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1
Truscott, Keith. ""More than three "Rs" in the classroom" : a case study in Aboriginal tertiary business education." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2011. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/925.
Full textAbstract:
This was an investigation of factors that assisted Australian Aboriginal students complete or incomplete a business course at a University in Perth between 2000 and 2010. The concept of resilience and related factors of inclusion and exclusion from the participants’ past were assumed clues by the researcher. The investigation involved four inquiries. First, the researcher reviewed recent statistics of Aboriginal population, education and employment. A short history of Aboriginal education in Western Australian was also made. Both reviews indicated Aboriginal people endured relative exclusion and a lower status than the mainstream population in areas of education and employment.
Second, the researcher assumed that a shared interdependency existed between distinct “ethnic groups” (Barth, 1969) in terms of “levels of engagement at the cultural boundaries”. The cultural boundaries consisted of four layers, namely observable behaviour and material artefacts, institutions, values and worldviews (Barney, 1973; P. D. Milnes & Grant, 1999b). At these “cultural boundaries” that the researcher explored, there were more than three “Rs” (i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic) concerns active in the classroom, namely the silent “R”, resilience.
Third, the researcher built upon the theoretical work of Francis’ (1981) ‘teach to the difference’, Nakata’s (1997) idea of ‘cultural interface’ and Milnes’ (2008) concept of ‘meeting place’. The researcher then adapted a new research model called ‘engagement at the cultural boundaries’.
Fourth, the researcher conducted a large case study on four samples. A short life-history interview was made of each sample: 1) a pilot study of a previous business graduate; 2) Aboriginal graduates (n=17); 3) Aboriginal non-graduates (n=13); 4) teaching and administrative staff (n=6). Then the pilot study and three groups of stakeholders were rated with a ‘resilience score’ in terms of their engagement at social and economic boundaries based on their personal, public, training and economic identities.
The researcher concluded that overall ten factors of resilience had assisted the Aboriginal students complete or incomplete the tertiary business course. These ten factors were: a strong self-reference point, sense of community, structured living, strong support network, stakeholders identifying with struggles, significant role models, strong status and a single mindedness to complete the task at hand, skills in crisis management, and a previous history of successful engagement at the cultural boundaries.
Besides the pilot study, the students who completed the tertiary business course had a high resilience score based on previously, strong inclusive engagements at the two key cultural boundaries, the social and economic boundaries. Those students who did not complete the tertiary business course still had a high resilience score, but showed less experiences and examples of inclusive engagement at the overall cultural boundaries prior to and for the duration of the tertiary business course. Teachers of Aboriginal students would do well to discern that Aboriginal students do have a high resilience score overall despite their publicly acknowledged low status and historic loss of economic power. Teachers and key stakeholders in Aboriginal tertiary education also would do well to recognise that some of the ten factors of resilience in Aboriginal tertiary students, especially those resilience factors linked to training and economic identity, require more focus and strengthening. The challenge for all stakeholders of tertiary education is to develop all factors of resilience so that Aboriginal students can experience more inclusion as the latter engage at the tertiary cultural boundary.
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Oliver, Clive P. "Some determinants of success and failure in first-year university business units at private colleges." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1202.
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This study investigates some of the determinates of academic success and failure (and dropout) from first year university level Business units at two private business colleges in Perth, Western Australia. Private business colleges are convenient vehicles for international and Western Australian students who do not possess adequate academic assessments for direct entry into university, and for students who might benefit from an enhanced pastoral support system, in the transition from secondary education to tertiary education. The study is important to private providers and to universities who are trying to help students succeed at university. The study utilises a model of two dependent variables (achievement at first attempt and achievement at second attempt); five independent variables (motivation to achieve, outside work commitments, performance to expectations, family problems, and attendance); and three situation variables (age, gender and whether English is the first language of the student). The variables in the model were identified from various studies in the literature, as likely to be most strongly related to academic success or failure. The model suggests a number of bivariate relationships between the dependent variables andthe independent variables and between the dependent variables and the situation variables. The model also suggests a number of joint relationships between the dependent, independent and situation variables. The dependent variables were measured for eight first year units of study which are generic to Bachelor Degree programmes at most universities for Business or Commerce; Accounting, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Legal Framework, Management, Marketing and Statistics. The sample consists of 195 students from private provider A and 92 students from private provider B in Perth, Western Australia (a total of 287 students). Data were collected by means of a questionnaire which was distributed to students in both private colleges in mid-semester 1996, and which students completed on a voluntary basis. Each of the independent variables were measured from student self-report data and the private colleges provided the individual student results in each of the eight Business subjects to use as measures of the dependent variables. Analysis took the form of cross-tabulations, zero-order correlations and multiple regression to test the relationships between the dependent and independent variables, as suggested by the model. The computer package SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) was used for the analysis. The conclusions relating to the zero-order correlations are presented in two parts: those relating Achievement at the first attempt and Achievement at the second attempt (as dependent variables) with the five independent variables and those relating the dependent variables with the three situation variables. (i) The five independent variables have small or no correlations with the two dependent variables. (ii) The three situation variables have small or no correlations with the two dependent variables. In each case, the amount of explained variance in the dependent variable was 7% or less and hence the relationships are of no practical significance for any of the eight Business subjects, for students or private providers. The conclusions relating to the multiple regression analysis are presented in three parts: those relating the dependent variables with the independent variables, those relating the dependent variables with the situation variables, and those relating the dependent variables with the independent and situation variables together. (iii) The five independent variables together account for less than 9% variance in the dependent variables. (iv) The three situation variables together account for less than 10% of variance in the dependent variables. (v) The five independent variables and the three situation variables together account for less than 15% of variance in the dependent variables. These relationships are so small that they are of no practical significance for any of the eight Business subjects, for students or private providers. While there do not appear to be any direct implications for private providers or students, flowing from this study, there are direct implications for further research. In particular, a better model needs to be developed that uses variables that can explain more of the variance in achievement at the first and second attempts. This may mean that different and better measures of the independent variables need to be made and that new independent variables need to be uncovered, perhaps, by interviewing students at private providers.
3
Chien, Chee Fah. "Development, validation and use of an instrument for assessing business management learning environments in higher education in Australia: the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI)." Thesis, Curtin University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1095.
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Although there are numerous instruments available for assessing classroom learning environments at the tertiary level, no instrument has been specifically designed and validated for measuring the business management education learning environment (Brennan & Ahmad, 2005). My aims were (1) to design, develop and validate an instrument, the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI), for assessing business management students’ perceptions of the psychosocial learning environments of university seminars and tutorials and (2) to relate learning environment to attitudes towards the subject and attitudes towards the case study teaching strategy. This study is distinctive in that it involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. The BMELEI and two attitude scales were administered to 480 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate business studies students in 30 classes at both Curtin University of Technology and Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. The qualitative component of the study involved semi-structured interviews with 42 randomly-selected participants from the above universities. Factor analysis supported a six-factor structure (Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity) with scale alpha reliabilities ranging from 0.78 to 0.90 for the actual form and from 0.80 to 0.92 for the preferred form using the individual as unit of analysis. Students’ attitudes were found to be positively associated with classroom learning environment.Also differences were found between students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment, and between male and female students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment. Findings suggested that students preferred a more positive and favourable classroom learning environment than they perceived as being actually present.
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Chien, Chee Fah. "Development, validation and use of an instrument for assessing business management learning environments in higher education in Australia: the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI)." Curtin University of Technology, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, 2007. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=17957.
Full textAbstract:
Although there are numerous instruments available for assessing classroom learning environments at the tertiary level, no instrument has been specifically designed and validated for measuring the business management education learning environment (Brennan & Ahmad, 2005). My aims were (1) to design, develop and validate an instrument, the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI), for assessing business management students’ perceptions of the psychosocial learning environments of university seminars and tutorials and (2) to relate learning environment to attitudes towards the subject and attitudes towards the case study teaching strategy. This study is distinctive in that it involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. The BMELEI and two attitude scales were administered to 480 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate business studies students in 30 classes at both Curtin University of Technology and Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. The qualitative component of the study involved semi-structured interviews with 42 randomly-selected participants from the above universities. Factor analysis supported a six-factor structure (Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity) with scale alpha reliabilities ranging from 0.78 to 0.90 for the actual form and from 0.80 to 0.92 for the preferred form using the individual as unit of analysis. Students’ attitudes were found to be positively associated with classroom learning environment.Also differences were found between students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment, and between male and female students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment. Findings suggested that students preferred a more positive and favourable classroom learning environment than they perceived as being actually present.
5
Sebastian, Dipu, and dipu_sebastian@hotmail com. "Enhancing student learning in a first year business program." Deakin University. Education, 2009. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20100401.122742.
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The central purpose of this study was to investigate whether specific teaching and learning activities, such as concept mapping and reconceptualising the assessment criteria, could improve student learning outcomes in a first year Business program. The rationale for designing such strategies was based on a preliminary study, which examined the specific characteristics of the student cohort, and relevant literature. Overall, findings of this research suggest that these measures can improve student learning outcomes on a written task and further lighlighted the importance of engaging the student within the learning process.
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Eiseman, John. "Strategies for small business education and training : a case study in the independent supermarket industry in Australia /." [Sydney] : University of Western Sydney, 1997. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030811.161842/index.html.
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Thesis (M.Sc. (Hons)) --University of Westen Sydney, 1997."A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science (Honours)" Accompanied by : Current concerns, future outlook and training needs of independent supermarket retailers / John Eiseman.1994. Bibliography: p. 134-142.
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Eiseman, John, University of Western Sydney, and of Science Technology and Agriculture Faculty. "Strategies for small business education and training: a case study in the independent supermarket industry in Australia." THESIS_FSTA_xxx_Eiseman_J.xml, 1997. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/36.
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The need to raise the skills and knowledge of both managers and staff in small business through improvement to education and training is the underpinning thematic concern of this research. Another concern is the appropriateness of action research as a process for research and development in education and training for small business. The independent supermarket industry in Australia provided the case study for this action research. The study sought to identify the barriers to participation in education and training programs and to develop strategies to overcome these barriers. Participation in education and training programs in the independent supermarket industry in Australia was found to be constrained by working conditions at store level, geographic location, negative attitudes of owners or principal managers towards education and formalised training and economic pressures on the industry. In this study the action research methodology provided the means to incrementally achieve a rich contextual understanding, to build researcher-client relationships, client receptivity to the research findings and credibility for both the researcher and the study. However, a key constraint to action research was the difficulty of gaining active participation from the client system. Another contribution of this is the documentation of the key issues and characteristics of independent supermarkets which have been poorly reported. The issues and characteristics identified for independent supermarkets, such as those arising from future uncertainity, family ownership, management style and attitude are compatible with those reported for small business generally. This research was guided by, and the results support, the proposition put forward by Gummesson that action research in a business environment is enhanced by the combining of the consultant and researcher roles. This role duality and the cyclic processes of action research provided the opportunity for incremental benefits to the clients which gave incentive for the clients to provide access and support for research in their enviroMaster of Science (Hons)
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Liveris, Christine. "An investigation of self-regulated learning of young adults in a business vocational education and training program." Thesis, Curtin University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1495.
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National reform in vocational education and training (VET) and the raising of the school leaving age legislation in Western Australia have resulted in an increasing proportion of young adults in VET programs. VET teaching and learning practices are learner-centred, work-centred and attribute-focused. A shift from a teacher-centred approach to a more learner-centred approach can be a major transition for some younger learners. The challenge for practitioners is to help these young adults develop generic, transferable employability skills and attributes, in order to facilitate self-directed lifelong learning.Educational psychologists and policy makers view academic self-regulation as the key to successful learning in school and further education; however, agree that most learners struggle to attain this in their methods of study. The term ‘academic self-regulation’ is synonymous with self-directed learning. The primary research question for this study was: What are the self-regulatory characteristics of 18- to 24-year-olds completing a business administration assessment? Specifically: 1 What cognitive strategies did they use to comprehend and perform the task? 2 What metacognitive strategies did they use to control and regulate their cognition? 3 How did they regulate their behaviour?Within the framework of a social cognitive view of learning, this study adopted a phenomenological approach. A purposive sample group of eight students aged from 18 to 24, participated in the study. Participants were full-time Certificate IV Business Administration students enrolled at a TAFE college in Perth, Western Australia. Their four teachers also participated. This study was intended to produce inferences that may suggest ways we can better understand academic self-regulation.Semi-structured interviews with the participants were undertaken after the submission of a written assessment task and the teachers were interviewed at the end of the semester. Raw data were coded using broad categories from Pintrich’s (2004) theoretical framework. Data were then reduced to clusters of statements and placed into categories. Case by case results provide a snapshot of each case and cross-case results have been reported under six major themes. Quality control was achieved through a combination of data from participant interviews, teacher interviews and the researcher’s interpretations; the latter have been linked to previous research and reviewed through peer debriefing.Findings suggest that the self-regulation characteristics of these young learners are dependent on a range of factors, including: purpose of engagement; differences in developmental stage, culture, commitments, and learning environment; and the task. This thesis identifies areas for further research; specifically, the relationship between personality and styles of self-regulation, practitioner education programs that support early identification and intervention for students with learning difficulties and the impact of internet distractions on time and effort.
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Orth, Ashley Mark. "International students' perceptions of their experience of higher education in Australia: A focus on Saudi Arabian students in their first year of a business course in a major Australian university." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2015. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/84623/4/Ashley_Orth_Thesis.pdf.
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This study examined perceptions of international students from Saudi Arabia living and studying in Australia. As a qualitative study that featured case study methodology, the thesis discusses the experiences of Saudi Arabian students in the light of two important factors: students' expectations prior to coming to Australia and the impact of intercultural competency on students' experiences. The study found that while study participants reported mostly positive experiences, there were challenges faced such as coping with English language and culture shock. The thesis culminates in a comprehensive list of implications for educators in the light of the study's findings.
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Wakefield, Lynette Florence, and mikewood@deakin edu au. "Workplace education and training: Are Tafe teachers prepared for their evolving roles?" Deakin University, 1996. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20050815.103545.
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Dixon, John. "The reform of the Australian Public Service : commercialisation and its implications for public management education /." View thesis, 1995. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030818.114628/index.html.
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Rahimi, Mohammad Ali, and ma rahimi@gmail com. "Transfer of Australian Vocational Education and Training knowledge and practice in a global context." RMIT University. Global Studies, Social Science and Planning, 2009. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20091218.144230.
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Educational services have become Australia's third largest export industry. Onshore delivery of higher education has been a major export for many years, and in recent years offshore delivery of vocational education and training has grown to become a major part of this industry. Different Australian educational institutions are involved in delivery of Australian VET programs in a wide range of cultural and socioeconomic contexts. Because of the strong demand for skills in an increasingly interconnected world, this growing industry, which at an international level encompasses a diverse range of institutions, training delivery methods and management and administrative arrangements, is increasingly directing its attention towards globalising its regulatory and training approaches. The aim of this research is to investigate the process of adapting Training Packages and the Australian Quality Training Framework, the two main instruments of regulation in the Australian skill formation system, for an international audience. This thesis will examine what process of adaptation is involved when the Australian VET approaches are used as a model to develop skills formation overseas. Factors influencing the forms taken by this regulatory system in a global context will be studied through investigating the international activities of various Australian sectors in implementation of VET approaches in non-Australian systems. Two propositions underpin this key question. First is that the Australian VET system is primarily a regulatory system, which means that the export of these regulations needs to be accounted for. Secondly, the Australian VET system has been designed for Australian industrial and cultural conditions and adjustments are necessary in the regulations themselves, host country regulat ory practice, or both for Training Packages to work in these non-Australian cultural contexts.
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Bahn, Susanne T. "Producing safety : exploring occupational health and safety values in action within the WA civil construction industry." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2008. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/221.
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This thesis explores working and learning practices in the context of safety within the Civil Construction Industry (CC Industry) of Western Australia (WA) and specifically focuses on the relations between organisational safety values and current working practices, primarily focusing on the instrumental power of managers in organisations to produce safety. The thesis examines the values in action that permeate the workplace culture and mediate the daily practices of people working in this industry, and ultimately how they impact upon the minds and bodies of employees. The study provides insight into the working practices and discourses within this industry by exploring the space between rhetoric and reality. specifically in terms of managing actions. Patterns in the data illuminate particular relations between values and practices that can mediate improved regimes of occupational, safety and health (OS&H) practices within organisations in the CC Industry. This study was supported by the Civil Contractors Federation WA (CCF) enabling high-level access and reciprocal practical outcomes for the CC Industry.
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Bambach, Matthew. "Maximising Board governance effectiveness in small and medium-sized Australian independent schools." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2020. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/2310.
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My experience of working with boards of independent schools has led me to conclude that boards often struggle to know how they might make their governance more effective. Very little has been written and few empirical studies have investigated governance of independent school boards in Australia, despite the considerable responsibility and power entrusted to them. This study asks how well such boards are governing and what they could do to engender fully effective governance.
Currently, there are no standards or instruments for assessing the effectiveness of board governance. This study identified seven governance effectiveness factors (GEFs) from the literature on governance in schools and other non-profit organisations. These factors were used as assessment instruments in seven case studies of school boards in small to medium-sized independent schools. The research was predominantly qualitative and involved four research methods: a survey, semi-structured interviews, a review of board documents and observation of board meetings.
The data were explored by assessing the GEFs within each case and across cases. The findings showed that five boards demonstrated poor governance effectiveness, one was very poor and only one was effective. Three unexpected themes emerged from the data, showing how boards can move towards governance by delegating operational management of the school to the principal. These involve boards understanding, first, the nature of governance and developing the intention to govern effectively, second, when and how to make the difficult transition from operational management to governance, and third, how to adapt their approach to governance as they gain experience with it. A model of this transition process and a framework to guide managers and researchers through key decisions were developed. These fill a critical gap in the literature on board management in independent school governance.
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Kovacs, Jane. "Facilitating change in Australian schools applying a business quality improvement model /." Swinburne Research Bank, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/63104.
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Thesis (DBA) - Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, 2009.Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Professional Doctorate of Business Administration, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, 2009. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-284)
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Ryan, Suzanne Erina. "Academic Business: Tensions between academic values and corporatisation of Australian higher education in graduate schools fo business." Connect to full text, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/5398.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2009.Title from title screen (viewed 18th September, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney. Degree awarded 2009. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.
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Lim, Sen Lee. "Australian University Transnational Education Programs: An Empirical Investigation of the Business Models." Thesis, Curtin University, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/77508.
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This in-depth qualitative case study explores the criteria two Australian public universities use in the selection between the Direct (DM) and Outsourced Models (OM) of TNE business delivery, and the role of the theories of the firm viz., transaction cost economics (TCE), property rights theory (PRT) and agency theory (AT) in driving these criteria and the longevity of the models. It identified significant tipping points along the TNE journeys of each university, and four new models of TNE delivery.
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Riebe, Linda Margaret. "Understanding factors affecting the teaching of teamwork in Australian higher education business schools." Thesis, Riebe, Linda Margaret (2022) Understanding factors affecting the teaching of teamwork in Australian higher education business schools. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2022. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/65762/.
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Integrating teamwork into higher education (HE) curricula has been part of the employability skills agenda for decades. Whilst HE academics have published widely on a variety of strategies utilised to implement teamwork in their teaching, there is little evidence of the interrelated factors associated with teaching teamwork and the paradoxes of critical tension points arising from challenges encountered by educators in their efforts to integrate teamwork in their courses. This thesis explores the salient influences affecting the teaching and learning of teamwork in the Australian HE business school context. The outcomes are presented in a thesis by compilation, which includes the traditional structure of introduction, literature review, methodology, findings/discussion, and conclusion chapters, along with three published articles demonstrating original, primary research.
A published global systematic literature review (SLR) identified that temporal, fiscal, psychological, and human resource transaction cost interactions for HE educators, students and institutions affected the uptake of HE teamwork. Interactions are predicated on the way in which educators derive benefits or costs from developing, coordinating, monitoring, participating in, interacting with, and evaluating HE teamwork. Transaction costs, for example, whether to engage with the employability agenda, or provide instruction in team skills, collaborative learning, curriculum design, and assessment of teamwork, represent the return on investment to educators when undertaking the teaching of teamwork. These findings are an original contribution to the HE teamwork literature as there is scant evidence of costs associated with affording or constraining HE teamwork. A second published SLR article was confined to a more rigorous review of the Australian HE teamwork literature. Numerous factors were identified as constraints to HE teamwork, with findings thematically indicating that Australian business discipline educators were mainly concerned with team formation and management, teaching and learning approaches to HE teamwork and challenges influencing teaching and learning practices, thus providing an original contribution to knowledge of the salient issues affecting the teaching and learning of teamwork in the Australian business school context.
These findings were used to inform semi-structured interview questions for a case study of business educators from a range of disciplines across four public universities in Australia. Grounded in a social constructivist paradigm, and using the case study approach, findings from 30 qualitative interviews with Australian business educators identified that performative demands on HE educators resulted in a range of critical paradox tension points, highlighting the salient influences contributing to understanding educator factors affecting the teaching of HE teamwork. Specifically focusing on the performativity paradoxes of performing/organising, performing/learning, and performing/belonging, illuminated the lived experience of business educators navigating performativity with HE teamwork and their reactions to critical tension points in their required or perceived performativity. In this thesis the third published article presented in Chapter Five, conceptualises how business school educators negotiated the inherent stresses, conflicts, and tensions in their teaching to understand, react and influence their approaches to HE teamwork.
Theoretically, the utility of transaction cost and paradox theories as heuristic conceptual lenses to understand the dynamic interactions for educators’ facilitating the teaching of teamwork is demonstrated. Conceptual understandings are expanded through the application of paradox theory in the educational context, contributing to the advancement of knowledge and/or professional practice acknowledged by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (2018) as a core aspect of HE scholarship. This is a unique feature of this study, generating original contributions to the understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning in the field of teamwork in the Australian business school context.
Implications for theory and practice have wider application within HE and provide a sound basis for the development of teamwork as a requisite skill to satisfy not only the broader aspects of the employability agenda, but also advancement of knowledge in the field which has implications for future research, providing opportunities to broaden the scholarship of teaching and learning as it relates to the functionality of teamwork pedagogy.
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Dean, Anthony Francis. "Australian universities in the information economy electronic commerce and the business of distance education /." Access electronically, 2004. http://www.library.uow.edu.au/adt-NWU/public/adt-NWU20050929.114913/index.html.
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Taylor, Christopher George. "The Good Bloke in Contemporary Australian Workplaces: Origins, Qualities and Impacts of a National Cultural Archetype in Small For-Profit Businesses." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1566171729886909.
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Buchan, Jennifer Mary. "Franchisor failure : an assessment of the adequacy of regulatory response." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2010. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/39027/1/Jennifer_Buchan_Thesis.pdf.
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Franchisor failure is one of the most problematic areas of the franchise relationship. It impacts negatively on landlords and other suppliers, but the contracting parties that are currently without legal rights to respond when a franchisor fails, and thus without consumer protection, are its franchisees. In this thesis I explore the current contractual, regulatory and commercial environment that franchisees inhabit, within the context of franchisor failure. I conclude that ex ante there are opportunities to level the playing field through consumer protection legislation. I also conclude that the task is not one solely for the consumer protection legislation; the problem should also be addressed ex post through the Corporations Act.
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Bitmead, Jan. "Communications in industry - university interactions : some tips (of icebergs)." Master's thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/145190.
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Morris, Leanne. "From collegial engagement to perfomance management : the changing academic landscape in Australia." Thesis, 2011. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/19946/.
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The introduction of performance appraisal (PA) in Australian universities in the 1990s
was an attempt to make academics more accountable and, in so doing, improve
efficiency in the higher education sector. Since PA was introduced in academia there
has been a paucity of research into its efficacy. What began as a simple process has
now evolved to become part of a wider approach to managing human resources,
namely performance management. The aim of this research is to determine how
universities implement their performance management (PM) systems from a strategic
and operational perspective.
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Siemensma, Frances M. "Questioning certainty : cross-cultural experiences of the Master of Business Administration." Thesis, 2001. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/15408/.
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The Master of Business Administration has a reputation for enhancing management careers. This thesis examines contrasting perspectives on the way in which it is perceived. Such contrasting perspectives provided a way to examine and analyse the values evoked through the MBA experience. The thesis employs a cross-disciplinary approach including ethnography, cultural, post-colonial and feminist studies. The findings of the thesis should assist those who plan, market and implement management programs for
Australian and international students.
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Dixon, John, of Western Sydney Nepean University, and Faculty of Commerce. "The reform of the Australian Public Service : commercialisation and its implications for public management education." 1995. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/28738.
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Australia has been engaged on a comprehensive process of federal public service reform for more than 20 years. It began in the 1970s, when the long undisturbed Australian Public Service (APS) was confronted with a major review process and with a set of administrative law reforms. This was followed in the 1980s by the introduction of a set of ambitious administrative reforms, which drew strength from similar developments occurring overseas, notably in Britain, the United States, New Zealand and Canada. This created the setting for the commercialisation of the APS that began in the late 1980s, which itself created a further set of organisational and management imperatives for the APS. The articulation of the desired management competencies became a pressing priority to consolidate the administrative and commercialisation reforms and a broad consensus emerged. The next challenge was to determine how best to inculcate the desired APS management competencies. The overall conclusion drawn was that while the administrative and commercialisation reforms have moved the APS some way towards attaining the distinctive characteristics that well-performing public agencies should have, they have created a wide variety of challenges and threats yet to addressed adequately. Within an organisational and politico-administrative environment that leaves APS managers vulnerable, especially those in APS 'quasi-businesses', because they are expected to improve service delivery productivity, so as to reduce costs, while at the same time to enhance service quality. This management task requires them to confront a variety of these threats and challenges, which purveyors of public management education must help them address, if they are to meet their idiosyncratic learning needs. This requires the adoption of a learner-based, problem-centred approach to learning for, rather than about, public management.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Kairys, Moira Rose. "Identifying Skills Required for Senior Managers in Vocational Education Training - An Australian Perspective." Thesis, 2016. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/32640/.
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Senior managers in Australian vocational education training (VET) are an integral
part of the success of sector that contributes to Australia's economic growth and
business productivity with the delivery of training to almost four million students
annually.
Senior managers are often promoted from teacher to manager on the basis of practical
vocational and teaching experience, rather than their management and leadership skills
and are often inadequately trained or prepared for the role of leadership. Therefore, it
is important to examine whether senior managers are equipped with the required
leadership skills for effective leadership in VET.
This thesis utilises a new online survey of 100 senior managers employed in VET in
Australia in order to identify the leadership skills required for senior managers by
testing the Leadership Skills Strataplex Model (LSSM). The model highlights the
importance of four broad leadership skills of cognitive, interpersonal, business and
strategic skills. The study also explores the interaction of the skills required for
current role, promotion and training provider type. The study conducts an exploratory
and confirmatory factor analysis to identify broad and specific skills that are
perceived as important. The new evidence indicates that (a) the strataplex model is
not supported by the data (b) cognitive skills are perceived to be utilised the most,
followed by strategic, interpersonal and business skills (c) business skills, problem
solving/managing teams skills and strategic skills are identified as the most important
skills required for senior managers and (d) skill importance does not seem to depend
on training provider type.
Australian vocational education is increasingly complex and competitive and training
providers need to recognise that the sector requires higher levels of leadership skills.
Although cognitive skill requirements are high, senior managers also need higher
levels of business, problem solving/managing teams and strategic skills.
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Nicholls, Kristina M. "A Critical Review of Acquisitions within the Australian Vocational Education and Training Sector 2012 to 2017." Thesis, 2020. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/40716/.
Full textAbstract:
Organisations often look to acquisitions as a means of achieving their growth strategy. However, notwithstanding the theoretical motivations for engaging in acquisitions, research has shown that the acquiring organisation, following the acquisition, frequently experiences a fall in share price and degraded operating performance. Given the failure rates that are conservatively estimated at over 50%, the issue of acquisitions is worthy of inquiry in order to determine what factors make for a successful or alternately an unsuccessful outcome. The focus of this study is the vocational education sector in Australia, where private registered training organisations [RTOs] adopted acquisitions as a strategy to increase their market share and/or support growth strategies prompted by deregulation and a multi-billion dollar training investment by both Australian State and Federal governments in the past ten years. Fuelled by these changes in Government policy, there was a dramatic growth in RTO acquisitions between the period 2012 and 2017. Many of these acquisitions ended in failure, including several RTOs that listed on the Australian Stock Exchange [ASX].
This study investigates acquisitions of Australian RTOs, focusing on the period from 2012 to 2017 [study period]. The aim is to understand what factors contributed to the success and/or failure of acquisitions of registered training organisations in the Australian Private Education Sector. The study uses phenomenology, a qualitative research methodology within the interpretivist paradigm, with the intention to gain insight into the ‘lived experiences’ of the participants who represent a cross-section of key industry stakeholders with first-hand acquisition experience.
A central and practical outcome of the study relevant to the pre-acquisition stage is to highlight the primacy of strategic planning. Given the largely opportunistic approach over the study period that reflected the perceived easy access to funds as a result of Government’s policy and initial regulatory inaction, there was a demonstrable gap in terms of local knowledge of the sector and awareness of the pitfalls and risks associated with a sector subject to strict regulatory oversight. The 3-stage acquisition process model may inadequately identify the importance of sound planning and risk filtering based on sector specific information. As a result, the study recommends the revision of the model to include a pre-pre-acquisition stage that emphasised the importance of ‘industry intelligence’. This role is anticipated to comprise a team of industry experts with current inside information and with a wider understanding of the education sector that is subject to stringent regulation. This finding may be relevant to not only RTOs, but could be extended to other businesses that operate in a heavily regulated sector, and ones that are dependent to a large degree on government funding. Historical evidence supports this risk proposition; the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program [HIP] that was established in December 2013, bears an uncanny parallel with funding related issues the result of policy decisions in the vocational education sector.
The study findings are reported in order of the three-stage acquisition process model: pre- acquisition, integration and post-acquisition, with general strategy and related risk considerations noted, and industry specific red flags [indicator of risk] also highlighted. The study also highlights several issues in the integration stage of RTO acquisitions. The three in-depth RTO case studies, for example, illustrate a lack of strategic planning for the integration of new acquisitions. The rush by a number of acquirer firms such as Vocation Limited, Australian Careers Network and Study Group was in order to access VET-FEE HELP [VFH] loan funding and build student enrolments. This myopic focus, rather than considered process that examined the strategic alignment of their multiple acquisitions, was a key factor in acquisition failure.
In the post-acquisition stage, this study highlights the role of government and the industry regulator, Australian Skills Quality Authority [ASQA]. Regulation is a significant sector specific consideration that determines success and failure of the business. By its very nature, government funded industries are subject to volatility associated with changes in political leadership, changes in priorities and policies, and changes in funding priorities. From the findings it is evident that the 2012 expansion of the VET-FEE HELP student loans scheme policy decision to include private RTOs, was a Government policy initiative that was derailed by poor execution. Taking on some lessons learned from the VET-FEE HELP loan policy ‘debacle’ may prevent the loss of Government revenue, as well as protect key stakeholders, such as students and taxpayers, from unjust outcomes in the future and importantly avoid reputational damage in a competitive international education market. This study area may also benefit from further industry specific research to understand the roles of government and regulators and how they can potentially help as well as adversely impact prospective new RTO entrants and associated stakeholders.
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Comodromos, George. "How academics respond, adapt and cope with the transformational changes in the Australian Higher Education Sector." Thesis, 2016. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/33621/.
Full textAbstract:
The objective of this thesis is to investigate the work life factors of Australian academics and see which of these lead to the adoption of transformational change. The context of the thesis is the Higher Education Sector and the research examines the metamorphic changes in this sector that have been mostly driven by neo-liberal and deregulation policies by successive governments over the past three decades. The thesis adopts and develops the constructivist grounded theory method. The primary data source was developed from face-to-face interviews with 33 (male and female) academics from Monash and Melbourne universities, conducted over a period of five months. These two universities were chosen from the Group of Eight (Go8) elite universities in Australia because they are highly resourced, quality branded and populated with high academic performance students. They represent Australian academics working at their peak performance and their personnel are considered the most highly regarded in the sector. Constructivist grounded theory, as presented by Charmaz (2010), was chosen as a methodology for this thesis because the ontological perspective that reality is created within a social construct and the epistemological perspective that the researcher and participants are both actively involved in the construction of the grounded theory, best suits the mindset of the researcher and the research question. The findings of the research resonate with the literature of institutional change, particularly that of Thelen and Mahoney (2010), and the typology of academics that was created from the research findings further contributes to knowledge in the area of change management theory. The intention of this thesis is to provide a platform to launch further research into the area of organisational change management, particularly in the Higher Education Sector.
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Heffernan, S. P. "Can vocational training be better structured to facilitate the acquisition of job related skills?" Thesis, 1997. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/18173/.
Full textAbstract:
As Australia attempts to improve its global economic standing, each industry,
and their respective enterprises, is necessarily undertaking considerable
transformation as they embrace the need to adapt. Industrialised technologies
and operating methods are changing more rapidly than at any other time since
the inception of mass production. The imperative for a more efficient approach
to manufacturing and the production of goods is paramount for organisations
to enable them to obtain and to sustain a competitive position within a rapidly
changing world economy.
The linkages between competitive manufacturing and vocational education are
widely recognised as important factors that contribute to sustainable business
practices. This research explores the educative processes that are being used to
bring new-start employees' skills and knowledge levels up to the required
standard for a globally competitive manufacturing company. It also looks at
vocational education, and examines the provision of service by the formal
providers who are now altering their relationship and service arrangements at
the enterprise level.
The research comprised an extensive literature review, the application of a
survey questionnaire (see Appendices A, B and C) and an analysis of the data
which collectively comprised the body of a comparative opinion based study
that was undertaken in a manufacturing environment. The research question
was designed to explore the issues relating to the imparting of knowledge and
skills to new start employees. An examination of the key providers' ability to
deliver training, the relevance and applicability of the study materials used are
also addressed. The study looks at the learning process in the context of the
new employee and how they acquire skills and competencies for their new job;
with a view to examining whether vocational education can be better structured
to facilitate the acquisition of essential job skills.
30
Henderson, Fiona. "Connecting higher education and the Chinese workplace : what makes a Chinese graduate with an Australian qualification employable in China?" Thesis, 2011. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/19382/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis gives a cameo of the perceptions of graduating students, lecturers and employers about the range of skills needed by business degree students to successfully obtain employment in China. This research commences with an investigation of the role and development of personal, interpersonal, workplace and career related skills in higher education students which have been discussed amongst educators, employers and professional bodies for many years in Australia. This research presents a framework which emphasises the dynamic and complex interrelationships between a business degree curriculum that is taught in Australia and China.
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Miranda, Joanna Claire. "Exploring academics’ perception of work meaningfulness." Thesis, 2017. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/38658/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is an exploratory investigation into aspects of work meaningfulness among academics currently employed in Australian Universities. It is important to understand the level of work meaningfulness for practising academics in the rapidly changing context of Higher Education, because academics have been historically, and still are, the foundation of the institution of the University. The reputation of a University lies fundamentally in the work of its academic staff, and any significant disruption in the conduct of their work will clearly impact organisational performance. In this respect, Kahn (1990, 1992), in developing and testing the job diagnostic model previously developed by Hackman and Oldham (1975), found that academics’ level of work meaningfulness impacted severely on work engagement which, in turn, influenced work productivity and hence organisational performance.
In this thesis, a qualitative approach, guided by a Symbolic Interaction theoretical perspective, was undertaken using in-depth interviewing in order to determine what promotes and what impedes academics’ work meaningfulness. The Health Belief Model (Nutbeam, Harris & Wise 2010), was used to develop the interview questions, to identify the perceived existing work place obstacles that were eroding work meaningfulness, and to understand the barriers to redressing resultant negative situations. Informants consisted of sixteen academics of various positions from selected universities within Melbourne, Australia. The informants were male and female from high and low ranked universities, and were purposefully selected using nonprobability sampling methods.
The findings show that, due to recent government policies involving cutbacks to education and research funding, universities have implemented a business model in order to be self-financing, which has quickly evolved into staff feeling that universities are becoming profit-making institutions. The resulting corporate style of management has encouraged unfamiliar types of competition between universities, and has instilled fear in staff for participating truthfully in opportunities for providing suggestions for institutional improvement. This has cumulatively resulted in negative outcomes such as loss of congeniality between staff, and the feeling that there is too much academic leniency for students, to the point that many academics have deemed that it has devalued education. These outcomes have resulted in academics distrusting their universities, many consequently feeling stressed, with a few even facing mind health issues which have impacted on their work meaningfulness. The introduction of the corporate model was also perceived to be the reason for increased workloads, for unfair remuneration schemes and for impediments to work/life balance.
A major finding of the work was that what significantly impedes work meaningfulness for academics are the blockages which prevent them from providing quality education for their students, and this supersedes all other negative aspects of their job. It was also evident that the current move to using a corporate model into the university environment was, in itself not seen as a problem. However, the perception that the drive for profit has superseded the importance of the quality of education and the excellence of future graduates, was felt to be the real problem. This was particularly so for those academics who did not see themselves in any career other than being an academic.
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Mitsis, Ann. "Antecedents to student-based brand equity: student brand loyalty and perceived quality in higher education." Thesis, 2007. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/15748/.
Full textAbstract:
It is clear that postgraduate business students are becoming increasingly analytical in their course and university selection. MBA and other Master of Business students are more aware of the risks involved in choosing the right course and university to study at. For Australia the higher education industry has been one of the fastest growing service exports and Australia's third largest behind tourism and transportation and is worth $4 billion. With the increasing global competition of university degrees the ability of countries like Australia to continue to capture these benefits over tiie longer term is unclear. The aims of this thesis was first to enable manager's within non elite branded universities to better understand what steps are needed to enhance student based brand equity and secondly, to contribute to the understanding of how consumer based brand equity is created and maintained within a unique service environment of a university.
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Yu, Richard Shue-Tak. "Leaders’ Conceptualisation of Learning and Innovation, and their Strategies of Implementation." Thesis, 2015. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/33776/.
Full textAbstract:
To be successful in a competitive environment, business organisations require the capabilities to solve authentic problems relevant to their respective business or industry. These capabilities are consolidated in policies and programmes of corporate learning and innovation. As will be developed in the thesis, learning is solving problems that other people have solved and innovating is solving problems that no other people or entities have solved. Leaders’ active role in implementing and enacting these policies and programmes is a crucial factor in the processes of learning and innovating. This research explored the knowledge and understanding of people in leadership roles in Australian organisations and their strategies to facilitate learning and innovation among employees. It aimed to discover organisational leaders’ conception of the acts of ‘to learn’ and ‘to innovate’ through a qualitative and exploratory methodology.
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Brisbane, Rachel. "Motivations, Expectations & Satisfaction of International Postgraduate Students in Australian Universities." Thesis, 2020. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/41385/.
Full textAbstract:
International higher education is a significant industry globally. For many Australian universities, as well as the Australian economy overall, it is one of their largest revenue streams. Considerable literature exists on the motivations of universities to export education, especially offshore, and what they consider to be important, but less is known as to whether these considerations are equally valued and prioritised by students coming onshore. It was established that the perspective of international students, as one of the largest stakeholder groups, is often lacking and at best, considered only at a statistical level. Literature on student satisfaction indicated limitations in conceptual approaches, methodology and reporting of outcomes. Furthermore, satisfaction surveys that focus exclusively on academic and operational factors may exclude factors students consider important contributors to satisfaction, that are potentially useful for universities seeking a competitive advantage. An opportunity was identified to expand the current research to utilise a more student-centred approach to understand how students prioritise and other factors contributing to satisfaction that could valuably rebalance the current bias towards institutional perspectives. As many student satisfaction surveys include large numbers of undergraduate student responses, which effectively dilute the experience of other student demographics, this research focused on international postgraduate students.
The aims were to investigate nuances within the literature on students’ motivations – for reputation, immigration and affordability. These were: how students prioritise these motivations in their decision making, whether there were other student determined factors important to satisfaction, if campus facilities contribute to greater satisfaction levels, how mobile students are in their study practices, and explore relationships between switching behaviours, and the resulting satisfaction and dissatisfaction. A qualitative survey of international postgraduate students, research and coursework, studying at Australian universities was conducted between June and December 2019, thematically analysed and supported with descriptive statistics.
For both research and coursework groups, it was found that reputation, affordability and immigration opportunities were secondary motivators for students, with the primary motivation to improve employment opportunities. However, overall affordability often becomes an issue once studies are underway. Student-identified factors contributing to satisfaction included the experience of classroom diversity, social connections, the western learning environment and opportunities for professional work in conjunction with study. Regarding their preferences these students were less likely to take up options to study more flexibly, preferring to study where there are full campus facilities. It was found that switching behaviours were not a reliable indicator of satisfaction. They merely highlighted the effectiveness of structural barriers (such as administrative paperwork), a lack of alternatives offering significant improvement for the effort of changing and at best, students who were more or less satisfied but had already decided to change prior to enrolling as it was a route to the preferred university. However, when students were dissatisfied with their university, the universities’ reputation became more important, becoming a critical motivator to persevere and complete the qualification. An area for improvement lies with international postgraduate research students whose experiences were more polarised.
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Mackenzie, Christopher James. "The entrepreneurial bureaucrat : a study of policy entrepreneurship in the formation of a national strategy to create an Asia-literate Australia." Thesis, 2001. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/30062/.
Full textAbstract:
This study investigates how individual policy actors can influence policy making and become catalysis of change. Its main proposition is that actors who heavily influence policy making and become agents for change are necessarily involved in specific activities and demonstrate particular characteristics. The study employs the concept of 'policy entrepreneurship' to analyse an episode of policy making which occurred in Australia between 1992 and 1994. The study concludes that in performing certain functions policy entrepreneurs help to affect change, but in doing so are at once constrained and enabled by contextual forces. Based on the findings of the analysis a theoretical frameword of policy entrepreneurship is developed which augments existing conceptions of policy entrepreneurship.
36
Hubner, Marilyn. "Constructing Safety Training: Foundations of Attitudes and Perceptions of the Construction Site Supervisor." Thesis, 2016. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/33652/.
Full textAbstract:
Safety-training interventions are common across all Australian workplaces due to the legislative requirement to provide a safe working environment. As a safety practitioner, I often work with workers who are forced to attend training programs and, as a consequence, do not want to participate. In my ten years of delivering safety training, attitudes of ‘boring’, ‘irrelevant’, and ‘already know it all’ are common barriers to effective training.
My investigation into the construction industry sought to unearth the foundational principles that determine attitudes and perceptions of supervisors toward safety training, and trace the impact that these attitudes have on organisational values and safety practice. I sought to reveal how the attitudes and perceptions of construction site supervisors can be mediated to produce effective safety-training situations and, as such, move toward reducing the injuries and fatalities that plague the construction industry.
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Ferrer, Justine. "Reconceptualising engagement : a study of Australian academics." Thesis, 2010. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/15987/.
Full textAbstract:
The management of human capital is a strategic imperative for knowledge based firms such as universities. Human capital has been described as the investment in people necessary to build the skills and capabilities to operate at their full potential and enable them to act in ways that
enhance the competitiveness of organisations. This thesis is set amidst the series of changes made to the Australian Higher Education sector that have had a profound effect on the management of its human capital. The changes have larg ely been driven by government policy in response to globalisation, increased competition and technological advances. As a result the climate of universities has moved to a more cost efficiency-focused managerialism. Various
studies have illustrated the significant consequences for the academic workforce and the way in which work has changed in the sector. Academics now face greater accountability for the quality and quantity of their teaching and research at a time when university funding has been constrained. The results have not been all positive for the quality of academics’ working lives and evidence points to heavy workloads and a steadily disengaging workforce. Despite this, many of the sectoral changes rely on an engaged and cooperative workforce to bring about
greater productivity and quality of education to attract a larger share of international and domestic students.
... The two aims of this thesis are: to clarify the current definitions of engagement by bringing together the constructs and concepts that contribute to engagement; and to provide insight into the dimensions that shape engagement in Australian business academics ... The thesis also contributes to the dialogue on human capital and in particular, how it can be harnessed in key areas such as the knowledge industries and for targeted purposes such as the management of talent.
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Ross, Nicole Kristine. "Doing Good While Going Public: Ramping Up the ExactTarget Foundation Amidst the IPO Process (Q1 2012)." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/3222.
Full text
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Jones, Asheley. "What role do professional year programs play in developing work-readiness attributes for Australian-educated international postgraduate students?" Thesis, 2018. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/37854/.
Full textAbstract:
In 2008, following Commonwealth legislation creating the 485 Graduate Visa for
migration purposes, the professional accrediting bodies in Accounting, IT and
Engineering were mandated to develop Professional Year Programs (PYPs)
intended to alleviate the gap between discipline specific qualifications and the
skills required to meet employer demands. This research conducted a critical
examination of one such program: SMIPA, the Skilled Migration Program for
Accounting. This was a work readiness program for international accounting
graduates who studied for their accounting degrees onshore within the Australian
higher education ecosystem.
The primary research question framing this research: Can SMIPA be regarded
as a work-readiness program upon which to model future graduate training
programs?
Underpinned by Bourdieu’s institutionalised capital framework, a tripartite
qualitative evaluation is undertaken through multiple lenses: 337 SMIPA graduate
survey responses, semi-structured interviews with six SMIPA licenced partners
and a sixty-minute interview with an early Joint Accounting Body initiator. The aim
of the research is to determine the role SMIPA plays in providing graduates an
opportunity to improve their generic skills, so as to find work within the Australian
accounting environments. The intent is to analyse whether this program offers a
blue print to model the implementation of future work readiness programs.
Five recommendations for the future directions of the internship component of the
SMIPA program are provided, along with recommendations for future research
opportunities. It is concluded that with some significant modifications to defined
measurements of the program’s intended learning outcomes, a transparent
process for assessing the procurement and delivery of the internship component,
as well as a far more rigorous quality assurance of the operations component that
would curtail the more extreme migration and educational agent practices,
SMIPA could be considered a suitable model to inform a national work integrated learning program providing a blueprint to better prepare both domestic and
international tertiary educated graduates for entry into the 21st century global
workforce.
40
Paterson, Tanya. "Disenfranchised workers : a view from within the public service." Thesis, 2011. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/21317/.
Full textAbstract:
This research examines the experiences of disenfranchised workers in the Australian Public Service.
The best methodology for my study is a hybrid. A hybrid that takes the wisdom of ethnographic case studies, phenomenology, feminist post-structuralism and narrative theories to make sense of the stories of people working within organisations that have failed, traumatised, belittled, ignored, bullied and destroyed them.
The study looks at the experiences of twenty disenfranchised workers who labelled themselves as disenfranchised.
This thesis is about the abused, the mistreated, and the disenfranchised. Of opportunities lost and perceived injustices. I believe the voices of the disenfranchised public servants are silenced by supervisors, colleagues and the system itself. This study aims to give legitimacy to their complaints, document their stories and chronicle their mistreatment at the hands of public supervisors who are often brutalised themselves. The Public Service workplace becomes like a violent family. We all learn what we see, not what we read or are told. And so the culture of dysfunction is passed from underling to boss and workers suffer. These actions ripple throughout public servants’ lives.
Literature around the disenfranchised worker is growing. This study documents the experiences of disenfranchised workers and unmutes their voices. These experiences are important and contemporary issues to enable people to live a life of consequence.