Welfare receipt, demoralisation and mental health: how can welfare reform promote personal wellbeing and social inclusion? Welfare recipients are more likely to experience mental disorders and have poor wellbeing than non-recipients, and this can be a barrier to employment. This project examines the factors that may improve their mental health, promote employment outcomes, and help the Commonwealth Government develop effective welfare reform policies.
Hierarchy to high-performance? Evaluating 30yrs of Senior Executive Service. This project aims to evaluate whether Senior Executive Service (SES) schemes, introduced in the public sector the 1980s, have enabled the delivery of superior performance. This study will examine all nine Australian jurisdictions, across time in order to identify how and why institutional frameworks changed, analyse the composition of the SES and identify their changing roles and accountabilities. The expected outcomes ....Hierarchy to high-performance? Evaluating 30yrs of Senior Executive Service. This project aims to evaluate whether Senior Executive Service (SES) schemes, introduced in the public sector the 1980s, have enabled the delivery of superior performance. This study will examine all nine Australian jurisdictions, across time in order to identify how and why institutional frameworks changed, analyse the composition of the SES and identify their changing roles and accountabilities. The expected outcomes will provide a better understanding of the profile and roles of executives who lead policy development and service delivery, and an evaluation of whether current institutional frameworks optimise their capacity to perform their role.Read moreRead less
Optimizing benefits of cultural diversity in Australian healthcare sector. Australian society and workplaces are increasingly becoming culturally diverse with growing numbers of immigrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. However, it is not clear to what extent this diversity is being harnessed to improve organisational performance by leveraging the diverse range of knowledge and skills of CaLD customers and employees. This project aims to use social identity theory ....Optimizing benefits of cultural diversity in Australian healthcare sector. Australian society and workplaces are increasingly becoming culturally diverse with growing numbers of immigrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. However, it is not clear to what extent this diversity is being harnessed to improve organisational performance by leveraging the diverse range of knowledge and skills of CaLD customers and employees. This project aims to use social identity theory and role theory to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for the process by which organisations identify, acknowledge, engage, accept, and adapt to cultural and linguistic diversity among their customers and employees. We also plan to test this model with data from customers and employees in Australian service sector.Read moreRead less
COVID-19, health and labour market marginalisation . This project aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on labour market marginalisation in Australia. It seeks to generate new insights about whether the global economic shock had a disproportionately negative effect on the employment circumstances of working-age Australians with mental health and musculoskeletal/pain conditions, which are the leading causes of disability in Australia. The expected outcomes of this project includ ....COVID-19, health and labour market marginalisation . This project aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on labour market marginalisation in Australia. It seeks to generate new insights about whether the global economic shock had a disproportionately negative effect on the employment circumstances of working-age Australians with mental health and musculoskeletal/pain conditions, which are the leading causes of disability in Australia. The expected outcomes of this project include improved policy responses to direct effective support and assistance to those with the greatest need, and new resources for the research community. This should lead to significant benefits through reduced inequalities and improved social, economic and workforce outcomes for vulnerable Australians.Read moreRead less
Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities. Creative industries enterprises are increasingly important to Australia in a global knowledge-based economy. They account for 5.5% of national income, and recent work has shown they are 50% bigger than first estimated. But much research and policy assumes that these enterprises only take place in inner urban environments. This project will examine the work ....Creative Suburbia: A Critical Evaluation of the Scope for Creative Cultural Development in Australia's Suburban and Peri Urban Communities. Creative industries enterprises are increasingly important to Australia in a global knowledge-based economy. They account for 5.5% of national income, and recent work has shown they are 50% bigger than first estimated. But much research and policy assumes that these enterprises only take place in inner urban environments. This project will examine the work patterns of creative enterprise workers in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne, investigating how these enterprises work outside of inner city zones. Such work will enable a more empirically grounded understanding of creative enterprise dynamics, so that the creative and economic potential of these activities are better realised.Read moreRead less
Modelling the Causes of Regional Disparities across Australia. This project aims to explain the changing patterns of regional economic performance across Australia between 2001-2011 in the context of two developments: major structural shifts in world trade and commodity prices spawning massive mining growth and negative exchange rate impacts elsewhere (for example, manufacturing); and the financial crisis ending the credit boom leaving east coast economies struggling. The resulting regional disp ....Modelling the Causes of Regional Disparities across Australia. This project aims to explain the changing patterns of regional economic performance across Australia between 2001-2011 in the context of two developments: major structural shifts in world trade and commodity prices spawning massive mining growth and negative exchange rate impacts elsewhere (for example, manufacturing); and the financial crisis ending the credit boom leaving east coast economies struggling. The resulting regional disparities have policy implications for education and skills training, housing affordability, infrastructure provision, and community sustainability. These issues will be investigated using a new functional economic regions geography and state of art spatial modelling tools supplemented by regional case studies.Read moreRead less
Employment dynamics, social determinants and regional disparities. This project explains the nature of individual employment dynamics during and after the global financial crisis in the context of the social and economic characteristics of individuals and the characteristics of the local labour markets in which they operate. Understanding how the dynamic paths through various employment states vary according to both individual (people-based) and place-based influences has important implications ....Employment dynamics, social determinants and regional disparities. This project explains the nature of individual employment dynamics during and after the global financial crisis in the context of the social and economic characteristics of individuals and the characteristics of the local labour markets in which they operate. Understanding how the dynamic paths through various employment states vary according to both individual (people-based) and place-based influences has important implications for the development of sustainable labour market policies and reducing the impact of disadvantaged employment outcomes. These issues are investigated using new functional economic regions and state of art modelling. The project seeks to improve policy responses to and academic understanding of uneven employment outcomes across Australia.Read moreRead less
Job quality and care quality in aged care. The project aims to investigate how job quality and the quality of care are linked in residential and community-based aged care services. Population ageing and fewer informal carers place pressure on aged care provision across the OECD There is little understanding, at either the policy or workplace levels, of how the quality of aged care jobs affects the viability and quality of that provision. The project expects to improve knowledge about how job qua ....Job quality and care quality in aged care. The project aims to investigate how job quality and the quality of care are linked in residential and community-based aged care services. Population ageing and fewer informal carers place pressure on aged care provision across the OECD There is little understanding, at either the policy or workplace levels, of how the quality of aged care jobs affects the viability and quality of that provision. The project expects to improve knowledge about how job quality affects aged care quality; and identify care markets, policy regimes and work organisation that best support sustainable quality aged care.Read moreRead less
Public Policy and Immigrant Settlement in Australia. The proposed research will assess the relative importance of labour market conditions, income-support policy, and immigrant selection criteria in facilitating the settlement of recent immigrants in Australia. The project will be the first major academic study to make use of the complete data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia to compare two cohorts of recent immigrants who arrived under different policy settings and econom ....Public Policy and Immigrant Settlement in Australia. The proposed research will assess the relative importance of labour market conditions, income-support policy, and immigrant selection criteria in facilitating the settlement of recent immigrants in Australia. The project will be the first major academic study to make use of the complete data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia to compare two cohorts of recent immigrants who arrived under different policy settings and economic conditions and whose initial settlement outcomes varied dramatically. The results will advance our understanding of how immigrants adjust to Australia and will be useful for future policy development.
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Addressing the hour-glass ceiling: new case for action on gender equality. This project aims to provide new evidence on the twin wealth and health costs and benefits of greater gender equality in work hours, and new data resources for policy modelling and testing. It also aims to provide insights into progress on gender parity which appears to have stalled despite concerted policy action. Expected benefits of this evidence include improving the health and economic security of women, and the iden ....Addressing the hour-glass ceiling: new case for action on gender equality. This project aims to provide new evidence on the twin wealth and health costs and benefits of greater gender equality in work hours, and new data resources for policy modelling and testing. It also aims to provide insights into progress on gender parity which appears to have stalled despite concerted policy action. Expected benefits of this evidence include improving the health and economic security of women, and the identification of options for new policy actions to solve the problem of gender inequality in employment and earnings.Read moreRead less