Description:
As with other industrialized nations Australia's population is aging and older workers are encouraged to work for longer. At the same time, Australia's university sector, which is aging, is being reconfigured through changes that potentially marginalize its older workers as higher education institutions try to become more competitive in a global market. In this context, youthfulness appears to embody competitiveness and academic institutions are increasingly aspiring to a young workforce profile. This qualitative article builds on previous research to explore to what extent ageist assumptions shape attitudes to older workers and human resource management (HRM) practices within Australian universities even when HRM practitioners are well versed in antidiscrimination legislation that (unlike the Age Discrimination in Employment Act in the United States) applies to workers of all ages. Semistructured interviews conducted with 22 HRM practitioners in Australian universities reveal that university HRM practices generally overlook the value of retaining an older workforce by conflating "potential" with "youthfulness," assuming that staff potential and performance share a negative correlation with age. While mostly lower-ranked institutions have attempted to retain older academics to maintain an adequate labor supply, this study finds that university policies targeting the ongoing utilization of older workers generally are underdeveloped. Consequently, the availability of late career employment arrangements is dependent upon institutions' strategic goals, with favorable ad hoc solutions offered to academics with outstanding performance records, while a rhetoric of performance decline threatens to marginalize older academic researchers and teachers more generally.
Description:
Green human resource management contributes to an understanding of the role of human resource management (HRM) towards sustainability and environmental outcomes. This paper assesses employees’ environmental knowledge as well as self-perceptions of ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) to practise green behaviours by operationalising the AMO framework towards a pro-environmental agenda. The study draws on a survey sample of 394 employees from five organisations in regional Australia. Key findings show that pro-environmental AMO are positively associated with green behaviours and that these are more prevalent at home than in the workplace. Further, line managers moderate the relationship between pro-environmental AMO and green behaviour although not the relationship between environmental knowledge and green behaviour. Such benchmark measurement informs HRM policies, practices and interventions and contributes to environmental management.
Description:
Fitness facilities are an important contributor to economies through preventative health policies of governments. Therefore, it is crucial that they are capable of ensuring the health and safety of their users during emergency situations under relevant work health and safety (WHS) legislation. This study aimed to analyse emergency response preparedness in fitness facilities in Australia and develop evidence-based strategic recommendations, using a mixed methods approach. An onsite observational audit tool and in-depth interviews were conducted at a sample of regional and metropolitan fitness facilities. The results showed that fitness facilities showed a lack of operational emergency response practices that requires an integrated approach to risk management by fitness facility operators. This gap between policy and practice has significant implications for all stakeholders involved in fitness service provision, including government agencies, academia and industry governing organisations.
Description:
There is evidence that the major anxiety and depressive disorders could reflect a single underlying internalization factor. For a group of 1,031 clinic-referred children, the study examined support for this factor, and used the two-parameter logistic model to examine the item response theory properties of the disorders in this factor. For the set of anxiety and depressive disorders, confirmatory factor analysis supported a one-factor model. The two-parameter logistic model analysis indicated that all the internalizing disorders in this factor were strong discriminators of the internalizing dimension. Also, they measured more of the internalizing dimension and with more precision in the upper half of the trait continuum. There was also support for the convergent validity of the internalizing dimension, in that it had large-to-medium effect size correlations with internalizing scores of other measures. The implications of the findings for clinical practice and clinical classification are discussed.
Description:
This study investigates the relationship between knowledge-sharing mechanisms, managerial tacit knowledge, and individual performance in the Malaysian public sector. Moderation effects of employee personality on these variables were also examined. Findings from 308 Malaysian public sector managers suggest that individual performance is influenced by levels of accumulated managerial tacit knowledge (LAMTK), which were moderated by employee personality traits. The findings also show that individual performance has an impact on the effectiveness of knowledge-sharing mechanisms.
Description:
An exploration of sources available to document the history of a specific type of Australian labour organisation, the regional trades and labour council, has been informed by a quest for the early history of the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council. This paper builds on previous surveys to investigate the variety, extent and relevance of sources available to document the formation of such organisations and the context within which they determine and carry out their strategies and campaigns. The paper also considers advances in technology and the challenges and opportunities they offer for accessing, appraising and making available labour history sources, both physical and born digital.
Description:
Post-implementation amendments to ERP systems (ERP-PIA) are of importance for advancing ERP research, but more importantly essential if ERP systems are to be used as a strategic and competitive business tool. For ease of clarity, we have adopted the term “amendments” to encompass the main forms of post implementation activities: maintenance, enhancements and upgrades. The term “amendments” is used to counteract one of the major findings from this research - the inconsistency of terms used by many authors to explain post implementation activities. This paper presents a review of the ERP post-implementation amendment literature in order to provide answers to two specific questions: first, what is the current state of research in the field of ERP-PIA; and second, what are the future research directions that need to be explored in the field of ERP-PIA. From the review, we develop a framework to identify: (a) major themes concerning ERP post-implementation amendments, (b) inherent gaps in the post-implementation amendments literature, and (c) specific areas that require further research attention influencing the uptake of amendments. Suggestions on empirical evaluation of research directions and their relevance in the extension of existing literature is presented.
Description:
Big data analytics and business analytics are a disruptive technology and innovative solution for enterprise development. However, what is the relationship between business analytics, big data analytics, and enterprise information systems (EIS)? How can business analytics enhance the development of EIS? How can analytics be incorporated into EIS? These are still big issues. This article addresses these three issues by proposing ontology of business analytics, presenting an analytics service-oriented architecture (ASOA) and applying ASOA to EIS, where our surveyed data analysis showed that the proposed ASOA is viable for developing EIS. This article then examines incorporation of business analytics into EIS through proposing a model for business analytics service-based EIS, or ASEIS for short. The proposed approach in this article might facilitate the research and development of EIS, business analytics, big data analytics, and business intelligence.
Description:
Big data analytics and business analytics are a disruptive technology and innovative solution for enterprise development. However, what is the relationship between business analytics, big data analytics, and enterprise information systems (EIS)? How can business analytics enhance the development of EIS? How can analytics be incorporated into EIS? These are still big issues. This article addresses these three issues by proposing ontology of business analytics, presenting an analytics service-oriented architecture (ASOA) and applying ASOA to EIS, where our surveyed data analysis showed that the proposed ASOA is viable for developing EIS. This article then examines incorporation of business analytics into EIS through proposing a model for business analytics service-based EIS, or ASEIS for short. The proposed approach in this article might facilitate the research and development of EIS, business analytics, big data analytics, and business intelligence.
Description:
Purpose: Academic research and consumer polls often report strong consumer support for environmentally responsible products (ERPs), and yet the proportion of sales they account for is often comparatively small. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the purported reasons behind this “attitude-behaviour gap” by measuring the influence of six relatively untested factors on consumer attitudes towards environmentally responsible clothing (ERC). Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a consumer household sample. It also used a quantitative survey approach to collect its data and structural equation modelling to analyse it. Findings: Of the six factors, four were found to have a significant influence on consumer attitudes: altruism, status enhancement, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and happiness. Originality/value: Altruism, environmental concern, PCE and self-identity have consistently featured in other environmental contexts, but less so in the specific context of ERC. Happiness and status enhancement have yet to appear in any study relating to the purchase of ERPs.
Description:
Little research has been undertaken to examine visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel from the perspective of hosts. Additionally, little research has explored the differences between VFs and VRs, treating VFR as one homogenous group. This research examined the hosts' perspective of hosting friends versus relatives through in-depth interviews with 34 local residents in three contrasting destinations in Australia. Key differences were found between the experiences of hosting friends versus relatives, with immigration a key aspect in impacting the outcome. This is the first study to examine hosting friends versus relatives and to consider how immigration and destination impact VFR travel experiences for hosts.
Description:
Over a 50 year period, Australian Rules football's major league, the Victorian Football League, did not always use its largest and best-equipped stadium for regular season games between its most popular teams or schedule those teams to play twice in a regular season. We calculate deadweight losses from the use of capital goods (stadiums) and effects of match scheduling in this professional sports league. Such analysis has not been attempted previously because of the absence of a counterfactual. The welfare losses were significant but not sufficient to threaten the survival of a distance-protected cartel.