Australia's first job descriptions and the formalised management of convict labour

Australia’s First Job Descriptions and the Formalised Management of Convict Labour W.M. Robbinswrobbins@csu.edu.au Abstract Using archival documentation this paper argues Governor Macquarie developed a range of complex and sophisticated management policies, practices and strategies which were designed to motivate convict workers and to positively extract productive labour from them. These practices and strategies must be seen as a rational, systematic and largely humane approach to the management of convict labour. Indeed the range of policies adopted by Macquarie was surprisingly modern and nowhere is this more apparent than in his development of clear job statements and work regulations. In practice these operated, to varying degrees, in a similar manner to the modern Job Description. This paper will examine the regulations developed for the management of the turnpike road from Sydney to Parramatta, for the management of the Sydney produce market and for the management of the Sydney police. Each of these regulations provide insight and detail on how the various tasks and roles associated with the management of road, market and policing were to be performed. Indeed, the detail of the Police regulations was so great that the roles, duties and responsibilities of the whole hierarchy of policing jobs were outlined and specified in a manner that is explicitly akin to the modern Job Description. It is argued that this set of regulations and rules must be seen as the first Job Description in Australian history.