Person-environment fit: project leader-stakeholder relationships in a complex project environment

In this paper, we develop a conceptual model to explore the perceived complementary congruence between complex project leaders and the demands of the complex project environment to understand how leaders’ affective and behavioural performance at work might be impacted by this fit. We propose that complex project leaders high in emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility should report a higher level of fit between themselves and the complex project environment. This abilities-demands measure of fit should then relate to affective and behavioural performance outcomes, such that leaders who perceive a higher level of fit should establish and maintain more effective, higher quality project stakeholder relationships than leaders who perceive a lower level of fit.

Age, Occupational Strain, and Well-Being: A Person-Environment Fit Perspective

We develop a conceptual model, based on person-environment fit theory, which explains how employee age affects occupational strain and well-being. We begin by explaining how age directly affects different dimensions of objective and subjective P-E fit. Next, we illustrate how age can moderate the relationship between objective P-E fit and subjective P-E fit. Third, we discuss how age can moderate the relationships between P-E fit, on one hand, and occupational strain and well-being on the other. Fourth, we explain how age can impact occupational strain and well-being directly independent of P-E fit. The chapter concludes with implications for future research and practice.

A phenomenological study of contemplative experiences : implications for interior design

This research reports on a project concerned with the relationship between the person and the environment in the context of achieving a contemplative or existential state – a state which can be experienced either consciously or subconsciously. The need for such a study originated with the desire to contribute to the design of multicultural spaces which could be used for a range of activities within the public and the personal arena, activities including contemplation, meditation and prayer. The concept of ‘sacred’ is explored in the literature review and in primary interviews with the participants of this study. Given that the word ‘sacred’ is highly value-laden and potentially alienating for some people, it was decided to use the more accessible term ‘contemplative’. The outcomes of the study inform the practice of interior design and architecture which tends currently to neglect the potential for all spaces to be existentially meaningful. Informed by phenomenological methodology, data were collected from a diverse group of people, using photo-elicitation and interviews. The technique of photo-elicitation proved to be highly effective in helping people reveal their everyday lived experience of contemplative spaces. Reflective analysis (Van Manen 2000) was used to explore the data collected. The initial stage of analysis produced three categories of data: varying conceptions of contemplation, aspects of the person involved in the contemplation, and aspects of environment involved in contemplation. From this, it was found that achieving a state of contemplation involves both the person and the environment in a dialectic process of unfolding. The unfolding has various physical, psycho-social, and existential dimensions or qualities which operate sequentially and simultaneously. Two concepts emerged as being central to unfolding: ‘Cleansing’ and ‘Nothingness’. Unfolding is found to comprise the Core; Distinction; Manifestation; Cleansing; Creation; and Sharing. This has a parallel with Mircea Eliade’s (1959) definition of sacred as something that manifests itself as different from the profane. The power of design, re-contextualization through utility and purpose, and the existential engagements between the person and environment are used as a basis for establishing the potential contribution of the study to interior design. In this way, the study makes a contribution to our understanding of how space and its elements inspire, support and sustain person environment interaction – particularly at the existential level – as well as to our understanding of the multi-dimensional and holistic nature of this interaction. In addition, it points to the need for a phenomenological re-conceptualisation of the design/client relationship. In summary, the contributions of this research are: the exploration of contemplative experience as sacred experience; an understanding of the design of space as creating engagement between person and environment; a rationale for the introduction of a phenomenological approach to the relationship between designer and clients; and raising awareness of the spiritual in a holistic approach to design.

The journey of becoming involved : the experience of participation in urban spaces by children with diverse mobility

Despite considerable discussion regarding the virtues of participation in urban spaces, the urban experience of children with disabilities has been largely ignored. This intensive study reported on the everyday experience of urban participation on the part of children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and juvenile arthritis, contributing new insights into their experience of journeys central to becoming involved in settings such as schools, neighbourhoods and shopping centres. The study identified problems in body – space – context relationships as points of intervention in our urban settings that promise to make a significant difference to their everyday journeys.

Settings for mental health care

The quality of the environment is important to client recovery and rehabilitation. • The preferred environment for the care of the mentally ill over time has been the home. • Environmental strategies in the care of the mentally ill became more important in the eighteenth century, when it was noticed that patients were more manageable in a pleasant environment. • Confinement of the mentally ill in large public asylums was largely an innovation of the nineteenth century. • The therapeutic milieu is a consciously organised environment. • Maxwell Jones in the United States and Thomas Main in the United Kingdom pioneered the concept of the hospital and environment as treatment tools. • The goals of the therapeutic milieu are containment, structure, support, involvement, validation, symptom management, and maintaining links with family and the community. • The principles on which the therapeutic milieu is based include: open communication, democratisation, reality confrontation, permissiveness, group cohesion and the multidisciplinary team. • The principle guiding the care of clients in the community is that of the least-restrictive alternative. • The therapeutic community residence is an environment that encourages the development of the client as a person in interaction with others, rather than as someone suffering from a health problem or disability. • The preferred contemporary setting for the provision of mental health care is the community. • The predominant form of service delivery in the community is case management, which has been found to be most effective for people with severe mental illnesses. • The principles of caring in the community are self-determination, normalisation, a focus on client strengths, and the community as a resource

Self-determination as a moderator of demands and control : implications for employee strain and engagement

Does job control act as a stress-buffer when employees' type and level of work self-determination is taken into account? It was anticipated that job control would only be stress-buffering for employees high in self-determined and low in non-self-determined work motivation. In contrast, job control would be stress-exacerbating for employees who were low in self-determined and high in non-self-determined work motivation. Employees of a health insurance organization (N = 123) completed a survey on perceptions of role overload, job control, work self-determination, and a range of strain and engagement indicators. Results revealed that, when individuals high in self-determination perceived high job control, they experienced greater engagement (in the form of dedication to their work). In addition, when individuals high in non-self-determination perceived high job demands, they experienced more health complaints. A significant 3-way interaction demonstrated that, for individuals low in non-self-determination, high job control had the anticipated stress-buffering effect on engagement (in the form of absorption in their work). In addition, low job control was stress-exacerbating. However, contrary to expectations, for those high in non-self-determination, high job control was just as useful as low job control as a stress-buffer. The practical applications of these findings to the organizational context are discussed.

Workplace design in the knowledge economy : a case of the NetWorkPlace™©

This thesis explores a way to inform the architectural design process for contemporary workplace environments. It reports on both theoretical and practical outcomes through an exclusively Australian case study of a network enterprise comprised of collaborative, yet independent business entities. The internet revolution, substantial economic and cultural shifts, and an increased emphasis on lifestyle considerations have prompted a radical re-ordering of organisational relationships and the associated structures, processes, and places of doing business. The social milieu of the information age and the knowledge economy is characterised by an almost instantaneous flow of information and capital. This has culminated in a phenomenon termed by Manuel Castells as the network society, where physical locations are joined together by continuous communication and virtual connectivity. A new spatial logic encompassing redefined concepts of space and distance, and requiring a comprehensive shift in the approach to designing workplace environments for today’s adaptive, collaborative organisations in a dynamic business world, provides the backdrop for this research. Within the duality of space and an augmentation of the traditional notions of place, organisational and institutional structures pose new challenges for the design professions. The literature revealed that there has always been a mono-organisational focus in relation to workplace design strategies. The phenomenon of inter-organisational collaboration has enabled the identification of a gap in the knowledge relative to workplace design. This new context generated the formulation of a unique research construct, the NetWorkPlace™©, which captures the complexity of contemporary employment structures embracing both physical and virtual work environments and practices, and provided the basis for investigating the factors that are shaping and defining interactions within and across networked organisational settings. The methodological orientation and the methods employed follow a qualitative approach and an abductively driven strategy comprising two distinct components, a cross-sectional study of the whole of the network and a longitudinal study, focusing on a single discrete workplace site. The complexity of the context encountered dictated that a multi-dimensional investigative framework was required to be devised. The adoption of a pluralist ontology and the reconfiguration of approaches from traditional paradigms into a collaborative, trans-disciplinary, multi-method epistemology provided an explicit and replicatable method of investigation. The identification and introduction of the NetWorkPlace™© phenomenon, by necessity, spans a number of traditional disciplinary boundaries. Results confirm that in this context, architectural research, and by extension architectural practice, must engage with what other disciplines have to offer. The research concludes that no single disciplinary approach to either research or practice in this area of design can suffice. Pierre Bourdieau’s philosophy of ‘practice’ provides a framework within which the governance and technology structures, together with the mechanisms enabling the production of social order in this context, can be understood. This is achieved by applying the concepts of position and positioning to the corporate power dynamics, and integrating the conflict found to exist between enterprise standard and ferally conceived technology systems. By extending existing theory and conceptions of ‘place’ and the ‘person-environment relationship’, relevant understandings of the tensions created between Castells’ notions of the space of place and the space of flows are established. The trans-disciplinary approach adopted, and underpinned by a robust academic and practical framework, illustrates the potential for expanding the range and richness of understanding applicable to design in this context. The outcome informs workplace design by extending theoretical horizons, and by the development of a comprehensive investigative process comprising a suite of models and techniques for both architectural and interior design research and practice, collectively entitled the NetWorkPlace™© Application Framework. This work contributes to the body of knowledge within the design disciplines in substantive, theoretical, and methodological terms, whilst potentially also influencing future organisational network theories, management practices, and information and communication technology applications. The NetWorkPlace™© as reported in this thesis, constitutes a multi-dimensional concept having the capacity to deal with the fluidity and ambiguity characteristic of the network context, as both a topic of research and the way of going about it.

Mineralized human primary osteoblast matrices as a model system to analyse interactions of prostate cancer cells with the bone microenvironment

Prostate cancer metastasis is reliant on the reciprocal interactions between cancer cells and the bone niche/micro-environment. The production of suitable matrices to study metastasis, carcinogenesis and in particular prostate cancer/bone micro-environment interaction has been limited to specific protein matrices or matrix secreted by immortalised cell lines that may have undergone transformation processes altering signaling pathways and modifying gene or receptor expression. We hypothesize that matrices produced by primary human osteoblasts are a suitable means to develop an in vitro model system for bone metastasis research mimicking in vivo conditions. We have used a decellularized matrix secreted from primary human osteoblasts as a model for prostate cancer function in the bone micro-environment. We show that this collagen I rich matrix is of fibrillar appearance, highly mineralized, and contains proteins, such as osteocalcin, osteonectin and osteopontin, and growth factors characteristic of bone extracellular matrix (ECM). LNCaP and PC3 cells grown on this matrix, adhere strongly, proliferate, and express markers consistent with a loss of epithelial phenotype. Moreover, growth of these cells on the matrix is accompanied by the induction of genes associated with attachment, migration, increased invasive potential, Ca2+ signaling and osteolysis. In summary, we show that growth of prostate cancer cells on matrices produced by primary human osteoblasts mimics key features of prostate cancer bone metastases and thus is a suitable model system to study the tumor/bone micro-environment interaction in this disease.

Manipulating task constraints to improve tactical knowledge and collective decision-making in rugby union

In team sports such as rugby union, a myriad of decisions and actions occur within the boundaries that compose the performance perceptual- motor workspace. The way that these performance boundaries constrain decision making and action has recently interested researchers and has involved developing an understanding of the concept of constraints. Considering team sports as complex dynamical systems, signifies that they are composed of multiple, independent agents (i.e. individual players) whose interactions are highly integrated. This level of complexity is characterized by the multiple ways that players in a rugby field can interact. It affords the emergence of rich patterns of behaviour, such as rucks, mauls, and collective tactical actions that emerge due to players’ adjustments to dynamically varying competition environments. During performance, the decisions and actions of each player are constrained by multiple causes (e.g. technical and tactical skills, emotional states, plans, thoughts, etc.) that generate multiple effects (e.g. to run or pass, to move forward to tackle or maintain position and drive the opponent to the line), a prime feature in a complex systems approach to team games performance (Bar- Yam, 2004). To establish a bridge between the complexity sciences and learning design in team sports like rugby union, the aim of practice sessions is to prepare players to pick up and explore the information available in the multiple constraints (i.e. the causes) that influence performance. Therefore, learning design in training sessions should be soundly based on the interactions amongst players (i.e.teammates and opponents) that will occur in rugby matches. To improve individual and collective decision making in rugby union, Passos and colleagues proposed in previous work a performer- environment interaction- based approach rather than a traditional performer- based approach (Passos, Araújo, Davids & Shuttleworth, 2008).

Everyday resilience : narratives of single refugee women with children

This article offers a critical exploration of the concept of resilience, which is largely conceptualized in the literature as an extraordinary atypical personal ability to revert or ‘bounce back’ to a point of equilibrium despite significant adversity. While resilience has been explored in a range of contexts, there is little recognition of resilience as a social process arising from mundane practices of everyday life and situated in person -environment interactions. Based on an ethnographic study among single refugee women with children in Brisbane, Australia, the women’s stories on navigating everyday tensions and opportunities revealed how resilience was a process operating inter-subjectively in the social spaces connecting them to their environment. Far beyond the simplistic binaries of resilience versus non-resilient, we concern ourselves here with the everyday processual, person environment nature of the concept. We argue that more attention should be paid to day-to-day pathways through which resilience outcomes are achieved, and that this has important implications for refugee mental health practice frameworks.

General self-efficacy influences affective task reactions during a work simulation : the temporal effects of changes in workload at different levels of control

This study investigated the effects of workload, control, and general self-efficacy on affective task reactions (i.e., demands-ability fit, active coping, and anxiety) during a work simulation. The main goals were: (1) to determine the extent general self-efficacy moderates the effects of demand and control on affective task reactions, and; (2) to determine if this varies as a function of changes in workload. Participants (N=141) completed an inbox activity under conditions of low or high control and within low and high workload conditions. The order of trials varied so that workload increased or decreased. Results revealed individuals with high general self-efficacy reported better demands-abilities fit and active coping as well as less anxiety. Three interactive effects were found. First, it was found that high control increased demands-abilities fit from trial 1 to trial 2, but only when workload decreased. Second, it was found that low efficacious individuals active coping increased in trial 2, but only under high control. Third, it was found that high control helped high efficacious individuals manage anxiety when workload decreased. However, for individuals with low general self-efficacy, neither high nor low control alleviated anxiety (i.e., whether workload increased or decreased over time).

Markers of genetic susceptibility in human environmental hygiene and toxicology : the role of selected CYP, NAT and GST genes

Inherited genetic traits co-determine the susceptibility of an individual to a toxic chemical. Special emphasis has been put on individual responses to environmental and industrial carcinogens, but other chronic diseases are of increasing interest. Polymorphisms of relevant xenobiotic metabolising enzymes may be used as toxicological susceptibility markers. A growing number of genes encoding enzymes involved in biotransformation of toxicants and in cellular defence against toxicant-induced damage to the cells has been identified and cloned, leading to increased knowledge of allelic variants of genes and genetic defects that may result in a differential susceptibility toward environmental toxicants. "Low penetrating" polymorphisms in metabolism genes tend to be much more common in the population than allelic variants of "high penetrating" cancer genes, and are therefore of considerable importance from a public health point of view. Positive associations between cancer and CYP1A1 alleles, in particular the *2C I462V allele, were found for tissues following the aerodigestive tract. Again, in most cases, the effect of the variant CYP1A1 allele becomes apparent or clearer in connection with the GSTM1 null allele. The CYP1B1 codon 432 polymorphism (CYP1B1*3) has been identified as a susceptibility factor in smoking-related head-and-neck squameous cell cancer. The impact of this polymorphic variant of CYP1B1 on cancer risk was also reflected by an association with the frequency of somatic mutations of the p53 gene. Combined genotype analysis of CYP1B1 and the glutathione transferases GSTM1 or GSTT1 has also pointed to interactive effects. Of particular interest for the industrial and environmental field is the isozyme CYP2E1. Several genotypes of this isozyme have been characterised which seem to be associated with different levels of expression of enzyme activity. The acetylator status for NAT2 can be determined by genotyping or by phenotyping. In the pathogenesis of human bladder cancer due to occupational exposure to "classical" aromatic amines (benzidine, 4-aminodiphenyl, 1-naphthylamine) acetylation by NAT2 is regarded as a detoxication step. Interestingly, the underlying European findings of a higher susceptibility of slow acetylators towards aromatic amines are in contrast to findings in Chinese workers occupationally exposed to aromatic amines which points to different mechanisms of susceptibility between European and Chinese populations. Regarding human bladder cancer, the hypothesis has been put forward that genetic polymorphism of GSTM1 might be linked with the occurrence of this tumour type. This supports the hypothesis that exposure to PAH might causally be involved in urothelial cancers. The human polymorphic GST catalysing conjugation of halomethanes, dihalomethanes, ethylene oxide and a number of other industrial compounds could be characterised as a class theta enzyme (GSTT1) by means of molecular biology. "Conjugator" and "non-conjugator" phenotypes are coincident with the presence and absence of the GSTT1 gene. There are wide variations in the frequencies of GSTT1 deletion (GSTT1 *0/0) among different ethnicities. Human phenotyping is facilitated by the GST activity towards methyl bromide or ethylene oxide in erythrocytes which is representative of the metabolic GSTT1 competence of the entire organism. Inter-individual variations in xenobiotic metabolism capacities may be due to polymorphisms of the genes coding for the enzymes themselves or of the genes coding for the receptors or transcription factors which regulate the expression of the enzymes. Also, polymorphisms in several regions of genes may cause altered ligand affinity, transactivation activity or expression levels of the receptor subsequently influencing the expression of the downstream target genes. Studies of individual susceptibility to toxicants and gene-environment interaction are now emerging as an important component of molecular epidemiology.

Examining how projections about the future of society are related to present-day climate change action

Global climate change will affect all domains of person-environment relations. Tackling climate change will require social change that can be motivated by people’s imaginings of the future of their society where such social change has occurred. We use the “collective futures” framework to examine whether beliefs about the future of society are related to present-day intentions to take climate change action. Participants from two Brazilian samples imagined their society in 2050 where climate change was mitigated and then rated how this future society would differ from Brazilian society today in terms of societal-level dysfunction and development and personal-level traits and values. To the extent that participants believed preventing climate change would result in societal development and more competence traits, they were more willing to engage in environmental citizenship activities. Individual differences in future time perspective also impacted environmental citizenship intention. Societal development and consideration of future consequences seem to be distinct routes by which future thinking influence climate change action.