Welcome!
Rural employment relations have been a distinctive feature at Lincoln University since the 1970s. Most recently this work has been based in the Agricultural Management and Property Studies Department, Faculty of Commerce.
While Industrial Relations was the dominant discipline of the 1970s, that was succeeded by Human Resource Management from the 1980s (never a feature of this group), and most recently by Employment Relations, since 2000 enshrined in the Employment Relations Acts.
Working from a strong legal framework, the Rural Employment Relations Group is concerned about improving rural employment relationships through a better understanding of rural labour markets and individual employment relationships. The latter are conceptualised as a combination of a legal contract of employment and a number of psychological contracts. Psychological contracts have been a focus of Dr. Rupert Tipples' research. They help to explain individual relationships and provide guidance on ways to improve those relationships to achieve greater job productivity, satisfaction and longevity.
Through this website, we'd like to raise the public awareness of rural employment issues, and encourage the exchange of ideas on these topics. Any comments are welcome - whether you are an academic or a farmer/grower, or a government officer. For more information about what we do, please see Activities.
Why Rural?
Most research and writing on employment relations inevitably has a strong urban focus. With the primary production sector (agriculture, forestry, horticulture, viticulture etc.) forming such a significant part of the New Zealand economy and external trade, the employment relations of the sector are vital for continued increases in production and productivity of the New Zealand economy as a whole. Hence we are focusing on the employment relations of this often forgotten part of New Zealand.