Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Employees Reporting to Australia'

Includes bibliographies.
Employee reporting is a concept which gained increasing popularity in Europe from the late 1970's, and a similar trend appears to be emerging in South Africa. This growth highlighted the paucity of research in this area, particularly in the South African context. This study therefore undertook to conduct a detailed review of prior research and existing theories of employee reporting. Based on the outcome of the review, a research design was constructed, to test, on an exploratory basis, the nature and extent of the demand for information amongst employees at a company in the Western Cape. The results indicated that a strong demand for information does exist, and that this demand is affected by a number of considerations, most notably the job level, age and education. In this respect, the results tended to confirm the findings of prior research elsewhere. It was however also noted, that the employees' choices and decisions appeared to be influenced by the socio - political conditions in South Africa, which resulted in employees attaching greater importance to their employer's involvement in society than has been the case in studies elsewhere.

This thesis comprises three separate but connected essays focussing on multiple board directorships and its impact on financial and non-financial reporting measures of Australian publicly listed firms. Results suggest that financial reporting quality is enhanced with firms having skilled, knowledgeable and experienced board of directors resulting from other multiple board directorships. Consequently, the applicability of resource dependency theory between multiple directorships and earnings management, audit fees and CSR disclosures is validated from the results.

This thesis uses an action research methodology to develop a framework for improving independent scholarly reporting about interventions addressing social or environmental conflict. As there are often contradictory interpretations about the causes and strategic responses to conflict, the problem confronting scholar-reporters is how to address perceptions of bias and reflexively specify the purpose of reporting. It is proposed that scholar-reporters require grounding in conventional realist-based social theory but equally ability to incorporate theoretical ideas generated in more idealist-based peace research and applied conflict resolution studies. To do this scholar-reporters can take a comparative approach systematically developed through an integrated framework as described in this thesis. Conceptual and theoretical considerations that support both conventional and more radical constructions are comparatively analysed and then tested in relation to a case study. In 2000 Aboriginal people throughout South Australia deliberated whether their native title claims could be better accorded recognition through conservative court processes or a negotiation process to allay deep-seated conflict. The author, in a scholar-reporter capacity, formulated a report attributing meaning to this consultative process. As such a report could have been formulated according to alternative paradigms, methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks, the analysis of the adopted framework highlights how different approaches can bias the interpretation of the process and prospects for change. Realist-based conservative interpretations emphasise 'official' decision-making processes where legitimacy is expressed through political and legal frameworks based on precedent. Idealist-based interpretations emphasise that circumstances entailing significant conflict warrant equal consideration being given to 'non-official' 'resolutionary' problem-solving processes where conflict is treated as a catalyst for learning and outcomes are articulated as understanding generated about conflict and how different strategies can transform it. The developed integrated framework approach establishes the independence of scholarly reporting. Its purpose goes beyond perpetuating scholarly debate about alternative 'objective' understandings of conflict; it focuses primarily on communicating a more inclusive understanding of the contradictions inherent in a particular conflict. It increases the capacity to understand when, where, why and how conflict precipitates social change, and articulates possibilities for reconceptualising what might be the more sustainable direction of change.

This thesis uses an action research methodology to develop a framework for improving independent scholarly reporting about interventions addressing social or environmental conflict. As there are often contradictory interpretations about the causes and strategic responses to conflict, the problem confronting scholar-reporters is how to address perceptions of bias and reflexively specify the purpose of reporting. It is proposed that scholar-reporters require grounding in conventional realist-based social theory but equally ability to incorporate theoretical ideas generated in more idealist-based peace research and applied conflict resolution studies. To do this scholar-reporters can take a comparative approach systematically developed through an integrated framework as described in this thesis. Conceptual and theoretical considerations that support both conventional and more radical constructions are comparatively analysed and then tested in relation to a case study. In 2000 Aboriginal people throughout South Australia deliberated whether their native title claims could be better accorded recognition through conservative court processes or a negotiation process to allay deep-seated conflict. The author, in a scholar-reporter capacity, formulated a report attributing meaning to this consultative process. As such a report could have been formulated according to alternative paradigms, methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks, the analysis of the adopted framework highlights how different approaches can bias the interpretation of the process and prospects for change. Realist-based conservative interpretations emphasise 'official' decision-making processes where legitimacy is expressed through political and legal frameworks based on precedent. Idealist-based interpretations emphasise that circumstances entailing significant conflict warrant equal consideration being given to 'non-official' 'resolutionary' problem-solving processes where conflict is treated as a catalyst for learning and outcomes are articulated as understanding generated about conflict and how different strategies can transform it. The developed integrated framework approach establishes the independence of scholarly reporting. Its purpose goes beyond perpetuating scholarly debate about alternative 'objective' understandings of conflict; it focuses primarily on communicating a more inclusive understanding of the contradictions inherent in a particular conflict. It increases the capacity to understand when, where, why and how conflict precipitates social change, and articulates possibilities for reconceptualising what might be the more sustainable direction of change.

This thesis uses an action research methodology to develop a framework for improving independent scholarly reporting about interventions addressing social or environmental conflict. As there are often contradictory interpretations about the causes and strategic responses to conflict, the problem confronting scholar-reporters is how to address perceptions of bias and reflexively specify the purpose of reporting. It is proposed that scholar-reporters require grounding in conventional realist-based social theory but equally ability to incorporate theoretical ideas generated in more idealist-based peace research and applied conflict resolution studies. To do this scholar-reporters can take a comparative approach systematically developed through an integrated framework as described in this thesis. Conceptual and theoretical considerations that support both conventional and more radical constructions are comparatively analysed and then tested in relation to a case study. In 2000 Aboriginal people throughout South Australia deliberated whether their native title claims could be better accorded recognition through conservative court processes or a negotiation process to allay deep-seated conflict. The author, in a scholar-reporter capacity, formulated a report attributing meaning to this consultative process. As such a report could have been formulated according to alternative paradigms, methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks, the analysis of the adopted framework highlights how different approaches can bias the interpretation of the process and prospects for change. Realist-based conservative interpretations emphasise 'official' decision-making processes where legitimacy is expressed through political and legal frameworks based on precedent. Idealist-based interpretations emphasise that circumstances entailing significant conflict warrant equal consideration being given to 'non-official' 'resolutionary' problem-solving processes where conflict is treated as a catalyst for learning and outcomes are articulated as understanding generated about conflict and how different strategies can transform it. The developed integrated framework approach establishes the independence of scholarly reporting. Its purpose goes beyond perpetuating scholarly debate about alternative 'objective' understandings of conflict; it focuses primarily on communicating a more inclusive understanding of the contradictions inherent in a particular conflict. It increases the capacity to understand when, where, why and how conflict precipitates social change, and articulates possibilities for reconceptualising what might be the more sustainable direction of change.

Occupational exposures of healthcare workers tend to occur because of inconsistent compliance with standard precautions. Also, incidence of occupational exposure is underreported among operating room personnel. The purpose of this project was to develop national estimates for compliance with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting practices among operating room nurses in Australia. Data was obtained utilizing a 96-item self-report survey. The Standard Precautions and Occupational Exposure Reporting survey was distributed anonymously to 500 members of the Australian College of Operating Room Nurses. The Health Belief Model was the theoretical framework used to guide the analysis of data. Data was analysed to examine relationships between specific constructs of the Health Belief Model to identify factors that might influence the operating room nurse to undertake particular health behaviours to comply with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting. Results of the study revealed compliance rates of 55.6% with double gloving, 59.1% with announcing sharps transfers, 71.9% with using a hands-free sharps pass technique, 81.9% with no needle recapping and 92.0% with adequate eye protection. Although 31.6% of respondents indicated receiving an occupational exposure in the past 12 months, only 82.6% of them reported their exposures. The results of this study provide national estimates of compliance with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting among operating room nurses in Australia. These estimates can now be used as support for the development and implementation of measures to improve practices in order to reduce occupational exposures and, ultimately, disease transmission rates among this high-risk group.

Occupational exposures of healthcare workers tend to occur because of inconsistent compliance with standard precautions. Also, incidence of occupational exposure is underreported among operating room personnel. The purpose of this project was to develop national estimates for compliance with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting practices among operating room nurses in Australia. Data was obtained utilizing a 96-item self-report survey. The Standard Precautions and Occupational Exposure Reporting survey was distributed anonymously to 500 members of the Australian College of Operating Room Nurses. The Health Belief Model was the theoretical framework used to guide the analysis of data. Data was analysed to examine relationships between specific constructs of the Health Belief Model to identify factors that might influence the operating room nurse to undertake particular health behaviours to comply with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting. Results of the study revealed compliance rates of 55.6% with double gloving, 59.1% with announcing sharps transfers, 71.9% with using a hands-free sharps pass technique, 81.9% with no needle recapping and 92.0% with adequate eye protection. Although 31.6% of respondents indicated receiving an occupational exposure in the past 12 months, only 82.6% of them reported their exposures. The results of this study provide national estimates of compliance with standard precautions and occupational exposure reporting among operating room nurses in Australia. These estimates can now be used as support for the development and implementation of measures to improve practices in order to reduce occupational exposures and, ultimately, disease transmission rates among this high-risk group.

The lack of a standardised reporting framework in sustainability reporting has resulted in companies producing unaudited generic sustainability information that are not reflective of companies’ actual sustainability performance. The disclosures also differ in quality and hinder comparison. This study addresses these problems with the development of a new scoring index that integrates the hard and soft principles in Clarkson, Li, Richardson and Vasvari’s (2008) environmental index with performance indicators of the Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) framework. The newly developed index comprises all three aspects of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) and adopts a standardised scoring scale that is reflective of companies’ sustainability performance. The new index was applied to evaluate annual reports and stand-alone sustainability reports of listed companies in the resources industry of Australia. This study investigates whether significant correlations existed between the extent of sustainability disclosures (economic, environmental and social) and company characteristics (company size, financial performance, board composition and type of resources extracted). This study found that companies generally produced minimal sustainability information with vast diversity in their disclosure items. Significant positive correlations were found between sustainability disclosures and company size, company financial performance, proportion of independent directors, multiple directorships and women directors on the board. Companies without CEO duality and those with a sustainability committee disclosed more sustainability information. However, no significant differences in sustainability disclosures were identified between companies operating in the metals and mining sector and the energy and utilities sector. Companies disclosed more soft than hard disclosure items and significantly more information on the economic aspect than the environmental and social aspects. This industry-specific study suggests that improvements identified by the new index is essential to enhance the current sustainability reporting practices and performance and to promote a benchmark for quality sustainability reporting.

There are many potential determinants of women?s labour supply including wages, unearned income, human capital endowments, demographic characteristics and family traits. Fertility behaviour, including the number of children and age of children, is also an important factor in women’s labour supply decisions. Many factors which affect women’s decisions on participating in the labour market and hours of work are also key influences on their decisions on starting a family and having a desired number of children. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of labour supply and fertility behaviour of Australian women. Using cross-sectional data, labour supply models corrected for sample selection bias, and fertility models examining different aspects of family size, the thesis finds that women’s labour supply decisions are largely influenced by their wages and fertility behaviour. Their decisions on completed fertility, starting a family and having additional children are largely influenced by their actual or potential wages.

The following dissertation is an exploratory case study of a telecommunications organisation�s call centres. Specifically, it was focused on investigating internal service quality issues that related to the frontline employee role, a clearly underdeveloped area of study in services marketing literature. The study involved firstly identifying the internal services delivered to frontline employees, and then gaining their perceptions of the service quality dimensions most important to them within each workplace situation. This in turn provided an indication of how internal services could be customised and classified to best meet frontline employees� work requirements and therefore increase their job effectiveness. In addition, the case study explored frontline employees� overall perceptions of the quality of delivery of each internal service, which helped provide further insights into their work needs. Frontline employees� perceptions were also sought regarding the importance of each internal service to them, in terms of increasing their ability to generate revenue for the organisation. This provided an indication of how different internal services impacted upon their exchanges with external customers. Twelve internal services and seven internal service quality dimensions were identified through conducting extensive observation and undertaking interviews with frontline employees at one of the call centres. The information obtained helped inform a web-based online survey that was implemented to address the three focal research questions. The online survey was successfully completed by 301 frontline employees. The results showed that while all twelve internal services shared some similarities in their demand characteristics, some groups of internal services were distinctly different to others. As a result of these similarities and differences, the internal services were classified into four categories: trainingintensive internal services; communication-based internal services; real-time-based internal services; and, performance-related internal services. While the four classification categories can provide a solid guide for internal suppliers about how to approach groups of internal services, it was apparent that frontline employees had unique needs in each of the twelve internal services. This emphasised the need for the classification scheme to be used only as a guide, whereby internal suppliers should methodically identify all the quality attributes most important to frontline employees in each individual internal service situation. The results also showed that frontline employees perceived some internal services as more important than others, in terms of increasing their ability to generate revenue for the organisation. As a result, it was suggested that internal services could also be classified according to their �importance� levels, as this could help managers in their allocation of organisational resources. The case study provided a valuable insight into frontline employees� needs, and other internal service quality issues related to their roles. Because the results and conclusions were specific to a particular case, it is essential that this area of research be extended further in future.

As climate change becomes more destructive to our planet, some governments have taken action towards a more sustainable future. One being the UK, where a Climate Emergency was declared in 2019, which affects public corporations and news outlets. The aim of this thesis is to investigate how do news reports portray natural disasters from an eco-linguistic perspective. This qualitative study focuses on analysing data regarding the 2019-2020 wildfires in Australia through the linguistic choices made in the texts by incorporating a combination of corpus linguistics, eco-linguistics and media discourse. The corpus under investigation consists of 41,055 words collected from 4 different UK-based news outlets. In order to analyse the data, I chose three search words (fire, climate and animal) to further investigate by using both corpus- and eco-linguistics. The results showcase a consistent pattern within the selected search words: fire and climate are portrayed as threats whereas animals are portrayed as victims. Yet, the most remarkable finding is regarding climate, as it is viewed as a cause rather than an effect caused by human actions. This study is a step towards a better understanding of climate change in news reporting; providing an insight on what the discourse is lacking but should be included.

The reasons why non-English speaking background (NESB) shopfloor employees participate in workplace language and literacy classes and the factors that affect their motivation to participate are relative unknowns. This study investigates NESB shopfloor employees' motivation to participate in a Communication Skills Development Program (CSDP) course and the factors that affected their motivation. An inductive analysis of findings revealed that all of the employees participated in one of the CSDP courses for a variety of pre-determined life-specific reasons. These reasons are represented by three main categories of goals (i.e., 'Self-improvement through language and literacy development', 'Work', 'Outside work'). Of these goals, all of the employees reported 'Self-improvement through language and literacy development' as the underlying reason why they participated in one of the CSDP courses. Further, each employee reported a language/literacy practice that is peculiar to all of his/her goals and most sub-goals. An extended analysis of the employees' motivation to participate identified the employees as being 'transactional-', 'vocational-', 'fellowship-', 'social camaraderie-' and/or 'self-satisfaction- oriented' learners. Findings also revealed that a variety of 'personal', 'course-related' and 'context-related' factors either positively or adversely affected the employees' motivation to participate. A qualitative case study design was implemented. Data was collected through interviews, observations, field notes and the review of artifacts. Data was inductively analysed by classifying patterns of relationships into categories that represent the employees' motivation to participate and factors that affected their motivation. ii This study's findings have implications for theory and practice. At a theoretical level, these findings add to the existing theoretical understanding of why English as second language adults participate in workplace language and literacy classes and the factors that affect their motivation. At a practice level, these findings illustrate the need for Food Products management and program teachers to have an understanding of the reasons 'why' NESB shopfloor employees participate in workplace language and literacy classes and the factors that affect their motivation. For with such an understanding, first, Food Products management will be able to implement organisational practices that positively affect the employees' motivation to participate in future CSDP classes. Second, teachers will be able to assist the employees to set realistic goals, and design and implement course content that assists the employees to attain these goals.. For it is when employees attain their goals that they will form and hold positive perceptions of the course in which they participate.

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Feb 23, 2010). The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Dissertation advisor: Dr. Earnest Perry. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This quantitative study documents, analyses and discusses the accident experience of Commonwealth employees in Western Australia from 1 July 1993 to 2 December 1995 as recorded on 1663 accident report forms. The research addresses the problem of lack of knowledge of accidents in the Commonwealth sector of the Western Australian work force. Its purpose is to identify possible areas of health and safety improvement and highlight where accident frequency may be reduced. Risk management is adopted as a conceptual framework to explore categories of accident related data, including month of year, time of day, day of the week of accidents, number of years of job experience, age and gender of the worker, accident frequency and severity. Where applicable accident related data was subjected to Chi-square statistical tests. Important findings, amongst others, include the identification of the month of August as having a higher frequency of accidents, inexperienced Commonwealth workers incurring 80.5% of accidents, and 64% of accidents involving men. Such findings are of importance to the Commonwealth so that prevention strategies targeted at these areas can be developed. Additional research utilising national data is recommended.

Prior to 1994 I had little interest in the activities of the police. As a mass media consumer I was aware of the prominence of crime in the daily news agenda and I watched, read and listened to potted summaries of rape, mayhem and murder. Frequent too, were stories of police malpractice, incompetence and corruption. Police stories were also a significant part of television drama with programs like the long running British series The Bill, and a range of Australian productions: The Feds, Halifax f.p, Rafferty's Rules, Blue Heelers, State Coroner, and Water Rats. The police also featured at the cinema with crime genre movies Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, USA), Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, New Zealand) and Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, USA) becoming box office hits. My interest in the portrayal of police change dramatically when on the 7th of October 1994, I was appointed Officer-in-Charge of the Media and Publications Branch of the Australian Federal Police (AFP). I was responsible for all aspects of the communication function including: media liaison, crisis management, media management, publications and internal communication. My branch dealt with media inquiries from local, national and international media across the gamut of issues facing the AFP. These ranged fiom industrial issues about budgets and overtime, allegations of corruption and incompetence, and operational matters as diverse as burglaries, alleged Nazi war criminals, peace-keeping operations and drug 'busts'. Needless to say my police stakeholders did not always see things the same way as my media colleagues. I was seeing at a practical day-to-day level the complex taxonomy of police/media relations outlined by Putnis (1996). Putnis noted the ubiquity of the police and the media as social institutions and observed that their daily operations involved a complex, dynamic, relationship constructed out of many thousands of interactions, across all levels of the organisations, in many different settings. My experiences in dealing with the media became the genesis of this study. My aim is to expand our understanding of the police/media relationship by exploring characteristic forms of print news-media reports about policing, the impact these reports have on police, and on law and order policy. The possibility of bias towards police in this study is acknowledged given I was a member of a police service fiom 1994 until 2002 and the research relies heavily on 'participant observer' techniques (Kay 1997; Potter1 996; Schofield 1993). Every effort has been made to maintain a critical perspective on the subject matters raised and it should be noted my association with police ended prior to the writing-up phase of the research. In addition to comments fiom my supervisory panel, ongoing discussions with media colleagues were another strategy adopted to ensure balance in the writing-up of this study. This is a unique study in that it offers an insider's perspective of police/media relations and at a time that represented a watershed for police. The early 90s was a period of straightened finances for public sector agencies and police, like other agencies, were under pressure fiom governments to demonstrate the efficient use of public monies (AFP 1995; Grieve 2000). Reform programs swept through policing with many, like the AFP, being organised along business lines (Palmer 1995; Etter 1995; Rohl 1999; WAPOL 1999). The 90s were also a watershed for criminal organisations with the emergence of transnational criminal syndicates, such as drug traffickers, that had the potential to impact on crime at a local level without even entering the country, let alone the jurisdiction, in which the crime took place (Bliss and Harfield 1998; Palmer 1995; McFarlane 1999). In order to combat these syndicates, police began to work in a more cooperative fashion and formed loose coalitions, often across countries, in a manner similar to the criminal syndicates they were trying to combat (Palmer 1995). The 90s also saw the continuation of committees of inquiry and royal commissions into police malpractice (Landa and Dillon 1995) and the inevitable bad press for police (Wood 1996; Munday 1995). The media and police have a symbiotic relationship and it is a critical one as most members of society have little direct contact with the criminal justice system. Information about crime, and the efforts of police to combat it, is obtained second hand through fictional accounts from such vehicles as television dramas, and from the news media. As aptly described by Hall et al. (1975), nearly thirty years ago, the media is the link between crime and the public. The police are therefore heavily reliant on the media to provide a balanced account of the panoply of issues surrounding the criminal justice system (Cowdery 2001). At its most fundamental, police require the support of the communities they serve in order to be effective, and the news media can have a major impact on perceptions about police performance (Reiner 1997; Surette 1992). As organisational entities, police need to compete with other bureaucracies for public hnding, and the media is an essential tool in generating positive publicity about successful operations and policies. The media is, therefore, critical to the maintenance of positive relationships with the two most important stakeholders in the policing function: the community and the government. McGregor (1993) provides a useful summary of the literature relating to print media coverage of policing issues: there are substantial discrepancies between official accounts of criminal activity and press reports of crime; the media tends to homogenise crime by concentrating on a limited range of crimes (mainly violent crime) and drawing facts from a limited range of sources (police/court reports); the media over-report serious crimes, especially murder and crimes with a sexual element; and, the press concentrates crime reportage on events rather than issues, so crime incidents and specific crimes form the bulk of crime news as opposed to analyses of the causes of crime or remedies, trends or issues. McQuail (1994, p.256) reminds us that assessing media performance on the basis of media content, measured against the extent to which content relates to reality, is open to question. He argues that there is no general answer to questions of meaning construction, but media research has pointed to several elements in a more general framework of social and personal meanings including clues as to what is more or less important, salient or relevant in many different contexts (1994, p. 379). An important research question concerns the impact of news media practices, particularly given the significant costs to the community flowing from the commission of crime, its investigation by police, and the processing of offenders through the criminal justice system. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates the cost of crime in Australia is approximately $19 billion, while the cost of dealing with crime is another $13 billion (Mayhew 2003). The news media, articulated through radio talk-back hosts, are seen as having undue influence on how public funds on crime control are spent (ABC, The Media Report, 1 August 2002; Chan 1995; Cowdery 2001; Dixon 2002; Weatherbum 2002). These commentators have pointed to the serious public policy issues arising from the contribution made by the media towards what Weatherburn describes as an irrational public debate about law and order (2002, p. 12) and Hogg and Brown have coined 'the uncivil politics of law and order' (1998, p. 4). As Hogg and Brown (1998, p. 4) observe: crime is depicted as a problem of ever-increasing gravity set to overwhelm society unless urgent, typically punitive measures are taken to control and suppress it. The influence of the media on public policy has long been recognised. As Paletz and Entmann (l981, p. 6) observe: they influence the decisions and actions of politicians; they are open to manipulation by the powerful which insulates the powerful fiom accountability to the public; they reallocate power amongst the already powerful; they decreased to a marked extent the ability of ordinary citizens to judge events; they foment discontent among the public; and they preserve the legitimacy of the political, economic and social system. Ethnomethodological approaches (Ericson and Haggerty 1997) underpin the research in this study. The ethnomethodological approach was used because of its wider scope, employing as it does, observation, interviewing, and document-analysis techniques (Ericson et al. 1987, p. 77) and its ability to provide meaning and context to the phenomena under observation (Hall 1978; Willis l981). Ethnomethodological approaches are complemented by news framing analyses (Barkin and Gurevitch 1987; Blood, Putnis and Pirkis 2002; Capella and Jamieson 1996; Coleman 1995; Entman 1993; Kitzinger 2000; Keely 1999; Darling-Wolf 1997; London 1993; Pan and Kosicki 2001; Miller and Riechert 2001; Pirkis and Blood 2001; Reese, Gandy and Grant 2003; Scheufele 1999) to explore the news media frames employed in the genre of print crime reporting. What emerges from the study is evidence of a one-sided, highly negative, discourse about policing implemented through a range of media frames centred on conflict and broader xenophobic and egalitarian narratives. Despite the advantages police have as information gatekeepers, their attempts to manage the media environment have met with little success (Hughes 2004; Williams 2002) and the need for police to restrict access to police communications is being challenged (Crime and Misconduct Commission 2004, Inquiry into the effects of a Queensland Police Service decision to adopt digital technology for radio communications). There are exceptions, of course: the news media are not all bad. Routine reporting of crimes, where details of offenders are publicised, greatly assists the work of police as reflected in the case of 43-year-old Mr Colin George Dunstan which is discussed in Chapter Eight. Dunstan sent a series of explosive devices through the mail system in Canberra and police provided the media with photographs of the devices, Mr Dunstan (who was the main suspect), and his vehicle. The media coverage restricted Mr Dunstan's movements and led to his early arrest. Similarly, publication of the details of missing persons, warnings about lethal batches of drugs and crimes such as drink-spiking, enable police to reach a mass audience efficiently and quickly. And at a more abstract level, as noted by McQuail (1994, p. 34), modem communication vehicles can make a positive contribution to cohesion and community. The emergence of the 'yapping pack' form of journalism (Tiffen 1999, p. 207) has resulted in elements of the media exercising a worrying degree of influence over what should be a broader and better informed debate about criminal justice issues. An illustration of this process occurred toward the end of this study with the widely reported spectacle of the Premier of New South Wales presenting his replacement police minister before radio presenter Mr Alan Jones for his endorsement; the subsequent involvement of that minister in operational police matters (Williams 2002); and the departure of the state's police commissioner as a result of sustained media attack (ABC, The Media Report, 1 August 2002; Weatherburn 2002). These incidents say much about the influence of the news media in relation to police matters and makes this study a timely one. What follows is a literature review examining contemporary trends in policing and the media; a detailed analysis of two major case studies involving complex police operations; an analysis of a number of examples of print media reports about policing, to identify typical, or characteristic, media frames; the findings from nearly 50 interviews with senior people involved in the policelmedia interface; and an examination of changes in the milieu in which media reports about policing occur.

"This study enquires into the accounting standard system in Australia and questions the appropriateness of its core democratic participatory vehicle, the due process. In doing so it highlights issues associated with self-regulating authorities and their policy making practices. The study is pertinent to the extent it reviews a major paradigm shift within the Australian public sector and more specifically local government financial reporting. Spanning the course of three decades it examines the reasons for such a paradigm shift, the major actors involved, the actual changes made and the effectiveness of those changes."
Doctor of Business Administration

The Western Australian Payment of Members Act 1900 was promulgated upon two tenets, namely, that Members of Parliament should be compensated for their services to society and that other Australian colonies were already receiving some form of compensation. The premise stipulated that all people, regardless of economic background should be given an opportunity to fulfil the honourable duly of a Representative. Remuneration in this thesis covers the minimalist advent of Parliamentary Remuneration whereby Mrs were compensated by way of a basic salary to the current multifaceted Parliamentary Remuneration which encompasses various structures, processes and is often overarched by complicated determinative methodologies. Remuneration was the original term given for the payment of services rendered. The contemporary understanding of Remuneration extends to salary, superannuation ;Ind an additional raft of entitlements. Since the form of Parliamentary Remuneration has evolved, so too has public disputation grown over the various entitlements that MPs receive. Parliamentary Remuneration has become a highly contentious issue. However, despite the nature of the topic there is a surprising absence of research on the topic. This study is the only known historical and analytical account of Parliamentary Remuneration that has been written apart from reports prepared by Governmental agencies or Parliamentary Remuneration tribunals. The Quest for a Formula will review the historical remunerative determinations that have occurred within Western Australia since the tum of the 20th Century, contrasting the findings of this study against historical experiences that can be drawn from other democratic-Commonwealth countries such as Britain and Canada. For comparison the thesis will also investigate how various enterprises, both public and private, remunerate their employees in accordance to various performance management indicators. This study suggests that the methods that have been at use within Western Australia, and various other Commonwealth-based jurisdictions, may require an overhaul. However, given the unique nature of parliamentary duties, attempts to provide a set of performance criteria have proved difficult to establish. Nonetheless this thesis proposes a systematic determinative process that is more transparent than current procedures. The thesis has found the determinative process in Western Australia to be redundant as it appears to be overlapped by the Federal Remuneration Tribunal. Many types of determinative processes have been employed by various Governments; this study illustrates the equitable methodologies compared to inequitable methods. This thesis also proposes that the general standing of an MP within Australian society may be raised through the development of a more transparent system of determination that encourages public input. Aside from this, a remunerative determination should take into consideration an MP's experience along with the size, demographics .)f their electorate. Parliament should also frequently employ private management consultants that can individually assess each MP's workload, consequently producing an impartial recommendation on the state of MP remuneration. This thesis proposes that the employment of such consultants may allow for MPs to communicate numerous ways that they could be more efficient and could also generate 'work plans' to assist them in achieving their everyday goals. This study will also find that, while a new more transparent system of determination is required within both Western Australia and Australia, the possibility of implementing a performance management system to consequently remunerate MP is highly unlikely, Finally, a recommendation of this thesis will propose new structures, processes and mathematical formulae in determining an MP's overall worth.

The topic of sustainability has never been as relevant as it is today. Most recently, we have been following climate activists strike worldwide, the U.S. withdraw from the Paris Agreement and we have seen the world elite leave climate meetings without agreements. In 2015, to cope with the sustainability issues, the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for global actions to protect the planet and assure a better future for humanity. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 SDGs are set to ensure social, economic, and environmental progress at a global level. For a worldwide advance in progress has the private sector a leading role, and to ensure an effective framework of goals and a balance between the three dimensions are the standards adopted in dialogue with the private sector. The adoption of agendas and regulations has stressed sustainability reporting to become an important business issue for the last two decades. Although sustainability reporting emerged quite recently, the topic has been well researched. Recent research has been focusing on shareholder value and sustainability reporting. However, there is a lack of research focusing on the other stakeholder groups. This study intends to investigate what internal stakeholders of an organization in the private sector consider as important reporting activities following the Global Reporting Standards (GRI). This study is written on commission, hence does the sample consist of the commissioner’s employees. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a survey was conducted and distributed among the internal stakeholders of the organization. The results of the study found the social sustainability activities to be the most important ones to report, followed by the environmental sustainability activities and the economic sustainability activities. Any possible differences between different subgroups of the population (gender, age, employment, and position at work) were tested by establishing two-sample t-tests and a one-way Analysis of Variance. The gender-, age- and position at work variable showed significance, rejecting the null hypothesis that the mean responses are equal.

Alan Fox's unitarist ideology provided a useful categorisation of managerial perspectives on managing employees and the nature of organisation. However, it was an intuitive framework, developed as part of a reformist argument for a pluralist system of industrial relations. It was not based on a systematic, empirical study of managers and, while applied to research, there has been little testing of the construct. The primary research question addressed in this thesis is whether managers in contemporary SMEs exhibit unitarist characteristics. A number of subsidiary questions follow. The first set explores managers' attitudes towards managerial prerogative, conflict, collective workplace relations and trade unions. Analysis of the data produced 11 unitarist dimensions. The second addresses whether organisational and personal characteristics and managers' perceptions of the limitations on management are significant for SME managers' ideological frameworks. The third identifies whether consultative, participative and collective practices are employed in work organisations. The definition of managerial ideology, including both managers' beliefs and values and also their workplace behaviour and practices, led to testing the relationship between the unitarist dimensions and managerial practice, and managers' satisfaction with employees. Finally, the thesis investigated whether there were any significant links between managerial practices and managers' satisfaction with employee performance. The methodology included a mail survey of SME managers in Eastern Australia with 206 respondents, and an interview programme of 20 SME managers in Brisbane, Queensland. The significant findings of this research are, first, that consultative or participative managerial practices do not necessarily reflect a pluralist ideology or orientation. SME managers limit the scope of decisions for involving employees, and usually shopfloor employees, utilising practices that do not compromise managerial power or managerial prerogative. Second, organisational and personal characteristics are relatively unimportant contextual variables in management behaviour in SMEs, unless it was described as a family business. Third, this thesis provides an alternative to the conclusions of some industrial relations scholars that managers employ a mix of unitarist and pluralist strategies. The adoption of apparently pluralist management practices in consultation and employee participation are revealed in this research as being predominantly non-threatening to managerial prerogative and organisational power structures in workplaces in terms of who is involved or excluded, and about what matters employees are consulted or involved. The overall results of managers' attitudes to collective workplace arrangements and trade unions confirm a general unitarist orientation in Australian SMEs. Fourth, the evidence does not suggest any clear binding of values and beliefs with managerial behaviour. Underpinning normative perspectives on management is an underlying commitment to protecting managers' power in the work organisation. It is this fundamental political commitment that both guides and constrains strategic choice in managing employees in SMEs. Unitarist ideology is thus central to the norms of management, and goes to the core of managerial prerogative. Finally, the results indicated that SME managers in the study usually did not demonstrate strong attachments to their views on the issues presented to them.

Diesel Particulates (DP) is a growing concern in many industries. This research looks at acute health effects related to DP exposure and how DP is monitored in an underground mine in Western Australia. Results appear to show that higher exposure to DP may in fact be linked to certain acute health issues and that a standardised method of monitoring should be developed. This research provides a basis for further DP related studies.

This study investigated the use of competencies for human resource management in seven Australian companies. Despite advocacy for the use of competencies by Government Committees and Task Forces (For example Carmichael (1992), Mayer, (1992) and Karpin, 1995), and the existence of competency standards for eighty per cent of the Australian workforce, the competency approach has not been widely adopted. A review of the literature indicated that the term competency had several meanings with different implications for its use depending on the meaning. The study looked at how individuals have defined the term and applied the approach to human resource management practices. Interviews were conducted with Human Resource and Training managers, and operative staff in companies using competencies. How they defined the term, described the rationale for using competencies, and applied competencies to selection, training, performance appraisal and remuneration were determined. Case studies were written for each company to describe their particular application of competencies. Competencies were found to be defined in several ways by those interviewed. Some advantages of using competencies in human resource management applications were found. The amount of work involved in introducing the competency approach was described as a reason why competencies have not been more widely adopted.

This thesis examines the ways in which gender relations and sexuality are constructed in workplaces within the printing industry, in order to understand how the sexual division of labour - which keeps women workers concentrated in 'unskilled', low status jobs in the bindery, and largely excluded from the male dominated printing trades - is maintained and reproduced. This study focuses on four structures of gender relations in the workplace: sexual division of labour, discrimination, power and sexuality, and explores these structures on three levels: structure, practice and subjectivity. The study analyses the printing labour process in terms of the theoretical issues of gender, sexuality and power from a feminist historical materialist perspective. There is a focus on the dialectical relationship between structure and subjectivity which reproduces both gendered subjectivity and structures of inequality between women and men, through the mediation of social practices and discourses operating in the printing labour process. The research process incorporates a feminist philosophy of 'research with' rather than 'research on', which suggests research methods that explore social relations in their everyday context. In order to explore the ways in which femininity, masculinity and sexuality are constructed, and the ways in which these constructions reproduce the sexual division of labour, the daily social practices operating in five Brisbane printing firms were observed. Two of the five case studies are of large 'hi-tech' printing firms owned and managed by men; three are of small 'low tech' printing firms owned and managed by women. In each case, the methods used are participant observation, informal conversations with workers, informal group discussions, unstructured interviews with management and representatives from the union, employer organisation and industry training council, and documentary analysis. An historical outline of women's participation in the Australian printing industry provides a context for the case studies. The findings from the case studies indicate that little has changed in the patterns of gender relations observed in the printing industry historically, and over the fouryear period of this study. In the two large firms of this study, a conventional sexual division of labour was maintained, women were marginalised, underrepresented, concentrated in low-paid and low status jobs, casualised, and generally perceived by male workers and management as inferior workers. On the other hand, in the small firms, the sexual division of labour was disrupted to varying degrees, women were central to the organisation of work and numerically dominant, women were spread across all the trades, were not casualised, and were valued as workers. In theoretical terms, the findings support other researchers' explanations of how gender and sexuality are socially constructed in the workplace, highlighting the role of the technology/masculinity link in defining the feminine as nontechnological, and thus contributing to the exclusion of women from technical jobs. In addition, the findings point to the significance of the dialectical relationship between structure and subjectivity in reproducing the structures of inequality between women and men, and highlight how this relationship is mediated by practices and discourses operating in the printing labour process. The findings also add to the theorisation of the key role of women managers in achieving sex equality in organisations. In practice, based on the small number of printing firms in this study, it appears that small firms provide the most favourable environment for women, both as employees and managers, in terms of access to non-traditional occupations,multiskilling, recognition of prior learning and informal training, job satisfaction, autonomy and support.

The growing importance for the concept of "employer of choice" (EOC) in Australia is evident in the public reporting, surveys and awards relating to "corporate social responsibility" (CSR). Employer of choice has become part of mainstream business terminology. The portfolio demonstrates an internal education resource on a company's employer of choice initiatives, benefits and opportunities constructively enriches an Australian business' corporate social responsibility culture, enhances opportunities for staff, and maximises industry advantage

In April 2000 the Western Australian Birth Defects Registry held its 20th Anniversary Scientific Symposium to signify the first 20 years of the Birth Defects Registry in Western Australia. At the Symposium, significant trends and occurrences in birth defects within Western Australia over the past 20 years were addressed. One factor highlighted in the Registry's 1980-1999 report was that birth defects were reported less frequently in rural regions compared with metropolitan areas. Data collected from the metropolitan area is considered by the Birth Defects Registry to be the most accurate. Therefore, incidence rates of birth defects in this area arc used as a benchmark for determining the incidence of birth defects throughout Western Australia. The aim of this study was to explore the lower incidence of birth defects in the Midwest of Western Australia compared with that of metropolitan Western Australia. The study investigated if the observed lower incidence of birth defects in the Midwest was due to case under reporting. The study target population included newborns whose mothers were Midwest residents at the time of their birth between the years of 1995 - 1999. A mixed methodological approach, combining capture-recapture and thematic analysis was used. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved the collection of quantitative data. The potential target population in the Midwest consisted of 5066 births. A sample of 440 newborn case notes were selected randomly from the target population and accessed from client files held at Geraldton Regional Hospital. A record was made of any reportable birth defects. The result provided demographic and descriptive statistics, which were compared with data held by the Birth Defects Registry regarding the Midwest. This mode of sample collection is known as capture-recapture methodology. Comparison of data from the sample with data from the Registry was used to document the existence of discrepancies and to enable an ascertainment-adjusted analysis to be performed. To address the study's aims, the ascertainment adjusted rate was compared with the rates occurring in the metropolitan area. In Phase 1, quantitative findings showed the lower incidence of birth defects diagnosed in infants during the newborn period in the Midwest of Western Australia was unlikely to be due to case under reporting. Possible factors contributing to the lower incidence of birth defects in the Midwest compared to the Metropolitan area were discussed. These include the lower maternal age of Midwest mothers, a higher Aboriginal population, study sample bias and case under-reporting beyond the newborn period. Full exploration of these issues, however, was outside the scope of this study and is an area for future research. The second phase of the study involved collection of qualitative data. Health professionals reporting birth defects in the Midwest were asked to participate in focus group interviews. Three groups of health professionals were targeted: general practitioners; midwives; and child health nurses. Interview responses were transcribed and indexed according to common themes and issues. This analysis provided insight into the cause of empirical findings and discrepancies, allowing for recommendations focused on improving and/or sustaining birth defect notification practices of health professionals in the Midwest of Western Australia. Findings showed that a knowledge deficit regarding the reporting of birth defects exists in targeted Midwest health professionals. Possible reasons for the knowledge deficit included high transfer rates of newborns affected by birth defects, uncertainty regarding the responsibility of birth defect reporting, limited use of birth defect notification cards by health professionals and the lack of ongoing education and promotion of birth defects in the Midwest Region. Study recommendations include further research to explore factors contributing to the lower incidence of birth defects in the Midwest, education and promotion regarding birth defects and the role of the Birth Defects Registry, amending and centralising birth defect notification cards, and legislating the reporting of birth defects in Western Australia.

The Western Australian (WA) mining industry directly employs approximately 56,000 people. Almost half work Fly-in/Fly-out commute arrangements (FIFO, e.g. employees living in a city are flown to a remote worksite where they live and work during their work roster) and approximately half work more than 50 hours per week, on average. There are many anecdotal claims that FIFO has negative impacts on WA mining employees, leading to an elevated risk of high stress levels, depression, binge drinking, recreational drug use and relationship break-ups. Previous studies found FIFO can be stressful, and have negative impacts on WA employees 'and partners' lifestyles and relationships. This project investigated the long-term (Study One) and short-term (Study Two) impacts of FIFO and extended working hours on a representative sample of WA FIFO mining employees and partners. In Study One, a total of 222 FIFO and Daily Commute (DC) mining employees and partners completed an anonymous questionnaire investigating long-term impacts on work satisfaction, lifestyle, relationships and health. A subgroup of 32 Study One FIFO employees and partners also participated in Study Two; a detailed study of the short-term impacts of FIFO and extended working hours and how these impacts fluctuate in intensity during the mining roster. Study Two participants completed a diary and provided saliva samples each day throughout a complete mining roster. The main findings of the study were that FIFO and extended working hours had negative impacts on employees work satisfaction and FIFO was frequently reported to be disruptive to employees 'and partners' lifestyle, in the long-term. However, FIFO and extended working hours did not lead to poor quality relationships, high stress levels or poor health, on average in the long-term; there were generally no significant differences in these characteristics between FIFO and DC employees, or between the FIFO sample and the wider community. There were minor differences between FIFO and DC employees in long-term health characteristics, and Study One employees had similar, or in some cases poorer health outcomes than other community samples.

During 1994 BHP Iron Ore is investigating the costs benefits and possibilities of introducing a new Traineeship scheme called Career Start for the Metals and Engineering sector of its workforce. This study explores the factors which impact upon the introduction of the new competency based training scheme. It provides BHP with information for determining whether to adopt the Traineeship scheme as the sole entry level training program for the company, whether to reject the Traineeship scheme altogether, whether to run the Traineeship scheme side by side with the Apprenticeship scheme or to integrate it with the current Apprenticeship scheme in some form or other, within the Metals and Engineering sector. In order to make this determination BHP needs to decide upon a policy making process that is rational, comprehensive, objective, considered and that presents a range of alternatives with means to defined ends. A variation of the rational model for policy making is used to provide a broad framework for developing an answer to the major research question which is: What considerations does BHP need to take Into account to determine whether or not to introduce the Career Start Traineeship scheme? To answer the major research question several subsidiary questions based on the five steps of the rational model were pursued.

The aim of this study was to assess how years of experience and practice area influence work related stress amongst 1,200 nurses employed in a metropolitan hospital environment in Western Australia. A combination of self-administered questionnaires and hair cortisol, an objective stress biomarker, was utilised to measure stress levels and to relate these to practice area, age and experience. Questionnaire results indicated that there was a higher level of perceived stress for 40% of this cohort of nurses; the study methodology was able to unearth noteworthy factors within a local WA nursing population that impacted on their perceived stress. These being; inexperienced nurses suffer more work-related stress than the more experienced nurse. Leadership demands are a source of stress for nurse managers; and age and generational differences’ were also noted. Contrary to hypothesis two, this study could not determine a statistically significant effect relating to the practice area in which the nurses’ worked. Despite a weak correlation found between the hair cortisol level and results of the written questionnaires it is considered when used in conjunction with a stress questionnaire, that hair cortisol testing provides an effective diagnostic tool with adequate sensitivity to detect stress. The ‘curvilinear effect’ as reported by Wells’ (2014) postulated to be due to the physiology of the individuals coping mechanisms was replicated in this study, and therefore determined to be real. It is therefore considered that hair cortisol is a valid screening tool for stress in the occupational environment

This study explores the issues that impact on Western Australian State Government Freedom of Information Coordinators who, within the framework of the Freedom of Information Act (1992), manage requests from the public to access agency held documents. A literature review identified two bodies of material. One extolling FOI, the other arguing that some agency personnel have not accepted, and are actively resisting, the concept of FOI. Using a phenomenological approach, eight Coordinators narrated the issues that impact on their roles and decision-making processes. Themes were identified, analysed and reported in the context of the broader FOI environment. This research found that Coordinators face significant challenges, including the adequacy of the Act; Public Sector and agency culture; relationships with applicants, consultants and third parties; FOI and records management legislation and practices; and the roles and training of agency FOI practitioners, that is, both Coordinators and agency Internal Review Officers. In conclusion, the study asserts that many of the possible solutions to the identified issues are within the Coordinators' and their agency's control, such as implementing general document release policies that will reduce workloads and make public accessibility to documents easier. However, the resolution of other problems will require the willingness of, and a commitment by, the Western Australian Government, Parliament and senior bureaucrats.

Journalists in the Australian Christian press are constrained by a range of factors from playing an emancipatory, or socially responsible, role similar to that played by their mainstream counterparts. This study examines the social theory ojjournalism and the role of the mainstream journalist, with particular regard to the social responsibility model ofpress. It then examines how this compares with the social theory and practice of religion and the role of the Christian press journalist, and specifically, those journalists working within the Anglican Church of Australia's diocesan news press. Following a case study involving Anglican and mainstream journalists, it concludes that factors relating to resources, professionalism and proprietors play the most significant role in constraining Anglican journalists from fulfilling an emancipatory, or socially responsible, role within the Church.

This thesis analyses Australian and Sri Lankan trade secrets laws in light of human rights theory so as to see how legal mechanisms impact on rights of employees and society. Based on a critical analysis of trade secrets of laws of Australia and Sri Lanka, it proposes a legislative framework as a promising way of establishing a balanced law which is equally concerned with the rights of employers, employees and society.

"April 2004"
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 439-471)
ix, 471 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, Discipline of Gender Studies, 2004

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Business.
This thesis provides evidence on the impact on two aspects of auditor change for Australian listed companies. Firstly, changes in audit partners are mandated, requiring partners rotate off engagements after a fixed tenure. Recently, practitioner based concerns about the costs of rotation for both auditors and clients have precipitated amendments to the rule in Australia, Canada and the UK. Evidence in this thesis shows a cost to clients and auditors in the form of increased in audit fees and audit reporting lag in the rotation year that corroborates anecdotal practitioner evidence. Secondly, the process of voluntarily changing audit firms (auditor switching) is regulated under a consent-based framework mitigating information flow to the market. In 2013, the Australian corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), sought stakeholder input on the information provided to the market under the consent framework to inform policy deliberations. This can be viewed as couching the possibility of a move towards adoption of a disclosure-based approach similar to the approach in the US and UK. Accordingly, this thesis investigates market reactions to auditor switch announcements. Results show no market reactions, consistent with the market not considering such disclosures to be informative. The overall findings presented in this thesis lend support to the adoption of amendments that allow for flexibility.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The Residential Aged Care (RAC) Sector in Australia is significant in terms of the ageing population (consistent with most developed countries), and the fact that it will affect the majority of the population in terms of the need for RAC at some stage in their lives. Having access to information for stakeholders to make informed and timely decisions regarding the comparison of RAC providers is often difficult due to there being higher demand than supply, small timeframe to make decisions with a high emotional content and the difficulty in changing providers. This research will enable RAC providers and their stakeholders to consider the current level of disclosure required and the level of voluntary disclosures providers in the sector choose to disclose, and whether this level of disclosure is adequate for stakeholders to make informed decisions. Information was gathered from the RAC provider's website, reports (annual, financial and social) and other publicly available information, to determine their level of non-financial, financial and social (governance and sustainability) disclosure, over a three year period. It was found that the RAC providers should not just be limited to their legal reporting requirements (mandatory), but instead should also endeavour to disclose additional voluntary information, in order for their stakeholders to make informed decisions. In addressing the Australian RAC Sector's stakeholder information needs, frameworks (RAC Sector Disclosure NFS Framework, Non-Financial RAC Disclosure Value Framework, RAC GPFR Framework, RAC Sector Governance Framework, RAC Sector Governance Principles, the RAC Sector Sustainability Reporting Disclosure, and the RAC Sector Sustainability Elements) were developed for this sector to improve disclosure. In addition, the CARED Scoring System was developed and proposed as a means for the Australian RAC Sector Providers to calculate their level of annual reporting (non-financial, financial and social) disclosed to their stakeholders. This research provides new insights and a basis for further research to determine whether the Australian RAC Sector have improved their consistency and adequacy of their disclosures (non-financial, financial and social) through the use of the proposed CARED Framework and associated frameworks.

All sociological traditions recognise the importance of the labour market in the shaping of advantage and disadvanatge in society. However, sociological research has often centred on describing how factors internal to the workplace, such as the labour process, contribute to patterns of disadvantage. One aspect of the labour market operations which has received scant attention in the sociological literature is the different types of tenure attached to different jobs. This thesis considers factors which affect job tenure. The broad context in which patterns of job tenure are created is discussed. The study then narrows its focus to discuss one industry in one place: the retail industry in Australia. Data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics are used to present a broad picture of trends in the labour market in the 1980s with respect to job tenure. Data from the Affirmative Action Agency are used to describe patterns of job tenure within the retail industry which are associated with particular firm characteristics. Interviews with retail managers and employees are used to identify some of the social and cultural factors which have affected patterns of job tenure in the retail industry. Finally, two government initiatives are discussed with respect to their likely impact on job tenure in the industry. Changes to the major retail awards are documented and their likely impact on job tenure in the industry are discussed. Government records and interviews with store level managers are used to build a picture of the likely affects of some government sponsored training programs on job tenure in the industry. It is concluded that a convergence to a single pattern of job tenure, as predicted by writers such as Atkinson (1986) and Michon (1987)jis unlikely. Social and cultural factors are found to affect patterns of job tenure in the retail industry to a greater extent than the labour market literature would suggest.

碩士
亞洲大學
健康產業管理學系長期照護組碩士在職專班
100
Purpose: To understand the current situation of hospital staff to patient safety awareness, attitude, notification process, and the correlation between all of them, and have the approach to their relationships with staff’s basic attributes. Method: A cross-sectional design was adopted and questionnaires containing patient safety and satisfaction items were used to collect information from the staff of a hospital in central Taiwan. A total of 320 questionnaires were distributed and 288 of them were returned to the researcher (response rate was 90%). The inferential statistics data analysis is made by SPSS 12.0 (Chinese software) T-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson product-moment correlation analysis. Result: Main finding included: (1) there were differences between patient safety awareness and job category; (2) there were differences between patient attitudes towards safety and job category; (3) there were obvious differences for notification process between working contract, seniority, and job title; and (4) there were positive correlations for hospital staff toward patient safety awareness, attitude and notification process. Conclusion: Based on this research results, it’s recommended that all the medical process should implement every step to upgrade healthcare quality and safety. Significant differences existed between the experienced staff and the un-experienced staff, therefore, more attention should be paid to improve the patient safety knowledge and attitude among the auxiliary manpower. For further research on the correlation analysis of patient safety and attitude, it is recommended to focus on the approach to patients and their families, which can be as a service process reference to medial institutes and expected to upgrade healthcare quality.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The use of evidence-informed decision making has been considered an integral part of health policy and practice. Nevertheless, the significant gap between evidence and use of that evidence has been repeatedly acknowledged as a major challenge. This can be magnified in areas like suicide prevention, where evidence for effective interventions to reduce suicide is still emerging and where the evidence needs to be applied across diverse settings, within health and also outside of health settings. One of the universal, or community-level, interventions in suicide prevention that has been highlighted consistently in suicide prevention frameworks relates to responsible and safe media reporting of suicide. There is a large body of evidence demonstrating the association between media reporting of suicide and suicidal behaviour and there have been international resources allocated to the development of guidelines for media reporting of suicide. There are significant gaps in the evidence, however, related to factors that may influence attitudes towards and uptake of the guidelines into policy and practice. This thesis presents a coherent body of research that investigates attitudes towards and uptake of evidence-informed guidelines for media reporting suicide in Australia. The research builds on more than fifteen years of work conducted by the candidate and colleagues to develop and implement the Mindframe initiative in Australia, which is a multi-component initiative aimed at improving the way the media and those who work with the media report on, portray and communicate about suicide. While other countries have developed media guidelines for reporting suicide, the Australian approach has included an active implementation strategy that not only targets media professionals but also those who work with and pitch stories to the media, including professional communicators. Prior research in Australia has indicated that media reporting of suicide was more aligned with evidence-informed guidelines following implementation of the Mindframe guidelines and research conducted by the candidate has demonstrated that media in Australia were aware of and used the guidelines and valued face-to-face briefings provided by the project team disseminating the guidelines. There has, however, been limited research conducted to understand some of the individual and environmental enablers that may have supported those changes with media professionals and there is no research examining the attitudes of others involved in shaping media reporting of suicide, including professional communicators and those with lived experience of suicide. The research presented in this thesis seeks to address a number of the existing gaps in the evidence to inform future practice in Australia and internationally. It aims to examine the attitudes that media professionals, professional communicators and those bereaved by suicide have towards evidence-informed guidelines for reporting suicide and assesses the update of media guidelines within media policies and reporting practice in Australia. The thesis includes five separate studies, three presented as non-published chapters and two presented as chapters based on peer-reviewed publications, as summarised below. 1. A quantitative study of attitudes towards evidence-informed guidelines for reporting suicide, and the factors associated with these attitudes (Chapter 2), presents results from a cross-sectional survey completed by 262 media professionals and 260 professional communicators in Australia during 2015. The study uses linear regression analyses to examine factors associated with attitudes that are aligned to evidence-informed guidelines. 2. A qualitative study of attitudes towards reporting suicide and evidence-informed guidelines for reporting suicide (Chapter 3), presents the results of thematic analysis conducted on one open ended-question included in the cross-sectional survey described in Chapter 2 to further explore attitudes towards reporting suicide and associated guidelines. 3. Suicide bereavement and the media: a qualitative investigation of attitudes and experiences (Chapter 4), presents the results of thematic analysis applied to a series of key informant interviews with those bereaved by suicide, journalists, postvention workers, police and coronial staff (part 1) and focus groups conducted with people bereaved by suicide (part 2) to examine the views and attitudes of those bereaved by suicide towards media reporting of suicide. 4. The uptake of evidence-informed guidelines for reporting suicide into media codes of practice and policies in Australia (Chapter 5), presents the results of a content analysis of relevant documents obtained from 12 media agencies in Australia to examine the extent to which media-led policies in Australia align with the Mindframe guidelines. 5. Media use of evidence-informed guidelines when covering a suicide prevention campaign (Chapter 6), examines the extent to which media professionals in Australia apply evidence-informed guidelines for reporting suicide in broadcast reports associated with the largest suicide prevention campaign in Australia, R U OK? Day. Factors associated with the quality of reporting (as determined by adherence to guidelines), were also examined. Each of the studies presented in this thesis, notwithstanding some limitations, provide a unique contribution to the international body of research investigating attitudes towards and uptake of media guidelines for reporting suicide. Combined, the studies provide some insights to inform future knowledge translation, here in Australia and internationally.

This thesis is about recent developments in the Australian welfare state. The historical focus is on the Federal Labor administration in Australia in the 1980s. It is concerned with questions about the public administration in society with regard to social welfare. This concern covers the internal arrangements of the bureaucracy, its effect on society through its actions, and its interactions with society that influence its operation.

Accounting practices are observed to vary from country to country. It has become increasingly important that a standard accounting "language" be developed so that financial reports convey the same message to users from different countries and cultures. It is proposed that observed differences in accounting practice are due to underlying cultural differences and that these must be understood in order to harmonize accounting practice. Hofstede's (1980) definition of and framework for the analysis of culture have been used to assist in identifying the predominant national cultures of Australia and Singapore - two countries with similar British colonial roots but with distinctly different national cultures. Gray's accounting values model, which extends Hofstede's analytical framework into the accounting "sub-culture" arena, and the Harrison and McKinnon model, which seeks to analyze the responses of an accounting regulatory system to historical events, both point to there being a link between the accounting regulation practices and the national cultural values of Australia and Singapore. Singaporean's Confucianistic values (deference to authority, valuing of traditions, collectivism, strong work ethic, etc.) result in a greater acceptance of government intervention in accounting regulation than is the case for Australia where individualism, independence and suspicion of authority are key cultural elements. The implication drawn from this analysis is the expectation that manipulative profit smoothing in financial reporting would be practised to a greater degree by corporate directors in Australia than in Singapore, because societal norms influence their discretionary choice of accounting policies and compliance attitudes. This expectation was confirmed by empirical analysis of reported company financial information in both countries covering the period 1972 to 1989, providing supportive evidence for the view that cultural differences do affect the propensity to indulge in profit smoothing manipulation (using extraordinary items adjustments). The usefulness of the Co V (i.e. the coefficient of vanatIon of the relative change in reported net profit figures) as an adequate indicator for detecting the practice of profit smoothing manipulation and as an unbiased cross-cultural comparative tool was affirmed. The analytical framework developed for the analysis of cultural influences on accounting practice should have useful application in other spheres of accounting and management practice.

Community welfare organisations (CWOs)¹ perform an important role in society. They are founded on religious or social values that are given expression through their mission statements. In undertaking their work, many command significant economic resources. While the literature shows an increasing use of performance reporting by CWOs, little is known about the processes through which performance reports are developed and deployed. This thesis attempts to fill this lacuna by investigating the structure and process of, and rationale for, performance reporting by a CWO. The research was undertaken through a single organisation case study of performance reporting in a large, multi-service CWO. The study employed an interpretive methodology, which was informed by Strategic Choice Theory, using data that was obtained through interviews, observation of meetings and document analysis. The study found that performance reporting by the organisation was extensive, being undertaken within two distinct but related frameworks: a voluntary system that had been developed within the organisation, and a mandatory system of external reporting. It concluded that performance reporting was essentially the strategic response of a decidedly purposeful, voluntary organisation that chose to operate in a highly regulated welfare system. The contributions to knowledge from this thesis arise from a comprehensive explanation of practice, and a demonstration of the applicability of Strategic Choice Theory to understanding organisational behaviour in a CWO. ¹ See Appendix 1 for a definition of the term Community Welfare Organisation.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Business School, 2009