Disenfranchised Workers: A view from within the Public Service Tanya Paterson Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctorate of Philosophy in Education by Thesis at Victoria University. November, 2011 1 2 Table of Contents Declaration of authorship ........................................................................................................ 10 Dedication ................................................................................................................................ 11 Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................... 12 Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter One - Introduction ..................................................................................................... 14 Contribution to knowledge ...................................................................................................... 15 Question ................................................................................................................................... 15 Definitions of terms ................................................................................................................. 16 Public Service ........................................................................................................................... 16 Pay grade.................................................................................................................................. 16 The Participants ....................................................................................................................... 21 Abby ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Alex ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Carol ......................................................................................................................................... 24 Cathy ........................................................................................................................................ 26 Harry......................................................................................................................................... 27 Jane .......................................................................................................................................... 27 Janelle ...................................................................................................................................... 29 3 Jessie ........................................................................................................................................ 29 Kelly .......................................................................................................................................... 31 Lily ............................................................................................................................................ 33 Lisa ........................................................................................................................................... 35 Lyn ............................................................................................................................................ 36 Nicole ....................................................................................................................................... 38 Robyn ....................................................................................................................................... 39 Roger ........................................................................................................................................ 41 Rose .......................................................................................................................................... 42 Sally .......................................................................................................................................... 44 Sharon ...................................................................................................................................... 46 Tom .......................................................................................................................................... 48 Wendy ...................................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter Two - Methodology ................................................................................................... 51 Ethnography ............................................................................................................................. 52 Phenomenology ....................................................................................................................... 54 Post-structuralism .................................................................................................................... 55 Narrative theories .................................................................................................................... 57 Heroes of our stories ............................................................................................................... 58 Purposive sampling .................................................................................................................. 59 4 Snowball sampling ................................................................................................................... 61 Interviews ................................................................................................................................. 63 The Immediacy Transfer .......................................................................................................... 65 The I in interview ..................................................................................................................... 68 Case study approach ................................................................................................................ 70 Chapter Three - The contest for credibility ............................................................................ 72 Part one - The Validity of me. .................................................................................................. 74 Part 2 - The validity of the participants’ stories ....................................................................... 77 Part 3 – The Validity of the analysis ......................................................................................... 78 Part 4 - The Validity of the topic .............................................................................................. 82 Chapter 4 - The nature of work – The nature of workers ...................................................... 87 Theory X ................................................................................................................................... 88 The abused worker .................................................................................................................. 89 Face .......................................................................................................................................... 98 Incivility .................................................................................................................................... 99 Human Resource departments’ role in public service disenfranchisement ......................... 101 Dignity .................................................................................................................................... 104 Zest ......................................................................................................................................... 106 Optimism ................................................................................................................................ 108 Chapter Five - The personality of tyranny ............................................................................ 109 5 Mobbing ................................................................................................................................. 110 Mistreatment ......................................................................................................................... 113 Bureaupathologies ................................................................................................................. 114 Some conclusions ................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter Six - The Scourge of Professionalism ...................................................................... 130 The Professional arsenal ........................................................................................................ 135 Passion ................................................................................................................................... 138 Solutions................................................................................................................................. 142 Chapter Seven - Saving money, losing souls ........................................................................ 143 Chapter Eight - Thwarted potential .....................................................................................