Parker, Spreitzer, & Cross, 2015)
and is associated with changes in follower job engagement and job performance (Owens, Baker,
McDaniel Sumpter, & Cameron, 2015).
Everest Goal Measures
In implementing CPLM, the leaders had set an Everest goal of being a model international
airport, and agreed on eight operational measures they would use as an indication of whether or
not that they had achieved their goal. Departing from the interpretivist paradigm, the data
gathered here are included as they provide additional information to support the participants’description of their experiences in relation to performance outcomes.
At the conclusion of the six-month CPLM implementation period, the leaders had achieved sixof the eight operational measures (see Table 2), aligning with the qualitative data suggesting agreater focus on people and performance during the implementation period. Although we cannot
determine causality, given the seismic circumstances encountered in this study it is reasonable toconclude that an outcome of increased operational performance and decreased absenteeism is an
extraordinary outcome, particularly when performance, wellbeing, and absenteeism usually
suffer following a traumatic event (Alexander, 2005; Goodman & Mann, 2008; Mercer, Ancock,Levis, & Reyes, 2014; Pearson & Clair, 1998; Qin & Jiang, 2011; Sanchez, Korbin, & Viscarra,
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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
1995). The enhanced focus on people and performance through communication and positive
workplace climate may have come about because of the earthquake commonality. However, theearthquakes also presented significant stressors into the work environment and had the potential
to increase interpersonal conflict and damage the workplace climate. We argue that theimplementation of the CPLM strategies practices gave the leaders a set of alternative behaviours
during this time, which corresponded with an increase in operational performance. The
combination of strategies with the Everest goal enabled different behaviours to be learned andpractised, and provided a tangible focus in the chaos of ongoing seismic events. The combinationof positive strategies with every day practices enables the development of psychologicalcapacities to be learned, which can predict performance, satisfaction, and absenteeism in theworkplace (Youssef-Morgan & Luthans, 2010; Tombaugh, 2005).
Two measures were not achieved: outstanding vacation leave balances, and processing errors.
Under the circumstances, the increased leave balances could be explained by the ongoingearthquakes and the reluctance of most people to take a vacation in the unpredictableenvironment. An explanation for increased processing errors could be the intensified volume andcomplexity of processing passengers following the earthquake (e.g. response teams entering thecountry without adequate entry requirements). Another is the significant amount of pressure
officers had to deal with in both their personal and professional environment, which possibly
affected their concentration. Most probable is a combination of these factors contributing to theincrease in processing errors. Disasters are complex events likely to challenge the coping,concentration, accuracy, and memory abilities of most people. In such circumstances, there are arange of normal reactions, including impaired memory and concentration (Alexander, 2005), that
may explain the increase in officer processing errors. Given the continuous nature of the disaster,
there is also the probability of personal and professional stress affecting concentration andmemory (Van der Kolk & McFarlane, 2012).

Conclusions
The main contribution of this study is the finding that leaders learned and applied strategies that
fostered positive meaning, positive climate, positive relationships and positive communication
over the six month period. They used these behaviours to influence officer performance, foster
relationships, express appreciation, and to demonstrate empathy in the workplace.
An important contribution of this study to the applied HRM literature is that leaders who are
implementing positive strategies should focus on applying all of the positive strategies, rather
than focusing on one fragment of the model. In doing so, this has the potential to support theconceptualisation of the wholeness of the model and supports the concept of leadership being“purpose-driven not targets-driven” (Jackson & Smolović Jones, 2012: 37). This reduces therisk of the Everest goal becoming the only focus for the implementation and, consequently,
minimising the application of the positive strategies in the process. Additionally, the PMI
practice facilitates positive interactions between leaders and their direct reports. In this study,
both leaders and officers valued the PMI practice because of the opportunities it provided forsupportive communication. In the implementation, the Everest goal and the PMI each have a roleto play. But together they act as core enablers for the leaders in implementing the CPLM
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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 36-55
strategies. Literature on goal setting, psychological capital, psychological safety, andparticipative safety support the contention that there is value in adding the Everest goal and PMIpractices to the model (see Figure 1). Adapting the CPLM by adding these two positive practices
augments the model and provides structure, centrality, and purpose to the implementation.
Another contribution resulting from this study is the finding that implementing the adapted
positive leadership model in adverse conditions has the potential to lead to positive results. As
previously reviewed, other studies indicate that performance and attendance declines as a resultof traumatic events. This study supports the notion that the implementation of positive strategies
during traumatic events can have a positive influence on performance and attendance, in
situations where one would expect both to decline. However, what cannot be concluded is thedegree to which the continuous sequence of natural disaster events influenced emotions whichconsequently had the potential to influence behaviours and outcomes. External validity of thisstudy is, therefore, constrained, as is the ability to generalise the research findings. This isbecause the context of the study was within a rank-structured law enforcement organisation in anatural disaster environment.
Finally, this study highlights that leaders are able to independently implement the adapted
version of this model with minimal support. This is a key finding for HRM practitioners, in thatmany potential benefits may be gained through supporting frontline leaders to take responsibility
for the practical implementation of the adapted positive leadership model within their own
workplaces. The few studies that have looked at the implementation of positive practices have alldone so through implementing from a centralised head office rather than through frontline
leaders. With a centralised approach, where the majority of the pre-planning and monitoring of
the implementation sits with others, there is the potential for frontline leaders to take lessownership of the implementation. Regardless of the good intentions of those leading acentralised approach, there is the possibility for a ‘do to’ as opposed to a ‘do with’ attitude
emerging. Encouraging and enabling leaders to plan and lead the implementation in their own
workplace has a higher potential to engender ownership and positively deviant outcomes.

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Organisational change, identity and coping with stress
ROY SMOLLAN* and EDWINA PIO**
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of stressful organisational change, identity and copingwith stress in the context of employment relations. We conducted 31 interviews in a New
Zealand public healthcare provider in a study designed to investigate the causes andconsequences of stressful organisational change and the strategies participants used tocope. Identity in different forms (personal, role social and organisational) emerged as asalient factor, particularly when self-efficacy was challenged, roles were changed,
relationships deteriorated and the participant’s value to the group or organisation wasquestioned. Participants used problem and emotion-focused strategies to cope with theprocesses and outcomes of change and with identity issues. Our study provides a nuanced
perspective of the centrality of identity in navigating stressful organisational change, andcontributes to the employment relations literature, particularly regarding occupationalsafety and mental health.
Key words Coping; identity; employment relations; narratives; organisational change;
qualitative; stress

Introduction
A decade ago, despite arguing that identity was in vogue in organisational studies, Alvesson,
Ashcraft and Thomas (2008: 7) suggested that research still had the opportunity “to develop
novel and nuanced theoretical accounts.” In the context of organisational change, research has
shown that change impacts on different forms of identity – personal, role, social andorganisational. Identity is central to the wellbeing of people (Dutton, Roberts & Bednar, 2010),
and when organisational change fragments identity, the outcome is likely to be stress andresistance to the change (Kalimo, Taris & Schaufeli, 2003). The scholarship of employment
relations has seldom explored the relevance of identity in organisational change outside thecontext of union issues (e.g. Harrison, Roy & Haines, 2011). Literature from other disciplines
has paid little attention to how identity is unsettled during stressful organisational change or to
how coping leads to a reconstituted self-identity.
According to Folkman and Lazarus (1985), stress is an ongoing transaction between a person
and the environment where causes, consequences and coping are in constant flux. Disruptions
to identity can be stressful as they force one to rethink “who I am” (Alvesson & Wilmott, 2002;
Brown, 2015), especially when there is a discrepancy between the ideal and “who I am
becoming” (Conroy & O’Leary-Kelly, 2014). The fluidity of these forms of identity becomes
evident during and after an organisational change when stressful processes and outcomes cancapsize self-perceptions. Therefore, our research questions are: What change-related stressors*

Department of Management, Auckland University of Technology, New ZealandDepartment of Management, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand**56

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 56-82

influence employee identity? How do employees cope with stressful change-related identity
issues? What impact does coping have on self-identity?
Addressing these questions will provide some guidance to employment relations researchersand practitioners in developing consultative practices about organisational change andmechanisms of support for stressed employees. Given that wellbeing is a key element of
employment relations (Lo & Lamm, 2005; Rasmussen & Hannam, 2013), and is embedded inlegislative regimes in some countries (e.g. New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act 2015),
aspects of employment that cause stress should be of great concern to practitioners andresearchers. The public healthcare sector of New Zealand has a relatively strong union presence(Ryall & Blumenfeld, 2015) and has been through considerable change over the last two
decades (McKenna & Richardson, 2003), much of which has negatively affected the workforce.
Research has shown how identity is moulded by discourse (Brown, 2015) and narrative(Chreim, 2005; Humphreys & Brown, 2002). Since language helps in making meaning ofexperience (Carlsen, 2016), narrative is one pathway to express how individuals affected bystressful change (re)construct identity. Stress is present to some degree in every job and its level
may rise (or fall) as change unfolds. A narrative approach is, thus, well suited to revealing how
individuals experience and cope with phases of stressful change (Syrjälä, Takala & Sintone,2009) and to exploring how evolving events and issues shape identity (Giaever & Smollan,2015).
This paper contributes to the employment relations literature by explicating the dynamics of therelationships between stress, organisational change and identity through a narrative analysis ofinterviews in a New Zealand public healthcare provider. The study reveals that a range ofchange-related stressors impact on different forms of identity and that effective coping withstressful identity issues requires a willingness to adopt a reflexive and flexible approach.

Literature review
Conceptualisations of identity
Stets and Burke (2014: 412) define identity as “a set of meanings that defines individuals interms of the roles they occupy, the social categories or groups they belong to, and the individual
characteristics that define them as unique persons.” Scholars of organisational studies havecategorised identity in different ways, for example, as the personal, role and social (Brown,2015); the personal, social and organisational (van den Heuvel, Demerouti & Bakker, 2014),
the individual, group, organisational and corporate (the last being the “branding” oforganisational identity) (Cornelissen, Haslam & Balmer, 2007). The concept of work-related
identity has been the focus of Dutton et al. (2010), Conroy and O’Leary-Kelly (2014) andMeister, Jehn and Thatcher (2014), all of whom include the constructs of group, occupational,
professional and organisational identity. Managerial identity, a combination of role identity andsocial identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), has also been explored (e.g. Cascón‐Pereira & Hallier,2012; Clarke, Brown & Hope Hailey, 2009; Watson, 2009). According to Järventie-Thesleff
and Tienari (2016), role identity (perceived expectations of one’s role) has slipped under the
research radar but they demonstrated its relevance to organisational change during a major
rebranding exercise.
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Various forms of identity may be tightly interlinked, for example, difficult tasks may signal
threats to role identity; poor task performance lowers self-efficacy, a component of personal
identity which, in turn, may undermine relational issues (social identity) and put one’s
continuing employment at risk (organisational identity). That said, one form may become moresalient under different conditions (Meister et al., 2014; Ramarajan, 2014), especially whencritical incidents occur.
Identity has periods of stability and fluidity (Brown, 2015; Collinson, 2003). Identity
construction is, thus, an ongoing process, evidenced through relationships and experiences; itis both shared and singular. Varying identities may be mutually reinforcing, contradictory or intension (Ramarajan, 2014) and must be managed thorough the reflexive processes of identity
work (Brown, 2015; Clarke et al., 2009; Collinson, 2003). Identity construction is precarious
and processual (Alvesson, 2010). For example, a study by Kreiner, Hollensbe and Sheep (2006)
reveals the struggles of priests to establish a balance between their personal identities and thesocial/professional elements of their jobs. Thus, identity is malleable and multifaceted, meshedin a complex web of interacting non-linear processes, as individuals seek to make sense ofexperience
Studies of identity have penetrated healthcare. Cascón-Pereira and Hallier (2012) show how
doctors who become managers cope with the tensions between the clinical and the managerial
role, both constructed as aspects of professional identity. Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann(2006) lay out the processes of identity construction medical residents undergo through theirtraining and career transitions, particularly through the inter-play between integrity andcompetence. Desombre, Kelliher, Macfarlane and Ozbilgin’s (2006) study of medical staff
reveal how new expectations of functional flexibility in work tasks influenced role identity.
Dawson, Farmer and Thomson (2011) explore how midwives facing change in their profession
and needed to protect their status when dealing with the power of doctors.
Stress occurs when organisational members perceive misalignments (Kira & Balkin, 2014)
between their jobs and their identities, or asymmetries between their self-perceived identities
and the way they believe others view them (Meister et al., 2014). When threats in organisational
life destabilise patterns of consciousness, elements of negative identity surface (Alvesson &Wilmott, 2002; Petriglieri 2011). When a sense of loss infuses work-related identity, individuals
engage in sense-making, sense-breaking and emotional regulation through a period of liminality
until a healthy equilibrium can (hopefully) be re-created (Ashforth & Schinoff, 2016; Conroy& O’Leary-Kelly, 2014). Negative work experiences that impinge on identity influence people
to rethink their careers (Lysova, Richardson, Khapova & Jansen, 2015), overtly or covertly
engage in resistance (Alvesson & Wilmott, 2002), seek a more salubrious workplace elsewhereor cope with what they have (Rothausen, Henderson, Arnold & Malshe, 2017).
Identity, organisational change and stress
Organisational change is a fertile stream to explore the fluidity of identity, by reflecting onchange and telling the story to various audiences (Ibarra & Barbulescu, 2010). Individuals canchoose to support those aspects of change which support their identities (Chreim, 2005;
Desombre et al., 2006). Conversely, when change triggers a negative identity or threats to an
established and preferred identity, stress occurs (Clarke et al., 2009; Petriglieri, 2011).

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According to Folkman and Lazarus (1985: 52), stress is “a relationship between the person andthe environment that is appraised by the person as relevant to her/his well-being and in which
the person’s resources are taxed or exceeded.” Organisational life has many possible sources ofstress that lie in the nature of tasks, internal and external relationships, inadequate rewards andresources, poor communication, dysfunctional organisational cultures and job insecurity(Faragher, Cooper & Cartwright, 2004; Karasek, 1979). Identity issues may infuse many ofthese aspects of organisational life when the employee is embroiled in tasks and contested
relationships that bring into question one’s value to the group or organisation (Tajfel & Turner,
1979; Gioia, 2008) and the different roles one might be expected to play (Burke & Stets, 2009).
Organisational change is potentially an additional stressor that may exacerbate pre-existing
stress levels (Fugate, Kinicki & Prussia, 2008; Greenglass & Burke, 2001). The processes andoutcomes of change will be stressful if personal goals are thwarted (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985),
or self-esteem and self-efficacy are threatened (Kalimo et al., 2003; Rothausen et al., 2017;
Vardaman, Amis, Dyson, Wright, & Randolph, 2010; Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, &Bailey, 2001). Change can increase workloads, require skills an employee may not have,fracture relationships and lead to insecurity and alienation (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Processesof change that are poorly communicated and exclude employee participation may lead toperceptions of unfairness and marginalisation (Riolli & Savicki 2006). Stress may beheightened during transition periods fraught with anxiety over the possibilities of redundancy,
redeployment and job redesign (Fugate et al., 2008). When change undermines an individual’s
feelings of worth and sense of belonging, stress and resistance to change are likely to occur.
During change “identity work may move to the front burner of everyday consciousness”(McAdams, 1999: 486), and what adds to the heat is stressful experience (Rothausen et al.,2017; Smollan & Sayers, 2009). Corley and Gioia (2004) and Hakak (2015) suggest that
identity ambiguity and confusion are likely to occur in subtractive change, where an attributeof the organisation is permanently and abruptly removed, such as mass layoffs and corporate
spin-offs. A positive identity helps one cope with stressful change (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001),
particularly when it is buttressed by self-efficacy (Vardaman et al., 2010) and supportive work
relationships that underscore the perceived value of the individual to the collective (Lawrence& Callan, 2011).
In a rare study in employment relations scholarship, Harrison et al. (2011) drew on social
identity theory and role identity theory to explore the experiences of union officials who wereinvolved in new union-management partnerships. The familiar collegial identity of the union
official as a “defender” of worker rights had been destabilised by the new role identity of the“partner” that is, an occasional co-decision-maker, and caused union representatives a certain
amount of angst through what the researchers termed a “blurred identity”.
Coping with identity threats occasioned by change, thus, becomes a challenge for employees.
Folkman and Lazarus (1985) emphasise that coping is an ongoing process in which people use
various strategies, which they classify as problem-focused, emotion-focused and seeking social
support. While Folkman and Lazarus employ a psychological perspective, from an employment
relations angle, unions, over a long time, have provided a support network for health and safetyissues to employees both in instrumental/problem-focused ways and by offering emotional
support (Bluen & Edelstein, 1993). The solidarity of social identity helps employees cope withstress. In other frameworks of coping strategies, Latack (1986) categorises responses as control,
escape and symptom management, while Moos and Holohan (2003) use a matrix of cognitive59

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behavioural and approach-avoidance strategies. Identity is potentially an element of the choiceof strategies. For example, a person who uses problem-focused strategies may on rely on selfefficacy and a sense of agency while the use of an emotion-focused escape strategy, such as
drinking, may be a sign of low self-esteem and helplessness. Tapping support networks, a key
feature of social identity, can be an effective strategy for enhancing a sense of community andwellbeing (Lawrence & Callan, 2011).
When negative aspects of work, such as stressful change, evoke identity concerns they triggera liminal phase (Conroy & O’Leary-Kelly, 2014) where the individual is groping towards a new
reality and trying to make sense of its implications (Rothausen et al., 2017). A noxious brew
begins to bubble when individuals need to cope, not only with the new work demands, but alsowith a fragile sense of self and a questionable foundation of social relationships. Lack of control
erodes the ability to cope with stress; conversely one may be able to construct (or reconstruct)positive work identities with support, despite difficult circumstances (Conroy & O’LearyKelly, 2014; Dutton et al., 2010).
Prior studies of organisational change have shown how individuals attempt to cope with identity
issues. For example, Lawrence and Callan (2011) showed the value of social support during
large-scale change and downsizing in confirming salient aspects of professional and collegial
identity among health professionals. Clarke et al. (2009) reported that managerial identities andperceptions of integrity were challenged during downsizing in an engineering company, withsome managers trying to distance themselves emotionally from their subordinates and to act“professionally”. In a study of school teachers facing change, Vardaman et al. (2010) found that
support networks enhanced self-efficacy, which enabled the participants to cope with stress bybelieving that they could exert some control over their new conditions. Van den Heuvel et al.
(2014) discovered that police force members coped better with change where they had highlevels of self-esteem, strengthened by the perceived availability of identity-related resources,
including good relationships with their supervisors, and the belief that they were valued by theorganisation. Midwives facing change to their service believed that they had far too little
influence as opposed to doctors, who, as one respondent put it, “use us like handmaidens”(Dawson et al., 2011: 157). A nurse facing technological change experienced the conflictingroles of patient care and documentation, “I’m afraid there will be so much writing in the end,
that there will be less time for the patient, for the social aspect, and care” (Giaever & Smollan,
2015: 116).
Literature on coping with change tends to focus on the additive effects of stress (Fugate, et al.,2008), or on coping with specific stressors, such as workload, conflict and uncertainty(Greenglass & Burke, 2001; Kalimo et al., 2003) or on coping with limited forms of identity(van den Heuvel et al., 2014). Omitted from examination are the relationships between threetargets of coping with stressful change. Coping with identity issues goes beyond the strategies
addressed in well-known models of coping (e.g. Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter,
DeLongis, & Gruen, 1986; Hobfoll, 2001; Karasek, 1979). From a theoretical point of view, aredesigned job may create stress through difficult tasks and relationships in a different
department, anxiety about failure and alienation and an identity of disintegrating self-efficacy
and social standing. Attempts at coping with the taxing new work tasks, by asking for
instrumental support, may reduce anxiety about failure but undermine self-efficacy. Moreconstructively, when the employee positively re-appraises work tasks as an opportunity to learn
from others, perceiving this as a challenge rather than a threat (Folkman et al., 1986; Fugate et60

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al., 2008), the individual is better able to adapt to the tasks, reduce anxiety and bolster personaland social identity.
There is insufficient knowledge on which forms of identity are evoked when a stressful change
occurs, what triggers them and how individuals cope with the specific stressors, with the strain
and with threatening identity issues. We sought to bridge this gap by investigating how
participants in an organisation undergoing change experienced and coped with theseinterlocking sources of stress.

MethodTheoretical foundations
Self-identity is a social construction (Alvesson et al., 2008) in several senses. Firstly, theabstract nature of identity means that making sense of it, other than through the intuitive
understanding of the self, occurs through language (Carlsen, 2016). Secondly, employees
constitute and reconstitute their subjectivity through many discourses (Brown, 2015) andnarratives (Ibarra & Barbulescu, 2010; Humphreys & Brown, 2002), as they relate to theirsurroundings. Thirdly, research about identity generates a different type of discourse about
employee identities and fixes labels, such as the personal, social and organisational (e.g. Stets& Burke, 2014).
Narratives of identity are “accounts of events in the world which are organized in a time-relatedsequence” (Watson (2009: 429) and there is a uniqueness in how a narrative is created thoroughthe interplay between the individual, others and the environment (Boje, 2001). According to
McAdams (2001), narrative creates unity and purpose in life through reflexively constructing
stories that are lived through. Narratives represent experience and reveal how identity isnegotiated and understood. Furthermore, “it is possible to locate all our actions within stories”(Ramsey, 2005: 226), to have multiple tellings, themes and endings and to shift our focus fromwhat is “true” to what will enable change and a stronger sense of self (Dutton et al., 2010).
Thus, narrative can be both creative and descriptive and individual narratives often compete
against organisational narratives which are embedded in power relations (Brown, 2015;
Dawson et al., 2011). Narrative analysis allows for the simultaneous exploration of multiple
identities (Ramarajan, 2014). The diverse nature of the self can reinforce ambiguity andinsecurity, particularly within a context of social change, workplace relations and power
asymmetries (Alvesson, 2010; Collinson, 2003; Corley & Gioia, 2003; Humphreys & Brown,2002). Additionally, narratives are sequenced and situated in time and space; they are a way toprocess information, make meaning of emotions and facilitate our understanding of reality(Dailey & Browning, 2014).
Narratives have “no automatic starting and finishing points” (Squire, Andrews & Tamboukou,
2008: 3) and though diverse and multi-layered, they enable the description, understanding andexplanation of specific phenomena. Identity is co-constructed in a research situation where
meaning is explored and negotiated (Dawson et al., 2011; Watson, 2009). Narratives are, thus,
an important way of revealing the fluidity and precariousness of identity through the phases ofa stressful organisational change.

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Research site and participants
The site for our study was a District Health Board (DHB) in New Zealand that provides publichealthcare services through a range of hospitals, clinics and specialist centres. Reforms in the
country’s public health sector over many years have been directed at increasing its coverageand quality, while seeking to control its costs (McKenna & Richardson, 2003). The DHB in ourstudy provided access to nearly 200 employees whose departments had recently been throughconsiderable change as part of, or alongside, a series of restructurings that led to thecentralisation of some services, the disestablishment and redesign of roles, redundancy andredeployment. Employees were invited to contact the researchers directly.
Semi-structured interviews with 31 participants were conducted by the first author in 2012.
There were 22 White participants, three Maori, four Asian and two of Pacific island heritage.
Ages ranged from 32 to 65 (mean 40.3) and length of service from four to 27 years (mean 10.7).
Nineteen participants were in clinical positions (e.g. nursing and physiotherapy) while thebalance had administrative jobs (such as in accounting and training). Twenty-five weremanagers (two senior, eight middle, 15 supervisory or professional team-leaders) and six were
non-managerial employees. Interviews between 35 and 75 minutes were conducted at various
DHB sites and the participants were asked to define stress, outline one change and discuss thestress that had occurred before, during and after that change. Questions were asked about thecauses and consequences of stress and about coping strategies. Interviews were recorded andverbatim transcripts were made available to the participants, who were coded with letters fromthe alphabet.
What clearly emerged from this data was the unanticipated impact of identity in experiencing
and coping with stressful change. Regarding interviews, researchers note that interviews,“should be treated as a terrain where certain things can be found that are capable of yielding
meaning, insights and even pleasure” (Gabriel, 2015: 335). Furthermore, in using inductive
research methods, “Insights can appear suddenly or develop incrementally” (Eisenhardt,
Graebner & Sonenshein, 2016: 1120), and that “it is important to give time to process and digest
the unexpected” (Åkerström, 2013: 11). Since identity had glimmered almost subliminally inthe current study, it was then exposed to a focused investigation.
Figure 1 is a map of the terrain to be explored (Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2014). It indicatesthat different phases of change affect four forms of identity and that the coping strategies usedlead to a reframing of the individual’s identity.
Figure 1: Model of organisational change, identity and stress

Perceptions oforganisationalchange over time: Processes
 OutcomesForms of identity

 Personal
 Role Social
 Organisational

CopingStress with the job demands
 with the stress with the identity issues

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Data analysis
Our data analysis involved two phases. The first involved thematic analysis. According toBraun and Clarke (2006), there are six steps to be followed: becoming familiar with the data
through repeated readings of transcripts, generating initial codes and collating the codes into
these, reviewing and consolidating these themes, defining them and writing up the analysis.
Given that the interviews were not designed to explore identity, we were not “trying to fit intoa pre-existing coding frame, or the researchers” analytical preconceptions” (Braun & Clarke
2006: 83). We read the transcripts several times, looking for comments reflecting identity.
While authors have categorised identity in various ways, our codes developed out of four
separate but inter-twined forms of work-related identity described in the literature (e.g.
Alvesson, 2010; Burke & Stets, 2009; Collinson, 2003; Conroy & O’Leary-Kelly, 2014). These
forms are the personal (relating to self-concept), role (perceptions of the expectations of work
roles), social (including occupational, professional, collegial, managerial and ethnic identity)
and organisational (a more diffuse extension of social identity). We, then, looked for triggers
of identity construction and grouped them into seven themes, such as changing roles or groups,
lack of participation in decision-making and the stress of others. Some of these causes (i.e. thestressors) had emerged in an earlier phase of the wider project on stress and organisationalchange, but while identity was certainly not a latent feature of the majority of comments, those
we found were sufficiently representative to coalesce into a coherent theme. Representative
quotes of seven participants highlight stressful identity issues but it should be emphasised thatthe responses of other participants also fitted into these themes.
Next, we searched for ways in which the same participants had coped with identity threats. Hereagain we selected a representative quote, related it to different forms of identity and analysed
the stressor-identity-coping relationships. We particularly looked for evidence of how coping
strategies resulted in a reconfiguration or self-verification of identity (Meister et al., 2014).
While we used the same coding framework as in Table 1 (forms of identity), we needed to recode the identity in terms of how the participant had coped with the identity issue, not simply
with the stressor.
Given that the tables provide isolated snapshots of identity, we then sought to present greater
depth of experience in the second phase of our analysis by selecting the narratives of threeparticipants whose rich descriptions illustrate how their identities were re-examined throughdifferent phases of change. Trajectory, according to Rothausen et al. (2017: 2368) – “the senseof past, current, and future coherence in growth and development over time” – is a key pillar ofidentity. Narrative analysis works well, according to Dailey and Browning (2014), when thestory is presented in sufficient detail with, if possible, an identifiable, beginning (before change
in our study), middle (during change) and end (after change), “complete with a moral and withan agreed plot” (Boje, 2001: 3). Yet, as Dawson et al. (2011) and Squire et al. (2008) point out,
narrative plots do not necessarily roll out in a neat, linear fashion.

Findings
All 31 participants acknowledged that varying levels of stress had been present in their jobs
before the change. The causes differed, but included challenging workloads, goals anddeadlines, and difficult relationships with other staff, patients and their families. The
announcement of change, which signalled an uncertain future, especially regarding their own
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roles, became a significant source of stress. Processes of change were seen by some participants
as damaging to their wellbeing, particularly when there was a lack of participation in decisionmaking and inadequate or insensitive forms of communication which undermined theirperceived value to the organisation. After the change, many participants found that workloads
had increased and resources had shrunk. Facing new roles, expectations and relationships (forexample, clinicians taking on part-time team leader roles), added stress, but for some also
provided the excitement of challenge.
Identity threats from stressful change
Different forms of identity were threatened in a number of ways (see Table 1). Struggles tocope with heavier workloads triggered feelings of incompetence. Awkward moments andhostile comments greeted some of those who transferred to other departments or took on newroles. Participants interpreted cursory explanations of change by senior managers as signs thatthey and their colleagues were not valued. Stressors affected different aspects of identity. For
example, participant EE experienced a heavier workload after the change (role identity),
feelings of incompetence as he struggled with this workload (personal identity), and theembarrassment of being relocated to a desk in a hospital corridor (which damaged his personal,social and organisational identities). Well-intentioned offers of psychological support from hiscolleagues, which could have reinforced his social identity, were unwelcome because he felt
his colleagues believed that he was not coping, a perception that further eroded his self-esteem.

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Table 1: Change stressors and identity
Identity stressor
Poor communication and lack ofparticipation in decision-making
Management unilaterally changed thelength, timing and frequency of shifts fora group of clinical professionals.
(S – clinical manager)

Changing job roles that increase
workload and job complexity
Following a restructure, clinical teamleader positions were created thatcombined clinical work with the oversightofprofessional
development
forcolleagues.
(K – clinical team leader)
Changing work groups
After a redundancy and job resign process
the participant was moved to a specialisedrole in another hospital where an existing
staff member had been laid off.
(L – clinical educator)

Lack of support
Following a restructure the participant
was moved to another department wheremanagerial support was absent.
(X – educator)
Threat of redundancy

Participant comment on cause of stress
It was done really badly…there was no
discussion, it was just dumped on us…Theycame into a meeting and then it was just BOOM
- this is what we’re going to do, there was no
discussion, there was no reason why, other thanit was going to be cost saving for theorganisation. And it caused a huge amount ofstress for myself and my colleagues…wewould have to be here a lot more.
You get treated like you don’t manage yourcaseload properly…it is because you’re
incompetent…Trying to still maintain my little
bit of overtime for the clinical role but [theteam leader role] in the last month was roughly
20 hours, but it's only eight hours a week,
designated.

Main form(s) of identity
Personal: self-worth
Social:subordinate,colleague, family member
Organisational: employee

Analysis of change-stressor-identity relationships
Lack of consultation marginalises employees who
begin to doubt their self-worth. Exclusion fromdecision-making leads to a questioning of one’sorganisational membership but may strengthen one's
collegial identification.

Personal: self-efficacy
Role: workload
Social:occupation/
profession
Organisational: employee

Employees who have two or more roles have to deal
with greater identity and task complexity. Whenorganisational change creates raised expectations of
the quantity and quality of work of an employee, stressresults from reduced self-efficacy and resentment
towards the manager and organisation that haveinitiated new role expectations.

If you’re working at a hospital, where they
don’t know you, they don’t know your clinicalexpertise…they’re much harder to engage in a
programme which they think doesn’t make any
difference for them…I was expecting a bit of awelcome, and I was in tears within fiveminutes. [One person] was very angry about
what had happened to [a colleague] and hadseen her distress. Everybody loves her. I’m the
new jumped-up upstart who got the job which
she decided not to apply for.

Personal: self-worth
Social:profession/colleagueStress occurs when an organisational change means ahostile new work group is entered.

She didn’t have any understanding of our roles.
She was busy but she’d said that she would
make the time, which didn’t happen…That
made us feel really undervalued and more of a
nuisance than being part of a team.
For all the staff it was pretty ruthless, what was
happening...We were told we’d probably lose

Personal: self-worth
Social: profession

Lacking support from the manager undermines selfworth and threatens social identity.

Personal: self-worth
Social: colleague

The threat of redundancy rupture personal social andorganisational identity.

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The announcement of restructuring andpossible redundancies was a source ofstress to a manager and his team.
(N – administrative manager)
Stress of others
Although not in scope for redundancy theparticipant was keenly aware of others’stressful responses to the announcement.
(V – clinical manager)
Inadequate office location
The participant was moved from an office
to an open corridor in a hospital.
(EE – administrative professional)

our jobs…It became like the big sword of
Damocles hanging over you all the time. Thatstarted to wind up the stress.

Organisational: employee

What I found stressful was the distress of thestaff who had been informed that they may lose
their jobs. They’d be at my door worried about
the partner might’ve been out of work, or how
are they going to feed the kids.
It was demeaning where they placed me…
basically in a passageway with a desk and acomputer. I’ve got confidential stuff on mycomputer and I’ve got people walking past theback of me…It was crap. I had cardboard boxes
with my files in them, next to my desk, I didn’t
even have a filing cabinet.

Personal: self-authenticity
Social:colleague/
subordinate

The stress of others facing stressful change elicits the
support of colleagues (and managers) who feel theneed to act with self-authenticity.

Personal: self-worth
Social:professional,
subordinate
Organisational: employee

Inappropriate office space has a symbolic dimensionthat lowers self-worth and undermines relationships
with immediate supervisors or other decision-makers.

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Coping with identity threats
To cope, participants utilised various strategies, some of which were aimed at minimising thespecific stressors, others at dealing with negative emotions and/or identity issues. While someparticipants relied on their resilience, confidence and optimism, others sought support (tangible
and psychological) from people inside and outside the organisation. Some were in clinicalprofessions whose governing bodies required professional supervision, the opportunity to
discuss client-oriented matters with a competent peer (see for example the Supervision
Guidelines of the New Zealand Psychologists Board, 2010). These participants tended to report
how much beneficial support they had received from these quarters. Table 2 presents thecomplexity of coping responses and their influence on self-identity.

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Table 2. Identity and coping with stressful change
Identity stressor

Participant comment on coping

Form of identity

Poor communication and lack ofparticipation in decision-making
Management unilaterally changed thelength, timing and frequency of shifts for agroup of clinical professionals.
(S – clinical manager)

I thought, I wonder if there’s a way that I
can roster it so that the organisation is still
gaining back money, but we can have what
we want. And that’s often my response to
any kind of thing that’s quite stressful. Is
there a way that I can make it work so thatit's a win-win for everybody? And so that’s
partly what I did and so I came up with thesolution that was eventually adopted.
It got to the point where I felt like I had tohave the one glass of wine and if I’d run out
I’d have to go and buy a bottle…I put myhead down and worked harder andharder…Then I completely blew my stackand said it how it was. And that actually felt
quite good! ...I basically said, either the job
needs to be expanded to have more hours
or we need to trim the job.
Just kept my head down, tied myself in theoffice, did the job. Always say hello to her.
Just nicely…don’t stand up to her. I just let
it go.

Personal: self-worth
Social: subordinate, colleague, family
memberOrganisational: employee

We would have our new team meetings, sothat was a good opportunity to be chatting
I felt really supported by my colleagues in
the office, who were still part of theoriginal team that we were in…I’ve got avery supportive husband.
As a team we sat down and discussed
it…Because I just didn’t know how it wasgoing to affect my team. Obviously I knew

Changing job roles that increase workload
and job complexity
Following a restructure clinical team leader
positions were created that combinedclinical work with the oversight ofprofessional development for colleagues.
(K – clinical team leader)

Changing work groups
After a redundancy and job resign process
the participant was moved to a specialisedrole in another hospital where an existing
staff member had been laid off.
(L – clinical educator)
Lack of support
Following a restructure the participant was
moved to another department wheremanagerial support was absent.
(X – educator)
Threat of redundancy

Analysis of change-stressor-identitycoping relationships
A practical solution devised by an
employee can enhance perceptions ofworth and authenticity while enhancing
social and organisational identity.

Personal: self-efficacy
Role: workload
Social: occupation/ profession
Organisational: employee

Maladaptive coping was replaced by aconfrontational then collegial approach.
Venting about workload to colleagues andthe manager, accompanied by a practicalsolution, would enhance self-efficacy androle identity.

Personal: self-worth
Social: profession/ colleague

Avoidance coping may be chosen whenself-worth and social identity cannot beprotected.

Personal: self-worth
Social: profession, colleague, spouse

When managerial support is absent, social
identity drives employees to look forsupport from their colleagues and others intheir personal networks.

Personal: self-worth, self-authenticity
Social: supervisor, colleagues
Organisational: employee

Dealing with the stress of their own
possibleredundancy
andfeeling
responsible for the wellbeing of a team68

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The announcement of restructuring andpossible redundancies was a source ofstress to a manager and his team.
(N – administrative manager)

Stress of others
Although not in scope for redundancy theparticipant was keenly aware of others’stressful responses to the announcement.
(V – clinical manager)
Inadequate office location
The participant was moved from an office
to an open corridor in a hospital.
(EE – administrative professional)

I had to reapply for my job...They’re myblokes...you can’t just leave everyone in
the lurch. It’s bad enough I got left in thelurch but I’m not going to do the same forthem...I would work maybe a little bit
longer hours, I would do a bit of research,
I would actually ask more questions, I
would get information.
They’d come to the office, stand at thedoor, talk about…I’m looking for a job
here, and what do you think about that? It
was actually okay. It wasn’t creating
additional work. I like to be supportive of
my colleagues.
I kept saying to them, I can’t work likethis... I [also] started trying to walk more
and that sort of thing to just sort of easemyself – I realised what I had to do – I had
to look after myself, survival instincts, I
realised I had to cope.

may lead managers to focus on supporting
subordinates and looking after themselves.
The first is a manifestation of selfauthenticity and enhances collegial andsubordinate relationships, the second aims
to stabilise self-worth.

Personal: self-authenticity
Social: colleague

When one has limited power and selfefficacy to address the stress of others,
supporting them enhances self-authenticity
and is a coping mechanism to deal with
one’s own stress.

Personal: self-worth
Social: occupation, subordinate, colleague
Organisational: employee

When requests for tangible supervisory andorganisational support do not work,
employees need to cope with lowered selfworth.

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Examples are provided by the same participants found in Table 1, that indicate that some of thecoping strategies they used helped them maintain a positive identity while others used maladaptive
approaches, such as drinking and over-eating, that exacerbated negative identities. An identitybased stressor may have resulted in the deployment of a specific coping strategy but parallel
strategies were also evident. For example, K used an assertive, even confrontational form of
coping, in venting about workload in the roles of practitioner and team leader, but also used escape
coping through higher levels of alcohol consumption, thereby undermining the self-esteem aspectof personal identity. In the context of restructuring and possible redundancy, the role of support
could help participants cope by reinforcing their identities. In this regard, N and V revealed theself-authenticity element of personal identity by showing concern for the wellbeing of others, bothcolleagues and subordinates. While this support may have bolstered the identity of the others, it
had the simultaneous impact of helping the participants cope with their own stress bystrengthening their identities.
Stories of identity through phases of organisational change
The power of the narrative approach lies in its potential to tell a coherent story of idiosyncratic
recollections of experience over time. The next section, therefore, features the stories of threeparticipants, providing rich, in-depth accounts that reveal how identity is constituted andreconstituted before, during and after stressful organisational change. D’s story focuses on her
inadequacy as a manager and colleague in alleviating the stress of others, illustrating the impact
of powerlessness on identity construction. O’s story highlights how cognitively reframing change
led to a sense of responsibility for her own emotional state and a strengthening of personal andprofessional identity. In the third story, FF presents a saga of stress over a long period of personaland organisational change. While the absence of organisational support was particularly stressful,the presence of social support, through the ethnic dimension of social identity, helped him cope.
D’s Story
Before change
As a senior clinical manager, D’s role subjected her to what she termed “normal, everyday
stressful things”, such as difficult staff and accountability for decisions. She coped with thispartially through peer supervision, maintaining that it was not “healthy to try and do the job
without it.” There had been changes at a local level of the DHB but rumours began to circulatethat a major organisational restructuring was taking place. What disturbed her were thedisempowering leadership styles of two members of the executive team (one replacing the other)
who had been instrumental in a series of restructurings.
The first one didn’t describe himself to us...he had an agenda which he didn’t sharewith us at all. The second one was very clear. I’m an iron fist in a velvet glove, so I’mreally clear about my expectations, what I want and I will come down on you hard ifyou don’t meet them.
The impact on D as a senior health professional and manager was profound. Lack of informationand consultation was taken as a sign of disrespect for her and her colleagues.
There was actually a plan, but they didn’t tell us that there was a plan and for me,that would be my first milestone in terms of being a stress factor. I think the DHB
employees mainly are fairly intelligent, clear-thinking people and…it’s very stressfulwhen you feel like people are treating you like you’re stupid and you know there’s
something going on but they won’t tell you.
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During change
D’s job was not directly affected by the restructuring but she was stressed by the pain experienced
by her colleagues and her inability to do much about it. Acknowledging a sense of “survivor
guilt”, what bothered her immensely was that she felt “helpless to be able to do anything about
what felt like a rollercoaster out of control for the people who were going through that.” During
the transition phase her identity was shaken by being unable to forestall or substantially mitigate
these effects. “I’m in a senior role where helplessness and powerlessness are not my usual lived
experience, so to suddenly find myself in that place was very uncomfortable and that wasstressful…and quite devastating.” She acknowledged that at times providing psychologicalsupport to colleagues and subordinates was beyond her capability and undermined her authenticity
and her identity as a caring manager and colleague.
It was quite challenging at times…to not swear at people and tell them to pull theirheads in and not be so self-serving and entitled, and be thankful they’ve got a job andjust get on with it...I’m trying to keep my face and my body language and my tone ina way that is engaged with this person, but it’s at some degree of dissonance withwhat’s actually going on for me...I like to be honest and transparent but for some time
there I could not do that.
D considered the support of her immediate superior to be unquestionable and of great comfort. In
addition, discussing matters with colleagues was very helpful. “Knowing that the other person isin the same place as you makes you feel less alone and isolated and all of those sorts of things, so
certainly peer support is really important.” To cope with her own stress she also continued toaccess valued professional supervision, a formal requirement in certain health-related disciplinesthat allows professionals to discuss work issues with another professional.
After change
D was painfully aware that further changes could take place at any time. The combination of lackof job security, lack of consultation and the perception that the organisation did not care for its
staff, had undermined her trust in the organisation and her affective commitment to it. The
dynamics of the restructuring had:made me question my psychological contract to the organisation and I think probably
damaged it to a point where some things have been lost. They’d already decided what
they were going to do before they put the document out. What we say won’t change
things.
She believed that the array of coping strategies she used were largely effective in bolstering her
compromised sense of wellbeing. Of particular help was the continued support from her manager,
colleagues, peer supervisor and also from some people outside the organisation.
O’s Story
Before change
Possessing a professional qualification, O was in a supervisory administrative role that provided
support to a section of the organisation. Her first source of stress was acclimatising to a neworganisation, followed by dealing with the conflicting demands of servicing two departments andproblematic staff matters. Advice from the human resources department helped her deal with these
relationship issues.
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During change
Prior to the centralisation of many of the administrative services in the DHB, staff were invited tomake submissions. O initially believed that consultation was genuine. “My team and I gave
feedback in good faith, thinking that because we worked in the area, some of our ideas may be
adopted for the good of the organisation.” However, as the lengthy process unspooled her
optimism vanished and was replaced with negative emotions. O’s role was disestablished and she
was unsuccessful in obtaining one of the new positions. She was given the choice of taking
redundancy or a contract role and opted for the latter. This impacted on her personal, role, socialand organisational identities.
The restructure went as what the proposed document stated. So in the end, you really
don’t know whether giving feedback is just a process that they had to follow…I felt
angry because I did put 110 percent into my job to make it successful. I felt out ofcontrol, which is really new because I’m the one that always makes the decision to
move, not someone to dump you. I felt sad as well. I felt betrayed…I’m used tochange because I migrated…to New Zealand…and I’ve always been in control of
the change. This is the first one that I’ve lost control.
She benefitted from the emotional support of her manager, who also coached her in applying for
new roles and in using interview techniques. However, O relied largely on her own psychologicalresources and remembered being:
Angry and helpless...but once you get past that then I think then I’m back in charge,
but in control. You can’t go and stay in a helpless state for long, otherwise I’m theperson that’s suffering from that. It’s recognising my emotion and getting on top of it.
After change
For O, matters worsened in the initial stages of the aftermath. Not only had she lost her managerialrole and permanent status, she had to move offices in a demeaning way.
I was asked to vacate the room that I used for two years...to go into an open plan
office. I was told not to attend group meetings because that’s no longer in my role. I
feel that I was packed to one side…that is the most emotional thing…it’s like being
discarded.
Over time she adapted to her new role and status and was confident of finding a professional roleelsewhere, but with a lingering sense of resentment, believing that she been “victimised”. In
response, she no longer put in the extra time she had done previously, took the odd day off whenstressed and reframed how she viewed her contract position. Her organisational identification
declined. “I joined the organisation because I admired its values, but the things that are going on
are not reflective of those published values anymore…For a health organisation it can be ruthless.”
FF’s Story
Before changeWith a professional clinical qualification, FF had graduated in time to a managerial role, catering
to an ethnic sector of the population. His initial stress centred on learning to deliver in a newenvironment but with a supervisor who “was a person of wonderful substance really, a person of
excellent credibility and very, very supportive. Otherwise I don’t think I could have made it.”72

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During change
Rumours of change in many sections of the DHB surfaced in FF’s network following a major
restructuring in the organisation. In time, the DHB transferred responsibility for some services forthis ethnic community to a department that dealt with funding a wide range of programmes andservices. As a result, some jobs in this department were disestablished, new ones were created andsome were left unchanged. While FF’s role did not change, he disliked both the process (“people
felt uninformed in terms of the restructuring”) and the outcome of the new system.
Because we are the Maori, we were Maori Health at that time and we had clear
understandings through consultation with our people in the community, about where
the needs were best met within those contracts. Planning and Funding had no idea
about that, they were never involved in it...So what I saw was the whole dismantling,
really, of Maori Health...it was a constant point of contention and discussion in theteam and it brought about a lot of stress in the team, it brought about a lot of worry,a lot of fear.
After change
For FF, the consequences of change were a growing workload, the lack of tangible andpsychological support to manage it, the marginalisation of the ethnic group of which he was amember and whose unit served it, and threats to the job security of its staff. The pressures on him
multiplied rapidly as the staffing resources in his team diminished. As part of the changes, a newsenior manager in Planning and Funding took over and made a number of key decisions without
consulting FF’s boss, who “in despair, resigned”. Losing a key source of support reinforced FF’s
own sense of dislocation and dismay at what he saw happening. His role expanded significantly
but his title and remuneration remained the same and he had to manage his responsibilities withminimal administrative staff. He reported, “I didn’t have the [administrative] skills to do it...I
asked for support, the budget was there to pay for it, but I wasn’t allowed to use the budget.” A
new manager to whom he was expected to report admitted to knowing nothing about Maori
Health. “I was left on my own and that’s where all those stresses came from.”
The consequences for FF were severe. He claimed, “I wish to God that I had never, ever takenthat job on. It was the most horrendous thing that’s ever happened to me in my life…It was an
absolute nightmare.” To cope he withdrew to the comfort of his community.
I went home, I went back to where my ancestors come from…I have a home up there
and it looks out over the sea…My ancestors, my mum, my brothers and all that are all
buried up there and I just felt some solace in going back there and rejuvenating myspirit.
He was scathing about the lack of support of the chief executives during this period.
With all their korero [discussion] around values and champions and this, that andeverything, [they] had a bloody cheek to talk about…how we should be supporting
each other…and they didn’t even look after their own managers; they couldn’t givea rat’s arse about us.
When asked if he had sought support from the organisation’s employee assistance programme hereplied:
They’ve always offered all that, yeah. But quite honestly, to a Maori, it doesn’t meana damn thing. We don’t need that. Because it’s our cultural needs, our spiritual needs
and our values, that these things the hospital don’t even recognise and have nounderstanding of those needs whatsoever. So we have a tendency to go to each other,73

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 56-82

or we go back to our families, or we go back to our turanga waiwai, to ourhomesteads…that’s where we get our assistance from.
In reviewing the long period of restructuring, including ongoing initiatives, he lamented:
What’s happening is Maori Health has found its services being shrunk, being
minimalised…If I was to compare Maori Health to every other service in thisorganisation, we would definitely be the poor cousins, in every way…I don’t think you
would find one Maori person that would say the DHB was honest, in terms of what it
was setting out to do, it was actually ripping apart Maori Health to achieve anotherend. I mean this is a process that’s done at a very high level, through mainstream
understanding that totally alienates Maori and we were never really truly involved.
Overwork, anger and marginalisation stoked his stress levels to dangerous levels, eventuating in
his hospitalisation. He was aware that he had not coped well with the prolonged stress of thevarious changes. Together with seeking social support, his escape-driven tactics allowed him some
respite until he chose to take another role in the organisation. His self-efficacy floundered as hestruggled without tangible support, and while his (ethnic) social identity was a solace, theperceived threat to this group undermined his organisational identity.

Discussion
Evidence from our study extends previous research into the undermining of identity and wellbeing
by stressful organisational change (Hakak, 2015; van den Heuvel et al., 2014), but also reveals
that participants who believed that they could cope with the stressful change maintained orenhanced a positive work-related identity. We first analyse the identity-related stressors, then thestrategies used to cope with them. While the comments in the tables isolate certain stressors andhow the participants coped, the three in-depth narratives point to the dynamic nature of the modelin Figure 1 and how various forms of identity are reconstructed as the change unfurls.
Change stressors and identity
Our findings indicate that issues from all four forms of identity (personal, role, social andorganisational) emerged from the interview data. Work life for many people is characterised by aplethora of issues, events and relationships, some of which can become particularly meaningful
for their identities. Events trigger what authors have referred to as identity construction (Alvesson,2010), identity work (“efforts to craft the self” (Conroy & O’Leary-Kelly, 2014: 69) or
identification (the aligning of self- and social identity) (Ashforth & Schinoff, 2016; Kreiner et al.,2006). The participants in our study spoke of stressors that appear in other empirical studies oforganisational change, such as increased workloads and role expectations that lower self-efficacy,of negative relationships that compromise social identity, and of poor leadership andcommunication practices that wreak havoc at the interface between personal and organisational
identity (Clarke et al., 2009; Riolli & Savicki, 2006; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001).
While it is unsurprising that negative emotions surface during stressful change, it is notable how
they infused the identities of participants in the current study. For example, O’s bitterness overbeing “betrayed” and “victimised” reveals the fractures caused by change to social andorganisational identity. D’s despondency over her inadequacy in alleviating the stress for her
subordinates and colleagues, despite her senior management position, undermined her managerial
74

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 56-82
identity and self-efficacy. Her “survivor guilt” further destabilised her social identity and selfauthenticity (which Burke and Stets, 2009, label as an element of personal identity). The
importance of FF’s ethnic identity, underscored by his occasional use of Maori language in theinterview, was reflected in his dismay at the impact he saw of organisational restructuring on
Maori staff and led to the loosening of his organisational identity. The part played by emotion in
the construction and destruction of identity has been emphasised by researchers (e.g. Ashforth &Schinoff, 2016; Cascón‐Pereira & Hallier, 2012, Kira & Balkin, 2014).
In traversing through change, the temporal nature of identity becomes salient. According to
Rothausen et al. (2017), trajectory is a sense of identity through the past, present and future. Ourinterviews tracked experience before, during and after an organisational change and clearly
revealed how lack of consultation, job insecurity and inadequate support led to a reframing ofidentity. D’s comment that “I’m in a senior role where helplessness and powerlessness is not myusual lived experience” is a particularly poignant reminder of the fragility of identity in fluidorganisational settings. Uncertainty is characteristic of liminal identity during transitions (Conroy& O’Leary-Kelly, 2014). It is heightened by a lack of perceived control (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001)
and a sense of loss (actual or impending), when individuals struggle to release the old (andpreferred) identity and assume a new one (Conroy & O’Leary, 2014; Kira & Balkin, 2014).
Coping with identity stressors through organisational change
Coping with stress involves confronting the stressor with a problem-focused (Folkman et al.,1986), action (Latack, 1986) or approach strategy (Moos & Holahan, 2003). These are generally
used when the individual believes that something can be done about a stressor (Folkman et al.,1986), such as influencing a change process or outcome (Fugate et al., 2008). The current study
showed how participants sought to achieve beneficial outcomes for themselves and others by
confronting those who undermined them, using their initiative, cobbling together coalitions or
asking for tangible support, such as the reduction in unmanageable workloads. Emotion-focused(Folkman et al., 1986), escape/symptom management (Latack, 1986) or avoidance strategies(Moos & Holahan, 2003) were used when the participants found it best to wait for events to unfold
or when they had little prospect of influencing them.
What emerged from our study is the complexity of coping strategies when identity is salient.
Firstly, role identity, according to Stets and Burke (2014), relates to expectations, and inorganisational settings, particularly those involving change, not completing new tasks or
achieving new goals or standards, lowers the self-efficacy component of self-esteem. Thus,
participants like K and FF, who were struggling with heavy workloads, laboured to meet new task
expectations, the former by trying to reduce her workload, the latter by trying (unsuccessfully) toacquire administrative support.
Dealing with new relationships, during and after restructuring, triggered negative social identity
issues for some participants, particularly when they were held accountable by colleagues for theirown redundancies or those of others. To cope, some used cognitive strategies, such as reframing
the conflict as not being personal but rather a manifestation of others negative emotions ordestructive personalities. Many mobilised social support from various quarters inside and outside
the organisation. Particularly relevant to many was collegial support, since it reinforces bonds
when group identity is threatened. When change occurs and stress radiates, colleagues within andacross departments and professions converse about their jobs in multiple forums. As Clarke et al.
(2009) argue in their empirical study, there are many competing discourses on which employees
75New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 56-82

can draw in redefining social identity. They may result in a reaffirming sense of the collective
experience, the “antagonistic” discourse of individual or group marginalisation and the often
discounted official discourse. However, some participants in the current study found that groupsessions could exacerbate rather than mitigate stress, and therefore avoided them.
Organisational identity is eroded when employees feel that they or their group are under-valuedby their organisations. Gioia (2008: 63) argues that, “Identity is about us as individuals – and asorganisation members – and it enquires into the deepest level of our sensemaking andunderstanding.” Remarks by participants O and N that the DHB was ruthless, and by FF that it
did not care for its Maori staff, are sober reminders of how stressful change may be detrimental
to organisational identity.
The fourth type of identity, personal identity, relates to self-conceptualised personality and values,
and is a foundation stone of self-esteem (Stets & Burke 2014). Thus change participants may not
only have to cope with the identity issues sewn up in new role expectations and social groups,
they also have to grapple with their own self-esteem, particularly low self-efficacy. In this vein,some participants did not want to be seen as being unable to cope with stress. For example,
although he was struggling with a heavy workload and his relocation to a hospital corridor, EE
remarked that he was uncomfortable with collegial support, because it revealed to others how
stressed he was, an image that undermined his self-esteem. The perceived stigma of stress canresult in silenced voices. Thunman and Persson (2015) report that this may dissuade individuals
from asking for support even when they need it. Harkness Long, Bermbach, Patterson, Jordan andKahn (2005: 128) found that, while many of their participants believed work stress was normal,
they strongly felt that “being unable to cope with stress was seen as abnormal, or unacceptable,
indicating the presence of a personal weakness or flaw.” Maladaptive coping strategies used in
the current study, such as over-reliance on alcohol or food, may have provided short-term relief,
but further frayed the edges of self-esteem. More positively, some participants gave considerable
support to others, leading to feelings of self-authenticity (Stets & Burke, 2014) and theopportunity, as Clarke et al. (2009: 323) claimed about their own participants, “to (re)-author theirselves as moral beings.”
Our study has shown that being able to cope with the identity challenges wrought by change, by
accepting or safely resisting it, is predicated on a sense of agency (Alvesson, 2010; Brown, 2015)that relies on a strong self-concept, within a social and organisational context of support,
indifference or opposition (Alvesson & Wilmott, 2002; Collinson, 2003). Since a key aspect of
the employment relationship is employee wellbeing (Lo & Lamm, 2005), our view on identity is
one lens though which the challenges of change can be more meaningfully negotiated.

Limitations and conclusions
First, our paper has explored the nexus between stressful organisational change, coping andidentity through exploring the experiences of 31 participants in one section of the New Zealandpublic healthcare system. Given the limited scope of our investigation, we are conscious of theneed for a range of studies in wider contexts. Second, we did not ask questions about identity;
therefore, a study specifically designed to investigate identity during stressful change may extend
the depth and breadth of responses. That said, a third limitation is that identity is a concept that
seldom enters the lexicon of workplace discourse and its tacit elements, as Carlsen (2016) notes,“challenge the receptive and analytical repertoire of researchers” (p. 107), in dealing with “that76New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 56-82

which may be deeply internalized, taken-for-granted, ineffable or otherwise beyond words” (p.
108). Scholarly interpretations of interview statements (or survey items), as indicative of certain
types of identity formulations, may be constructed in an entirely different way by the interviewees.
As Allard-Poesi and Hollet-Haudeber (2017) assert, the assumed insight and reflexivity of
research subjects must be questioned. Additionally, recall of experience is not necessarily accurate(Schreurs, van Emmerik, Günter, & Germeys, 2012) and the psychological wellbeing of anindividual at the time of the interview may influence the reconstruction of identity issues that
surfaced when the organisational changes took place.
Several key factors need further exploration. For example, how do different coping strategies
influence the different forms of identity and self-esteem? Coping with stress has seldom been
related to change self-efficacy and there is a difference between coping with stressful work issues
and coping with low self-esteem. Additionally, while the ability of people to regulate emotions
by hiding their stress has been considered as a helpful coping strategy, there is evidence, from ourstudy and others (e.g. Harkness et al., 2014; Lawrence & Callan, 2011), that for some employees
emotional regulation may add to work stress. Further research can elucidate whether escape or
avoidance strategies (Folkman et al., 1986; Latack, 1986; Moos & Holahan, 2003) are necessarily
counter-productive in terms of maintaining or repairing identity and explore which type ofstrategies are more likely to restore psychological equilibrium. Finally, given that people havemultiple identities (Burke & Stets, 2009; Ramarajan, 2014), the relationships between various
forms of identity, personal, role, social and organisational, need further exploration in the context
of stressful organisational change.
In organisational practice, the concept of identity may be abstract and arcane from the perspectiveof the average employee and manager. While the concepts of social and organisational identity
may penetrate discussions of teamwork, mergers and organisational culture, the elusive nature ofself-identity is not easily reducible to concrete terms in a possible call for greater understandingof its impact on organisational life – and organisational change.
In conclusion, we have contributed to the literatures on employment relations, organisationalchange, identity and stress by analysing the searing narratives of our participants. We have shownthat different forms of identity become salient at different stages of change and that those people
facing stressful change need to cope with new expectations, new relationships and threats to
identity. The relatively sparse focus on identity in the employment relations literature (e.g. Bluen& Edelstein, 1993; Harrison et al., 2013) opens the way for further research. As stressful change
is likely to be an ongoing feature of organisational life, the challenge for employers and union
officials is to take into account the complexities of identity to enhance the likelihood of coping
effectiveness and positive outcomes for employee wellbeing and commitment to change.

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The ‘Danish Models’ of labour market regulation and their status after
recent changes
HERMAN KNUDSEN* and JENS LIND**
Abstract
When New Zealand commentators lament the low productivity, high inequality, low wage
characteristics of the New Zealand labour market there are frequently pointed to the successful‘Danish Model’. These references seldom highlight that there is more than one ‘Danish Model’ of
labour market regulation and that these ‘models’ have changed over time. For several decades the’Danish Model’ of collective bargaining has been marketed as the cornerstone of Danish labour
market regulation in Denmark and since the late 1990s, Danish ‘flexicurity’ has been praised as an
ideal approach for both economic and labour market reasons. This article presents the main
characteristics of these ‘models’ and discusses the impact of recent developments that haveinfluenced key structures and institutions underpinning the ‘models’. The main conclusions are, first,
that the ‘collective bargaining model’ is still reasonable intact despite the fact that considerable
changes have taken place. Secondly, it is argued that the balance between flexibility and social
security in the ‘flexicurity model’ has changed so much in favour of flexibility that the model should
rather be termed flexinsecurity.
Keywords: labour market regulations, collective bargaining, ‘flexicurity’, union membership

Introduction
During the 1980s, one could hear Swedish industrial relations researchers speak proudly about the‘Swedish Model’ as a model that was beneficial to the Swedish economy as well as Swedish workers(Hedborg & Meidner, 1984; Elvander, 1988). Likewise, Esping-Andersen (1990) divided thesystems of welfare states into three ideal types, and he included all the Nordic countries (and a few
others) into what he termed ‘universalist’ systems where market forces and competition were mostmodified. However, as the Swedish employers’ confederation sought changes to employment
relations from late 1980s and the Swedish economy started to experience growth problems in the
1990s, then the ‘Danish Model’ was promoted by Danish researchers: “The Swedish model seems to
be dismantled during these years, whilst the Danish model continues to exist” (Due, Madsen &Jensen, 1993: 14, our translation). In particular, the bipartite collaboration of Danish employer
associations and trade unions – with its historical roots in the ‘Great Compromise’(Septemberforliget) in 1899 – and the web of collective bargaining agreements were seen as both
flexible and efficient.
However, Denmark has increasingly become renowned for its so-called ‘flexicurity’ model(Rasmussen, Foster & Farr, 2016). The content of the flexicurity model goes beyond the bargaining
model. As explained below, it comprises a combination of elements from the collective bargaining***

Herman Knudsen: hk@plan.aau.dk , Aalborg University, Denmark
Jens Lind: jlind@socsci.aau.dk, Aalborg University, Denmark83

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
model as well as employment and welfare policies (Bredgaard, Larsen & Madsen, 2007). Both‘models’ are based on more or less explicit aspirations that they can function in ways that serve all
involved parties well: employers, employees and society. They are also often subsumed under thenotion of the ‘Danish Model’ though they are very different and have experienced different
challenges in recent years. We seek, therefore, to highlight the differences between the two ‘models’and their changes over time. We also want to investigate whether it still makes sense to talk about
these models as Danish employment relations has been strongly influenced by neo-liberal ideas oflabour market regulation (Standing, 1999).
In the first part of the article we offer brief presentations of the respective ‘models’, based mainly on
descriptions from the Danish employment relations literature. In the article’s second part, we addresssome of the key trends that have influenced the ‘models’ in recent decades. We focus on: 1)
regulatory initiatives from the European Union (EU), 2) decentralisation of the system of collective
bargaining, 3) weakening of trade union density, 4) weakening of the system of unemployment
insurance, and 5) changes in employment policies. In the final part, we try to evaluate whether it isstill meaningful to talk about these ‘models’ in light of their ongoing changes and whether the two‘models’ are still dominating Danish employment relations.

The Danish models
In this first main section the two Danish models are presented in ideal-typical form. What are theirmain characteristics?
The bargaining model
In the bargaining model the emphasis is on the great importance of collective bargaining in
regulating Danish employment relations. Key features include (Due et al., 1993; Jensen, 2007;
Kristiansen, 2014):
-

-

-

-

The employer organisations and trade unions themselves determine the rules regulatingcollective bargaining.
Various forms of collective agreements dominate labour market regulation. Some issues
which, in other countries, are typically regulated through legislation – for instance minimum
pay and employment security – are exclusively, or mainly, regulated by collective agreements
in Denmark. On the whole, legislation plays a limited role and the laws regulating the Labour
Court and the Arbitration Council are framed in ways that mainly serve to support theautonomous regulation undertaken jointly by employer organisations and trade unions.
For many decades, there has been a high degree of consensus between trade unions, employer
organisations and the main political parties that the state should intervene as little as possible
through legislation. In areas where there actually is legislation, such as occupational healthand safety, the labour market parties have had the opportunity to strongly influence the aim
and content of the legislation.
The strong element of bipartite regulation is supported by relatively high membership rates
for trade unions as well as employer organisations. Furthermore, the parties have traditionallybeen strengthened by the fact that employer organisations and trade unions have not been
divided on religious or political grounds. As will be seen below, recent years have seen
increased divisions on the trade union side.
The bargaining model also includes collective agreements that regulate the role of shop
stewards and their rights vis-a-vis management as well as a system of cooperationcommittees that stretches from workplace to company group level. Cooperation is seen byboth parties as important for the fulfillment of employer and worker interests alike.
84

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98-

The right to strike and lock-out is shaped in ways that support the bargaining system. There isa peace obligation as long as a collective agreement is in force, and strikes and lock-outs canonly be applied when agreements are being renewed or in connection with attempts toachieve collective agreements in areas not hitherto covered. It is the right to strike and thereadiness of trade unions to use this weapon that ultimately guarantees a certain balance inthe model between employers and trade unions.

The bargaining model can be traced back to the so-called September compromise from 1899 whichmarked the end of a long and bitter confrontation between unions and employers. Over the years
trust and respect between the parties have built up to an extent that the bargaining model can be said
to be anchored to a joint ideology (Dunlop, 1958; Galenson, 1952). Both sides believe that this wayof regulating labour market and working life is better than, for instance, a system based on detailed
legislation or one that leaves it up to the employers to unilaterally determine the rules of the game. A
recent example of this attitude was expressed by the Minister of Employment (a former president of
the Employers’ Confederation) in an interview about proposed tripartite negotiations: “If we are notable to reach a joint agreement, the Danish model will collapse over time. Then public regulation
will take over. One of my goals is to prevent that” (Arnfred, 2015, our translation).
Industrial conflicts have been steadily decreasing during the past 10-15 years, but compared tocountries like Sweden and Norway the industrial conflicts in Denmark are relatively frequent andcomprehensive, and compared to most other European countries Denmark can be put in a middle ormixed group (Vandaele, 2016).
The public sector is not free of industrial conflicts and violation of collective bargaining rights. A
recent example is from 2013, when a 25 day long conflict broke out between the teachers’ union andtheir public sector employers, and the conflict ended up with Government intervention. The
Government had just introduced a reform of the primary school which, among other things, included
longer teaching hours for teachers. To avoid spending more money – on employing more teachers –the bargaining part on the employer side demanded the abandoning of a working time agreementfrom 2008, which stipulated working standards for teachers during a standard working week. It was
clearly the intention to save money and, thus, finance the Government’s education reform. It has
been suggested that the Government may have pre-planned the break-down in negotiations and thesubsequent intervention (Klarskov & Svane, 2017). If that is the case, it constitutes a clear breach of
traditional collective bargaining processes and principles of good faith negotiations.
Another lesson from this conflict is that fragmented bargaining patterns are troublesome forindividual unions. In 2013, the teachers’ union stood alone, but trade unions in the municipality
sector have declared, in 2017, that they will support the teachers’ union in the upcoming bargaining
round to ensure genuine collective bargaining and re-establish the lost working time agreement. This
early declaration of intent from the municipality sector unions is a clear demonstration of theimportance they attribute to upholding traditional bargaining processes.
The ‘flexicurity model’‘Flexicurity’ is a concept that obtained much attention among European Union (EU) policy makers
since the late 1990s. Flexicurity has been advocated as an instrument that can further the goals of
economic growth and employment growth in an integrated way. The concept connects two concepts,
namely ’flexibility’ and ’security’, and suggests a situation of conditions where companies canemploy, deploy and dismiss employees in accordance to their organisational needs (the flexibility
85

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
element) and where workers are guaranteed a decent living standard in case of unemployment aswell as training that may help them get into a new job (the security part). ‘Flexicurity’ fitted well into
the EU aim of creating a Europe which, at the same time, has an efficient economy and a social
model that guarantees citizens and workers a degree of social security and participation, thus,
securing a certain balance between financial and social goals and between employer and employee
interests.
As researchers began to study different national systems of employment regulation from a flexicurity
perspective, they found Denmark to be close to the ideal ‘flexicurity’ system (Auer, 2000;
Ganssmann, 2000), with both flexibility for the companies and a certain level of security for workers.
Delegations from the EU and individual EU member states went to Denmark to study the ‘model’,and many employment researchers, politicians and people from the ’social partners’ praised theDanish flexicurity model (Beskæftigelsesministeriet, 2005; Bredgaard et al., 2007).
In brief, the Danish flexicurity model can be said to consist of the bargaining model plus something
more, namely employment policies in the form of social security and public initiatives aimed attraining and retraining the labour force and activating the unemployed. The following features arecentral to the Danish flexicurity model. Firstly, the bargaining model is shaped in a way that grantscompanies a relatively high degree of flexibility in relation to how they can utilise labour power.
Numerical flexibility (personnel turnover) can be high as collective agreements do not contain strong
protections against dismissal: notice periods are short and redundancy payment is almost nonexisting. Thus, employers can employ workers without risking high expenses if these workers arelater to be dismissed. Temporary flexibility (flexible working time) is allowed according to thesector-level collective agreements that generally stipulate that it is possible to make agreements at
workplace level regarding flexible working hours and variations in the length of the working week.
And functional flexibility (flexibility in the work situation itself) can be achieved because unions are
generally positive towards doing away with, or at least softening, traditional barriers between
occupations and jobs as part of workplace collaborations in works councils and at management level.
Secondly, government policies also contribute to flexibility. In particular, this occurs throughextensive training and employment policies which lead to an ongoing up-skilling and re-skilling ofworkers, often in collaboration with employers and unions and in line with the staffing needs
expressed by companies and employer associations. These active labour market policies provide
services to the unemployed so that they are better equipped to get into new jobs, and services tocompanies so that they can continuously change their mix of employment as new job needs appear.
Thirdly, the welfare state compensates for problems that are often created by the bargaining modeland having a highly fluid labour market. The low level of protection against dismissal found in thebargaining model is, to some extent, compensated by the legislation on unemployment benefit, anearly retirement scheme, etc. Compared to most other countries, Danish legislation has traditionallysecured the unemployed a relatively high and secure income. At the same time, employment policies
provide help to job seekers. In other words, the low level of job security in the Danish system iscompensated by relatively high degrees of employment security and economic security (see Standing(1999) who distinguishes between a number of different forms of (in)security in relation to workinglife).
In total, the Danish flexicurity model means that companies have a high degree of flexibility –primarily due to features inherent in the bargaining model, but also due to large social security andvocational training and education expenditures. At the same time, workers enjoy a relatively highdegree of socio-economic security. The model grants considerable autonomy to employers, workers
86New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
and their respective organisations, while it is the state and the taxpayers that pay for the services
provided. Where the ‘bargaining model’ is at its core, a bipartite model, the ‘flexicurity model’, inessence is a tripartite model. The state is an important actor, not least in financing the costs of thepolicies that underpin flexibility, whereas the labour market parties enjoy great influence on theshaping and administration of the rules that regulate working life. The main features of the model are
shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The flexicurity modelHigh level of social compensation

Low job security

High flexibility
for companies

Training and upskilling of thelabour force

Active labour market policies;
activation of unemployed

In the next section, we will focus on the question whether the ‘models’ are still, today, how they
have been described in the literature.

Changes affecting the Danish ‘models’Following many years of neo-liberal criticism of generous welfare systems and state interventions in
employment relations, frequent doubt as to whether the ‘Danish Models’ could survive or lose theireffectiveness has been raised (Borchost , Caraker, & Jørgensen, 2012; Due & Madsen, 2006;
Knudsen & Lind, 2012). In the coming sections, we will deal with certain key developments thathave challenged the ‘Danish Models’ over the last two decades. It will be shown that there have been
considerable changes and this makes it necessary to ask: are the ‘models’ still there and are they still
relevant?
We shall here deal with four recent developments, namely: first: the effects of EU membership and
EU regulation; second: decentralisation of collective bargaining; third: declining trade union
membership; and fourth: the cuts in unemployment benefits and the declining ambitions of
employment policies. These are all developments that have changed the nature of exchanges taking
place between the parties within the ‘models’ as well as having had repercussions on the balance ofpower associated with the ‘models’.

87New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
The effects of EU membership and EU regulation
In the Danish debate, initiatives taken by the EU have often been regarded as threats to the Danishbargaining model (see Due, Madsen, & Lubanski, 2000). The ‘single market’ introduced by The
Single European Act in 1987 was supplemented by political and economic reforms during the 1990s,
where a number of EU Directives targeted employment relations (Keller & Platzer, 2003). The
Directives prescribed common market regulation so that the free movement of capital and labour wasstrengthened. In addition, the Directives attempted to reduce existing national differences in socialand employment protection (Hoffmann, Jacobi, Keller, & Weiss, 2003). Although many trade unions
and some employer organisations were originally sceptical regarding the market ideals of the EU, apositive development in employment and wages took place from the mid-1990s till the outbreak of
the crisis in 2008. It also turned out that fears about the ‘Danish Models’ were exaggerated. Overall,the EU Directives have yet to reduce employment standards in the Danish labour market and thecollective bargaining system has maintained – despite more legislation – its key importance in theregulation of the Danish labour market. However, there have been several important changes as
outlined below.
Directives on working time have had significant impact. The Working Time Directive (93/104/EC;
now 2003/88/EC) and the Directive on Part-time Work (1997/81/EC) (based on an agreement signed
by employer organisations and unions at the European level) have had to be implemented. An
attempt by the Danish government, strongly supported by trade unions and employer organisations,to implement these directives through collective agreements, was rejected by the European
Commission, as it could not ensure that all Danish employees would be covered. On that basis, theDanish Government backed down and implemented the regulations (Knudsen & Lind, 2012). The
Posted Workers Directive (96/71/EC) and The Service Directive (2006/123/EC) have also influenced
the trade unions’ ability to take industrial action in pursuit of a collective agreement; a central featureof the Danish collective bargaining model.
A more serious challenge to the Danish collective bargaining model are European Court rulings. A
2006 decision on the freedom to organise was the decisive farewell to closed shops in Denmark(Applications 52562/99 and 52620/99, European Court of Human Rights). While many trade unions
saw the ruling as a heavy blow to the ‘Danish Model’ it was estimated that only 200,000 workers
were covered by closed shop agreements in 2006. In the European Court of Justice, the Laval case(C-341/05) from 2007 and the related Viking (C-438/05) and Rüffert (C-346/06) cases have hadserious implications (Bücker & Warneck, 2010). At the core of the Laval case was the question
whether unions in a host country could take industrial action seeking to force an employer employing
workers from a different EU member state to sign a collective agreement. The Court demanded thatcompanies should be able to know the expected wage level in an area but this can be difficult in
Denmark where there is no minimum wage if there is no collective agreement. To deal with thisuncertainty, legislation was passed in Denmark in 2008, where industrial action was legal provided
that the foreign employer was informed about the normal level of pay.
It is still too early to evaluate whether the 2008 legislation has solved the issue but, subsequently,
there is a growing tendency that foreign companies employ non-Danish workers and theiremployment arrangements are outside the framework of the Danish collective bargaining model(Hansen & Hansen, 2009). However, the Danish trade unions had a major victory against thenotorious anti-union airline Ryanair in 2015. The Danish Labour Court ruled that Danish unions
were entitled to take industrial action to seek a collective agreement when Ryanair established hubsin Copenhagen and Billund airports. Ryanair reacted to the decision by moving the hubs to airports
in neighbouring countries (Sinander, 2015).
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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98

The relatively few reports available on wages and working conditions among migrant workers showthat the biggest differences between Danish and migrant workers can be found in foreign companies
with posted workers. In general, the migrant workers are paid less than the Danish workers, theirworking environment is poorer, they work longer hours, the intensity of work is higher and often
their living conditions are poor. Further, their union membership rate and collective agreement
coverage are much lower (Arnholtz & Hansen, 2011; Hansen & Hansen, 2009; Pedersen &Thomsen, 2011). The proportion of foreign workers was estimated to be about five per cent of thetotal labour force in 2013, but has increased significantly over the last decade (Schytz Juul, 2013).
Outside a few statutory minima, it is the trade unions’ major role to curtail any undermining or
violations of collectively agreed norms. However, they are faced with two problems. First, union
density has declined slightly in recent years (see Table 1) and collective bargaining coverage has
been reduced. Still, even a 100 per cent coverage of collective agreements would not solve theproblem entirely. Most national collective agreements contain some very flexible elements – notleast regarding wages. Some agreements for white-collar workers have no stipulations about wage
level at all, and for most workers, pay is negotiated at the individual plant. Second, the unions areagainst legislation being introduced as a solution (Dølvik, 2016; LO, 2011). Thus, there is no support
for introducing a statutory minimum wage, though this could be an effective measure to counter
treats of cheap foreign labour undercutting Danish wage norms.
So, has the Danish membership of the European Union tended to undermine the Danish collective
bargaining model? To some extent, yes. The free movement of labour and the increased competition
for jobs in the single European market, as well as problematic pieces of regulation, such as the Lavalruling, has made it more difficult to keep everybody under the umbrella of the collective bargaining
model. However, at the same time, the Danish collective bargaining model has appeared rather
robust so far and collective bargaining is still norm-setting for most employees working in Denmark.
Decentralisation of collective bargaining
The decentralisation of Danish collective bargaining started in the early 1980s when individual
unions and bargaining cartels took over negotiations from the main union confederation, the LO. A
similar change took place on the employer side where the member organisations of the employers’
main organisation, the DA, conducted the negotiations. Comprehensive organisational changes in the
DA during the early 1990s completed these ‘decentralised’ bargaining structures, and since then,there have been four or five industry agreements in the private sector. The bargaining system in the
public sector is divided into three areas: state, regions, and municipalities, with cartels composed ofseveral unions representing the employee side.
Apart from a few company level agreements (mainly in companies that were not members of
employer associations), the existing bargaining structure is still based on national coverage but
bargaining has been moved from the level of main confederations to individual employer
associations or unions (or often a union cartel). A more radical change in the direction ofdecentralisation started in the early 1990s when wage setting increasingly moved towards theindividual workplace. This flexible system now covers around 85 per cent of the agreements withnational level wage setting only stipulating minimum wages and wage levels are then supplemented
with pay increases negotiated at workplace level.
In the public sector, decentralisation of wage setting was introduced in the late 1980s with the socalled ’local wage’ system and further expanded by individualised pay rises in the so-called ‘new89New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
wage’ agreement in 1998. After a decade of significant scepticism among public sector employees
and their unions, these decentralised and individualised wage systems have become the norm andhave increased wage differences among public sector employees.
There is no doubt that the decentralisation of wage setting has been a significant tendency during thepast 20-25 years, but it is also evident that this decentralisation has not been implemented in a way
where wage setting is completely individualised and only decided at the workplace level. This is due
to opposition amongst trade unions as well as employer associations since employer associations areinterested in controlling the general level of wage rises in order to keep Danish employers
internationally competitive. Thus, the present system has been termed ‘centralised decentralisation’(Due & Madsen, 2006) or ‘coherent fragmentation’ (Lind, 2004) to describe that it is an exaggeration
to label collective bargaining in Denmark as being decentralised. Compared to many other OECD
countries, national collective bargaining is still norm-setting, and employer association and tradeunions continue to have considerable influence on workplace negotiations.
Decentralisation of negotiations and workplace wage bargaining have changed the balance of powerin favour of employers, particularly since industrial action cannot be taken in respect of workplacenegotiations (Kristiansen, 2014). It has yet to change the bipartite character of the collective
bargaining model since trade unions still play an important role, in national as well as local
bargaining (including avoiding reduction in employment conditions in nearly all agreements). Whileit has increased the flexibility side of the ‘flexicurity model’, it has decreased the lack of income
security experienced by many workers and created more wage differences across similar types ofjobs.

Decreasing membership of trade unions
A key feature of the collective bargaining model is the high trade union density. In the literature, thehigh union membership rate in Denmark has often been linked to, if not explained by, the importantrole of the bargaining system (see Due et al., 1993). Undoubtedly, the bargaining system plays a role,
but there is strong evidence that suggests that an even more important factor is the close connection
between trade unions and unemployment benefit funds. In Denmark, the so-called Ghent system wasintroduced at an early stage (1907). In this system, unemployment insurance is administered by theunions, which means that unions and unemployment funds historically have been seen by workers as
one and the same thing (Lind, 2009). The unemployment funds are in charge of key elements ofsocial security, notably unemployment benefits and the early retirement scheme (in force since thelate 1970s). Relatively few countries have systems that are comparable to the Danish system, Finlandand Sweden (at least until recently) being the most important ones and, indeed, with affiliation rates
similar to the Danish ones.
Unlike in many other western countries where union density fell from the 1980s and more or less hasdone so ever since, the union affiliation rate actually increased in Denmark until the millennium turn.
Since then, especially the unions associated in the LO have experienced a significant loss ofmembers, cf. Table 1. The LO unions’ membership peaked in 1996.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
Table 1: Members of trade unions in Denmark (000s)
Year
Labour force*

1970
2027

1980
2384

1990
2669

1995
2648

2000
2659

2002
2672

2004
2656

2006
2667

2008
2723

2010
2704

2012
2591

2014
2594

LO

894

1250

1423

1510

1459

1433

1386

1339

1251

1201

1123

1050

FTF

156

277

325

332

350

356

359

363

359

358

353

346

-

-

71

75

80

76

76

74

76

83

91

95

-

70

103

132

150

161

165

166

174

137

142

203

111

197

130

114

123

125

140

172

202

271

344

290

1162
57

1794
75

2051
77

2163
81

2162
81

2151
81

2127
80

2114
79

2062
76

2050
76

2053
79

1984
76

LH (Organisation
Managerial Staff)
ACfor

Outside LO, FTF, LH,
AC
All trade unions
Per cent of labour force

Remarks: *self-employed not included. Note: Danmarks Frie Fagforeninger (The Free Trade Union in Denmark) not
included. Engineers left the AC in 2009 and joined again in 2014 (43,000 members in 2009).
Source: Danmarks Statistik

Table 2: The confederations’ share of total membership (per cent)
LO

1970
77

1980
70

1990
69

1995
70

2000
68

2002
66

2004
65

2006
63

2008
61

2010
59

2012
54

2014
53

FTF

13

15

16

15

16

17

17

17

17

17

17

18

-

-

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

-

4

5

6

7

7

8

8

8

7

7

10

10

11

6

5

5

6

6

8

10

13

18

16

LH (Organisation
managerial staff)
ACfor

Outside LO, FTF, LH,
AC

Source: Own calculations. See remarks to Table 1 regarding Engineers’ union.

The LO, which is the confederation of unions organising the traditional working class, has lost
terrain relatively as well as absolutely. Among the two other traditional confederations, the FTF(salaried employees) has experienced stagnation whereas the AC (employees with a higher
education) has increased its membership figures, and also now has a stronger relative position. Thisappears very clearly after the engineers re-joined the AC in 2014. What is the most conspicuouschange, however, is the relatively strong growth of unions that stand outside the threeconfederations. Most of the unions in this category are so-called yellow unions (although the Union
of Engineers was also included from 2009 to 2014 (in Table 2 in 2010 and 2012). Exactly thisdevelopment must be interpreted as a weakening of the Danish model.
The LO is still by far the most important main organisation, but it has lost more than 400,000
members since the mid-1990s, and the day where the LO will represent less than 50 per cent oforganised labour in Denmark is getting close. The LO’s membership loss is partly due to changing
occupational structures. Fewer people are employed in the industries and trades that typically arebasis for LO member unions. Changing occupational structures (more people with higher education)
are also the main explanation for the growth among AC-unions.

91New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
As noted above, the most remarkable change is an increase in organisations outside the mainorganisations (LO, FTF and AC). Among these organisations, the Christian Trade Union (Kristelig
Fagforening) has existed for many decades, whereas others are relatively new on the scene,including a number of organisations organised under an umbrella termed the Professional House(Det Faglige Hus). Since 2002, these ‘yellow’ unions have got close to 150,000 new members – or‘customers’ as they call their members. Some of the new members choose these unions for
ideological reasons (political, religious), but the main reason is probably financial, since membershipfees are relatively low, compared to traditional trade unions. The ‘yellow’ unions are able to provide
certain services, mainly legal assistance, to their individual members. However, they are clearly lesspowerful than the traditional unions and have only, on rare occasions, managed to be parties to acollective agreement at workplace level. Neither the traditional trade unions grouped in the LO, FTF
and AC nor the employer organisations recognise the alternative unions as part of the ‘Danish
Model’. Still, they constitute a rapidly growing element among Danish union members. They can beseen as the system’s ‘free riders’, as they often enjoy the same pay and working conditions as thoseof their colleagues who are members of the ‘real’ unions, those that fight for and sign the collective
agreements. There is a limit to how long the Danish collective bargaining model can continue as if
nothing has happened, if the growth of ‘yellow’ unions continues at the expense of the traditional
unions.
Part of the explanation of the decreasing affiliation to the traditional unions, and to falling union
membership more generally, must be found in developments in the unemployment insurance system.
Membership of unemployment funds remained relatively stable at around 2.2 million members till
the end of the 1990s but, from 2000 to 2008, unemployment funds lost 120,000 members. After the
beginning of the crisis in 2008, the decline was more moderate until 2013, when it accelerated again
due to a severe tightening of eligibility (see below). We will now turn to this issue: the politicalregulation of unemployment and its relationship to the Danish models.
The decline of the unemployment insurance system
As mentioned earlier, the special construction of the unemployment insurance in Denmark (andSweden and Finland), the Ghent system, is of great importance to trade union membership rates(Lind, 2009). If membership of the unemployment insurance system is made less attractive – as has
been the case during the past decades – fewer people will join the insurance system and most likely
also the unions.
During the 1960s and 1970s, major reforms of employment policies changed the unemployment
insurance system in two important aspects. Firstly, unemployment benefits were raised to 90 per centof former wages (with a general maximum of 90 per cent of average pay) which meant that low paid
workers were compensated by 90 per cent of former wages while higher paid workers had a lower
compensation rate. The average compensation rate was, however, around 80 per cent during the1970s. Secondly, the state financed extra expenses in periods with high unemployment rates (viageneral taxation) and membership dues contributed less and only financed about 10 per cent of total
expenditures. During the 1970s, the coverage of the unemployment insurance system was expanded
and came to include more and more groups in the labour market: self-employed, soldiers, part-time
employees, and newcomers to the labour market, such as apprentices and students finishing theireducation. Furthermore, the access to unemployment benefits was widened by longer periods ofentitlement and weaker demands and controls on the unemployed.
The more generous approach to unemployment benefits was reversed from the late 1970s onwards.
The first access limits were introduced in 1979 and since then, the unemployment insurance has been
92

New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
made less attractive by numerous cuts and measures aimed at controlling the availability of
unemployed to take up vacant jobs. The period for claiming benefits was, in principle, without limits
in the early 1980s but has since been reduced several times. In the last change taking effect from2013, the period to claim unemployment benefits was reduced from four years to two years. From
January 2013 to July 2015, 60,000 persons lost their unemployment benefits because of theserestrictions in eligibility (AK-Samvirke, 2015). Furthermore, since 1982, the level of unemployment
benefits have failed to match wage increases and inflation with the result being that the averagecompensation rate has dropped from around 80 per cent in the late 1970s to approximately 50 per
cent in the current decade (LO 2006; Det Økonomiske Råd, 2014). Figure 2 shows the decline of thecompensation rate for skilled male workers and unskilled female workers.

Figure 2: Compensation rate of unemployment benefits forskilled male workers and unskilled female workers. 1979-2015.
95

Unskilled female workers

Skilled male workers

Compensation rate

90
85
80
75
70
65

60
55

50

Source: CASA: Social Årsrapport, 2015
Structurally, the traditionally close ties between unions and unemployment funds were weakened bychanges introduced shortly after a right-wing government took power in 2001. The conditions thatlinked unemployment insurance to specific trades, occupations or segments of the labour market
were liberalised so that ‘cross-occupational’ funds were allowed. This made it possible for the socalled ‘yellow’ unions (all of which are open to workers from all sectors and occupations) to set up
unemployment insurance schemes and, thus, make the package they can offer to members more
attractive.
Employment policies in Denmark were, for a few decades, characterised by the so-called ‘active
labour market policy’. It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s on the basis of mainly Swedish ideas(the so-called Rehn-Meidner model; see Hedborg & Meidner, 1984) and was never quite as
ambitious in Denmark as in Sweden. It was designed to support general economic policies tostrengthen economic growth, combat unemployment and inflation and secure an acceptable level ofsocial justice (redistributive policies). In theory, qualification and geographical imbalances between
various segments in the labour market could be reduced by training unemployed people in one
segment to qualify them for another segment where demand exceeded supply of labour (andtherefore might cause inflation). Or, in case of unemployment in one geographical area, workers
would be financially supported to move or commute to an area with excess demand.

93New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
Since a labour market reform in 1993, activation of the unemployed has been a main pivot for‘active labour market policies’, thus shifting the focus from the demand to the supply side. The
rationale of activation measures have increasingly become to discipline the unemployed, so that they
are prepared to accept whatever vacant job there might be (Møller, Lind, & Hansen, 2008). In
general, the tendencies in unemployment policy during the last 10-15 years have been: a) to reduce
the access to unemployment benefits, b) increase activation (job offers, subsidised jobs, shorttraining periods) and c) reduce temporary or permanent withdrawal from the labour market (byabolishing the leave schemes introduced in 1990s, abolishing the early retirement scheme for people
between 50-60 years, and making the early retirement scheme (originally for unemployment fundmembers between 60 and 67) much less attractive). These changes have been introduced with
explicit reference to structural problems and ‘bottlenecks’ in the labour market and the fear of nothaving the sufficient amount of labour to secure the welfare state in future. Welfare cuts have been
legitimised by the necessity to save the welfare state!

Source: Danmarks Statistik, Statistikbanken.
As can be seen from the figure above, the combined effect of the neo-liberal policies since the 1980s– one of them being the cuts in unemployment benefits – has resulted in increasing inequalities inDenmark. The disposable income in the lowest decile has increased by around 50,000 Danish
Kroners, the middle decile has increased by 100,000 and the highest decile has increased fromaround 200,000 to 600,000. The increasing inequality is the cost of a strengthening of market forces
and competition combined with a less ambitious welfare policy. While Danish income inequality is
still considerably less than that found in most other OECD countries, the trend has clearly been in
one direction and there are now concerns whether this growth in income inequality will be continue
in the future.
With the cutbacks in unemployment insurance and the deployment of activation policies as adisciplining – and not qualificational – measure for the workers, employment policies have changed
94New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
profoundly since the 1970s. The main intention is no longer to compensate workers who have losttheir job, but to strengthen the incentives for them to seek a new job, thereby increasing competitionin the labour market with the aim of keeping down wage levels. Until the early 1980s, the generalinterpretation and political understanding of unemployment was that unemployment was due to themalfunction of society. Since then the conviction has spread that unemployment is caused by theindividuals themselves. Accordingly, social security provisions shall not compensate for
malfunctions of the system, but must be sufficiently low to ensure that the incentives of theindividual to take a job are improved. Labour market flexibility is, hence, no longer achieved throughsocial security based upon relatively high unemployment benefits and opportunities for training andeducation for the next job, but rather flexibility is based upon fear of unemployment and poverty. As
a consequence, the Danish type of flexibility is moving away from the ‘flexicurity model’ and isgetting closer to the Anglo-American model; that is, flexibility is predominantly based on employer
prerogatives and being less influenced by trade unions and social welfare benefit levels provide a‘real incentive’ to take on available jobs and their employment conditions.

Conclusion
The ‘Danish Model’ of employment relations is renowned amongst OECD countries. However, as
shown, there are two ‘Danish Models’ and these models have faced considerable challenges andchanges over time. The changing context and patterns of Danish employment relations – weakeningof trade unions, decentralisation of collective bargaining, increased competition in the EU single
market, a much less generous system of unemployment insurance and lower ambitions in
employment policies – are important challenges. The challenges have had a negative impact on thecollective bargaining model where slightly lower union density and the rise in ‘yellow’ unions areclear danger signals. There have also been power balance changes within mainstream union
confederations.
The Danish collective bargaining model is still there. However, its core has changed from a model
where two parties with distinct interests communicated continuously with each other and now-andthen agreed to make compromises, to a model in which both sides still communicate with each otherbut where the gains accruing to labour have become less and less visible. While the ‘centralised
decentralisation’ of collective bargaining has shifted employer-union power balances this article hasargued that decentralised bargaining patterns have had a more significant impact on the ‘flexicurity
model’.
Still, most international union movements can only look in envy on the Danish union density figures
and these density figures indicate a considerable resilience of the collective bargaining model. This isalso a necessity since there is a very limited legislative safety net for employees outside the coverageof collective bargaining. The trade unions’ adversity to support a comprehensive safety net for all
employees has been raised in international analyses (eg. Dølvik, 2016) but this adversity provides astrong incentive to join unions and it also aligns with employer animosity towards ‘unnecessary’legislation. Likewise, the public sector unions’ joint stance in support of genuine collective
bargaining for school teachers in 2017 is another indication that collective bargaining rights are seenby the unions as being of vital importance for the survival of the collective bargaining model.
However, the ‘flexicurity model’ has coped less well with the contextual and political changes.
Wages and working conditions are increasingly affected by market forces and less by organised
labour. This is partly associated with a less effective collective bargaining coverage and partly with amore globalised and fragmented labour market. In light of the fall-out from the Great Financial
95New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 83-98
Crisis, the Government has been an active supporter of any development supposed to improve
competitiveness for Danish products and services. This has included cuts to welfare state provisions,vocational education and training and employment-supporting mobility measures. These cuts haveoften been advocated as necessary to save the financial foundation of the Danish welfare state.
Recent changes have undoubtedly increased employer-determined flexibility, but the rise in income
inequality indicates the wider negative impact across the workforce. With increase income
differences coupled with serious deteriorations in social security, particularly in the unemployment
benefit system, the security part of the equation has been reduced considerably. When the dominantelements of the ‘flexicurity’ employment policies are geared to achieving employer-determined
flexibility by fear and insecurity instead of social security networks, then we should rather talk of‘flexinsecurity’.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 99-105

The New Perils of Being Unsafe
NADIA DABEE*
Case Note: WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (NZ) Ltd
The recent decision of WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd was thefirst prosecution to be under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASWA) 2015. The case wasbrought in the Palmerston North District Court. The Court said that the sentencing principles
in Department of Labour v Hanham & Philp Contractors Ltd were still to be applied under the
HASWA 2015, but with higher corresponding bands to set the amount of the fines. However,in a significant departure from previous criminal cases under health and safety laws, the Court
indicated that, if the circumstances of the offending are egregious enough, it may be willing todisregard pecuniosity as a factor when setting the amount of the fine. Even if the consequenceof the fine spells the death of the business.

Introduction
Poor workplace safety has well-known associated costs: the cost of compensation; the loss ofamenity and diminished quality of life for the injured persons and their families, and the costof lowered productivity and high turnover (Department of Labour and the Accident
Compensation Corporation, 2002).
Enter the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASWA) 2015 and an open-minded view of on
deterrence by Large J, and the cost of poor workplace safety now includes the possibility ofbankruptcy through the imposition of a fine for breaching the duties in the HASWA 2015
(WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017]
NZDC 17395, at [51]-[55]).

Facts of the Case
A worker of Budget Plastics Ltd (“Budget”) was operating a plastic extrusion machine that had
been manufactured in and imported from China. He was feeding plastic pellets into the machine
when the bag containing the pellets got caught in the machinery and was dragged into themachine. The worker tripped on the bag and was also dragged into the machine. Anotherworker noticed the incident as it happened and pushed the emergency stop button. By then,unfortunately, the operator of the extrusion machine had lost four forefingers down to the wrist
and half of his index finger (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [6]-[10]).
Large J referred to the relevant safety codes on guarding machinery already in existence andthe factsheets and guidelines published by WorkSafe. The fact that the extrusion machine was
not guarded, that the minimum safety distance between the operator and the moving parts of*Nadia Dabee, is a Professional Teaching Fellow and PhD Candidate, Department of Commercial Law, Facultyof Business and Economics, University of Auckland

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 99-105
the machine was not maintained, and that the emergency stop button was not within reach of
the operator, all contributed to the accident. The list of sins does not end there. Budget did nothave systems for identifying hazards, did not have safe operating procedures for operating the
extrusion machine, and did not have proper training plans for operators.
The director of the company also had had little involvement of the safety issues in his company
until six weeks before the accident. Six weeks before the accident was when a safety audit of
the company had pointed several safety issues. The report following the audit had placedemphasis on the problems with the extrusions machine. The company was in the process ofimproving its safety processes when the accident occurred (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget
Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [11]-[15]).
WorkSafe charged the company under s 48 of the HASWA 2015. Section 48 says that it is anoffence for a person who has a duty under subpart 2 or 3 the HASWA 2015 to fail to comply
with that duty, and that failure exposes any individual to a risk of death or serious injury. A
fine for a PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking, here Budget is the PCBU) of
up to $1.5 million is possible. The judge found Budget guilty of failing to meet its primary dutyof care, under s 36 of the HASWA 2015, to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, thesafety of the injured operator (HASWA 2015, s 36; WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics(New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [2],[18]).

Sentencing Principles
Large J confirmed that the principles in Department of Labour v Hanham & Philp Contractors
Ltd (HC Christchurch CRI 2008-409-000002, 25 August 2008) were still applicable. Namelythat there were three steps to be followed. The first is to assess the amount of reparation, thesecond is to fix the amount of the fine, and the third is to make an “overall assessment of the
proportionality and appropriateness of the total imposition of reparation and the fine”.
Assessment of the Reparation
On the facts, the amount of reparation was fixed at $37,500 based on the precedents with similarfacts quoted by WorkSafe (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [25]-[26]).
Fixing the Amount of the Fine
The case of Hanham had set out “culpability bands” to set the amount of the fine. WorkSafe
proposed setting bands at levels almost tenfold to those under Hanham to reflect the higher
penalties under the HASWA 2015 (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand)
Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [27]-[30]).

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Culpability Band

Low culpability

Previous Band Boundaries New
Band
Boundaries
under the Health and Safety Proposed by WorkSafe underin Employment Act 1992
the Health and Safety at
Work Act 2015
A fine up to $50,000
A fine up to $500,000

Medium culpability

A fine between $50,000 and A fine between $500,000 and$100,000$1,000,000
High culpability
A fine between $100,000 and A fine between $1,000, 000 and$170,000$1, 500,000
Table 1: A comparison of the culpability bands under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992
and the bands proposed by WorkSafe under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

Budget argued that the starting point for the fine should be set at $200,000, based on Australianauthorities. The imposition of maximum penalties has been rejected in Australia. Large J
rejected the use of the Australian precedents in setting the amount of the fine. While Parliament
may have intended that the courts in New Zealand should be able to draw on Australianjurisprudence, the HASWA 2015 was not enacted with the intention of harmonising our lawswith Australia’s. Nor was it Parliament’s intention to model the HASWA 2015 on the Model
Work Health and Safety Act (Cth, Australia) 2011. Indeed, the HASWA 2015 had been
modified to suit the New Zealand context (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New
Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [31]-[33]).
One major difference between New Zealand and Australia is that New Zealand offers all
injured workers full compensation under the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
Scheme, while Australia does not have a pure no-fault compensation system. Large J explained
that, thus, sentencing occurred on “different ‘playing fields’”. Section 151 of the HASWA
2015 requires the courts to apply the principles of the Sentencing Act 2002; there is noequivalent provision in the Australian legislation (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics(New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [33]-[36]).
While Australia had rejected the imposition of maximum fines, the court was guided by thereport of the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety (Independent Taskforce
on Workplace Health and Safety, 2013, at [390]). The Taskforce had recommended higher
penalties with graduated levels of fines depending on the level of offending with the aim of
improving compliance. The Court here concluded that the aim of the HASWA 2015 was toimprove compliance and that courts in New Zealand should not shy away from imposing the
maximum penalties (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [34]-[36]).
The court did shy away, however, from making new sentencing guidelines explaining that thiswas not the role of the District Court. Nonetheless, a starting point for setting the fine amount
had to be set following counsel’s submissions. The court considered both aggravating andmitigating factors. The Court ruled that the “culpability factors” in Hanham are now largely
subsumed into s 151 of the HASWA 2015. The risk of and potential for injury or death andwhether death or serious injury could have been reasonably expected to occur are two
culpability factors in s 151 of the HASWA 2015.

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The District Court set the starting point for the fine as being between $400,000 and $600,00 toreflect the defendant’s moderate level of culpability (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics(New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [32] -[46]).
Overall Assessment
The safety record of the PCBU, and the degree of departure from the existing standards areaggravating factors (HASWA 2015, s 151 (e), (f)). As explained above, Budget had known of
the problems with the extrusion machines and did not have proper hazard management
processes and training processes in place. A 25 per cent discount was given for the Budget’s
guilty plea (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [47]).
Both the HASWA 2015 (s 151(g))) and the Sentencing Act 2002 (s 35) require the financial
capacity of the offender to be taken into account when setting the fine. Budget submitted,
through an affidavit sworn by an accountant, that a fine above $100,000 would cause thebusiness significant difficulties. WorkSafe accepted that evidence but also argued that the law
must “bite” and that a fine should not be seen as a “licence fee”. WorkSafe also quoted fromthe Taskforce Report which says that it may be “best… if some firms are put out of business.
Profit gained …[by] causing reasonably preventable harm … is ill-gotten gain” (WorkSafe New
Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at[47] -[54]).
The Court finally concluded that there was nothing so severe in this case to justify “a departurefrom the need to impose a fine within the offender’s ability to pay”. The fine was reduced fromthe starting point of $275,000, to the maximum that Budget could pay, which is $100,000(WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017]
NZDC 17395, at [55]-[56]).

Costs
Costs of $1,000 were also awarded to WorkSafe. WorkSafe referred, again, to the findings of
the Taskforce and noted that cost recovery from a defendant would “strengthen the system”,
that is, the “system” would not be “supporting” offenders financially. In other words, WorkSafe
could recover some of, or all, the cost of running the case in Court. Budget referred to thefactors in the case of Balfour v R ([2013] NZCA 429) which lists which factors are relevant todetermining a ‘just and reasonable’ award of costs to the prosecution. The relevant factors are:“the nature of the charges; the complexity of the trial; the time spent on the case; the conductof the parties; the extent of the success of the prosecution; the sentence imposed; thedefendant’s financial position; and whether the defendant was legally aided” (WorkSafe New
Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at[57]-[62]).
Because Budget had pleaded guilty, WorkSafe did not have to prove their case beyond all
reasonable doubt. Budget had also been cooperative throughout. Large J also took into accountBudget’s financial position at set the sum for costs at $1,000 (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget
Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [63]-[65]).

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Commentary
Overall, one has the impression that this was well researched and well-planned prosecution by
WorkSafe.
Did WorkSafe Take the Right Approach?
On the one hand, WorkSafe may have been too conservative. In addition to a prosecution
under s 48 of the HASWA 2015, it could have considered a prosecution for reckless conduct
under s 47 of HASWA 2015. Budget had been aware that there was a fault with the machine
but had not yet fixed the problems and had allowed a worker to operate the machine before
ensuring the machine could be operated safely. Large J clearly stated that the “incident as
foreseeable” (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [45).
One can only speculate as to why a prosecution under s 47 was not brought. The evidential
difficulty of proving recklessness and causation beyond all reasonable doubt may have been abarrier. A prosecution under s 48 only requires the prosecution proving, beyond all reasonable
doubt, that a breach of duty created a risk of death or serious injury. Certainly, one can imagine
that the guilty plea and co-operative attitude of the defendant in this case would have beenfavourable to them. Further orders could also have been sought. The court has the power toissue training orders (s 158, HASWA 2015) and adverse publicity orders (s 153, HASWA
2015).
The director had failed in his due diligence duties. He did hot have awareness of or involvement
in health and safety until six weeks before the accident. He had not ensured that the company
had proper processes to ensure the safety of workers while at work. This is a breach of sections
44(4)(a),(b) and (c). Nonetheless, at the time of the accident, he had carried out a safety audit
and was making changes to improve processes (WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New
Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at [14(f)]). Again, one can only
speculate as to why the director was not prosecuted. Perhaps, prosecuting a director who is in
the process of ensuring his company is in compliance would have sent shock waves of panic
throughout the country?
On the other hand, WorkSafe may have been too aggressive in its approach. Budget was acompany clearly trying to improve its OHS. An enforceable undertaking (ss 123- 129, HASWA
2015) would have had the benefit of putting the company on notice that it had done wrong,with the benefit of the $100,000 being spent on improving OHS rather than on paying a fine.
Reparation could still have been paid the injured worker. Budget, after all, has put forward
evidence that was accepted by WorkSafe that it has limited resources.
In the end, balancing punishment for wrong-doing with the need to educate duty-holders toensure compliance is not easy. To be able to make the right decision in every case would
require divining powers. Overall, in this particular case, a prosecution of the PCBU under s 48of the HASWA 2015 seems a fair and balanced approach.
Sentencing Principles
The sentencing principles and the culpability principles under Hanham continue to apply until
an appellate Court chooses to overturn the case. But the amounts of the fines are likely to behigher under the HASWA 2015 as the HASWA 2015 allows for higher fines to be imposed.

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New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 99-105
Was the court right in setting the fine at $100,000?
For the company, this was the worst possible outcome in terms of a fine as that was the
maximum they could afford to pay. Does this mean that courts will impose the highest amounta company can pay, rather than lowering the “bands” to reflect the ability of the company topay? For example, in Budget’s case, the bands could have been lowered thus. A band of$100,000 to $150,000 for serious offending, even if that means possibly bankrupting thecompany. A possible $50,000 to $100,000 for medium-level offending and, a possible fine ofless than $50,000 for low-level offending.
It seems very unlikely that the bands will be shifted in relation to the PCBU’s financial position.
Even though this means that the same fine will punish a smaller business more severely than abigger one. A bigger, richer corporation could more easily afford even a $ 275,000 fine (which
was the starting point of the fine in this case). This is not in line with trying to get away fromthe fine being just a “licence fee” that companies can pay for being unsafe (WorkSafe New
Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017] NZDC 17395, at[51]).
Was the court right in saying fines could be imposed that could potentially bankrupt
businesses?
The court’s reasoning is correct if we accept the Taskforce’s argument that it is best that somefirms be put out of business if they are chronically unsafe (Independent Taskforce on
Workplace Health and Safety, 2013, at [389]). The threat of being put out of business by a finefor egregious breaches of the HASWA 2015 should act as a strong deterrent to encouragecompanies to comply.
Although the Court said that such a fine would only be imposed when the breach is egregious(WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017]
NZDC 17395, at [55]), this decision means that directors now have to consider the safety of
their company’s operation as a factor that could possibly lead to the company’s bankruptcy. If
a director knows that there is a possibility that an unaffordable fine could be imposed on thecompany because of poor safety standards, then the director could be guilty of reckless trading
under s 135 of the Companies act 1993, if the director allows the company to carry on operatingwith poor safety standards.

Conclusion
The principles under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 continue to be applicable
but will be refined to be in line with the HASWA 2015. The District Court in this case referredconstantly to the findings by the Taskforce, so it may well be well worth it for Counsel to be
familiar with the Taskforce Report.
This case sends a strong message that WorkSafe will not hesitate to prosecute, but will do soin a measured way. The Courts will impose the maximum fine they possibly can give theoffender’s level of offending and their financial means. But they will not refrain from imposing
the highest fine possible in egregious cases, even if it means the business going bankrupt as aresult of the fine.

104New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 43(1): 99-105

References
Department of Labour & ACC. (2002). Aftermath, the Social and Economic Consequences ofWorkplace Injury and Illness. Wellington: Author
Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety. (2013). The Report of the Independent
Taskforceon
Workplace
Healthand
Safety.
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http://hstaskforce.govt.nz/documents/report-of-the-independent-taskforce-on-workplacehealth-safety.pdf
Cases
Department of Labour v Hanham & Philp Contractors Ltd, HC Christchurch CRI 2008-409000002, 25 August 2008.
WorkSafe New Zealand v Budget Plastics (New Zealand) Ltd CRI-2016-054-003694, [2017]
NZDC 17395.

105