In the service of the society: the labour management practices of an Australian life Insurer to 1940

This article considers the labour management practices in use in the Australian life insurance industry during the inter-war period. Using the Australian Mutual Provident as a case study, it is argued that the specific human resource management practices evolved to deal with separate sets of problems arising from the functions of the life insurance business and the manner in which the principal/agent problem was manifested. The differing nature of work associated with the sales and management of life insurance fostered the development of primary and secondary labour markets in which the benefits flowing to one were superior to those accruing to the other.

Teaching and learning in collaborative group design projects

The 200 years of apprentice/master tradition that underpins the atelier studio system is still at the core of much present-day architectural design education. Yet this tradition poses uncertainties for a large number of lecturers faced with changes in the funding of tertiary education. With reductions in one-to-one staff/student contact time, many educators are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain an atelier teaching model. If these deficiencies remain unchecked and design-based schools are unable to implement strategies to reduce the resource intensity of one-to-one studio teaching programmes, then, for many higher-education providers, current architectural education may be based on an untenable course structure. Rather than spreading their time thinly over a large number of individual projects, an increasing number of lecturers are setting group projects. This allows them to coordinate longer and more in-depth review sessions on a smaller number of assignment submissions. However, while the group model may reflect the realities of the design process in professional practice, the approach is not without shortcomings as a teaching and learning archetype for the assessment of individual student skill competencies. Hence, what is clear is the need for a readily adoptable andragogy for the teaching and assessment of group design projects. The following is a position paper that describes – with a focus on effective group structures and assemblage and fair assessment models – the background, methodology and early results of a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant currently running at the School of Architecture and Building at Deakin University in Australia.

Establishing best-practice principles for the teaching of group design projects

As student-to-staff ratios escalate, increasing numbers of undergraduate architects are finding the reduction of ‘one-to-one’ studio supervision an impediment to learning. Group design projects are becoming a widespread solution to this problem. However, little analysis has been undertaken as to their effectiveness both in terms of student assessment and as a design teaching methodology.
The two hundred years of apprentice/master tradition that underpins the atelier studio system is still at the core of much present day architectural design education. Yet this tradition today poses uncertainties for a large number of co-ordinating lecturers faced with current changes in the nature of tertiary education and its funding structure. In particular, with reductions in staff/student contact time, in sessional funding sources and in the relative weighting of design-based subjects with respect to other subject areas, many design teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain an atelier system that has shaped both their learning and, more pointedly, their teaching. If these deficiencies remain unchecked and design-based schools are unable to implement strategies that successfully overcome the resource intensive one-to-one teaching program, then architecture may prove to be an untenable course structure for many institutions.
Rather then spreading their time thinly, many co-ordinating lecturers are setting group projects in order to review less assignments but at greater depth. However, while this learning model better reflects design teams in practice, this approach may pose other pedagogical and assessment questions. What is clear is the urgent need for structured research into the teaching and assessment problems experienced by design teachers, and for a readily adoptable pedagogy for group design projects. At Deakin University, research is underway aimed at establishing best-practice principles for group design projects by analysing students’ performance and recording and implementing their feedback to adjustments made to the pedagogical fundamentals of assessment, group configuration, and program structure. There are after two years of preliminary studies already clear indications of what changes can be made to these to encourage more effective team learning. This paper will present the findings of these studies.

Market research effectiveness and strategy : the buyer's perspective

The study proposed that broad firm strategies should be related to the implementation and perceived performance of the market research function within the firm. The study involved a sample survey of market research buyers who evaluated their most recent market research project. It was found that specialist "market research" or "insights" managers believed market research to be more effective and to provide greater value than did buyers more generalist roles. It was found that the Prospector strategy firms were the most likely strategic group to rate their market research as effective. No relationships were found between the action-orientation or knowledge enhancing dimensions of the market research USER scale and business strategies, suggesting these dimensions aid all strategy types.

Designing educational tasks for success in industry: a reflection on the evolution of business communication studies in tertiary education

This paper is the result of a "Rip Van Winkle" experience I had concerning the teaching of Business Communication. The paper focuses on the remarkable expansion in the curriculum of the traditional "Business Communication" or "Business Writing" course offered by many tertiary institutions around the world. Based on 25 years of personal observation and experience in a number of educational settings, the paper will trace the increasing sophistication and complexity of the study of business communication from one that covered little more than lessons in the design of hardcopy memos, letters, and reports to one that now covers a broad spectrum of topics such as "emotional intelligence," "intercultural communication," "effective public speaking," as well as the effects of purpose and audience on the design of a wide variety of business communications.

An example of an effective task that involves a number of on the job activities is provided in the form of a ready to use assignment that is applicable in a number of contexts.

The challenge of reconciling working time demands and life transitions : a policy proposal

Labour markets, like all market institutions, exhibit structural and dynamic characteristics. Both the structural and dynamic characteristics of labour markets inevitably change and evolve over time in response to a host of exogenous and endogenous factors. In the case of the Australian labour market, structural changes are reflected in significant shifts in the industry and occupational composition of employment, the decline of full-time work and the concomitant rise in part-time and atypical forms of employment, demographic changes in the labour force, as well as changes in social and individual preferences. Dynamic shifts can be found in cyclical pattern of employment and wages growth, the growth in labour mobility, and transitions between various labour market states.
The starting point for this paper is that these structural and dynamic changes have given rise to an increase in the likelihood that individuals will experience a transition between various labour market states, and a greater diversity in the range of transitions they may experience over their working life. This acceleration in the rate of transition generates ‘transition costs’ for both employers and employees, as well the likelihood of mismatch between employer and employee working time preferences. As a consequence, existing labour market policy regimes, based on the traditional model of labour market participation over the life course may not provide adequate protection for most workers today.
Gunther Schmid (1998) and others have proposed institutional reforms which promote ‘transitional labour markets’. Transitional labour market institutions are those that allow individuals (and firms) to successfully adjust to critical events. While transitional labour market institutions may consist of traditional ‘active labour market policy’ mechanisms, Schmid and others have proposed a range of innovative policy responses which allow individuals (and firms) to adjust the intensity of their abour market participation over the life cycle. In this paper we use the general approach of advocated by the transitional labour market concept to do three things. First, we investigate the processes by which the nature of labour market transitions has changed over time. Second, we review the range of policy options available to government to smooth labour market dysfunctions associated with labour market transitions, with the objective of ensuring labour markets operate more efficiently and more equitably. Third, we focus on one possible way in which an existing labour market institution, Long Service Leave (LSL), could be reformed to make way for a more comprehensive transitional labour market institution in the form of a ‘working time bank’.

Sustainable design education: teaching, learning and assessment in collaborative group design projects

Changes in the funding of tertiary education resulting in less one-to-one staff/student contact time mean that we cannot continue to teach as we have historically been taught. If design schools are unable to implement strategies that successfully overcome resource intensive studio teaching programs, then current architectural education may for many higher education providers be based on an unsustainable course structure. Rather than spreading their time thinly over a large number of individual projects, an increasing number of lecturers are setting group projects. This allows them to co-ordinate longer and more in-depth review sessions on a smaller number of assignments. However, while the group model may reflect the realities of the design process in practice, the approach is not without short comings as a teaching archetype for the assessment of individual skill competencies. Hence, what is clear is the need for a readily adoptable andragogy for the teaching and assessment of group design projects.
The following describes the background, methodology and early results of a Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant currently running at the School of Architecture and Building at Deakin University. The project is evaluating two design programs at Deakin and it is envisaged that the results of the
investigation may inform other project-based teaching disciplines experiencing a similar need for new knowledge and skill-based delivery due to increasing staff-student ratios.

Examination of environmental beliefs and its impact on the influence of price, quality and demographic characteristics with respect to green intention

Research indicates that the environment has had a definite impact on consumer behaviour whereby suggesting to target consumers according to their environmental beliefs. This study investigated the consumers' green purchase behaviour using price and quality attributes as contributors to the formation of purchase intention. It attempts to construct a model that may facilitate the better understanding of green consumers' market segments through the use of an intelligent soft computing model. The model is designed to incorporate knowledge, beliefs, demographic profiles and situational variables. This potentially provides a more direct method for companies to gauge consumers' intention to purchase green products. The results showed strong preference for companies to place higher priority on reducing pollution than on increasing profitability. It highlighted different clusters that demonstrate various levels of the strength of intention to purchase and market segment profiles.

Bayesian clustering with AutoClass explicitly recognises uncertainties in landscape classification

Clustering of multivariate data is a commonly used technique in ecology, and many approaches to clustering are available. The results from a clustering algorithm are uncertain, but few clustering approaches explicitly acknowledge this uncertainty. One exception is Bayesian mixture modelling, which treats all results probabilistically, and allows comparison of multiple plausible classifications of the same data set. We used this method, implemented in the AutoClass program, to classify catchments (watersheds) in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, based on their physiographic characteristics (e.g. slope, rainfall, lithology). The most likely classification found nine classes of catchments. Members of each class were aggregated geographically within the MDB. Rainfall and slope were the two most important variables that defined classes. The second-most likely classification was very similar to the first, but had one fewer class. Increasing the nominal uncertainty of continuous data resulted in a most likely classification with five classes, which were again aggregated geographically. Membership probabilities suggested that a small number of cases could be members of either of two classes. Such cases were located on the edges of groups of catchments that belonged to one class, with a group belonging to the second-most likely class adjacent. A comparison of the Bayesian approach to a distance-based deterministic method showed that the Bayesian mixture model produced solutions that were more spatially cohesive and intuitively appealing. The probabilistic presentation of results from the Bayesian classification allows richer interpretation, including decisions on how to treat cases that are intermediate between two or more classes, and whether to consider more than one classification. The explicit consideration and presentation of uncertainty makes this approach useful for ecological investigations, where both data and expectations are often highly uncertain.

Childhood obesity - a sign of commercial success, but a market failure.

'Obesogenic' products, such as energy dense foods, passive entertainment products, cars, and labour-saving devices, are widely available and heavily promoted. Because they are highly consumed and very profitable, obesity becomes the inevitable consequence of their commercial successes. Contemporary market forces heavily favour behaviours for short-term preferences (i.e. over-consumption and underactivity) over long-term preferences (i.e. healthy weight) and this is especially true for children. Hence, if the market, as the main mechanism for determining choices, results in outcomes, which make our children worse off, as is occurring with childhood obesity, then the market has failed to sustain and promote social and individual goals. This is a serious market failure. In the current obesogenic environment, expecting adults, let alone children, to make food and activity choices in their own best long-term interests is, therefore, demonstrably flawed. We argue that significant government intervention is needed to correct this market failure, as has been done for other major health problems.

Trial of print and telephone delivered interventions to influence walking.

Background. Both self-help print materials and telephone-assisted counseling have generally proved useful strategies to increase physical activity. This study examined their effectiveness in an intervention aimed specifically at promoting walking for specific purposes.

Methods. Participants (n = 399) were randomly allocated to one of two 3-week intervention programs. The Print program comprised multiple mailing of brochures that emphasized walking within the local community environments. The Print plus Telephone program received the same brochures plus three telephone calls. Data collected via mailed self-completed surveys were analyzed by exploring outcomes related to walking for specific purposes.

Results. There were no significant differences between the two programs in any of the walking measures. Both groups significantly increased time reported walking for exercise per week [Print: t(1,277) = −3.50, P < 0.001; Print plus telephone: t(1,106) = −2.44, P < 0.016]. Significantly, more participants in the Print plus Telephone group reported receiving and reading the materials (χ2 = 20.11, P < 0.0001).

Conclusions. The intervention programs were more successful at increasing walking for exercise than for any other purpose. The addition of brief telephone support was successful in focusing participants' attention on the print materials, but did not result in any additional increase in walking.

Global change and health - the good, the bad, and the evidence

Debates over the merits and demerits of globalisation for health are increasingly polarised. Conclusions range from globalisation being essentially positive for health, albeit with a need to smooth out some rough edges, to one of utter condemnation, with adverse effects on the majority of the world's population. Anyone wading into this debate is immediately confronted by seemingly irreconcilable differences in ideology, opinion and interests. Both camps agree that global changes are occurring, and with them many of the determinants of population health status. While some skepticism persists about whether “globalisation” has value beyond being a fashionable buzzword, most agree that we need better understanding of these changes. Two difficult questions arise: (i) What are the health impacts of these changes; and (ii) how can we respond more effectively to them? To move beyond the stand-offs that have already formed within the health community, this paper reviews the main empirical evidence that currently exists, summarises key points of debate that remain, and suggests some ways forward for the research and policy communities. In particular, there is need for an informed and inclusive debate about the positive and negative health consequences of globalisation.

International comparisons of construction industry performance: further investigations

While there have been many attempts at comparisons of construction performance over the past 50 years, the results have generally been inconclusive and/or contradictory.

Such comparisons are of great interest to industry, governments and theorists alike but there is little agreement as to how they are best done. A variety of methodologies have been used, however, the lack of satisfactory outcomes has been due largely to one factor, the lack of a truly reliable method for comparing construction costs in different currencies

Exchange rates are recognised as being unsuitable, and while purchasing power parity (PPP) has a long history, the method still has many critics. In addition, the nature of the building industry and its products makes the establishment of reliable construction PPPs very difficult. Both the UN’s International Comparison Program (ICP) and the European Union gather data for the production of construction-specific PPP indices, but neither body publishes them, as there is too much doubt about their reliability.

New approaches are being developed and some are soon to be trialled. This paper looks at the problems, describes and discusses some new approaches, and assesses their potential.

The life cycle of the AFL footballer : If you sell your body, mind and soul what is left when the cheering stops?

In this paper we will draw on research conducted for the AFL which, in part, illuminated aspects of the Faustian pact that many young men enter into in order to become an elite level, professional footballer in what is increasingly a global sports entertainment industry. In order to develop an identity as an AFL footballer these young men willingly sell their body, mind and soul to one club, or to many. For varying lengths of time these pacts can have significant payoffs - in terms of a sense of self, and in monetary terms. For many though, these payoffs are limited and must be accounted for sometime in the future - an accounting that in Faustian terms, can carry significant costs to the body, mind and soul long after the cheering has stopped, and when the benefits come mainly in the form of memories. In this paper we argue that elements of these pacts can be identified and analysed via the following: understanding AFL as a sports entertainment business; using Foucault's work on the care of the self to explore what it means to be an elite level professional and the demands made by others on the body, mind and soul of players; and the idea that a career as an elite level professional footballer has a number of phases (early, mid and late) in which the nature of a professional identity - shaped by different demands on the body, mind and soul- changes.

Multiple stakeholder perspective to responsibility in advertising

Responsibility in advertising requires that all stakeholders honor their obligations to one another. Advertising-related activities that violate accepted standards will be deemed irresponsible by one or more stakeholders. These activities may affect advertisers and consumers negatively; advertisers may incur damaging publicity that threatens their long-term viability, and consumers may incur physical, financial, or emotional injury. To mitigate such harms, regulators are charged with protecting society's interests. Responsibility in advertising is introduced and the interconnections between these major stakeholders are briefly discussed. The papers that comprise this special issue are then introduced and manuscript reviewers are acknowledged.