Abstract:
Industrial relations within the education profession are in a state of crisis. A lack of trust and confidence in the credibility of employer and employee associations is evident in their membership and betwixt their relevant bureaucracies. Extended depressed economic forecasts with the resultant calls for austerity measures by governments have exasperated strained relations. The traditionally centralised system of industrial relations in education was a bitter history sustained by an adversial culture. Contemporary research into industrial relations has advanced the call for a quantum shift in the approach from an adversarial culture to a co-operative, problem-solving and educative culture. The researchers briefly discuss the relevance of moral culture and moral leadership that requires an internally coherent moral theory that links responsibility, moral knowledge, organisational learning, feedback on consequences and effective cultural agency. The paper contains a critique of contemporary events within the Australian states and speculates upon future developments in industrial relations.