Doug Fraser | University of Tasmania (original) (raw)
Papers by Doug Fraser
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011
This paper offers a rationale for extending the national systems approach, already in common use ... more This paper offers a rationale for extending the national systems approach, already in common use to describe systems of production (Lazonick and O’Sullivan, 1994; Hall and Soskice,2001), knowledge (Howells and Roberts, 2000) and innovation (Freeman, 1995; Lundvall, 2007), to the specific case of skilling. “Skilling” is defined in this context as the whole process by which skill arises, develops and is put to practical use, and one of the principal advantages of this model is that it advances the consideration of skilling issues, and appropriate policy responses, beyond the traditional supply-side focus on systems of education, training or skill formation . The concept is based on well established precedents in labour economics and labour process theory, notably skill equilibria (Finegold and Soskice, 1988; Finegold, 1991; Wilson and Hogarth, 2003) and skill ecosystems (Finegold, 1999; Buchanan, 2006; Hall and Lansury, 2006), and its contribution is simply to provide a common structure for modelling such effects at the level of the national economy. The outline presented here is confined to three main aspects of the framework: the role of institutions, the interaction between supply, demand and deployment, and the need to distinguish between system failure and system dysfunction.
Journal of Air Law and Commerce, 2016
In the last twenty years, aircraft maintenance outsourcing has driven strong growth in the third-... more In the last twenty years, aircraft maintenance outsourcing has driven strong growth in the third-party Maintenance Repair and * Ian Hampson is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales Business School and an associate of the Industrial Relations Research Centre. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Science and Technology Studies. He has been published and taught broadly in training, industrial relations, sociology of work, and skill recognition. For the past five years he has been researching in the aircraft maintenance industry. ** Doug Fraser achieved his Ph.D. in 2009 after thirty years in policy research for organizations including the Australian Parliamentary Research Service and the Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics. For the past few years, he has worked as a research associate with the University of New South Wales in fields including labor market theory, workplace learning, and most recently, aviation labor dynamics. *** Michael Quinlan is a prof...
Proceedings of the International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation, Bamberg 2011, 2011
ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, a... more ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, and codification. Skill is an individual and collective capacity, expressed in performance and reflected in outcomes. Aggregate measures relying on proxies such as occupational entry qualifications may not provide the best picture of segmentation and mobility processes. Statistics on training effort have the potential to create a misleading picture of an industry's or firm's commitment to skill-based innovation by failing to distinguish ad-hoc, just-in-time measures to maintain the current capability of a firm's workforce from interventions designed to develop a creative, adaptive capability. To be measured, skills must first be named. Workplace-level skill development requires frameworks for identifying growth opportunities. In exploring these three problems in the Australian and New Zealand context, the paper proposes a dynamic framework for classifying approaches to skilling (not confined to formal trading) on the basis of their contributions to adaptive capability, proposing three types of skill: threshold, platform and growth. The codification problem is particularly severe in 'new economy' service industries, and the paper critiques the attempt to capture under-specified service skills in concepts such as 'soft skills' or 'employability skills.' It suggests an alternative framework for classifying the adaptive and generative processes of workplace learning and their outcomes - an analysis that may have relevance beyond the service sector.
Labour market policy rhetoric since the 1980s has promoted the view that jobs in industrialised c... more Labour market policy rhetoric since the 1980s has promoted the view that jobs in industrialised counties, if they are to survive the pressures of global competition, will need to place ever-increasing demands on the skills of the workforce. This paper describes a study designed to test this proposition on a representative sample of the Australian working population over the period from 2001 to 2005. The data come from HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia), a panel survey of some 6,000 households and 18,000 individuals conducted annually since 2001. The dataset includes three indicators representing a common metric across industries, occupations and levels in the workforce hierarchy of the degree to which jobs “stretch ” the skill base of those who work in them, together with three variables covering task discretion and worker autonomy, which past research has shown to be highly correlated with skill-intensity. These data make it possible for the first time to du...
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern University in the States in the late 60s, where after... more I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern University in the States in the late 60s, where after wandering about aimlessly, I happened by accident into Donald T Campbell’s social psychology class and ended up majoring in social psychology. I had the good fortune to be able to develop a close relationship with both Campbell and with Thomas D Cook that turned into enduring friendships. The subject of evaluation, however, never came up while I was a student. Indeed it was only later that Campbell’s and Cook’s work during this period was retroactively defined as evaluation.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 2001
This is a report on the responses of 82 employers in Campbelltown, Fairfield, Narellan, Camden an... more This is a report on the responses of 82 employers in Campbelltown, Fairfield, Narellan, Camden and Smeaton Grange, to a 2013-2014 survey designed to gather employers’ views of their skilled labour needs, in order to remain competitive and grow through innovation. Overall recommendation A lighthouse Regional Manufacturing Innovation and Workforce Development Partnership be piloted, to pioneer a regional program of information exchange and shared workforce development accessible to small and medium businesses. This Government-funded model would be supported by creating seconded or earmarked cross-organisational staff positions and roles, with the brief of working across employer groups, key training organisations and the three tiers of government. Their brief would be to provide a focus for gathering, exchanging and disseminating information that is timely, targeted, well- integrated and readily digestible. This information would cover: - Case study approaches to setting up local inno...
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
Media Information Australia
Journal of Industrial Relations, 2015
This article examines potential regulatory and safety problems arising from the outsourcing and o... more This article examines potential regulatory and safety problems arising from the outsourcing and offshoring of heavy aircraft maintenance. We raise questions about the advisability of using increasingly complex supply chains in the aircraft maintenance industry where safety standards are paramount. Greater disarticulation of maintenance work makes regulatory oversight more convoluted and expensive to do thoroughly and transparently. Using a Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure model, the article highlights how new work arrangements involving increased use of supply chains are developing more quickly than adequate airline, union and regulator responses to the safety problems engendered by those changes. In often heated industrial debates between licensed aircraft maintenance engineers (LAMEs) and airline managers about business needs and safety, we urge that more attention be paid to LAME concerns about outsourcing.
New Directions for Evaluation, 2004
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
This paper describes a new common metric capable of comparing changes over time in the skill cont... more This paper describes a new common metric capable of comparing changes over time in the skill content of jobs across the full spectrum of industries, occupations and occupational levels. Based loosely on Spenner's model and the indices used in the ESRC Skills Surveys, this metric combines two constructs: skill-intensity (the degree to which a job stretches the skill base of the worker) and task discretion (the amount of choice which workers, individually or collectively, exercise over what they do in their job, how and when). The metric is applied using data from the first seven waves of HILDA, a multi-purpose annual panel survey with a large nationally representative sample, to track the skill trajectory of the Australian economy.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Originally prepared as a commissioned advocacy paper for the Transport and Logistics Council, thi... more Originally prepared as a commissioned advocacy paper for the Transport and Logistics Council, this report uses publicly available data to analyse current workforce capability and development needs in the Transport, Postal and Warehousing industry division. The industry recorded above-average growth in both GVA and labour productivity over much of the last decade, despite being one of the worst performers in terms of formal training effort, workforce qualifications, on-the-job learning and perceived demands on the existing skills base of its workforce. However, it was one of the industries most severely affected by the GFC, and while most output indicators had returned to previous trend levels by the end of 2009, hours worked remained in decline. This suggests that current productivity levels are mainly the result of work intensification, and as such are unlikely to be sustained unless serious attention is paid to increasing the capacity of the workforce. Current challenges include an ageing workforce, loss of skilled labour to growth industries such as mining, strong predicted rises in labour demand, and a level of formal training which appears inadequate to meet the growing needs for accreditation. JEL: J24, L91, M53
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, a... more ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, and codification. Skill is an individual and collective capacity, expressed in performance and reflected in outcomes. Aggregate measures relying on proxies such as occupational entry qualifications may not provide the best picture of segmentation and mobility processes. Statistics on training effort have the potential to create a misleading picture of an industry's or firm's commitment to skill-based innovation by failing to distinguish ad-hoc, just-in-time measures to maintain the current capability of a firm's workforce from interventions designed to develop a creative, adaptive capability. To be measured, skills must first be named. Workplace-level skill development requires frameworks for identifying growth opportunities. In exploring these three problems in the Australian and New Zealand context, the paper proposes a dynamic framework for classifying approaches to skilling (not confined to formal trading) on the basis of their contributions to adaptive capability, proposing three types of skill: threshold, platform and growth. The codification problem is particularly severe in 'new economy' service industries, and the paper critiques the attempt to capture under-specified service skills in concepts such as 'soft skills' or 'employability skills.' It suggests an alternative framework for classifying the adaptive and generative processes of workplace learning and their outcomes - an analysis that may have relevance beyond the service sector.
Labour market policy rhetoric since
ABSTRACT This article provides a brief introduction to a research program which has been under wa... more ABSTRACT This article provides a brief introduction to a research program which has been under way since 2007 to examine, using data from a large-sample panel survey, whether jobs in Australia are becoming more or less skilful over time. It redefines the debate on deskilling which ran through the 1970s and 1980s by expanding the focus beyond simple job quality to issues of current policy interest, notably the contribution of skill to innovation and productivity. To map this kind of dynamism it is necessary to use a metric capable of capturing change over short periods. This is achieved by adding a third dimension, skill-intensity, to Spenner's classic definition of skill in terms of two loosely related constructs, worker autonomy/control and substantive job complexity. Data drawn from the first eight waves of HILDA are analysed to demonstrate that this metric is capable of capturing statistically significant change in the average skill content of jobs over much shorter periods than was possible with the metrics used in earlier decades. The broadly parallel aggregate trendlines for skill-intensity and autonomy/control suggest that these two dimensions are linked in the way Spenner suggests, even though major discrepancies appear between them in some industries and occupations.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011
This paper offers a rationale for extending the national systems approach, already in common use ... more This paper offers a rationale for extending the national systems approach, already in common use to describe systems of production (Lazonick and O’Sullivan, 1994; Hall and Soskice,2001), knowledge (Howells and Roberts, 2000) and innovation (Freeman, 1995; Lundvall, 2007), to the specific case of skilling. “Skilling” is defined in this context as the whole process by which skill arises, develops and is put to practical use, and one of the principal advantages of this model is that it advances the consideration of skilling issues, and appropriate policy responses, beyond the traditional supply-side focus on systems of education, training or skill formation . The concept is based on well established precedents in labour economics and labour process theory, notably skill equilibria (Finegold and Soskice, 1988; Finegold, 1991; Wilson and Hogarth, 2003) and skill ecosystems (Finegold, 1999; Buchanan, 2006; Hall and Lansury, 2006), and its contribution is simply to provide a common structure for modelling such effects at the level of the national economy. The outline presented here is confined to three main aspects of the framework: the role of institutions, the interaction between supply, demand and deployment, and the need to distinguish between system failure and system dysfunction.
Journal of Air Law and Commerce, 2016
In the last twenty years, aircraft maintenance outsourcing has driven strong growth in the third-... more In the last twenty years, aircraft maintenance outsourcing has driven strong growth in the third-party Maintenance Repair and * Ian Hampson is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales Business School and an associate of the Industrial Relations Research Centre. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics and Science and Technology Studies. He has been published and taught broadly in training, industrial relations, sociology of work, and skill recognition. For the past five years he has been researching in the aircraft maintenance industry. ** Doug Fraser achieved his Ph.D. in 2009 after thirty years in policy research for organizations including the Australian Parliamentary Research Service and the Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics. For the past few years, he has worked as a research associate with the University of New South Wales in fields including labor market theory, workplace learning, and most recently, aviation labor dynamics. *** Michael Quinlan is a prof...
Proceedings of the International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation, Bamberg 2011, 2011
ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, a... more ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, and codification. Skill is an individual and collective capacity, expressed in performance and reflected in outcomes. Aggregate measures relying on proxies such as occupational entry qualifications may not provide the best picture of segmentation and mobility processes. Statistics on training effort have the potential to create a misleading picture of an industry's or firm's commitment to skill-based innovation by failing to distinguish ad-hoc, just-in-time measures to maintain the current capability of a firm's workforce from interventions designed to develop a creative, adaptive capability. To be measured, skills must first be named. Workplace-level skill development requires frameworks for identifying growth opportunities. In exploring these three problems in the Australian and New Zealand context, the paper proposes a dynamic framework for classifying approaches to skilling (not confined to formal trading) on the basis of their contributions to adaptive capability, proposing three types of skill: threshold, platform and growth. The codification problem is particularly severe in 'new economy' service industries, and the paper critiques the attempt to capture under-specified service skills in concepts such as 'soft skills' or 'employability skills.' It suggests an alternative framework for classifying the adaptive and generative processes of workplace learning and their outcomes - an analysis that may have relevance beyond the service sector.
Labour market policy rhetoric since the 1980s has promoted the view that jobs in industrialised c... more Labour market policy rhetoric since the 1980s has promoted the view that jobs in industrialised counties, if they are to survive the pressures of global competition, will need to place ever-increasing demands on the skills of the workforce. This paper describes a study designed to test this proposition on a representative sample of the Australian working population over the period from 2001 to 2005. The data come from HILDA (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia), a panel survey of some 6,000 households and 18,000 individuals conducted annually since 2001. The dataset includes three indicators representing a common metric across industries, occupations and levels in the workforce hierarchy of the degree to which jobs “stretch ” the skill base of those who work in them, together with three variables covering task discretion and worker autonomy, which past research has shown to be highly correlated with skill-intensity. These data make it possible for the first time to du...
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern University in the States in the late 60s, where after... more I did my undergraduate work at Northwestern University in the States in the late 60s, where after wandering about aimlessly, I happened by accident into Donald T Campbell’s social psychology class and ended up majoring in social psychology. I had the good fortune to be able to develop a close relationship with both Campbell and with Thomas D Cook that turned into enduring friendships. The subject of evaluation, however, never came up while I was a student. Indeed it was only later that Campbell’s and Cook’s work during this period was retroactively defined as evaluation.
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 2001
This is a report on the responses of 82 employers in Campbelltown, Fairfield, Narellan, Camden an... more This is a report on the responses of 82 employers in Campbelltown, Fairfield, Narellan, Camden and Smeaton Grange, to a 2013-2014 survey designed to gather employers’ views of their skilled labour needs, in order to remain competitive and grow through innovation. Overall recommendation A lighthouse Regional Manufacturing Innovation and Workforce Development Partnership be piloted, to pioneer a regional program of information exchange and shared workforce development accessible to small and medium businesses. This Government-funded model would be supported by creating seconded or earmarked cross-organisational staff positions and roles, with the brief of working across employer groups, key training organisations and the three tiers of government. Their brief would be to provide a focus for gathering, exchanging and disseminating information that is timely, targeted, well- integrated and readily digestible. This information would cover: - Case study approaches to setting up local inno...
Evaluation Journal of Australasia
Media Information Australia
Journal of Industrial Relations, 2015
This article examines potential regulatory and safety problems arising from the outsourcing and o... more This article examines potential regulatory and safety problems arising from the outsourcing and offshoring of heavy aircraft maintenance. We raise questions about the advisability of using increasingly complex supply chains in the aircraft maintenance industry where safety standards are paramount. Greater disarticulation of maintenance work makes regulatory oversight more convoluted and expensive to do thoroughly and transparently. Using a Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory Failure model, the article highlights how new work arrangements involving increased use of supply chains are developing more quickly than adequate airline, union and regulator responses to the safety problems engendered by those changes. In often heated industrial debates between licensed aircraft maintenance engineers (LAMEs) and airline managers about business needs and safety, we urge that more attention be paid to LAME concerns about outsourcing.
New Directions for Evaluation, 2004
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
This paper describes a new common metric capable of comparing changes over time in the skill cont... more This paper describes a new common metric capable of comparing changes over time in the skill content of jobs across the full spectrum of industries, occupations and occupational levels. Based loosely on Spenner's model and the indices used in the ESRC Skills Surveys, this metric combines two constructs: skill-intensity (the degree to which a job stretches the skill base of the worker) and task discretion (the amount of choice which workers, individually or collectively, exercise over what they do in their job, how and when). The metric is applied using data from the first seven waves of HILDA, a multi-purpose annual panel survey with a large nationally representative sample, to track the skill trajectory of the Australian economy.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Originally prepared as a commissioned advocacy paper for the Transport and Logistics Council, thi... more Originally prepared as a commissioned advocacy paper for the Transport and Logistics Council, this report uses publicly available data to analyse current workforce capability and development needs in the Transport, Postal and Warehousing industry division. The industry recorded above-average growth in both GVA and labour productivity over much of the last decade, despite being one of the worst performers in terms of formal training effort, workforce qualifications, on-the-job learning and perceived demands on the existing skills base of its workforce. However, it was one of the industries most severely affected by the GFC, and while most output indicators had returned to previous trend levels by the end of 2009, hours worked remained in decline. This suggests that current productivity levels are mainly the result of work intensification, and as such are unlikely to be sustained unless serious attention is paid to increasing the capacity of the workforce. Current challenges include an ageing workforce, loss of skilled labour to growth industries such as mining, strong predicted rises in labour demand, and a level of formal training which appears inadequate to meet the growing needs for accreditation. JEL: J24, L91, M53
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, a... more ABSTRACT There are at least three problems in the measurement of skill - aggregation, dynamism, and codification. Skill is an individual and collective capacity, expressed in performance and reflected in outcomes. Aggregate measures relying on proxies such as occupational entry qualifications may not provide the best picture of segmentation and mobility processes. Statistics on training effort have the potential to create a misleading picture of an industry's or firm's commitment to skill-based innovation by failing to distinguish ad-hoc, just-in-time measures to maintain the current capability of a firm's workforce from interventions designed to develop a creative, adaptive capability. To be measured, skills must first be named. Workplace-level skill development requires frameworks for identifying growth opportunities. In exploring these three problems in the Australian and New Zealand context, the paper proposes a dynamic framework for classifying approaches to skilling (not confined to formal trading) on the basis of their contributions to adaptive capability, proposing three types of skill: threshold, platform and growth. The codification problem is particularly severe in 'new economy' service industries, and the paper critiques the attempt to capture under-specified service skills in concepts such as 'soft skills' or 'employability skills.' It suggests an alternative framework for classifying the adaptive and generative processes of workplace learning and their outcomes - an analysis that may have relevance beyond the service sector.
Labour market policy rhetoric since
ABSTRACT This article provides a brief introduction to a research program which has been under wa... more ABSTRACT This article provides a brief introduction to a research program which has been under way since 2007 to examine, using data from a large-sample panel survey, whether jobs in Australia are becoming more or less skilful over time. It redefines the debate on deskilling which ran through the 1970s and 1980s by expanding the focus beyond simple job quality to issues of current policy interest, notably the contribution of skill to innovation and productivity. To map this kind of dynamism it is necessary to use a metric capable of capturing change over short periods. This is achieved by adding a third dimension, skill-intensity, to Spenner's classic definition of skill in terms of two loosely related constructs, worker autonomy/control and substantive job complexity. Data drawn from the first eight waves of HILDA are analysed to demonstrate that this metric is capable of capturing statistically significant change in the average skill content of jobs over much shorter periods than was possible with the metrics used in earlier decades. The broadly parallel aggregate trendlines for skill-intensity and autonomy/control suggest that these two dimensions are linked in the way Spenner suggests, even though major discrepancies appear between them in some industries and occupations.