Australian Trade Unions

Please ensure that you use a minimum of 6 scholarly resources that are in peer reviewed articles and no more than 10 years old preferably.

The task:

Word Length: 1500-1750 words. Your assignment may be not less than 1500 words and not more than 1750 (excl references). Please note these word limits are strict guidelines.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
The purpose of this assignment is to research one of the Discussion Topics

The disusion topic is:
The Organising Model has been the main strategy pursued by Australian unions so as to halt the process of union decline and begin a process of revitalisation. Adopted as official policy of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 1994, having been previously endorsed by United States unions. A vast body of research supported the Organising Model, which sought to increase rank-and-file member activism (see, David Peetz in particular re Australia). This research not only supported the Organising Model in principle, it also presented a number of case studies that showed successful implementation and results
Given the considerable research support for the Organising Model, Why do you think that the Organising Model has proved so ineffective in bringing about a union revival in Australia, union density having fallen from more than 30% when the Organising Model was adopted in 1994 to 14.5% in August 2016?

Range of Reading to be Wide: The purpose of the assignment is to encourage students to engage in research. This should involve both SECONDARY SOURCES (i.e. books, journal articles, etc) and PRIMARY SOURCES (i.e. Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey, ABS Characteristics of Employment survey, Australian Council of Trade Union reports, Work Bank Reports, Reserve Bank of Australia reports, Fair Work Commission decisions and research reports, https://www.fwc.gov.au/resources/research etc.). At a minimum, one would expect at least ONE PRIMARY SOURCE and FOUR SECONDARY SOURCES will be used.

Critical analysis: There is a tendency for students to cite and summarise information uncritically, repeating what one source indicates without critical evaluation of the sources. This leads to people arguing one thing in one paragraph and something totally contrary in the next. Your task is to weigh up the available research evidence and use it form/support your argument.
Have a Clear Argument: Essentially you are answering a question or a series of questions, so you need to have this in mind. You should be able to provide an answer to this / these question/s in one or two sentences. A summary of your argument should be found in both the introduction and conclusion.

Referencing Style: You should use a recognised referencing system and use it consistently. The preference is for either APA in-text referencing or Harvard referencing but as long as you are consistent you can use whatever recognised system suits you. Using the Griffith University library referencing tool will make this considerably easier for you.

A few general comments about using research in an academic writing:
1. If the assignment asks you to make an argument and answer a question, make sure you do. Take a position. Argue your case. This should flow from the introduction, through the body into the conclusion. Use your evidence to form this argument by using critical analysis.
2. Critically evaluate or critically discuss means look at strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons etc. It means look at the available evidence, weight it up and consider it from the perspective of the stakeholders (eg. does the available evidence have similar findings? Does it come to the same conclusion? Do they contradict each other? Are there common themes?).
3. Here is a simple analogy to explain what a critique is. Imagine you are a movie critic. You go to the latest movie. When you come out, your job is tell people very briefly what the movie is about (ie describe it) but most of your job is to tell them how good or bad it was and why. Critics do not give a blow by blow description of the whole movie. They comment on aspects of it that worked and didn’t work. How well it was presented, how entertaining it was. They may compare it to other similar movies to show that it was better or worse, and again give reasons. They may also comment on the credentials, achievement and performance of the actors, director and producer. This is how you should approach your topic and the available evidence. See also http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/critical/1a.html
4. When writing an academic paper you need to support your statement or argument. While we are interested in your opinion we want to know that it is informed by the relevant research literature and you have looked at the problem from a number of perspectives – another way of looking at this is you need evidence to support your statements just as you would in a court of law.
5. Give a reference – this is not your idea. Even if you have paraphrased, you MUST reference with the author(s) and date in the body of the assignment and the full details in the reference list. You need to support all claims with an authority. It is both correct from and academic integrity perspective AND it makes your argument stronger.
6. While there is a minimum number of references you can use, there are no set number of references, you should be using several, including the set text, readings and additional scholarly or peer reviewed journal articles sourced yourself. See Google Scholar, PROQUEST, or Emerald in the library electronic databases. Google scholar in particularly is a very accessible and easy database to use. As a rough guide, have at least one reference per paragraph.
7. Scholarly means research done in an academic manner and then blind peer reviewed.
8. A Bibliography is a list of references read but not cited. Reference list is references actually cited in the assignment. Use a reference list not a bibliography,
9. It is very unlikely that the authors of your text and any relevant research papers are specifically discussing your workplace/organisation/situation at this point in time, so you cannot simply add a reference to the end of a sentence that describes your case. You have to write a link that says something like This situation at XYZ company is similar to that described in Robbins et al. (2001) who found that job satisfaction can be low if staff do not feel supported by their supervisor.
10. For more information on critical thinking, critique or critical discussion see:
a. http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/academic/4b.html
b. This site has an excellent little test so you can check what you know about critical analysis. https://airport.unimelb.edu.au/gate1/writing/analysis.php
c. http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/academic-skills/reading-and-note-taking
d. http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/critical/1a.html
11. Getting help with assignments
a. OUA has tailored, free support for you and your assignments via Smart Thinking.

MARKING CRITERIA (SUMMARY)

Extensive Research (5 Marks)
Students are expected to explore their topic area in depth via extensive readings of both PRIMARY sources and SECONDARY sources. At a MINIMUM, it is expected that ONE PRIMARY and FOUR SECONDARY sources should be used.
• Primary Sources: By primary sources, we mean forms of evidence that are collated by a body typically seen as impartial which researchers then interpret in their secondary research. Forms of primary research include:
o Australian Bureau of Statistics Labour Force Survey Reports
o Australian Bureau of Statistics Characteristics of Employment, Australia, Reports
o ABS, Census Reports
o Fair Work Commission – Awards, Enterprise Agreements, Research reports
o Reports by the Reserve Bank of Australia, Commonwealth Treasury, World Bank, International Monetary Fund.
o Melbourne Institute, Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey – note the 2018 Report is posted on the course website under Content – Week 5.
• Secondary Sources:
o Secondary sources primarily consists of evidence that is published in academic journals and books.
o For each week a list of essential readings is provided.
o You need to expand upon this research.
o NOTE: on any given topic there are invariably major DIFFERENCES of opinion and a DEBATE. It is important that you are able to convey the key issues that are being debated and where researchers agree and differ.
• TOTAL readings: The minimum expectation for each week is one primary source and four secondary sources.
Critical Analysis (7 Marks)
On the basis of their in-depth research students need to be able to indicate the following:
• What are the major issues that are being debated in relation to your topic?
• What are the major points of research difference?
• What are the sources of evidence used to support the differing research opinions in the field?
• Which viewpoint do you find most convincing and why?
In your critical analysis it is important that you do more than merely summarise the information that you have researched. You need to provide critical analysis. This must involve:
• An introduction that sets out (a) a summary of the key facts relating to the topic. For example, if you were doing your assignment on Labour Market Issues then you would refer to levels of male employment, female employment, key initiatives to encourage employment such as Paid Parental Leave (b) a BRIEF summary of the key debates in the field (c) a clear statement of what it is that you are arguing in your paper.
• An outlining AND a weighing up or evaluating of the evidence presented, both in the form of primary and secondary sources. It is NOT enough to simply summarize, you must evaluate.
• A conclusion that highlights your findings.
Demonstrated Knowledge of Topic Area (4 Marks)
It is expected that your essay will show a sound grasp of the information and research relating to the topic that both encompasses what we discuss in the lecture and which goes beyond it. It is expected that this demonstrated knowledge will be indicated through:
• Discussion of long-term and short-term trends in relation to their topic. For example, if you were discussing trade unionism then it is expected that you can point to (a) the process of union decline (b) current trade union membership and density (c) the status of trade unions under the Fair Work Act.
• The major research works in the topic area and how this research has developed and changed over time.
• The sources of evidence that has informed debate.
Writing Skills and Referencing (4 Marks)
It is expected that papers will be well-written, free of spelling and grammatical errors and correctly referenced.
In terms of writing the following is recommended:
• An introduction of roughly two paragraphs that introduces the topic, the major debates and the key argument that the paper will pursue. The key to a good essay is to say what it is that you will be doing and how you will be doing it. For example, in this essay I will be arguing …… and I will be doing that by firstly showing … then secondly explaining …. and finally outlining ….
• That the body of the paper develop a logical argument as it progresses from paragraph to paragraph. Note: a paragraph encompasses a single point that is intelligible even if we read the paragraph in total isolation from the rest of the essay.
• A conclusion that summarizes the main findings of the paper
In terms of referencing it should be noted that there is no single “correct” referencing system, but rather a number of different referencing styles, each with their own distinct rules. Correct referencing is, nevertheless, an important research skill, and students should accurately follow ONE referencing style. They may wish to indicate the style used in a footnote on p. 1 of their paper.