Two months ago, I thought that I was well prepared to produce a literature review for a trade union, but as the scope of the project was established and the structure of my review was drafted, preliminary feedback from my supervisor suggested that I was steering away from the purpose that she had had in mind for the project. I paused, reviewed what I had worked on to date, and decided to reproduce everything over the final two weeks of the course. In hindsight, I took a too-relaxed approach to negotiating the terms of the output, and made a number of assumptions as to its purpose that weren’t shared by my host organisation. Specifically, I was writing an academic literature review, and what the union actually wanted was something more resembling a policy brief. Thus, the final week in particular was a rush to ensure that the focus of my output was aligned to the purpose intended by the host organisation, which result in a few late nights and early mornings of caffeine-fuelled reading of material, writing, proof-reading, and re-writing. Eventually I produced something resembling a literature review and policy brief in one – but its lack of scholarly depth still bugs me, even though the union asked for more emphasis to be placed on industry sources.
However, although the final stretch of my IDRP proved to be a greater struggle than I had prepared for, I have received some positive feedback from the organisation I’ve been working with, which makes the stress and anxiety worthwhile. For example I have heard that my literature review/policy brief has triggered renewed interest in the seasonal worker programme within the union, both at its Victorian Branch and at the union’s head office in New South Wales, which determines the overall policy positions of the union. I have been invited to engage in further discussion about the impacts of the recent reforms to the seasonal worker programme, which include uncapping the number of temporary workers able to be hired through the scheme. Early communications about these meetings indicate that the Australian Council of Trade Unions is already conducting a long-term monitoring and evaluation study on the impacts of the programme moving to an uncapped model over the next two to three seasons, so there may be further scope for me to examine the details of this labour mobility arrangement between Australia and the Pacific in the future.
Thanks for reading these, and farewell 🙂