Sharing knowledge at work : macro, social and relational individual influences on individual behavior

The impact of relations between an organization and its workers and the relations among workers on individual knowledge generation and sharing practices has not, to date, been addressed in an integrated way. This paper discusses the findings of a study analyzing issues at macro, locally-constructed and micro levels in a public sector organization, to identify and integrate the complex sets of mediators. Key factors were found to include (a) the contested nature of the process of knowledge construction, (b) the worker’s experience of the organization’s internal environment, (c) how the organization is understood to value knowledge sharing, (d) relations with colleagues, and (e) the perceived outcomes of knowledge sharing behaviors. Implications for practice are discussed.

At work or play : a comparison of private property vehicle crashes with those occurring on public roads in north Queensland.

Objective: To define characteristics of vehicle crashes occurring on rural private property in north Queensland with an exploration of associated risk factors. Design: Descriptive analysis of private property crash data collected by the Rural and Remote Road Safety Study. Setting: Rural and remote north Queensland. Participants: A total of 305 vehicle controllers aged 16 years or over hospitalised at Atherton, Cairns, Mount Isa or Townsville for at least 24 hours as a result of a vehicle crash. Main outcome measure: A structured questionnaire completed by participants covering crash details, lifestyle and demographic characteristics, driving history, medical history, alcohol and drug use and attitudes to road use. Results: Overall, 27.9% of interviewees crashed on private property, with the highest proportion of private road crashes occurring in the North West Statistical Division (45%). Risk factors shown to be associated with private property crashes included male sex, riding off-road motorcycle or all-terrain vehicle, first-time driving at that site, lack of licence for vehicle type, recreational use and not wearing a helmet or seatbelt. Conclusions: Considerable trauma results from vehicle crashes on rural private property. These crashes are not included in most crash data sets, which are limited to public road crashes. Legislation and regulations applicable to private property vehicle use are largely focused on workplace health and safety, yet work-related crashes represent a minority of private property crashes in north Queensland.

From surfboard wax to salient health inequity : School programs to develop globally aware and active citizens

During the past century, significant improvements in the prevention, detection and treatment of infectious disease have positively impacted upon quality and quantity of life for many people worldwide. Despite this progress, there are large numbers of people currently living in developing regions of the world where infectious disease continues unabated. SurfAid International is a humanitarian organisation that has brought significant health improvements to the people living on the Mentawai and Nias islands of Indonesia. The SurfAid International Schools Program aims to develop global citizenship and social responsibility by providing a bridge between school settings and the critical work of SurfAid International. This paper provides a rationale for the development of contextualised school based programs and identifies potential impact upon the thoughts and actions of young people in schools.

Preventing physical activity induced heat illness in school settings

The climatic conditions of tropical and subtropical regions within Australia present, at times, extreme risk of physical activity induced heat illness. Many administrators and teachers in school settings are aware of the general risks of heat related illness. In the absence of reliable information applied at the local level, there is a risk that inappropriate decisions may be made concerning school events that incorporate opportunities to be physically active. Such events may be prematurely cancelled resulting in the loss of necessary time for physical activity. Under high or extremely high risk conditions however, the absence of appropriate modifications or continuation could place the health of students, staff and other parties at risk. School staff and other key stakeholders should understand the mechanisms of escalating risk and be supported to undertake action to reduce the level of risk through appropriate policies, procedures, resources and action plans.

A participative education program to reduce speeding in a group of work-related drivers

A number of intervention approaches have been developed to improve work-related driving safety. However, past interventions have been limited in that they have been data-driven, and have not been developed within a theoretical framework. The aim of this study is to present a theory-driven intervention. Based on the methodology developed by Ludwig and Geller (1991), this study evaluates the effectiveness of a participative education intervention on a group of work-related drivers (n = 28; experimental group n = 19, control n = 9). The results support the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing speeding over a six month period, while a non significant increase was found in the control group. The results of this study have important implications for organisations developing theory-driven interventions designed to improve work-related driving behaviour.

How to progress forward in improving safety outcomes in the work-related driving field : a review of work-related driving research and development of an intervention framework [Extended abstract]

Road crashes are now the most common cause of work-related injury, death and absence in a number of countries. Given the impact of workrelated driving crashes on social and economic aspects of business and the community, workrelated road safety and risk management has received increasing attention in recent years. However, limited academic research has progressed on improving safety within the work-related driving sector. The aim of this paper is to present a review of work-related driving safety research to date, and provide an intervention framework for the future development and implementation of workrelated driving safety intervention strategies.

The role of land use and psycho-social factors in high density residents' work travel mode choices : implications for sustainable transport policy

Imperatives to improve the sustainability of cities often hinge upon plans to increase urban residential density to facilitate greater reliance on sustainable forms of transport and minimise car use. However there is ongoing debate about whether high residential density land use in isolation results in sustainable transport outcomes. Findings from surveys with residents of inner-urban high density dwellings in Brisbane, Australia, suggest that solo car travel accounts for the greatest modal share of typical work journeys and attitudes toward dwelling and neighbourhood transport-related features, residential sorting factors and socio-demographics, alongside land use such as public transport availability, are significantly associated with work travel mode choice. We discuss the implications of our findings for transport policy and management including encouraging relatively sustainable intermodal forms of transport for work journeys.

Debate on statutory control of the surveying profession in Queensland : 1907 to 1975

This article was written in 1997. After a 2009 review the content was left mostly unchanged - apart from this re-written abstract, restructured headings and a table of contents. The article deals directly with professional registration of surveyors; but it also relates to government procurement of professional services. The issues include public service and professional ethics; setting of professional fees; quality assurance; official corruption; and professional recruitment, education and training. Debate on the Land Surveyors Act 1908 (Qld) and its amendments to 1916 occurred at a time when industrial unrest of the 1890s and common market principles of the new Commonwealth were fresh in peoples’ minds. Industrial issues led to a constitutional crisis in the Queensland’s then bicameral legislature and frustrated a first attempt to pass a Surveyors Bill in 1907. The Bill was re-introduced in 1908 after fresh elections and Kidston’s return as state premier. Co-ordinated immigration and land settlement polices of the colonies were discontinued when the Commonwealth gained power over immigration in 1901. Concerns shifted to protecting jobs from foreign competition. Debate on 1974 amendments to the Act reflected concerns about skill shortages and professional accreditation. However, in times of economic downturn, a so-called ‘chronic shortage of surveyors’ could rapidly degenerate into oversupply and unemployment. Theorists championed a naïve ‘capture theory’ where the professions captured governments to create legislative barriers to entry to the professions. Supposedly, this allowed rent-seeking and monopoly profits through lack of competition. However, historical evidence suggests that governments have been capable of capturing and exploiting surveyors. More enlightened institutional arrangements are needed if the community is to receive benefits commensurate with sizable co-investments of public and private resources in developing human capital.

Suicide plays

Suicide is a uniquely human behaviour and has always elicited strong - usually negative - opinions. Thus I would like to state from the very outset that this morbid collection of writing (all separately published elsewhere previously) should not be seen as an attempt to glamorise the act of felo-de-se. Nevertheless, one needs to recognise the inherent theatricality of suicide: too often it is a petulant, peevish performance intended to convey a bitter message to the audience of those left behind. Unfortunately, it is also a performance that many similarly unhappy souls try to emulate, and this phenomenon, known as “The Werther Effect”, is the subject of the first paper, which serves as a most appropriate introduction to the four plays that follow it. The first play, entitled “Hamlet + Ophelia = ?”, is deliberately provocative, and may easily be misunderstood as a call to commit self-murder. It is hoped, however, that the protagonists of this angry little piece are seen to be impetuous and childish, rather than noble or deep. The second play, “Games for Married Couples”, is less about seppuku than it is about the despair of child-less marriage. It is not much happier than the first, but may nevertheless raise a smile or two. “His ... or Her ... Suicide”, on the other hand, is utterly frivolous. I am sure no reader will take it seriously. Finally, and circuitously, is the stage adaptation (and translation) of Goethe’s classic 1774 novella "Die Leiden des jungen Werthers". This piece was produced as part of my 2005 Master of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Many thanks must go to my supervisor, Associate Professor Angela O’Brien, for prodding and poking me until the thesis was of an acceptable standard.

The Student Success Project : Helping students at-risk of failing or leaving a unit - a work in progress

In Semester 1 2007, a Monitoring Student Engagement study, conducted as part of the Enhancing Transition at Queensland University of Technology (ET@QUT) Project and extending earlier work in the Project by Arora (2006), aimed at mapping the processes and resources used at that time to identify, monitor and manage students in their first year who were at risk of leaving QUT (Shaw, 2007). This identified a lack of documentation of the processes and resources used and revealed an ad-hoc rather than holistic and systematic approach to monitoring student engagement. One of Shaw’s recommendations was to: “To introduce a centralised case management approach to student engagement” (p. 14). That provided the genesis for the Student Success Project that is being reported on here. The aim of the Student Success Project is to trial, evaluate and ultimately establish holistic and systematic ways of helping students who appear to be at-risk of failing or withdrawing from a unit to persist and succeed. Students are profiled as being at-risk if they are absent from more than 2 tutorials in a row without contacting their tutor or if they fail to submit their first assignment. A Project Officer makes personal contact with these students to suggest ways they can get further assistance depending on their situation.

Emerging urban futures, land, water, infrastructure

This paper will examine the intersection of design research and problem‐based teaching through the process and outcomes of a four year long ARC funded research project: the Emerging Futures Project. Sustainability is central to the project; in its overall content as well as in the broad aim of determining better outcomes for urban consolidation.   

"Theatre of the dancing language" : new possibilities in contemporary Australian playwrighting

This study focuses on trends in contemporary Australian playwrighting, discussing recent investigations into the playwrighting process. The study analyses the current state of this country’s playwrighting industry, with a particular focus on programming trends since 1998. It seeks to explore the implications of this current theatrical climate, in particular the types of work most commonly being favoured for production. It argues that Australian plays are under-represented (compared to non-Australian plays) on ‘mainstream’ stages and that audiences might benefit from more challenging modes of writing than the popular three-act realist play models. The thesis argues that ‘New Lyricism’ might fill this position of offering an innovative Australian playwrighting mode. New Lyricism is characterised by a set of common aesthetics, including a non-linear narrative structure, a poetic use of language and magic realism. Several Australian playwrights who have adopted this mode of writing are identified and their works examined. The author’s play Floodlands is presented as a case study and the author’s creative process is examined in light of the published critical discussions about experimental playwriting work.

Levelling expectations across different years in an undergraduate degree to support work-related learning : evidence for a multi-pronged approach.

One of the ways in which university departments and faculties can enhance the quality of learning and assessment is to develop a ‘well thought out criterion‐referenced assessment system’ (Biggs, 2003, p. 271). In designing undergraduate degrees (courses) this entails making decisions about the levelling of expectations across different years through devising objectives and their corresponding criteria and standards: a process of alignment analogous to what happens in unit (subject) design. These decisions about levelling have important repercussions in terms of supporting students’ work‐related learning, especially in relation to their ability to cope with the increasing cognitive and skill demands made on them as they progress through their studies. They also affect the accountability of teacher judgments of students’ responses to assessment tasks, achievement of unit objectives and, ultimately, whether students are awarded their degrees and are sufficiently prepared for the world of work. Research reveals that this decision‐making process is rarely underpinned by an explicit educational rationale (Morgan et al, 2002). The decision to implement criterion referenced assessment in an undergraduate microbiology degree was the impetus for developing such a rationale because of the implications for alignment, and therefore ‘levelling’ of expectations across different years of the degree. This paper provides supporting evidence for a multi‐pronged approach to levelling, through backward mapping of two revised units (foundation and exit year). This approach adheres to the principles of alignment while combining a work‐related approach (via industry input) with the blended disciplinary and learner‐centred approaches proposed by Morgan et al. (2002). It is suggested that this multi‐pronged approach has the potential for making expectations, especially work‐related ones across different year levels of degrees, more explicit to students and future employers.