ABSTRACT
This review has highlighted a number of trends in HRM practice within Australia, such as the movement toward more inclusive labor management practices, adoption of behavioral codes that incorporate ethical standards, greater sophistication in the nature of the administration of recruitment, training, enterprise bargaining, remuneration and performance appraisal, efforts to benchmark practices against other countries and, underpinning all these changes, moves toward upgrading the standards of professional preparation and practice. Despite this, however, the process toward a more inclusive workplace is slow and the gains have been marginal. HR professionals seem to be on their way to the realization of being valued as business partners but they still have a long distance to travel, compared with counterparts in North America, Canada, and some parts of Asia. Isolation, coupled with the comparative smaller size of Australian organizations, means the demands on the HR professional may be less than those on their counterparts in larger economies.
