Place, Scale and Employment Relations in Australia: Enterprise Agreements and Individual Contracts in the Coal and Finance Industries. This study will explore the spatial (geographical) content of workplace agreements. It will probe underlying processes of how unions and management in the coal and finance industries use inherent geographical dimensions to influence and shape industrial relations. Overcoming the spatial-blindness that has pervaded industrial relations research to enhance underst ....Place, Scale and Employment Relations in Australia: Enterprise Agreements and Individual Contracts in the Coal and Finance Industries. This study will explore the spatial (geographical) content of workplace agreements. It will probe underlying processes of how unions and management in the coal and finance industries use inherent geographical dimensions to influence and shape industrial relations. Overcoming the spatial-blindness that has pervaded industrial relations research to enhance understanding of new employment mechanisms and their implications for the future is imperative. Significant conceptual advance will be achieved by integrating core concepts from labour geography with notions of industrial relations decentralisation and practices that preference individualism over collectivism.Read moreRead less
The training and job decisions of nurses: an integrated approach using panel surveys and dynamic discrete choice experiments. The nursing shortage in Australia is considered to be at crisis stage. The results of this study will lead to improved recruitment and retention of students in nursing, improved retention of new nurses in the health workforce, better design of nursing roles and job structure, and testing of the acceptability of changed health service delivery models. It will also lead to ....The training and job decisions of nurses: an integrated approach using panel surveys and dynamic discrete choice experiments. The nursing shortage in Australia is considered to be at crisis stage. The results of this study will lead to improved recruitment and retention of students in nursing, improved retention of new nurses in the health workforce, better design of nursing roles and job structure, and testing of the acceptability of changed health service delivery models. It will also lead to better health workforce planning. The study directly contributes to filling the gaps in health labour force quantitative studies identified in a recent Productivity Commission Report, and provides a basis for the implementation of the Commission's recommendations.Read moreRead less
Pay alignment: Fact or fallacy? The project will make an important contribution to our understanding of the impact of employee pay system configuration on firm performance and, in turn, on national productivity and Australia's social and economic fabric. The findings will enrich pay system theory and guide evidence-based improvement in firms' pay practices. It will help employers to identify the most contextually appropriate and effective ways to manage pay level, structure and plan choice and t ....Pay alignment: Fact or fallacy? The project will make an important contribution to our understanding of the impact of employee pay system configuration on firm performance and, in turn, on national productivity and Australia's social and economic fabric. The findings will enrich pay system theory and guide evidence-based improvement in firms' pay practices. It will help employers to identify the most contextually appropriate and effective ways to manage pay level, structure and plan choice and thus to design pay systems that employees in different workplace contexts perceive as fair and that enhance organisational performance and ability to attract, motivate and retain high calibre staff.Read moreRead less
Human-centred Teamwork Analytics. This project aims to develop methods to assist the assessment and improvement of collocated teamwork, by making multimodal activity traces visible and available for computational analysis. This project expects to bridge the gap between promising sensing technologies and the dearth of tools to automatically assess teamwork. Expected outcomes include co-design and modelling methodologies for human-centred analytics that map from low-level data to higher-order cons ....Human-centred Teamwork Analytics. This project aims to develop methods to assist the assessment and improvement of collocated teamwork, by making multimodal activity traces visible and available for computational analysis. This project expects to bridge the gap between promising sensing technologies and the dearth of tools to automatically assess teamwork. Expected outcomes include co-design and modelling methodologies for human-centred analytics that map from low-level data to higher-order constructs to enable non-data science savvy users to get actionable insights into multimodal team traces. This research aims to provide significant benefits to Australia, with communication and teamwork being two of the topmost critical skills required by Australian employers.Read moreRead less
An econometric analysis of the effects of family benefit policies on fertility, saving and labour force participation in Australia. This project will help to 'strengthen Australia's economic fabric' by improving our understanding of the effect of family benefit policies on fertility, saving and labour force participation. This is important because boosting fertility and labour force participation are both seen as ways of mitigating the economic burden of population ageing, thereby helping Austra ....An econometric analysis of the effects of family benefit policies on fertility, saving and labour force participation in Australia. This project will help to 'strengthen Australia's economic fabric' by improving our understanding of the effect of family benefit policies on fertility, saving and labour force participation. This is important because boosting fertility and labour force participation are both seen as ways of mitigating the economic burden of population ageing, thereby helping Australia to 'age well, age productively' in a national sense. Also, achieving a desired level of national saving is a medium term goal of government economic policy. Hence it is important to understand the interaction of saving, fertility and labour force participation in order to develop compatible and effective economic policies.Read moreRead less
Developing interdisciplinary expertise in universities. This project aims to create a strong integrative research foundation to explain how university researchers and students develop the expertise needed to work in interdisciplinary teams and how this development can be enhanced. It combines three perspectives investigating: how research and innovation communities create interdisciplinary knowledge, how interdisciplinary teams learn to function effectively and the personal resourcefulness that ....Developing interdisciplinary expertise in universities. This project aims to create a strong integrative research foundation to explain how university researchers and students develop the expertise needed to work in interdisciplinary teams and how this development can be enhanced. It combines three perspectives investigating: how research and innovation communities create interdisciplinary knowledge, how interdisciplinary teams learn to function effectively and the personal resourcefulness that enables individuals to participate in interdisciplinary work. The outcomes will provide a much better understanding of the qualities that help individuals and groups to work productively across disciplinary boundaries. They will be used to create better strategies for supporting interdisciplinary learningRead moreRead less
Understanding gender inequality in the post-pandemic future of work. This project examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis on the working futures of young women and men in three advanced market economies where the pandemic hit with varying degrees of severity. Young people have experienced the greatest upheaval of all workers, and the impact has been gendered. Recovery strategies will have lasting consequences for women’s and men’s working futures. The project will produc ....Understanding gender inequality in the post-pandemic future of work. This project examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis on the working futures of young women and men in three advanced market economies where the pandemic hit with varying degrees of severity. Young people have experienced the greatest upheaval of all workers, and the impact has been gendered. Recovery strategies will have lasting consequences for women’s and men’s working futures. The project will produce macro-level mapping of post-pandemic national work/care regimes, and micro-level survey data on young people’s experience of and attitudes to the future of work in Australia, the UK and Japan, to deliver insights on the gendered economic and social impact of the pandemic and inform a more inclusive global recovery.Read moreRead less
Improving the life chances of young disabled Australians. This project will determine the social and economic impact of disability on young people and identify why some young people experience more negative outcomes. The outcome will be a model of the impact of disability which can be used to guide and monitor progress towards Australia's social inclusion agenda for people with disabilities. A substantial benefit will be growth in Australia's capacity in disability disadvantage research.
Do New Migrants move from Bad Jobs to Good Jobs: The Dynamics of Immigrant Settlement in Australia. This research investigates the dynamics of immigrant settlement in Australia. It studies the extent to which tightening up of the selection procedure for migrants and limiting access to social security has led to improved labour market success. It analyses the extent to which different groups of migrants who come from different countries and enter under different visa categories go through a phase ....Do New Migrants move from Bad Jobs to Good Jobs: The Dynamics of Immigrant Settlement in Australia. This research investigates the dynamics of immigrant settlement in Australia. It studies the extent to which tightening up of the selection procedure for migrants and limiting access to social security has led to improved labour market success. It analyses the extent to which different groups of migrants who come from different countries and enter under different visa categories go through a phase of unemployment, followed by a ?bad job? (in terms of their previous qualifications, wage levels, satisfaction with the job, etc.) before moving into a ?good job?. The research uses modern econometric techniques on recent panel data.Read moreRead less
The Demand for Older Workers: Technology, Skill and Employment Opportunities. "Productive ageing" policies are central to Australia's strategies for the governance of population ageing. But little is known about the determinants of firms' demand for older workers. By uncovering the impact that technological change has on firms' hiring and training decisions, this study will critically complement our understanding of older workers' constrained employment opportunities. In so doing it seeks to inf ....The Demand for Older Workers: Technology, Skill and Employment Opportunities. "Productive ageing" policies are central to Australia's strategies for the governance of population ageing. But little is known about the determinants of firms' demand for older workers. By uncovering the impact that technological change has on firms' hiring and training decisions, this study will critically complement our understanding of older workers' constrained employment opportunities. In so doing it seeks to inform the long-term policy debate on how best to adjust our economy to the current major demographic and technological development. Its outcomes will be of interest and use to policy makers, industry, advocacy groups, unions and the wider community.
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