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 role of benchmarking and service level agreement (SLA) practices in IT outsourcing success

Despite claims in the trade literature that a number of recommended practices have been proved to lead to IT outsourcing success, few of these practices have been subject to disconfirmatory research. Even fewer have been tested statistically to determine whether they generalize to wider populations, or to determine the magnitude of their effect. In this paper, several recommended outsourcing practices associated with service level agreements (SLAs) and benchmarking are investigated. These practices are recommended extensively on the basis of case study research, yet they do have downsides, and they add substantially to the transaction costs of outsourcing. Based on a large survey of organizations engaged in IT outsourcing, this paper established that developing detailed SLAs did improve cost and service outcome, and that clients who met with vendors more frequently to renegotiate service levels reported greater outsourcing success. The research also established that benchmarking both before outsourcing commences, and once the outsourcing contract is in place, led to improvements in cost and service outcomes. Benchmarking during the outsourcing contract had the greatest effect, accounting for 10% of the variance in a success vector that included strategic, technical, cost-related and service outcomes plus an overall evaluation of satisfaction and value.

The impact of communications and understanding on the success of business/IT alignment

This article reports on an investigation of IS stakeholders communication and mutual understanding, and their impact on the success of business / IT alignment. In particular, by following a hermeneutic study of transcripts of two focus groups and several interviews conducted with senior business and IT executives, the paper explores the issues of modern business context and practices, project scope and structure, trust, language and nomenclature, and the barriers to the effective stakeholder communication and  understanding. The study results are finally compared against the standard model of business and IT alignment. The main unexpected finding being executives' pre-occupation with issues of "marginal" value to the alignment model, such as day-to-day management of communicative and understanding effectiveness, as opposed to the fundamental issues of strategy and infrastructure fit.

Occupational safety and health management systems in Australia: barriers to success

The growing popularity of occupational safety and health management systems in Australia has stimulated critical debate about their effectiveness. This paper asks whether the performance of such systems lives up to expectations. Making use of a research review and an extensive interviewing programme, the paper draws several conclusions. First, it observes that the definitional requirements for an occupational safety and health management system have been watered down, making it more likely that organisations can claim to have a system, but less likely that it will be effective. Second, a review of empirical research reinforces the view that systems can improve health and safety outcomes, but only if they meet strict conditions concerning senior management commitment, effective workforce involvement and programme integration. Third, several barriers to successful implementation are identified, including the failure to meet essential success factors, the inappropriate application of audit tools to ensure compliance, and their problematic application in certain sectors such as small business, contractors, and the part-time and temporary workforce. The paper concludes that occupational safety and health management systems can live up to their promise, but often fail to do so because of inadequate implementation or application in hostile environments.

Induced spawning, larval development and rearing of two indigenous Malaysian mahseer, Tor tambroides and T. douronensis

The Mahseers (Tor spp.) are highly valued freshwater fishes across the Himalayan and South-east Asian regions. Over exploitation of natural stocks because of high demand and the deteriorating environmental conditions have resulted in marked decline of mahseers in the wild. Malaysian mahseers, T. tambroides (Bleeker) and T. douronensis (Valenciennes), locally known as empurau, kelah or belian and semah, respectively, have significant cultural and economic importance but both species are now threatened in the wild because of environmental degradation and over fishing. A captive breeding programme was instigated to attempt to propagate these two species artificially for conservation and aquaculture purposes. Both pond-reared and tank-held T. tambroides and T. douronensis reached sexual maturity in captivity and were successfully induced to spawn using hormone treatments. Ovaprim (0.5 mL kg⁻¹) was the most successful hormone treatment for both species. Pre-treatment of fish with Ovaplant (28–68 μg kg⁻¹, 2–7 weeks before spawning induction) greatly improved the success rate of spawning induction. Repeat spawning (within 4 months of initial spawning) was induced in some captive fish. Use of formalin baths improved hatching by preventing fungal infections. Embryonic development and hatching are described. Juveniles were reared in static greenwater ponds. Tor tambroides reached 142–179 g (max 270 g) in 60 weeks. These results represent the first successful captive spawning and rearing of both species. Options for future research to improve production are discussed.

What criteria do police officers use to measure the success of an interview with a child?

This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore the perceptions of a heterogeneous sample of 75 police interviewers regarding their performance in a mock interview with a 5-7-year-old child. Each officer recruited for this study was authorised to conduct investigative interviews with children. Specifically, we explored how the officers' perception of what makes a good interview differs depending on their background experience and their (perceived and actual) ability to adhere to best-practice interview guidelines. Overall, the officers' perceptions of what constitutes an effective interview were not entirely consistent with those held by experts in forensic interviewing. The majority of the interviewers perceived that the locus of control in the interview rested primarily with the child and/or the environmental setting. In contrast, experts tend to place the central onus of responsibility for the outcome of an interview on the skill of the interviewer in using open-ended questions. Several possible explanations for, and the implications of, these findings are discussed.

Climatic variation and breeding in the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina Tibicen) : a case study using existing data

To anticipate the effects of climate change on Australia’s avifauna, it is first necessary to understand the current effects of climate (including climate variability) on life histories, and to examine the scope and nature of existing data that may provide the necessary historical context to anticipate the effects of climate change. This study examines naturally occurring geographical gradients (altitude, latitude) and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) as integrated measures of climate. These are then compared with the timing and ‘amount’ of breeding recorded for the Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) using data from Birds Australia’s Nest Record Scheme and Atlas of Australian Birds, the NSW Bird Atlassers Inc.’s NSW Bird Atlas, and the Canberra Ornitholgists Group’s Garden Bird Survey. For this common, easily identified species, these data suggest links between Australian Magpie breeding and all three environmental variables. Breeding became later as altitude increased, the proportion of breeding records increased from north to south, and years of high SOI corresponded to more (and earlier) breeding in this species. That annual climatic fluctuations have a direct, immediate and substantial effect on breeding in the Australian Magpie, particularly on the amount of breeding that occurs, implies that longer term changes in climate will have substantial impacts on populations. Results were not solely temperature-driven, which makes predicting climate change impacts difficult. For rainfall, predictions are far less precise and regional variation is higher. The results also highlight the potential and limitations of current survey techniques for documenting the impacts of climate change on birds; in particular, the Nest Record Scheme does not measure the amount of breeding that occurs, but a useful index of this can be derived from bird atlassing data