Dr Sarah Oxenbridge

Position: Researcher
Phone: 02 9036 9080
Email: s.oxenbridge@econ.usyd.edu.au

Qualifications: B. Com, M. Com, Ph.D (Victoria)

Sarah Oxenbridge has worked as an IR researcher since 1993. She completed a PhD in 1998 which examined the strategies adopted by New Zealand trade unions in response to the Employment Contracts Act 1991. Since then she has conducted research exploring the individualisation of employment relations, and organising strategies adopted by trade unions in the US, UK, and New Zealand. Between 1999 and 2003 she worked at the University of Cambridge on two ESRC-funded projects examining the future of collectivism in IR, and employer-trade union partnership arrangements. From 2003 to 2005 she worked for the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) as a senior researcher, where she managed and commissioned research evaluating Acas’ services, and worked as part of the team of researchers responsible for designing and analysing the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS2004). Since 2006 she has worked at the Workplace Research Centre as part of the research teams managing the Australia at Work survey and the Police at Work survey.

Areas of Expertise:

Qualitative and quantitative research; workplace-level IR surveys and case studies; evaluations of the impact of policy interventions and legislative change; evaluations of the impact of organisational change interventions. Key areas of focus: management and trade union strategy; union and non-union workplace consultative structures; processes and outcomes of organisational change programmes.

Publications:

• Oxenbridge, S. Wallace, J. Lansbury, R, Tierney, S. White, L. (forthcoming, 2008) ‘A comparative analysis of restructuring employment relationships in Qantas and Aer Lingus: Different routes, similar destinations.’ International Human Resource Management Journal
• van Wanrooy, B. Oxenbridge, S. Buchanan, J. Jakubauskus, M. (2007) Australia at Work: The Benchmark Report. Sydney, Workplace Research Centre
• Kersley, B. Alpin, C. Forth, J. Bryson, A. Bewley, H. Dix, G. and Oxenbridge, S. (2006) Inside the Workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey. Routledge: London
• § Oxenbridge, S. and Brown, W. (2005) Developing Partnership Relationships: A Case of Leveraging Power. In Stuart, M. and Martinez Lucio M. (eds) Partnership and Modernisation in Employment Relations, London: Routledge
• Walsh, P. Oxenbridge, S. and Wetzel, K. (2005) Public sector restructuring, management strategy and trade union response, in P. Fairbrother and A. Rainnie (eds) Globalisation, State and Capital, London: Routledge
• Dix, G. and Oxenbridge, S. (2004) Coming to the Table with Acas: From Conflict to Co-operation, Employee Relations, 26:5, pp. 510-530
• Oxenbridge, S. and Brown, W. (2004) Achieving a new equilibrium? The stability of co-operative employer-union relationships, Industrial Relations Journal, 35:5, pp. 388-402
• Oxenbridge, S. Brown, W. Deakin, S. and Pratten, C. (2003) Initial Responses to the Statutory Recognition Provisions of the Employment Relations Act 1999, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41:2, pp. 315-334.
• Oxenbridge, S. and Brown, W. (2002) The Two Faces of Partnership? An Assessment of Partnership and Co-operative Employer/Trade Union Relationships, Employee Relations, 24:3, pp. 262-276
• Brown, W. Deakin, S. Nash, D. and Oxenbridge, S. (2000) The Employment Contract: from Collective Procedures to Individual Rights, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 38:4, pp. 611-629