Sue Williamson
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 4083233 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Sue Williamson |
| NOMBRES | Sue |
| APELLIDO | Williamson |
| FIRMA | WILLIAMSON S |
| AFILIACIONES | School of Business UNSW Canberra Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9061-7466 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 26 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 54 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 26 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1946 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
Reconceptualising merit in the public sector
The merit principle is used by governments to ensure fairness and transparency in recruitment, promotion, and career development to safeguard capability and political neutrality. Merit is traditionally conceptualised as characteristics an individual possesses, which typically include education, work experience, and achievements. Other characteristics, such as diversity and lived experience, are excluded. However, recent legislative amendments mov…
Will return‐to‐office mandates prevent proximity bias for employees working from home
This Practice and Policy article examines return‐to‐office mandates, the latest human resource controversy. These mandates are an organisational directive for employees who have been working from home to return to working in their employer's premise. Drawing on the literature and our research on working from home and hybrid working, we consider whether mandates may prevent proximity bias. We conclude that mandates requiring employees to return to…
Collective bargaining in the Australian public service
In 2022, Australia's Labor Opposition pledged to reintroduce collective bargaining covering the whole Australian public service (APS) if elected. The elected Labor government is now implementing this ground-breaking reform. The APS has, since 1997, bargained at the agency level with no mandated common terms and conditions of employment applying across the service. This has led to pay dispersion and inequity, and fragmentation of the terms and con…
Regulating for gender equality in the Australian Public Service
Western governments have used regulation to progress gender equality for workforces in both the private and public sectors, yet gender equality has not yet been achieved. While governments have used various regulatory forms, Dickens (1999) argued that a tripod of collective bargaining, legislation and human resource policy would progress gender equality. Little consideration has been given to how these elements of the tripod fit together. We appl…
Working from home during Covid‐19
The ideal worker norm is associated with specific ways of working. The ideal worker is a man who works long hours, is constantly available, and highly productive. Emerging research suggests that the shock of COVID‐19, which forced millions of employees to work from home, may have been powerful enough to disrupt the ideal worker norm. We therefore ask: how did working from home during the pandemic impact the ideal worker norm? We apply Acker's ide…
Public servants working from home during the pandemic
Employees experienced both advantages and disadvantages while working from home during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Researchers have examined these impacts on women and those with caring responsibilities; however, little research has examined the impacts on other groups of employees, such as those with a disability or employed on a casual basis. In this article, we focus on the public sector and examine who gained and who lost while working from home, …
Covid-normal workplaces
Working from home expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Controversy examines how working from home was framed and regulated pre-pandemic. We contrast this with the changes made to Australia's industrial award system during the pandemic to increase flexibilities around working from home, in response to a collective need for a responsive safety net. We argue that the conception and regulation of working from home is shifting from an i…
The future of working from home in the public sector
The COVID‐19 pandemic created a working from home experiment for the public sector. This paper examines what might happen next as countries move towards a COVID‐normal environment. Since the academic literature on public sector agencies and working from home since the onset of the pandemic is scant, we focus on the non‐peer‐reviewed literature as our evidence base. This paper identifies the main issues public sector agencies need to consider as n…
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic drove significant changes affecting women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2020. This annual review explores the economic and social impact of the pandemic on women workers, and examines the gendered impact of key policy responses, including: the introduction of an historic temporary wage subsidy programme; the early release of superannuation funds; multiple economic stimulus measures, targeted mostly at male-d…
Change agents or defending the status quo? How senior leaders frame workplace gender equality
Senior leaders are usually understood to be ideally positioned to drive the organizational changes needed to promote workplace gender equality. Yet seniority also influences leaders' values and attitudes, and how they interpret evidence of inequalities, determine organizational priorities, and design and implement remedies. This article examines leaders' perceptions of workplace gender equality using system justification theory to explain survey …
Trusted institutions
Experts are increasingly replacing elected representatives in the planning of Australian cities and regions. Following concerns about delays and corruption, expert decision‐making has been promoted as an important mechanism to restore trust in the planning process. Others have expressed concerns about the loss of democracy entailed in this shift, but this is not the whole story. The nature of expertise is itself significant, and we examine the co…
Best person or best mix? How public sector managers understand the merit principle
As public sector organisations around the world enact strategies to progress gender equality, managers are forced to navigate the apparent conflict between making employment decisions on individual‐level ‘merit’ and considering the collective constraints and disadvantage that occur along gender lines. In this paper, we investigate how managers’ understandings of merit contribute to this tension. Analysing data collected in focus groups with 273 m…
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2019
Interest in women’s labour force participation, economic security and pay equity received substantial media and public policy attention throughout 2019, largely attributable to the federal election and the Australian Labor Party platform, which included a comprehensive suite of policies aimed at advancing workplace gender equality. Following the Australian Labor Party’s unexpected loss at the polls, however, workplace gender equality largely fade…
Understanding, ownership, or resistance
Gender inequality persists in the public services in many Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries, despite decades of policy and strategic initiatives designed to promote greater equality. Resistance to gender equality, characterized by opposition to change or support for the status quo, has emerged as one potential explanation for the disconnection between policies and outcomes. This article explores whether concepts of …
Will working from home become the ‘new normal’ in the public sector
The COVID‐19 pandemic compelled large sections of the workforce out of their workplaces and into their homes to work. Many commentators suggest this has forever changed how and where we work. This article analyses how Australia's biggest employers – state and federal governments – approached the transitions to working from home, and back into regular workplaces. It considers the timing of policy responses to the pandemic as one indicator of resis…
Challenging gender pay gaps
Dossier comprenant une introduction et 8 articles. - MILNER Susan, POCHIC Sophie, SCHEELE Alexandra and WILLIAMSON Sue : "Editorial : Challenging gender pay gaps: Organizational and regulatory strategies"- PARKEN Alison, ASHWORTH Rachel : "From evidence to action: Applying gender mainstreaming to pay gaps in the Welsh public sector"- CGREGOR Judy, DAVIES Sharyn Graham : "Achieving pay equity: Strategic mobilization for substantive equality in Aot…
The Review of the APS
As recently as 2016, the Australian Government stated its commitment to increasing gender equality in the Australian Public Service (APS) workforce. In May 2018, the Prime Minister announced a broad‐ranging Review of the APS, but gender equality was not mentioned in the Review Terms of Reference. An interim Review report was released in March 2019, which was also largely silent on gender issues. We examine the submissions to the Review to assess …
Representations of New Public Management in Australian Public Service gender equality policies
Purpose Governments have demonstrated a renewed interest in progressing gender equality for their workforces, including in Australia. This refocusing has resulted in a tranche of new gender equality policies being introduced into the Australian Public Service (APS). The purpose of this paper is to examine how New Public Management (NPM) is reflected in these gender equality policies and consider whether NPM may assist or hinder gender being “undo…
Does anonymising job applications reduce gender bias
Purpose Anonymous recruitment seeks to limit managers’ reliance on stereotypes in employment decisions, thereby reducing discrimination. This paper aims to explore how managers interpret the information embedded in anonymised job applications and how they interpret the organisational priorities driving the adoption of anonymous recruitment. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 30 managers in two Australian public sector org…
Gender in the Australian Public Service
Attention to gender equity has waxed and waned in public services but, by the 1980s, a series of policy changes placed public services among the leaders in working conditions for women. Conversely, New Public Management reforms since the 1980s focused on leaner, more efficient government and resulted in the gradual downgrading or stagnation of employment conditions for female public sector employees. In the Australian Public Service (APS), occupa…
Unconscious Bias Training
Western Governments concerned about the lack of gender equity in their workforces are increasingly seeking to address the negative effects of unconscious biases on employment decisions to counter the effects of hidden prejudices. Although unconscious bias has received limited attention in the human resource literature, social psychology literature has identified inadequacies with this practice, including that such training may entrench and normal…
Managerial Perspectives on Implicit Bias, Affirmative Action, and Merit
Public sector organizations concerned about gender inequality have increasingly sought to address the effect of implicit biases on merit‐based employment practices through bias training and affirmative action programs. Applying qualitative content analysis to interviews with 104 managers in three government agencies in which bias training and affirmative action were being implemented, the authors find that many managers acknowledge the existence …
Unintended Consequences
The Workplace Remuneration Arrangement agreed between the Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) provides for a 4.5% pay over 3 years for ADF personnel. This article makes use of the concept of the psychological contract to argue that this pay deal represents a breach of the Australian Government's obligations towards ADF personnel that is likely to have unintended consequences for their long‐term commitment to their ADF car…
Staking Claims
Research Article| May 01 2000 STAKING CLAIMS: CONFRONTING CAPETOWN Sue Williamson Sue Williamson Sue Williamson is an artist and editor of ArtThrob Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Nka (2000) 2000 (11-12): 92–95. https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-11-12-1-92 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Sue Williamson; STAKING CLAIMS: CONFRONTING CAPETOWN. Nka 1 May 2000; 2000 (11-12): 92–95. doi…
Illuminating Treatment
Change agents or defending the status quo? How senior leaders frame workplace gender equality
Senior leaders are usually understood to be ideally positioned to drive the organizational changes needed to promote workplace gender equality. Yet seniority also influences leaders' values and attitudes, and how they interpret evidence of inequalities, determine organizational priorities, and design and implement remedies. This article examines leaders' perceptions of workplace gender equality using system justification theory to explain survey …
Gender in the Australian Public Service
Attention to gender equity has waxed and waned in public services but, by the 1980s, a series of policy changes placed public services among the leaders in working conditions for women. Conversely, New Public Management reforms since the 1980s focused on leaner, more efficient government and resulted in the gradual downgrading or stagnation of employment conditions for female public sector employees. In the Australian Public Service (APS), occupa…
Unconscious Bias Training
Western Governments concerned about the lack of gender equity in their workforces are increasingly seeking to address the negative effects of unconscious biases on employment decisions to counter the effects of hidden prejudices. Although unconscious bias has received limited attention in the human resource literature, social psychology literature has identified inadequacies with this practice, including that such training may entrench and normal…
Understanding, ownership, or resistance
Gender inequality persists in the public services in many Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries, despite decades of policy and strategic initiatives designed to promote greater equality. Resistance to gender equality, characterized by opposition to change or support for the status quo, has emerged as one potential explanation for the disconnection between policies and outcomes. This article explores whether concepts of …
Working from home during Covid‐19
The ideal worker norm is associated with specific ways of working. The ideal worker is a man who works long hours, is constantly available, and highly productive. Emerging research suggests that the shock of COVID‐19, which forced millions of employees to work from home, may have been powerful enough to disrupt the ideal worker norm. We therefore ask: how did working from home during the pandemic impact the ideal worker norm? We apply Acker's ide…
The future of working from home in the public sector
The COVID‐19 pandemic created a working from home experiment for the public sector. This paper examines what might happen next as countries move towards a COVID‐normal environment. Since the academic literature on public sector agencies and working from home since the onset of the pandemic is scant, we focus on the non‐peer‐reviewed literature as our evidence base. This paper identifies the main issues public sector agencies need to consider as n…
Will working from home become the ‘new normal’ in the public sector
The COVID‐19 pandemic compelled large sections of the workforce out of their workplaces and into their homes to work. Many commentators suggest this has forever changed how and where we work. This article analyses how Australia's biggest employers – state and federal governments – approached the transitions to working from home, and back into regular workplaces. It considers the timing of policy responses to the pandemic as one indicator of resis…
Best person or best mix? How public sector managers understand the merit principle
As public sector organisations around the world enact strategies to progress gender equality, managers are forced to navigate the apparent conflict between making employment decisions on individual‐level ‘merit’ and considering the collective constraints and disadvantage that occur along gender lines. In this paper, we investigate how managers’ understandings of merit contribute to this tension. Analysing data collected in focus groups with 273 m…
Trends in Collective Bargaining. A Summary of Recent Experience
Illuminating Treatment
Staking Claims
Research Article| May 01 2000 STAKING CLAIMS: CONFRONTING CAPETOWN Sue Williamson Sue Williamson Sue Williamson is an artist and editor of ArtThrob Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Nka (2000) 2000 (11-12): 92–95. https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-11-12-1-92 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Sue Williamson; STAKING CLAIMS: CONFRONTING CAPETOWN. Nka 1 May 2000; 2000 (11-12): 92–95. doi…
Unintended Consequences
The Workplace Remuneration Arrangement agreed between the Australian Government and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) provides for a 4.5% pay over 3 years for ADF personnel. This article makes use of the concept of the psychological contract to argue that this pay deal represents a breach of the Australian Government's obligations towards ADF personnel that is likely to have unintended consequences for their long‐term commitment to their ADF car…
Does anonymising job applications reduce gender bias
Purpose Anonymous recruitment seeks to limit managers’ reliance on stereotypes in employment decisions, thereby reducing discrimination. This paper aims to explore how managers interpret the information embedded in anonymised job applications and how they interpret the organisational priorities driving the adoption of anonymous recruitment. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with 30 managers in two Australian public sector org…
Gender in the Australian Public Service
Attention to gender equity has waxed and waned in public services but, by the 1980s, a series of policy changes placed public services among the leaders in working conditions for women. Conversely, New Public Management reforms since the 1980s focused on leaner, more efficient government and resulted in the gradual downgrading or stagnation of employment conditions for female public sector employees. In the Australian Public Service (APS), occupa…
Unconscious Bias Training
Western Governments concerned about the lack of gender equity in their workforces are increasingly seeking to address the negative effects of unconscious biases on employment decisions to counter the effects of hidden prejudices. Although unconscious bias has received limited attention in the human resource literature, social psychology literature has identified inadequacies with this practice, including that such training may entrench and normal…
Managerial Perspectives on Implicit Bias, Affirmative Action, and Merit
Public sector organizations concerned about gender inequality have increasingly sought to address the effect of implicit biases on merit‐based employment practices through bias training and affirmative action programs. Applying qualitative content analysis to interviews with 104 managers in three government agencies in which bias training and affirmative action were being implemented, the authors find that many managers acknowledge the existence …
Challenging gender pay gaps
Dossier comprenant une introduction et 8 articles. - MILNER Susan, POCHIC Sophie, SCHEELE Alexandra and WILLIAMSON Sue : "Editorial : Challenging gender pay gaps: Organizational and regulatory strategies"- PARKEN Alison, ASHWORTH Rachel : "From evidence to action: Applying gender mainstreaming to pay gaps in the Welsh public sector"- CGREGOR Judy, DAVIES Sharyn Graham : "Achieving pay equity: Strategic mobilization for substantive equality in Aot…
The Review of the APS
As recently as 2016, the Australian Government stated its commitment to increasing gender equality in the Australian Public Service (APS) workforce. In May 2018, the Prime Minister announced a broad‐ranging Review of the APS, but gender equality was not mentioned in the Review Terms of Reference. An interim Review report was released in March 2019, which was also largely silent on gender issues. We examine the submissions to the Review to assess …
Representations of New Public Management in Australian Public Service gender equality policies
Purpose Governments have demonstrated a renewed interest in progressing gender equality for their workforces, including in Australia. This refocusing has resulted in a tranche of new gender equality policies being introduced into the Australian Public Service (APS). The purpose of this paper is to examine how New Public Management (NPM) is reflected in these gender equality policies and consider whether NPM may assist or hinder gender being “undo…
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2019
Interest in women’s labour force participation, economic security and pay equity received substantial media and public policy attention throughout 2019, largely attributable to the federal election and the Australian Labor Party platform, which included a comprehensive suite of policies aimed at advancing workplace gender equality. Following the Australian Labor Party’s unexpected loss at the polls, however, workplace gender equality largely fade…
Understanding, ownership, or resistance
Gender inequality persists in the public services in many Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries, despite decades of policy and strategic initiatives designed to promote greater equality. Resistance to gender equality, characterized by opposition to change or support for the status quo, has emerged as one potential explanation for the disconnection between policies and outcomes. This article explores whether concepts of …
Will working from home become the ‘new normal’ in the public sector
The COVID‐19 pandemic compelled large sections of the workforce out of their workplaces and into their homes to work. Many commentators suggest this has forever changed how and where we work. This article analyses how Australia's biggest employers – state and federal governments – approached the transitions to working from home, and back into regular workplaces. It considers the timing of policy responses to the pandemic as one indicator of resis…
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic drove significant changes affecting women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2020. This annual review explores the economic and social impact of the pandemic on women workers, and examines the gendered impact of key policy responses, including: the introduction of an historic temporary wage subsidy programme; the early release of superannuation funds; multiple economic stimulus measures, targeted mostly at male-d…
Change agents or defending the status quo? How senior leaders frame workplace gender equality
Senior leaders are usually understood to be ideally positioned to drive the organizational changes needed to promote workplace gender equality. Yet seniority also influences leaders' values and attitudes, and how they interpret evidence of inequalities, determine organizational priorities, and design and implement remedies. This article examines leaders' perceptions of workplace gender equality using system justification theory to explain survey …
Trusted institutions
Experts are increasingly replacing elected representatives in the planning of Australian cities and regions. Following concerns about delays and corruption, expert decision‐making has been promoted as an important mechanism to restore trust in the planning process. Others have expressed concerns about the loss of democracy entailed in this shift, but this is not the whole story. The nature of expertise is itself significant, and we examine the co…
Best person or best mix? How public sector managers understand the merit principle
As public sector organisations around the world enact strategies to progress gender equality, managers are forced to navigate the apparent conflict between making employment decisions on individual‐level ‘merit’ and considering the collective constraints and disadvantage that occur along gender lines. In this paper, we investigate how managers’ understandings of merit contribute to this tension. Analysing data collected in focus groups with 273 m…
Covid-normal workplaces
Working from home expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Controversy examines how working from home was framed and regulated pre-pandemic. We contrast this with the changes made to Australia's industrial award system during the pandemic to increase flexibilities around working from home, in response to a collective need for a responsive safety net. We argue that the conception and regulation of working from home is shifting from an i…
The future of working from home in the public sector
The COVID‐19 pandemic created a working from home experiment for the public sector. This paper examines what might happen next as countries move towards a COVID‐normal environment. Since the academic literature on public sector agencies and working from home since the onset of the pandemic is scant, we focus on the non‐peer‐reviewed literature as our evidence base. This paper identifies the main issues public sector agencies need to consider as n…
Collective bargaining in the Australian public service
In 2022, Australia's Labor Opposition pledged to reintroduce collective bargaining covering the whole Australian public service (APS) if elected. The elected Labor government is now implementing this ground-breaking reform. The APS has, since 1997, bargained at the agency level with no mandated common terms and conditions of employment applying across the service. This has led to pay dispersion and inequity, and fragmentation of the terms and con…
Regulating for gender equality in the Australian Public Service
Western governments have used regulation to progress gender equality for workforces in both the private and public sectors, yet gender equality has not yet been achieved. While governments have used various regulatory forms, Dickens (1999) argued that a tripod of collective bargaining, legislation and human resource policy would progress gender equality. Little consideration has been given to how these elements of the tripod fit together. We appl…
Working from home during Covid‐19
The ideal worker norm is associated with specific ways of working. The ideal worker is a man who works long hours, is constantly available, and highly productive. Emerging research suggests that the shock of COVID‐19, which forced millions of employees to work from home, may have been powerful enough to disrupt the ideal worker norm. We therefore ask: how did working from home during the pandemic impact the ideal worker norm? We apply Acker's ide…
Public servants working from home during the pandemic
Employees experienced both advantages and disadvantages while working from home during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Researchers have examined these impacts on women and those with caring responsibilities; however, little research has examined the impacts on other groups of employees, such as those with a disability or employed on a casual basis. In this article, we focus on the public sector and examine who gained and who lost while working from home, …
Will return‐to‐office mandates prevent proximity bias for employees working from home
This Practice and Policy article examines return‐to‐office mandates, the latest human resource controversy. These mandates are an organisational directive for employees who have been working from home to return to working in their employer's premise. Drawing on the literature and our research on working from home and hybrid working, we consider whether mandates may prevent proximity bias. We conclude that mandates requiring employees to return to…
Political science (23 obras) · Public relations (16 obras) · Law (14 obras) · Sociology (14 obras) · Economics (12 obras) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (12 obras) · Law (11 obras) · Business (10 obras) · Gender Politics and Representation (10 obras) · Employment and Welfare Studies (9 obras)