Wrong way, go back! Negotiating success in industry-based research

Literature addressing methodological issues in organisational research is extensive and multidisciplinary, encompassing debates about methodological choices, data-collection techniques, epistemological approaches and statistical procedures. However, little scholarship has tackled an important aspect of organisational research that precedes decisions about data collection and analysis – access to the organisations themselves, including the people, processes and documents within them. This chapter looks at organisational access through the experiences of three research fellows in the course of their work with their respective industry partners. In doing so, it reveals many of the challenges and changing opportunities associated with access to organisations, which are rarely explicitly addressed, but often assumed, in traditional methods texts and journal publications. Although the level of access granted varied somewhat across the projects at different points in time and according to different organisational contexts, we shared a number of core and consistent experiences in attempting to collect data and implement strategies.

'We just make the pictures...?' How work is portrayed in children's feature length films

This article explores how adult paid work is portrayed in 'family' feature length films. The study extends previous critical media literature which has overwhelmingly focused on depictions of gender and violence, exploring the visual content of films that is relevant to adult employment. Forty-two G/PG films were analyzed for relevant themes. Consistent with the exploratory nature of the research, themes emerged inductively from the films' content. Results reveal six major themes: males are more visible in adult work roles than women; the division of labour remains gendered; work and home are not mutually exclusive domains; organizational authority and power is wielded in punitive ways; there are avenues to better employment prospects; and status/money is paramount. The findings of the study reflect a range of subject matters related to occupational characteristics and work-related communication and interactions which are typically viewed by children in contemporary society.

Making sense of working lives and working choices : the role of satirical cartoons

This study examined the tone and content of 107 political, satirical cartoons images published in the popular culture forum of mainstream newspapers. The cartoons illustrated the reform of the industrial relations system in Australia in 2005 and 2006. The images were conveyed in a moderate tone. That is, they were more about poking fun at and questioning authority and power, rather than simply describing the issues on one hand, or demonstrating any revolutionary fervor on the other. The cartoons’ content represented many of the concerns and issues being voiced by employer groups, government, opposition, unions and the media at the time. Themes likely to evoke a strong response from the readership included the importance of a collective response in voicing opposition to the legislation and enacting change, the risks to fundamental working conditions, the stealth and dogma associated with the rollout of the changes and the increasing disparity in wealth and power between employers and workers. The images were an important part of the wider discourse and a mechanism which helped place industrial relations squarely in the minds of working Australians.

Discourse practice gaps in work life balance : comparative case studies in the Australian construction industry

Perspectives on work-life balance (WLB) reflected in political, media and organisational discourse, would maintain that WLB is on the agenda because of broad social, economic and political factors (Fleetwood 2007). In contrast, critical scholarship which examines work-life balance (WLB) and its associated practices maintains that workplace flexibility is more than a quasi-functionalist response to contemporary problems faced by individuals, families or organisations. For example, the literature identifies where flexible work arrangements have not lived up to expectations of a panacea for work-home conflicts, being characterised as much by employer-driven working conditions that disadvantage workers and constrain balance, as they are by employee friendly practices that enable it (Charlesworth 1997). Further, even where generous organisational work-life balance policies exist, under-utilisation is an issue (Schaefer et al, 2007). Compounding these issues is that many employees perceive their paid work as becoming more intense, pressured and demanding (Townsend et al 2003).

Curvilinear relationships between the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, and work engagement : a police service case study

The current study aims to investigate the non-linear relationship between the JD-R model and work engagement. Previous research has identified linear relationships between these constructs; however there are strong theoretical arguments for testing curvilinear relationships (e.g., Warr, 1987). Data were collected via a self-report online survey from officers of one Australian police service (N = 2,626). Results demonstrated a curvilinear relationship between job demands and job resources and engagement. Gender (as a control variable) was also found to be a significant predictor of work engagement. The results indicated that male police officers experienced significantly higher job demands and colleague support than female officers. However, female police officers reported significantly higher levels of work engagement than male officers. This study emphasises the need to test curvilinear relationships, as well as simple linear associations, when measuring psychological health.

Work engagement and its antecedents in high-risk occupations : a police service case study

Introduction: Work engagement is a recent application of positive psychology and refers to a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption. Despite theoretical assumptions, there is little published research on work engagement, due primarily to its recent emergence as a psychological construct. Furthermore, examining work engagement among high-stress occupations, such as police, is useful because police officers are generally characterized as having a high level of work engagement. Previous research has identified job resources (e.g. social support) as antecedents of work engagement. However detailed evaluation of job demands as an antecedent of work engagement within high-stress occupations has been scarce. Thus our second aim was to test job demands (i.e. monitoring demands and problem-solving demands) and job resources (i.e. time control, method control, supervisory support, colleague support, and friend and family support) as antecedents of work engagement among police officers. Method: Data were collected via a self-report online survey from one Australian state police service (n = 1,419). Due to the high number of hypothesized antecedent variables, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was employed rather than structural equation modelling. Results: Work engagement reported by police officers was high. Female officers had significantly higher levels of work engagement than male officers, while officers at mid-level ranks (sergeant) reported the lowest levels of work engagement. Job resources (method control, supervisor support and colleague support) were significant antecedents of three dimensions of work engagement. Only monitoring demands were significant antecedent of the absorption. Conclusion: Having healthy and engaged police officers is important for community security and economic growth. This study identified some common factors which influence work engagement experienced by police officers. However, we also note that excessive work engagement can yield negative outcomes such as psychological distress.

Strains as Mediators between Job Characteristics and Work-Related Outcomes in Police Officers

The relationship between job characteristics (e.g., job demands, social support) and work-related outcomes (e.g., turnover intentions, job performance) is assumed to be mediated by strains (e.g., work-related well-being, psychological strain). However, evidence suggests this association will be stronger for work-related strains than broader measures of overall psychological well-being. The primary aim of this study was to identify whether work and non-work related strains differ significantly in their ability to mediate between job characteristics and work-related outcomes. Perceptions of job characteristics, strain, turnover intentions and job performance were collected via a self-report survey from 2,588 Australian police officers. All job characteristics (job demands, job control, supervisor support and colleague support) were significant predictors of both job performance and turnover intentions, with the exception of job demands, which was not a significant predictor of turnover intentions. Both work and non-work related strains were significant predictors of turnover intentions and job performance. Strains were collectively significant in mediating between job characteristics and work-related outcomes, except in the case of job demands and job performance. The indirect effects of job characteristics on work-related outcomes were primarily through officers’ work-related enthusiasm. The relative importance of work-related enthusiasm in mediating between job characteristics and work-related outcomes offers some support for previous research suggesting stronger associations between work-related constructs. Future research should examine whether there are substantial differences in the explanatory power of work-related enthusiasm and a popular related construct, work engagement.

Hell-vetica

Helvetica (connotes Swiss typeface) has been used the most widely from street signs to government campaign posters since 1957. Helvetica represents a great leap forward for modernity: clean, sans-serif, optimistic. However in history, there was a movement against Helvetica among American artists and designers since David Carson and Paula Scher indicted Helvetica as the cause of Vietnam war. Paradoxically, we celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007. Helvetica’s message it this: “you are going to get to your destination on time; your plan will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK” (Finlo Rohrer, Helvetica At 50, BBC News Magazine 9 May 2007). The artwork, Hell-vetica describes its characteristic of double agent for modernism and postmodernism in this contemporary era by combination of a stylised graphical form of a heart shape in red and a typographical manipulation - Hell-vetica.

“I smile when I’m angry!” an examination of emotional dissonance among police officers

With the growth of service industry occupations, managing emotions at work has increased as a topic of interest among scholars and practitioners in organisational behaviour and human resource management(Grandey, 2000). Emotional dissonance occurs when there is discrepancy between organisational sanctioned emotions and actual emotions of employees(Zapf, Vogt, Seifert, Mertini, & Isic, 1999). This discrepancy can be associated with significant levels of psychological ill-health (Zapf, Seifert, Schmutte, Mertini, & Holz, 2001). Policing is consistently ranked among the top five stressful/high-risk occupations (e.g. Coman, Evans, Stanley, & Burrows, 1991). Police officers act as the front-line contact when dealing directly with community members; they are expected to be social workers, teachers, role models, and counsellors. Operational police officers are often required to suppress their actual emotions during their work, in order to perform their job to formally designated procedures and standards.

Organizational rhetoric in the prospectuses of elite private schools : unpacking strategies of persuasion

Schools have seldom been examined by scholars in studies of organizational sites. Yet schools and the educational context in which they operate, offer potentially important insights into how organizations use rhetoric in their communications to persuade audiences and leverage advantage in the marketplace. This study, which utilises rhetorical analysis to examine the persuasive, yet ambiguous strategies used in 65 school prospectuses in Australia, revealed six strategies consistently used by schools to leverage competitive advantage and persuade internal and external audiences: identification, juxtapositioning, bolstering or self-promotion, partial reporting, selfexpansion and reframing or reversal. As well as illustrating how schools operate in the context of marketisation and privatization discourses in 21st century education, the organizational theory and methods utilised for the research demonstrates how rhetorical strategies draw on, as well as reproduce, socio-political and cultural discourses around economic and social privilege.

Daggy shirts, daggy slogans? marketing unions to young people

In light of declining trade union density, specifically among young workers, this article explores how trade unions recruit, service and organize young people. Our focus is the way in which trade unions market their services to the young. We use, as a lens of analysis, the services and social marketing literature and the concept of an ‘unsought, experience good’ to explore trade union strategy. Based on interviews with a number of union officials in the state of Queensland, it is clear that unions see the issue of recruitment of young people as significant, and that innovative strategies are being used in at least some unions. However, the research also indicates that despite union awareness, strategies are uneven and resource allocation is patchy. While the research was carried out in one state, the results and conclusion are broadly applicable to the Australian labour movement as a whole, and have implications for union movements in other Anglophone countries.

Teachers and the emotional dimensions of class in resource-affected rural Australia

In recent years, a 'cultural turn' in the study of class has resulted in a rich body of work detailing the ways in which class advantage and disadvantage are emotionally inscribed and embodied in educational settings. To date, however, much of this literature has focused on the urban sphere. In order to address this gap in the literature, this paper focuses on the affective evaluations made by teachers employed in rural and remote Australian schools of students' families, bodies, expectations and practices. The central argument is that moral ascriptions of class by the teachers are powerfully shaped by dominant socio-cultural constructions of rurality that equate 'the rural' with agriculture.

Knowledge is not power, but it’s a start : young people and employment entitlements

This paper employs empirical evidence from a survey of Queensland secondary school students to examine their knowledge about their wages and working conditions. It does so within the theoretical lens of the Gagne (or Gagne-Briggs) theory of instruction, which centres on the content of learning and how learning is acquired (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1988). While Gagne articulates five categories of learning, our focus here is on two; verbal information or declarative knowledge (facts that people can declare), and procedural knowledge (the rules and procedures for achieving outcomes). We show that student workers know little about the instruments governing their employment, or their workplace entitlements. Of the total sample of year 9 and year 11 students surveyed (n=892), those students who worked, or who had worked in the past year (n=438), were asked to identify whether they were employed under an award, collective agreement or AWA. Eighty three per cent of students did not know which industrial instrument set their wages. We argue that if young workers do not have declarative knowledge of their entitlements, nor basic procedural knowledge about redress, then they are not in a position to deploy Gagne’s ‘cognitive strategies’ that would enable them to take action to ensure their working conditions meet legal minima. We advocate that young workers should be given summary information on their wages and other entitlements on appointment and that such summary information should be readily available on employers’ noticeboards and electronically on company websites, and that the information should include a brief summary of avenues for redressing issues of underpayment or sub-standard conditions.

Can't see the water for the trees

The work was both conceived and constructed in-situ within Gnombup Swamp a seasonal water body at Bremer Bay, Western Australia. The work interacts with site-specific conditions including wind patterns and a datum of seasonal water levels marks. The work is the result of collaboration between soil scientist Paula Deegan and Ian Weir. The installation was documented with a series of 30 still digital photographs, later animated in Microsoft Powerpoint.