Country brand and stakeholder engagement: Case study of Australia unlimited

The thesis presents a comprehensive conceptual framework of stakeholder brand engagement with a place brand identity. The framework comprises of typology of stakeholder brand engagement in place branding context as well as drivers, inhibitors, manifestations and outcomes of such engagement.

Towards a multicultural world : identifying work systems, practices and employee attitudes that embrace diversity

The research program described focuses on identifying the role of organisational culture, as reflected in workplace systems and practices, and employee and group attitudes in the outcomes of interactions among dissimilar parties. A systematic, theory-testing approach underlies the program, which aims to both develop and validate the diversity openness construct. The Perceived Dissimilarity-Openness Moderator Model developed from the research asserts that the affective, cognitive and behavioural consequences of diversity depend in part upon the perception of difference and subsequent quality and magnitude of the response to the perceived dissimilarity. When individuals or social systems (groups or organisations) are diversity-closed, outcomes are predicted to be less positive than when they are diversity-open.

Tissue donation and the attitudes of health care professionals

Since the first corneal transplant in 1905, improved surgical techniques and the development of immunosuppressive drugs have led to excellent success rates for organ and tissue transplantation procedures. This Chapter ,"'ill focus on the cadaveric donation of tissue and the attitudes towards it of health professionals, because they are key players in the donation- transplantation process.

The chapter begins with an overview of cadaveric tissue donation, including what can currently be transplanted. It will then present what is known about health professionals' attitudes to and knowledge of tissue donation and the impact that these have on donation rates. Attitudes, their components and their effect upon behaviour are explored using theories arising from social psychology to explain how these influence actual or intended behaviours associated with the discussion of donation wishes with relatives of the potential donor. Since some tissues, such as blood and bone marrow, can only normally be donated during life, these will be excluded since the behaviours associated with blood donation differ significantly from those associated with cadaveric tissue donation.

Client and contractor attitudes to prequalification

The article discusses the prequalification criteria that are believed to be good indicators of future construction performance by both clients and contractors. A crucial task in contractor prequalification is to establish a set of decision criteria through which the capabilities of contractors are measured and judged. The use of universal prequalification criteria seems to be a widely researched utopian" ideal. Standard prequalification criteria provides more consistency across the industry.

A comparison of client and contractor attitudes to prequalification criteria

Contractor prequalification is concerned with assessing the likelihood of contractors meeting client and project requirements. The criteria used in this assessment have been developed in a largely idiosyncratic manner to date and with little or no consultation with the contractors affected. As a result, contractors are faced with a variety of calls for information by prequalifiers, the collection of which can be quite costly. This is leading to expensive duplication of effort by contractors in providing what is often similar information but in different formats. Furthermore, previous research has shown that the benefits of the information to prequalifiers are uncertain - many prequalifiers analyse the information in only a cursory manner. What is needed is some form of cost-benefit analysis to be carried out which will establish a common set of criteria for all to use.

As a precursor to this, the research described in this paper compares the different attitudes of both prequalifiers and contractors to prequalification criteria commonly in use in the Australian building industry. This was carried out via a postal questionnaire involving 49 contractors and 15 prequalifiers across Australia. The respondents were divided into three groups; (1) contractors doing work for mainly private sector clients and (2) contractors doing work for mainly private sector clients, and (3) construction prequalifiers (clients).

The results show that both clients and contractors have divergent opinions on the importance and value of the criteria in use. The possible reasons for these differences are discussed and the likely implications for future research in the topic.