Supervisor strategies for managing employee stress and strain: a national approach to psychosocial risk management. This research aims to identify supervisor strategies for managing occupational stress in their work teams. Expected outcomes include reduction in the number of employees reporting that they are exposed to stress and suffering from the effects of ill-health, thereby reducing workers' compensation claims for stress and lowering associated costs.
Increasing the effectiveness of remote and cross-cultural collaborations in organisations. Minerals, oil and gas exports dominate the Australian economy, and the effective organisation and management of collaborative work spanning remote, dispersed, environmentally fragile and culturally sensitive locations in this industry is a key challenge. Findings will provide insight into the systems, processes, and skills that are required to collaborate in these domains, improving international competiti ....Increasing the effectiveness of remote and cross-cultural collaborations in organisations. Minerals, oil and gas exports dominate the Australian economy, and the effective organisation and management of collaborative work spanning remote, dispersed, environmentally fragile and culturally sensitive locations in this industry is a key challenge. Findings will provide insight into the systems, processes, and skills that are required to collaborate in these domains, improving international competitiveness and global impact. Extensive efforts to interpret, synthesize and disseminate findings for scholars and non-scientists will also help inform educational agendas within industry and higher education to better prepare future collaborators.Read moreRead less
The 'long arm of the job': Improving parents' jobs and child development. This project aims to identify the priority job stressors that impact working families' wellbeing and child development, and to generate innovative job-based strategies to reduce work-family conflicts for working parents. Conflicts between work and family are common in Australia, reported by one in three parents. These affect productivity, family relationships and ultimately, child development. Evidence reveals that employe ....The 'long arm of the job': Improving parents' jobs and child development. This project aims to identify the priority job stressors that impact working families' wellbeing and child development, and to generate innovative job-based strategies to reduce work-family conflicts for working parents. Conflicts between work and family are common in Australia, reported by one in three parents. These affect productivity, family relationships and ultimately, child development. Evidence reveals that employers have struggled to implement family-friendly practices despite recent national policy initiatives. Using national cohort data and industry partnerships, this project investigates solutions to this urgent national dilemma to benefit those most affected by parents' job stressors – working parents and their children.
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Adapting Automation Transparency to Allow Accurate Use by Humans . The project will conduct the human factors research urgently required to discover how best to make automation in high-risk work settings more transparent and usable by humans. In safety-critical work contexts such as defence and aviation, automated decision aids improve human decision-making. Unfortunately however, catastrophic accidents have occurred because human operators have either not followed correct automated advice, or f ....Adapting Automation Transparency to Allow Accurate Use by Humans . The project will conduct the human factors research urgently required to discover how best to make automation in high-risk work settings more transparent and usable by humans. In safety-critical work contexts such as defence and aviation, automated decision aids improve human decision-making. Unfortunately however, catastrophic accidents have occurred because human operators have either not followed correct automated advice, or followed incorrect automated advice. A series of human factors studies using unmanned vehicle control, air traffic control, and submarine track management tasks (including testing experts in field settings) will discover how best to design transparent automation that can be safely and efficiently used by humans.Read moreRead less
Building individual and collective proactivity in performance-critical work contexts. This research focuses on mobilising individuals and groups to take charge of their situations and self-initiate positive change. It aims to support proactive workforces that can deliver quality health care and community service because employees think ahead, actively introduce better ways of doing things and make the most of opportunities.
A multilevel approach to leadership and dynamic capabilities in organisations. The quality of leadership in Australian organisations has an impact on business productivity, international competitiveness, and employee health and well-being. This research will support the development of leadership skills at different organisational levels. For senior leaders, these skills include developing strategy, allocating resources, and supporting innovation. For team leaders, skills include team coordinatio ....A multilevel approach to leadership and dynamic capabilities in organisations. The quality of leadership in Australian organisations has an impact on business productivity, international competitiveness, and employee health and well-being. This research will support the development of leadership skills at different organisational levels. For senior leaders, these skills include developing strategy, allocating resources, and supporting innovation. For team leaders, skills include team coordination, employee support, and creating flexibility. By supporting interventions that build adaptivity and flexibility in organisations, the research will provide resources to support dynamic organisations to be better equipped to compete in demanding international markets.Read moreRead less
Enhancing Australia's Social Connectedness and Emotional Well-being. This project aims to redefine scientific understanding of why social connections are good for well-being, conceptualizing it as a process that involves successful regulation of emotions and behaviour. Effective social interventions require precise understanding of psychological process: the project will supply this understanding and leverage it to develop evidence-based interventions that grow social and emotional skills. Expec ....Enhancing Australia's Social Connectedness and Emotional Well-being. This project aims to redefine scientific understanding of why social connections are good for well-being, conceptualizing it as a process that involves successful regulation of emotions and behaviour. Effective social interventions require precise understanding of psychological process: the project will supply this understanding and leverage it to develop evidence-based interventions that grow social and emotional skills. Expected outcomes include generation of a novel literature at the intersection of social- and self-regulation and methodological innovations in the study of social connections. Significant benefits include creation of applied interventions with the potential to provide a ‘social cure’ for Australia’s loneliness problem.Read moreRead less
A new pathway to self-control: Testing a social-neurocognitive model of aggressive desires. One universal human desire is the urge to hurt another person when angry. This project aims to identify the psychological and neural mechanisms that will reduce the likelihood that people will experience the desire to hurt others when angered. Recent advances in self-regulation, have produced models sophisticated enough to develop and test predictions about how to stop harmful desires from arising.
Racism, Wellbeing and Extremist Identification in Australia. Drawing on established social psychological theories of prejudice, the project aims to combat racism by ascertaining how it is maintained within a multicultural society and how its damaging consequences can be diminished. Racism is a pervasive problem and its harmful effects cost Australia an estimated $46.4 billion each year. The project plans to investigate how small negative interracial interactions can perpetuate racial hostility a ....Racism, Wellbeing and Extremist Identification in Australia. Drawing on established social psychological theories of prejudice, the project aims to combat racism by ascertaining how it is maintained within a multicultural society and how its damaging consequences can be diminished. Racism is a pervasive problem and its harmful effects cost Australia an estimated $46.4 billion each year. The project plans to investigate how small negative interracial interactions can perpetuate racial hostility and segregation; how negative interracial interactions might lead to extremist identification and sympathies; and how prejudice and discrimination develops between different minority groups. It also plans to investigate how positive interactions with majority groups (eg White Australians) might promote wellbeing and healthy behaviours in minority group members. Project outcomes may lead to solutions that promote social cohesion in Australia.Read moreRead less
The processing of fear in the medial temporal lobe. The aim of this project is to identify how fear affects information processing in the medial temporal lobe (MTL). It is significant in providing the first systematic assessment of how fear alters processing of different types of information in the MTL, including the innocuous; and how fear affects processing of memories in MTL networks, including their integration. The expected outcomes are basic knowledge regarding these effects of fear, and a ....The processing of fear in the medial temporal lobe. The aim of this project is to identify how fear affects information processing in the medial temporal lobe (MTL). It is significant in providing the first systematic assessment of how fear alters processing of different types of information in the MTL, including the innocuous; and how fear affects processing of memories in MTL networks, including their integration. The expected outcomes are basic knowledge regarding these effects of fear, and a theory of MTL function in which they are explained. The benefit of this knowledge is a better understanding of how information is processed in a normal brain, and therefore, disturbances to information processing in fear-related disorders (e.g., over-generalization of fear in post-traumatic stress).Read moreRead less