Small firms and health and safety harmonisation: Potential regulatory effects of a dominant narrative

Document Type

Journal Article

Publisher

SAGE

Faculty

Faculty of Business and Law

School

School of Business / Centre for Innovative Practice

RAS ID

15821

Comments

Barrett, R. , Mayson, S., & Bahn, S. T. (2013). Small firms and health and safety harmonisation: Potential regulatory effects of a dominant narrative. Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(1), 62-80. Available here

Abstract

Small firms are popularly viewed as resistant to complying with regulation. Harmonisation of Australia’s state-based work health and safety regimes is a significant regulatory change. In this article, we consider the likely responses of small firms to work health and safety harmonisation and argue that a range of choices are open to small firm owner-managers. These choices are shaped by individuals’ world views and are influenced by elements in the firms’ context. A significant element is the public narrative of work health and safety harmonisation, which can be understood by using discourse and sense-making concepts. Our analysis of small firm owner-manager choices takes into account small firms’ embeddedness in their regulatory context and the influence on organisational decision-making of the narrative of work health and safety harmonisation. The dominant narrative is arguably silent on the benefits of the work health and safety regulatory change and therefore the response of small firms is likely to be avoidance or minimalism. Non-compliance could be the result due to poor awareness of opportunities arising from this regulatory change.

DOI

10.1177/0022185613498629

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