Academic literature on the topic 'Personnel management Victoria'

AbstractObjective:To examine the policies and practices in hospitals within the state of Victoria, Australia, with respect to vaccination of staff against hepatitis B infection.Design:A written self-administered questionnaire to be completed by the infection control officer (or designated officer for hepatitis B vaccination) within each hospital.Setting:Public (teaching and nonteaching) and private hospitals, including metropolitan and rural institutions in Victoria.Participants:A random sample of 30% of Victorian hospitals were asked to participate in the survey. Of 78 eligible institutions, 69 (88%) completed and returned questionnaires.Results:There was no consistent hepatitis B prevention policy in place across Victoria. Of the 69 responding hospitals, 63 (91%) offered hepatitis B vaccination to staff, and 58 (84%) of these also paid all costs of vaccination. Of the 63 hospitals offering vaccination to staff, 39 offered vaccination to all staff, 23 offered vaccination based on job title, and one offered vaccination based on anticipated exposure. In many institutions, postexposure protocols were recalled more readily than preexposure vaccination guidelines. Numerous respondents indicated a need for clear guidelines on policy and clarification on practical matters of management, such as acceptable immune levels, management of nonresponders to the primary series, and the need for, and timing of, booster doses of vaccine. Eleven (18%) of the 63 hospitals offering hepatitis B vaccination to staff undertook routine prevaccination screening, a practice not generally regarded as cost-effective in Australia. Fifty-five of these hospitals (91%) also undertook postvaccination screening.Conclusions:It is evident from this study that a considerable number of potentially susceptible healthcare personnel in Victorian hospitals remain unprotected against hepatitis B infection. A more reliable and consistent approach to preexposure hepatitis B vaccination is recommended

Esso Australia Pty Ltd, in Victoria, Australia has recently been involved in the preparation of over 20 safety cases to meet both offshore (Victoria and Western Australia) [Petroleum {Submerged Lands} Act] and onshore [Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act] regulatory requirements.This paper focusses on the development of the onshore safety cases for both Longford and Long Island Point plants to meet the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety (Major Hazard Facilities) Regulations 2000. Both plants have been granted a five-year unconditional licence to operate.The objectives of the safety case development were to ensure that Esso:addressed major hazard facilities regulatory requirements; maximised benefit from the process, and to maximise benefit from existing work; was consistent with site approach to risk assessment/ safety culture; involved appropriate workforce from all areas— operations, maintenance and technical support; enhanced the effective knowledge and understanding of the workforce; and developed a communication tool to enable ease of understanding by site personnel.Esso’s approach of using qualitative risk assessment techniques (familiar to many site personnel) enabled the process to use tools that provided ease of involvement for the non-technical or safety specialists. This paper will explain this approach in greater detail, demonstrating how this successfully met the stringent requirements of the regulations whilst providing Hazard Register documentation readily understood by the key customer— our site workforce.The hazard register clearly identifies the relevant hazards and their controls, as well as highlighting the linkages to the safety management system and documented performance standards. A comprehensive training program provides all personnel working at site with an overview of the safety case, and the necessary skills and knowledge to be able to use the safety case and hazard register to its maximum advantage. The safety case resource booklet (similar to our offshore approach) is an integral part of the training program, and provides an ongoing reference source for trainees. It continues to receive recognition by both regulators and industry.

Burning of fine fuels is a crucial activity in Australia as part of reducing the severity of bushfires. Seasonal planning of such planned burning is a very complex task owing to the large number of practical considerations and uncertainty of burn conditions, as well as personnel and equipment resource constraints. Practical considerations include the small number of suitable burn days for different types of burns, as well as different fuel hazard and burn types. This requires careful management of very high resource requirements during the available days. We developed a tool that will use all of the above variables to estimate the resource requirements for different levels of planned burning program. We provide a mathematical programming approach to help plan burning crews and equipment resource requirements in each district by month to minimise likely personnel requirements, under seasonal uncertainty. A key feature is that it accommodates maximum daily resource demands given uncertainty in available burn days and overlap between geographical districts. We implemented the model on a real-world problem of public land across Victoria, and solved it to optimality using GAMS/Cplex 9.

Decisions about urban forests are critical to urban liveability and resilience. This study aimed to evaluate the range of positions held by urban forest managers from local governments in the state of Victoria, Australia, regarding the management and governance challenges that affect their decision-making. This study was based on a Q-method approach, a procedure that allows researchers to evaluate the range of positions that exist about a topic in a structured manner based on the experiences of a wide group of people. We created statements on a wide range of urban forest management and governance challenges and asked urban forest managers to rate their level of agreement with these statements via an online survey. Managers generally agreed about the challenges posed by urban development and climate change for implementing local government policies on urban forest protection and expansion. However, there were divergent views about how effective solutions based on increasing operational capacities, such as increasing budgets and personnel, could address these challenges. For some managers, it was more effective to improve critical governance challenges, such as inter-departmental and inter-municipal coordination, community engagement, and addressing the culture of risk aversion in local governments. Urban forest regional strategies aimed at coordinating management and governance issues across cities should build on existing consensus on development and environmental threats and address critical management and governance issues not solely related to local government operational capacity.

Although the cruise sector is considered an ‘unreplaceable’ form of tourism, with the cruise industry recording steady growth over the years, there is a lack of research and analysis on cruise ships themselves. Accordingly, this study sought to determine whether service quality differences among ships operating in the Asian market could suggest broader implications for the sustainability of the cruise industry. We chose the SERVQUAL framework for the analysis; we also employed the multiple case study method and topic synthesis to compare the service quality of three ships. Of the ships investigated—the Costa Victoria, Diamond Princess, and Superstar Virgo—the Diamond Princess had the highest service quality. Based on the results, we outlined suggestions for improving the quality of cruise services, including introducing the latest large ships and high-tech facilities, complying with the departure and arrival times of sailing schedules, improving the ratio of crew members per passenger, establishing a cruise personnel training system, and expanding membership program operations.

Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd and BHP Petroleum (Bass Strait) Pty Ltd own a range of offshore and onshore hydrocarbon production facilities, which have been operated by Esso Australia Pty Ltd (Esso) for over 50 years. The Longford Fire Training Ground (FTG) is located adjacent to the Longford Plants and has been utilised by Esso for many years to train personnel in practical hydrocarbon firefighting skills, including applying firefighting foams to extinguish liquid hydrocarbon pool fires. In line with historical standard oil-field practices, per and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) containing firefighting foams were used at the Longford FTG. In response to the reported use of these foams and the potential for contamination associated with historical site operations, the Longford premises were the subject of recent environmental audit and clean-up plans with oversight by an EPA Victoria auditor. Esso engaged a broad range of experts to complete the environmental investigation and develop a remediation action plan that complied with the PFAS National Environmental Management Plan. Key aspects of this project included: understanding the location and setting, with respect to geological conditions and groundwater impacts; development of remediation objectives and strategy; identification of practical remediation methods including short-term and longer-term measures to mitigate priority PFAS sources within the FTG; and a planning framework for future management of the premises. This paper shares how a responsible operator applies a disciplined and scientifically based environmental approach to further the state of knowledge on practical PFAS remediation methods and achieve a sustainable environmental outcome in the communities that they operate in.

The subject of the research is the theoretical, methodological and practical basis for the formation of the content and functions of sports management, achieving efficiency and strategic guidelines for its development in the future. The purpose of the work is to determine the content, functions, technologies and effectiveness of management in the field of physical culture and sports and to analyze the existing directions of foreign management in order to justify the strategic guidelines for the development of sports management in Ukraine. The methodological basis of the article is both general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge. Methods were used: historical, dialectical, monographic, system-structural analysis and synthesis of economic comparisons, expert assessments, graphic. Result of work. The article identifies sports management as the management of sports organizations. Its features, main functions and their content are revealed. Strategic guidelines for the management of sports organizations for the future are defined, taking into account the experience of foreign countries. They are aimed at ensuring mass availability of physical culture and sports, affordability of their services, introduction of innovations in the process of providing and implementing management, and development of related activities. Scope of the results. The conclusions and results of the article can be used in the scientific and educational process of economic faculties, faculties of physical culture and sports of higher education institutions; in the management and activities of institutions and organizations of physical culture and sports. Conclusions. Physical culture and sports are much more than events with sports records, victories and medals, which retain their appeal for many. Sport is presented as a joy that brings physical activity to millions of people with a huge number of volunteers and qualified personnel. After all, the main principle of "sport for all" and its management is to ensure access to sports and physical exercise for all social strata and groups of the population, regardless of their racial, ethnic and cultural affiliation, their place in the system of industrial and labor relations, social status and income, and property and social status in General.

AbstractThis paper discusses incident management strategies widely used above the incident management team (IMT) level in the four Australian States namely, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland. It begins with an overview of how incident management approaches above the IMT might differ from the local IMT level. By exploring this difference, this paper provides an insight into how emergency management personnel working above or beyond the local IMT level often deal with large scale multiple emergency events and require an understanding of broader problems that they might confront in the future. Then, it provides an outline of how strategic emergency management objectives are addressed in the state level arrangements in aforementioned jurisdictions. Specifically, this includes response orientations, state level emergency management facilities, long term thinking, the management of stakeholder relationships, leadership, and organisational adaptation and capacity building. Later, some of the challenges associated with incident management above the IMT level are discussed. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing the implications of this study to the emergency management sector.

Presented on Wednesday 18 May: Session 19 Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd and BHP Petroleum (Bass Strait) Pty Ltd own a range of offshore and onshore hydrocarbon production facilities, which have been operated by Esso Australia Pty Ltd (Esso) for over 50 years. The Longford Fire Training Ground (FTG) is located adjacent to the Longford Plants and has been utilised by Esso for many years to train personnel in practical hydrocarbon firefighting skills, including applying firefighting foams to extinguish liquid hydrocarbon pool fires. In line with historical standard oil-field practices, per and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) containing firefighting foams were used at the Longford FTG. In response to the reported use of these foams and the potential for contamination associated with historical site operations, the Longford premises were the subject of recent environmental audit and clean-up plans with oversight by an EPA Victoria auditor. Esso engaged a broad range of experts to complete the environmental investigation and develop a remediation action plan that complied with the PFAS National Environmental Management Plan. Key aspects of this project included: understanding the location and setting, with respect to geological conditions and groundwater impacts; development of remediation objectives and strategy; identification of practical remediation methods including short-term and longer-term measures to mitigate priority PFAS sources within the FTG; and a planning framework for future management of the premises. This paper shares how a responsible operator applies a disciplined and scientifically based environmental approach to further the state of knowledge on practical PFAS remediation methods and achieve a sustainable environmental outcome in the communities that they operate in. To access the presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

IntroductionBushfires have taken numerous lives and destroyed communities throughout Australia over many years. Catastrophic fire weather alerts have occurred during the Australian summer of 2012–13, and long-term forecasts predict increased bushfire events throughout several areas of Australia. This article highlights how organisational and individual responses to bushfire in Australia often entail creative responses—either improvised responses at the time of bushfire emergencies or innovative (organisational, strategic, or technological) changes which help protect the community from, or mitigate against, future bushfire catastrophes. These improvised or innovative responses include emergency communications systems, practices, and devices. This article reports on findings from a research project funded by the Australian Research Council titled Using Community Engagement and Enhanced Visual Information to Promote FireWatch Satellite Communications as a Support for Collaborative Decision-making. FireWatch is a Web-based public information product based on near real time satellite data produced by the West Australian (WA) Government entity, Landgate. The project researches ways in which remote and regional publics can be engaged and mobilised through the development of a more user-friendly FireWatch site to make fire information accessible and usable, allowing a community-focused response to risk.The significance of the research project is evident both in how it addresses the important and life-threatening challenge of bushfires; and also in how Australia’s increasingly hot, dry, long summers are adding to historically-established risks. This innovative project uses an iterative, participatory design process incorporating action-research practices. This will ensure that the new Firewatch interface is redesigned, tested, observed, and reflected upon multiple times—and will incorporate the collective creativity of users, designers, and researchers.The qualitative findings reported on in this article are based on 19 interviews with community members in the town of Kununurra in the remote Kimberley region of WA. The findings are positioned within a reconceptualised framework in which creativity is viewed as an essential component of successful emergency responses. This includes, we argue, two critical aspects of creativity: improvisation during a catastrophic event; and ongoing innovation to improve future responses to catastrophes—including communication practices and technologies. This shifts the discourse within the literature in relation to the effective management and community responses to the changing phenomenon of fire catastrophes. Findings from the first round of interviews, and results of enquiries into previous bushfires in Australia, are used to highlight how these elements of creativity often entail a collective creativity on the part of emergency responders or the community in general. An additional focus is on the importance of the critical use of communication during a bushfire event.ImprovisationThe notion of "improvisation" is often associated with artistic performance. Nonetheless, improvisation is also integral to making effectual responses during natural catastrophes. “Extreme events present unforeseen conditions and problems, requiring a need for adaptation, creativity, and improvisation while demanding efficient and rapid delivery of services under extreme conditions” (Harrald 257).Catastrophes present us with unexpected scenarios and require rapid, on the spot problem solving and “even if you plan for a bushfire it is not going to go to plan. When the wind changes direction there has to be a new plan” (Jeff. Personal Interview. 2012). Jazz musicians or improvisational actors “work to build their knowledge across a range of fields, and this knowledge provides the elements for each improvisational outcome” (Kendra and Wachendorf 2). Similarly, emergency responders’ knowledge and preparation can be drawn “upon in the ambiguous and dynamic conditions of a disaster where not every need has been anticipated or accounted for” (Kendra and Wachtendorf 2). Individuals and community organisations not associated with emergency services also improvise in a creative and intuitive manner in the way they respond to catastrophes (Webb and Chevreau). For example, during the 9/11 terrorism catastrophe in the USA an assorted group of boat owners rapidly self-organised to evacuate Lower Manhattan. On their return trips, they carried emergency personnel and supplies to the area (Kendra and Wachendorf 5). An interviewee in our study also recalls bush fire incidents where creative problem solving and intuitive decision-making are called for. “It’s like in a fire, you have to be thinking fast. You need to be semi self-sufficient until help arrives. But without doing anything stupid and creating a worse situation” (Kelly. Personal Interview. 2012). Kelly then describes the rapid community response she witnessed during a recent fire on the outskirts of Kununurra, WA.Everyone had to be accounted for, moving cars, getting the tractors out, protecting the bores because you need the water. It happens really fast and it is a matter of rustling everyone up with the machinery. (2012)In this sense, the strength of communities in responding to catastrophes or disasters “results largely from the abilities of [both] individuals and organisations to adapt and improvise under conditions of uncertainty” (Webb and Chevreau 67). These improvised responses frequently involve a collective creativity—where groups of neighbours or emergency workers act in response to the unforseen, often in a unified and self-organising manner. InnovationCatastrophes also stimulate change and innovation for the future. Disasters create a new environment that must be explored, assessed, and comprehended. Disasters change the physical and social landscape, and thereby require a period of exploration, learning, and the development of new approaches. (Kendra and Wachtendorf 6)These new approaches can include organisational change, new response strategies, and technologies and communication improvements. Celebrated inventor Benjamin Franklin, for instance, facilitated the formation of the first Volunteer Fire department in the 1850s as a response to previous urban fire catastrophes in the USA (Mumford 258). This organisational innovation continues to play an instrumental part in modern fire fighting practices. Indeed, people living in rural and remote areas of Australia are heavily reliant on volunteer groups, due to the sparse population and vast distances that need to be covered.As with most inventions and innovations, new endeavours aimed at improving responses to catastrophes do not occur in a vacuum. They “are not just accidents, nor the inscrutable products of sporadic genius, but have abundant and clear causes in prior scientific and technological development” (Gifillian 61). Likewise, the development of our user-friendly and publically available FireWatch site relies on the accumulation of preceding inventions and innovations. This includes the many years spent developing the existing FireWatch site, a site dense in information of significant value to scientists, foresters, land managers, and fire experts.CommunicationsOften overlooked in discussions regarding emergency communications is the microgeographical exchanges that occur in response to the threat of natural disasters. This is where neighbours fill the critical period before emergency service responders can appear on site. In this situation, it is often local knowledge that underpins improvised grassroots communication networks that inform and organise the neighbourhood. During a recent bushfire on peri-rural blocks on the outskirts of Kununurra, neighbours went into action before emergency services volunteers could respond.We phoned around and someone would phone and call in. Instead of 000 being rung ten times, make sure that one person rang it in. 40 channel [CB Radio] was handy – two-way communication, four wheelers – knocking on doors making sure everyone is out of the house, just in case. (Jane. Personal Interview. 2012) Similarly, individuals and community groups have been able to inform and assist each other on a larger scale via social network technologies (SNTs). This creative application of SNTs began after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001 when individuals created wikis in order to find missing persons (Palen and Lui). Twitter has experienced considerable growth and was used freely during the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Australia. Studies of tweeting activity during these fires indicate that “tweets made during Black Saturday are laden with actionable factual information which contrasts with earlier claims that tweets are of no value made of mere random personal notes” (Sinnappan et al. n.p.).Traditionally, official alerts and warnings have been provided to the public via television and radio. However, several inquiries into the recent bushfires within Australia show concern “with the way in which fire agencies deliver information to community members during a bushfire...[and in order to] improve community safety from bushfire, systems need to be implemented that enable community members to communicate information to fire agencies, making use of local knowledge” (Elsworth et al. 8).Technological and social developments over the last decade mean the public no longer relies on a single source of official information (Sorensen and Sorensen). Therefore, SNTs such as Twitter and Facebook are being used by the media and emergency authorities to make information available to the public. These SNTs are dynamic, in that there can be a two-way flow of information between the public and emergency organisations. Nonetheless, there has been limited use of SNTs by emergency agencies to source information posted by in situ residents, in order to help in decision-making (Freeman). Organisational use of multiple communication channels and platforms to inform citizens about bushfire emergencies ensures a greater degree of coverage—in case of communication systems breakdowns or difficulties—as in the telephone alert system breakdown in Kelmscott-Roleystone, WA or a recent fire in Warrnambool, Victoria which took out the regional telephone exchange making telephone calls, mobiles, landlines, and the Internet non-operational (Johnson). The new FireWatch site will provide an additional information option for rural and remote Australians who, often rely on visual sightings and on word-of-mouth to be informed about fires in their region. “The neighbour came over and said - there is a fire, we’d better get our act together because it is going to hit us. No sooner than I turned around, I thought shit, here it comes” (Richard. Personal Interview. 2012). The FireWatch ProjectThe FireWatch project involves the redevelopment of an existing FireWatch website to extend the usability of the product from experts to ordinary users in order to facilitate community-based decision-making and action both before and during bushfire emergencies. To this purpose, the project has been broken down to two distinct, yet interdependent, strands. The community strand involves collaboration within a community (in this case the Kununurra community) in order to carry out a community-centred approach to further development of the site. The design strand involves the development of an intuitive and accessible Web presentation of complex information in clear, unambiguous ways to inform action in stressful circumstances. At this stage, a first round of 19 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders has been conducted in Kununurra to determine fire-related information-seeking behaviours, attitudes to mediated information services in the region, as well as user feedback on a prototype website developed in the design strand of the project. Stakeholders included emergency services personnel (payed and volunteer), shire representatives, tourism operators, small business operators (including tourism operators), a forest manager, a mango farmer, an Indigenous ranger team manager as well as general community members. Interviewees reported dissatisfaction with current information systems. They gave positive feedback about the website prototype. “It’s very much, very easy to follow” (David. Personal Interview. 2012). “It looks so much better than [the old site]. You couldn’t get in that close on [the other site]. It is fantastic” (Lance. Personal Interview. 2012). They also added thought-provoking contributions to the design of the website (to be discussed later).Residents of Kununurra who were interviewed for this research project found bushfire warning communications unsatisfactory, especially during a recent fire on the outskirts of town. People who called 000 had difficulties passing the information on, having to explain exactly where Kununurra was and the location of fires to operators not familiar with the area. When asked how the Kununurra community gets their fire information a Shire representative explained: That is not very good at the moment. The only other way we can think about it is perhaps more updates on things like Facebook, perhaps on a website, but with this current fire there really wasn’t a lot of information and a lot of people didn’t know what was going on. We [the shire] knew because we were talking to the [fire] brigades and to FESA [Fire and Emergency Services Authority] but most residents didn’t have any idea and it looks pretty bad. (Ginny. Personal Interview. 2012) All being well, the new user-friendly FireWatch site will add another platform through which fire information messages are transmitted. Community members will be offered continuously streamed bushfire location information, which is independent of any emergency services communication systems. In particular, rural and remote areas of Australia will have fire information at the ready.The participatory methodology used in the design of the new FireWatch website makes use of collaborative creativity, whereby users’ vision of the website and context are incorporated. This iterative process “creates an equal evolving participatory process between user and designer towards sharing values and knowledge and creating new domains of collective creativity” (Park 2012). The rich and sometimes contradictory suggestions made by interviewees in this project often reflected individual visions of the tasks and information required, and individual preferences regarding the delivery of this information. “I have been thinking about how could this really work for me? I can give you feedback on what has happened in the past but how could it work for me in the future?” (Keith. Personal Interview. 2012). Keith and other community members interviewed in Kununurra indicated a variety of extra functions on the site not expected by the product designers. Some of these unexpected functions were common to most interviewees such as the great importance placed on the inclusion of a satellite view option on the site map (example shown in Figure 1). Jeremy, a member of an Indigenous ranger unit in the Kununurra area, was very keen to incorporate the satellite view options on the site. He explained that some of the older rangers:can’t use GPSs and don’t know time zones or what zones to put in, so they’ll use a satellite-style view. We’ll have Google Earth up on one [screen], and also our [own] imagery up on another [screen] and go that way. Be scrolling in and see – we’ve got a huge fire scar for 2011 around here; another guy will be on another computer zoning in and say, I think it is here. It’s quite simplistic but it works. (Personal Interview. 2012) In the case above, where rangers are already switching between computer screens to incorporate a satellite view into their planning, the importance of a satellite view layer on the FireWatch website makes user context an essential part of the design process. Incorporating many layers on one screen, as recommended by participants also ensures a more elegant solution to an existing problem.Figure 1: Satellite view in the Kununurra area showing features such as gorges, rivers, escarpments and dry riverbedsThis research project will involve further consultation with participants (both online and offline) regarding bushfire safety communications in their region, as well as the further design of the site. The website will be available over multiple devices (for example desktops, smart phones, and hand held tablet devices) and will be launched late this year. Further work will also be carried out to determine if social media is appropriate for this community of users in order to build awareness and share information regarding the site.Conclusion Community members improvise and self-organise when communicating fire information and organising help for each other. This can happen at a microgeographical (neighbourhood) level or on a wider level via social networking sites. Organisations also develop innovative communication systems or devices as a response to the threat of bushfires. Communication innovations, such as the use of Twitter and Facebook by fire emergency services, have been appropriated and fine-tuned by these organisations. Other innovations such as the user-friendly Firewatch site rely on previous technological developments in satellite-delivered imagery—as well as community input regarding the design and use of the site.Our early research into community members’ fire-related information-seeking behaviours and attitudes to mediated information services in the region of Kununurra has found unexpectedly creative responses, which range from collective creativity on the part of emergency responders or the community in general during events to creative use of existing information and communication networks. We intend to utilise this creativity in re-purposing FireWatch alongside the creative work of the designers in the project.Although it is commonplace to think of graphic design and new technology as incorporating creativity, it is rarely acknowledged how frequently these innovations harness everyday perspectives from non-professionals. In the case of the FireWatch developments, the creativity of designers and technologists has been informed by the creative responses of members of the public who are best placed to understand the challenges posed by restricted information flows on the ground in times of crisis. In these situations, people respond not only with new ideas for the future but with innovative responses in the present as they communicate with each other to deal with the challenge of a fast-moving and unpredictable situation. Such improvisation, honed through close awareness of the contours and parameters of both community and communication, are one of the ways through which people help keep themselves and each other safe in the face of dramatic developments.ReferencesElsworth, G., and K. Stevens, J. Gilbert, H. Goodman, A Rhodes. "Evaluating the Community Safety Approach to Bushfires in Australia: Towards an Assessment of What Works and How." Biennial Conference of the Eupopean Evaluation Society, Lisbon, Oct. 2008. Freeman, Mark. "Fire, Wind and Water: Social Networks in Natural Disasters." Journal of Cases on Information Technology (JCIT) 13.2 (2011): 69–79.Gilfillan, S. Colum. The Sociology of Invention. Chicago: Follett Publishing, 1935.Harrald, John R. "Agility and Discipline: Critical Success Factors for Disaster Response." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 604.1 (2006): 256–72.Johnson, Peter. "Australia Unprepared for Bushfire”. Australian Broadcasting Corporation 17 Dec. 2012. 3 Jan. 2013 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2012/12/17/3654075.htm›.Keelty, Mick J. "A Shared Responsibility: the Report of the Perth Hills Bushfires February 2011". Department of Premier and Cabinet, Government of Western Australia, Perth.Kendra, James, and Tricia Wachtendorf. "Improvisation, Creativity, and the Art of Emergency Management." NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Understanding and Responding to Terrorism: A Multi-Dimensional Approach. Washington, DC, 8-9 Sep. 2006.———. "Creativity in Emergency Response after the World Trade Centre Attack". Amud Conference of the International Emergency Management Society. University of Delaware. 14-17 May 2002. Mumford, Michael D. "Social Innovation: Ten Cases from Benjamin Franklin." Creativity Research Journal 14.2 (2002): 253–66.Palen, Leysia, and Sophia.B. Liu. "Citizen Communications in Crisis: Anticipating a Future of ICT-Supported Public Participation." Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. San Jose, 28 Apr. - 3 May 2007.Park, Ji Yong. "Design Process Excludes Users: The Co-Creation Activities between User and Designer." Digital Creativity 23.1 (2012): 79–92. Sinnappan, Suku, Cathy Farrell, and Elizabeth Stewart. "Priceless Tweets! A Study on Twitter Messages Posted During Crisis: Black Saturday." Proceedings of 21st Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2010). Brisbane, Australia, 1-3 Dec 2010.Sorensen, John H., and Barbara Vogt Sorensen. "Community Processes: Warning and Evacuation." Handbook of Disaster Research. Eds. Havidán Rodríguez, Enrico Louis Quarantelli, and Russell Rowe Dynes. New York: Springer, 2007. 183–99.Webb, Gary R., and Francois-Regis Chevreau. "Planning to Improvise: The Importance of Creativity and Flexibility in Crisis Response." International Journal of Emergency Management 3.1 (2006): 66–72.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and develop a substantive theory, of the processes adopted by nurses and medical practitioners when patients with serious illness refuse medical treatment. The study seeks to identify the main constraints confronting nurses and medical practitioners and to explain the key factors that moderate the processes of dealing with refusal decisions. Using a grounded theory method, a sample of 18 nurses and 6 medical practitioners from two public hospitals in Melbourne were interviewed. In addition, observations and documentary evidence were utilised. The basic social psychological problem shared by nurses and medical practitioners is conceptualized as Competing Perspectives: Encountering Refusal of Treatment, which reflects the diverse perceptions and beliefs that confront participants when patients decide to forgo therapy. In utilizing the grounded theory method of analysis, it is recognised that participants deal with this problem through a basic social psychological process conceptualized as Endeavouring to Understand Refusal: Agreeing on a Way Forward. This core variable represents the manner in which participants, to varying extents, deal with the situations they face and it incorporates the various influences which moderate their activities. Endeavouring to Understand Refusal: Agreeing on a Way Forward comprises a series of three transitions. The first involves a struggle for participants to come to terms with, or even recognize that patients are rejecting treatment. The second transition illustrates the varied responses of participants as they interact with patients, relatives and each other, in order to clarify and validate decisions made during episodes of care. The third transition reflects the degree to which patients and family members are incorporated into treatment decisions, and highlights a shift in emphasis, from a focus on the disease state, to the patient as a person with individualistic thoughts and wishes. The remaining social processes evident in the study consist of four categories. The first, Seeking Clarification, embodies exploration undertaken by participants and their recognition that treatment is actually being refused. The second category, Responding to Patients and Families, demonstrates the level of expertise of participants communicating, and their ability to encourage reciprocity in the professional-patient relationship. The third category, Advocating, highlights the extent and manner in which patient and family wishes are promoted to members of the treating team. The fourth category, Influencing, reveals the ability of participants to utilize a degree of authority or power in order to shape particular outcomes. The findings also indicate that over arching the core variable and categories are various contextual determinants that moderate the way nurses and medical practitioners deal with patient refusal of treatment. These determinants are categorized into three main influences: The Context of Work, describes the of the environment and organisational factors pertinent to public hospitals; Beliefs and Behaviours, illustrates the perceptions of, and values held, by four key groups involved in decisions, namely, nurses, medical practitioners, patients, and family members; and Legal and Ethical Frameworks, examines the existing principles that support or guide professional practice in situations where patients with serious illness refuse medical treatment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and develop a substantive theory, of the processes adopted by nurses and medical practitioners when patients with serious illness refuse medical treatment. The study seeks to identify the main constraints confronting nurses and medical practitioners and to explain the key factors that moderate the processes of dealing with refusal decisions. Using a grounded theory method, a sample of 18 nurses and 6 medical practitioners from two public hospitals in Melbourne were interviewed. In addition, observations and documentary evidence were utilised. The basic social psychological problem shared by nurses and medical practitioners is conceptualized as Competing Perspectives: Encountering Refusal of Treatment, which reflects the diverse perceptions and beliefs that confront participants when patients decide to forgo therapy. In utilizing the grounded theory method of analysis, it is recognised that participants deal with this problem through a basic social psychological process conceptualized as Endeavouring to Understand Refusal: Agreeing on a Way Forward. This core variable represents the manner in which participants, to varying extents, deal with the situations they face and it incorporates the various influences which moderate their activities. Endeavouring to Understand Refusal: Agreeing on a Way Forward comprises a series of three transitions. The first involves a struggle for participants to come to terms with, or even recognize that patients are rejecting treatment. The second transition illustrates the varied responses of participants as they interact with patients, relatives and each other, in order to clarify and validate decisions made during episodes of care. The third transition reflects the degree to which patients and family members are incorporated into treatment decisions, and highlights a shift in emphasis, from a focus on the disease state, to the patient as a person with individualistic thoughts and wishes. The remaining social processes evident in the study consist of four categories. The first, Seeking Clarification, embodies exploration undertaken by participants and their recognition that treatment is actually being refused. The second category, Responding to Patients and Families, demonstrates the level of expertise of participants communicating, and their ability to encourage reciprocity in the professional-patient relationship. The third category, Advocating, highlights the extent and manner in which patient and family wishes are promoted to members of the treating team. The fourth category, Influencing, reveals the ability of participants to utilize a degree of authority or power in order to shape particular outcomes. The findings also indicate that over arching the core variable and categories are various contextual determinants that moderate the way nurses and medical practitioners deal with patient refusal of treatment. These determinants are categorized into three main influences: The Context of Work, describes the of the environment and organisational factors pertinent to public hospitals; Beliefs and Behaviours, illustrates the perceptions of, and values held, by four key groups involved in decisions, namely, nurses, medical practitioners, patients, and family members; and Legal and Ethical Frameworks, examines the existing principles that support or guide professional practice in situations where patients with serious illness refuse medical treatment.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the motivation of the employees in the Austrahan pubhc service with special attention to the Western Melbourne Institute Of TAFE (TAFE), and Darebin City Council (DCC), located in Melbourne. The dependent variables considered in this study were: age, education, decision making process, employee development programs, measurement and feedback of actual results, opportunities for advancement, group cohesion, and performance based pay systems.

The aim of this research was to identify the personal and professional experiences of Turkish primary and secondary teachers, who are currently teaching, or have previously taught in Victorian schools. This research drew upon these teachers’ experiences to make recommendations for future teacher education, training, professional development and/or induction programs. These recommendations if implemented will support future Turkish teachers in adapting to the Victorian education system. The induction programs and facilities are expected to encourage overseas graduate teachers, who are currently not in the teaching system, to re-enter the workforce as teachers in Victoria.

Australians have one of the longest life expectancies in the world, but up to 15% of older Australians living at home experience depression. Increasing attention is being paid to understanding the clinical aspects of depression in older age. However, less is known about how older Australians living in the community experience and self-manage depression, and the factors that influence these processes. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to explicate the self-management strategies used by older adults diagnosed with depression to optimise their well-being. Data collection and analysis were informed by Corbin and Strauss’ (2015) approach to grounded theory. Data were collected through 32 individual interviews, observations and questionnaires. The key conceptual findings of the study comprise a core problem, a core category and three related categories. The basic social psychological problem was conceptualised as Struggling to maintain personal identity as an older adult with depression. The core category, Self-empowering to maintain and enhance personal identity as an older adult with depression, was abstracted through simultaneous data collection and analysis, and constant comparison. This goal was achieved through the three interlinked strategies of Taking Stock, Accessing Support and Reclaiming Self-identity. Participants’ efforts were influenced by three contextual determinants: Perspectives on age and depression influencing help-seeking, Ability to navigate and access the health care system, and Individual capacity for self-management. When drawn together, these elements comprise a substantive theory that reflects a shift from a narrow biomedical discourse of depression in older age to a broader experiential focus on individuals as experts for managing long-term conditions. The findings of this study have implications relating to policy, professional practice, the portrayal of age and depression, older adults and their significant others, and future research.

Governments provide a wide range of services, and the digital economy provides both threats and opportunities in this sector. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) is a compulsory, government owned and operated insurance scheme for third-party, no-fault liability insurance for transport accident victims, operated in Victoria, Australia. E-business has now been widely used in all sectors from small business (Loane, McNaughton, & Bell, 2004) to emerging economies (Li & Chang, 2004), and in very different industry sectors (Cagno, Di Giulio, & Trucco, 2004; Golden, Hughes, & Gallagher, 2003). Major steps forward and applications have occurred in retailing (Leonard & Cronan, 2003; Mackay, Altmann, & McMichael, 2003; Starr, 2003). Applications need to be highly customized as the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) environments are very different, and requirements of industries such as retailing and mining, and indeed government, differ substantially (Carter, 2003; He & Lung, 2002; Rotondaro, 2002). Government provides a particularly different environment for e-business applications because government services are often delivered in monopoly circumstances, with no real profit motive behind them. At the height of the technology boom in October 1999, Tony Marxsen joined the TAC as head of IT to develop a new IT outsourcing contract for the organization as the current 5-year contract was due to end in July 2000. He quickly realized that the TAC IT systems were out of date, lacked IT process integration, and were constraining improvement in business processes, and that no significant investments had been made for some time. Renewing or redesigning the outsourcing contract, the basis for which he had been employed, would only be a short-term solution. The problem was that the cost of new infrastructure would be high, and return on technology investment would mainly be realized from redesigned business processes enabled by the new technology. Tony wanted to propose a business transformation, with process changes as well as significant investment in IT infrastructure. Together, these would take the TAC from 1970s technology into the 21st century. The problem was that their (investments in such transformation) payoffs are not easily and quickly achieved. Their value does not come from installing the technology; it comes from changing both operating and management processes—perhaps operating and managing cultures too. (Ross & Beath, 2002, p. 53) Tony knew he would have to win the support of the board and senior management, but he could not immediately give them a concrete business case for the investment. He also knew that any infrastructure investment had to be linked with a major process-improvement initiative from the start to avoid the double investment of building new applications to support old processes, and then undertaking major modifications or even replacement when the need for improvement became obvious to the board and management team. He compared investing in IT infrastructure to rewiring and replumbing your house: as far as visitors are concerned, there’s no visible difference, everything’s behind the walls, but as the owner you get the benefits of things like cheaper electricity and water bills because of efficiencies in the new redesigned systems. The problem is convincing people that they will get these results in the future, but that they need to hand over the money now, when there’s no hard evidence for the benefits they’ll get, just a bunch of assumptions and no guarantees. It’s a big ask for any Board. (Marxsen, personal communication, September 4, 2003) Tony knew that the first hurdle he would have to overcome would be getting the board to agree to give him the opportunity to put together a team to develop a business case for the board’s further consideration.