An international evaluation of work-family balance: Validation of the work-family balance measure and theoretical model. Work-family imbalance costs Australia $8 billion per annum, via staff absenteeism, turnover, and health costs. By employing two Australian and three international experts, this project will investigate the long-term process of work-family balance, identify effective employment policies, and produce a new balance measure for use by industry and government. This will lead to imp ....An international evaluation of work-family balance: Validation of the work-family balance measure and theoretical model. Work-family imbalance costs Australia $8 billion per annum, via staff absenteeism, turnover, and health costs. By employing two Australian and three international experts, this project will investigate the long-term process of work-family balance, identify effective employment policies, and produce a new balance measure for use by industry and government. This will lead to improved health, personal satisfaction and employment choices for working Australians, and hence higher productivity for industry. The research addresses the second national research priority: promoting and maintaining good health. The consequential contributions to knowledge will directly benefit Australia's regard within the global academic community.Read moreRead less
Sexual harassment in Australia: Contexts, outcomes and prevention. Sexual harassment remains a persistent workplace issue with significant social costs. The project will examine how to most effectively prevent sexual harassment and to reduce the impact of sexual harassment for individuals and organizations where it occurs. A comprehensive analysis will be undertaken, drawing on a longitudinal study of more than 100 'targets' of sexual harassment, interviews with a wide range of employers and ext ....Sexual harassment in Australia: Contexts, outcomes and prevention. Sexual harassment remains a persistent workplace issue with significant social costs. The project will examine how to most effectively prevent sexual harassment and to reduce the impact of sexual harassment for individuals and organizations where it occurs. A comprehensive analysis will be undertaken, drawing on a longitudinal study of more than 100 'targets' of sexual harassment, interviews with a wide range of employers and external complaint handling bodies, and an analysis of formal and informal reports. The project outcomes will contribute to improved policy and practice in workplaces and human rights and assist other bodies to prevent and more effectively respond to sexual harassment.Read moreRead less
Customising work through manager-employee exchange. This project will explore how managers and employees customise the terms and conditions of standardised employment arrangements. The results will inform legislation such as right to request provisions and organisational strategies such as manager training which support effective, mutually beneficial manager-employee exchanges.
Workplace participatory practices: Learning through and for work. The project aims to examine the relationship between individuals? participation in and their learning through paid work. This is warranted because current conceptions of learning throughout working lives fail to fully account for the reciprocal processes of workplace affordances and individual engagement that together shape participation in and learning from work. The study seeks to illuminate participatory practices across differ ....Workplace participatory practices: Learning through and for work. The project aims to examine the relationship between individuals? participation in and their learning through paid work. This is warranted because current conceptions of learning throughout working lives fail to fully account for the reciprocal processes of workplace affordances and individual engagement that together shape participation in and learning from work. The study seeks to illuminate participatory practices across different kinds of workplaces and also those within workplaces for different categories of workers. The procedures comprise an investigation of the participation in and learning of 6 groups of workers employed in distinct kinds of work over an eighteen month period.Read moreRead less
The impact of emotional intelligence and styles of conflict resolution on performance in high and low stress situations. Research from 1980 reveals that organizations in Australia do not deal well with conflict (Hollis & Cunnington, 1980). Recent research has revealed similiar shortcomings within Australian organisations (Lewis et al., 1997). Improving the effectiveness of individuals in resolving conflict is vital for organisational effectiveness in both the private and public sectors. In par ....The impact of emotional intelligence and styles of conflict resolution on performance in high and low stress situations. Research from 1980 reveals that organizations in Australia do not deal well with conflict (Hollis & Cunnington, 1980). Recent research has revealed similiar shortcomings within Australian organisations (Lewis et al., 1997). Improving the effectiveness of individuals in resolving conflict is vital for organisational effectiveness in both the private and public sectors. In particular, functional conflict can contribute to organisational innovation, creativity and productivity. The understanding gained about the links between emotions and conflict resolution in this research will assist in identifying and improving the skills that contribute to better conflict resolution and consequentially better performance within organisations.Read moreRead less
Testing a Multi-level Theory of Emotion in Organisations. Affective moods and emotions at work are now recognised internationally as important determinants of employee attitudes and behaviours at work, including job satisfaction, turnover, and performance. This collaborative project involves research teams in Australia and the United States, and entails three studies of the role of emotions in organisations. Based on experience-sampling methods, where participants report real-time data using ha ....Testing a Multi-level Theory of Emotion in Organisations. Affective moods and emotions at work are now recognised internationally as important determinants of employee attitudes and behaviours at work, including job satisfaction, turnover, and performance. This collaborative project involves research teams in Australia and the United States, and entails three studies of the role of emotions in organisations. Based on experience-sampling methods, where participants report real-time data using hand-held computers, the studies span within-person, between-persons, leadership, group, and organisational levels of analysis. The project also extends previous research by studying organisations as a source of depletion of regulatory resources that limit employees' potential to perform to their ability.Read moreRead less
Managing anger responses to perceptions of unfair managerial treatment. Workers' experience of anger at work can be distracting and result in lower performance, which contributes to lower productivity in the Australian economy. This project seeks to understand this phenomenon and offer solutions for minimising the impact of anger at work for both individuals and workgroups.
Emotional reactions to job insecurity, emotional intelligence, and their effects on employee behaviour. Insecurity at work is a major experience for many Australian workers and research reveals that perceptions of job insecurity are increasing. A new model of employees? emotional and behavioural reactions to perceptions of job insecurity has been developed that focuses on the emotional aspects of job insecurity and describes how employees cope with job insecurity. This project develops an origin ....Emotional reactions to job insecurity, emotional intelligence, and their effects on employee behaviour. Insecurity at work is a major experience for many Australian workers and research reveals that perceptions of job insecurity are increasing. A new model of employees? emotional and behavioural reactions to perceptions of job insecurity has been developed that focuses on the emotional aspects of job insecurity and describes how employees cope with job insecurity. This project develops an original program of research to empirically explore the impact of emotional reactions to job insecurity and extend the model to look at the effect on individual and team decision-making with the aim of improving businesses response to this increasingly common phenomenon.Read moreRead less