Leadership, an Australasian Focus

The intention of this Australian adaptation of DuBrin is to bring an Australian/Asia Pacific focus to the theoretically strong American text on leadership. The book covers leaders performing a number of specific roles and functions in a wide variety of organisational positions in all sectors including private, political and community.

Shifting meanings : The role of metaphors in collective meaning–making in complex project leadership

This paper examines the use of metaphors in collective meaning-making in the work of managers and leaders of megaprojects, drawing on interviews with thirty-three leaders of complex projects in a case study organisation responsible for the delivery of major acquisitions. Recognising the notion of both contextualised and decontextualised approaches to either seeking to elicit or project metaphors, the paper describes the various ways in practising project leaders describe their work and the synergies these metaphors have with the broader social discourse and theorisation around complexity and the language of complex adaptive systems. The paper presents our case study findings where we outline our typology of meta-metaphors describing project leaders’ multiple roles and our interpretation of the significance of these choices.

Brisbane urban growth model : an integrated infrastructure management framework for Brisbane, Australia

In recent years, local government infrastructure management practices have evolved from conventional land use planning to more wide ranging and integrated urban growth and infrastructure management approaches. The roles and responsibilities of local government are no longer simply to manage daily operational functions of a city and provide basic infrastructure. Local governments are now required to undertake economic planning, manage urban growth; be involved in major infrastructure planning; and even engage in achieving sustainable development objectives. The Brisbane Urban Growth model has proven initially successful to ensure timely and coordinated delivery of urban infrastructure. This model may be the first step for many local governments to move toward an integrated, sustainable and effective infrastructure management.

The effectiveness of supervisory boards : an exploratory study of challenges in Dutch boardrooms

Triggered by highly publicized corporate scandals, changing societal expectations and the collapse of financial markets, the roles of boards of directors have changed significantly in safeguarding the interest of shareholders and other stakeholders. Yet relatively little is known about contemporary challenges non-executive directors face and whether their boards are well-equipped for their new tasks. Based on self-assessment reports by supervisory boards, a survey and interviews with supervisory board members, this paper investigates the challenges non-executive directors face in the Netherlands, particularly after a decade of corporate governance reform. Non-executive directors’ inadequate role in scrutinizing executive directors’ performance, information asymmetries and dysfunctional working relationships between executive and non-executive directors are among the greatest challenges indicated by non-executive directors on Dutch supervisory boards. The paper discusses several implications for scholars and practitioners and provides a unique insight in boardroom dynamics (word count: 138).

Working with actors in open disclosure simulations

A key strategy in facilitating learning in Open Disclosure training is the use of hypothetical, interactive scenarios called ‘simulations’. According to Clapper (2010), the ‘advantages of using simulation are numerous and include the ability to help learners make meaning of complex tasks, while also developing critical thinking and cultural skills’. Simulation, in turn, functions largely through improvisation and role-play, in which participants ‘act out’ particular roles and characters according to a given scenario, without recourse to a script. To maximise efficacy in the Open Disclosure training context, role-play requires the specialist skills of professionally trained actors. Core capacities that professional actors bring to the training process include (among others) believability, an observable and teachable skill which underpins the western traditions of actor training; and flexibility, which pertains to the actor’s ability to vary performance strategies according to the changing dynamics of the learning situation. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Service of Queensland Health utilises professional actors as a key component of their Open Disclosure Training Program. In engaging actors in this work, it is essential that Facilitators of Open Disclosure training have a solid understanding of the acting process: what acting is; how actors work to a brief; how they improvise; and how they sustainably manage a wide range of emotional states. In the simulation context, the highly skilled actor can optimise learning outcomes by adopting or enacting – in collaboration with the Facilitator - a pedagogical function.

Delineating the practice profile of advanced practice nursing : a cross-sectional survey using the modified strong model of advanced practice

AIMS: To test a model that delineates advanced practice nursing from the practice profile of other nursing roles and titles. BACKGROUND: There is extensive literature on advanced practice reporting the importance of this level of nursing to contemporary health service and patient outcomes. Literature also reports confusion and ambiguity associated with advanced practice nursing. Several countries have regulation and delineation for the nurse practitioner, but there is less clarity in definition and service focus of other advanced practice nursing roles. DESIGN: A statewide survey. METHODS: Using the modified Strong Model of Advanced Practice Role Delineation tool, a survey was conducted in 2009 with a random sample of registered nurses/midwives from government facilities in Queensland, Australia. Analysis of variance compared total and subscale scores across groups according to grade. Linear, stepwise multiple regression analysis examined factors influencing advanced practice nursing activities across all domains. RESULTS: There were important differences according to grade in mean scores for total activities in all domains of advanced practice nursing. Nurses working in advanced practice roles (excluding nurse practitioners) performed more activities across most advanced practice domains. Regression analysis indicated that working in clinical advanced practice nursing roles with higher levels of education were strong predictors of advanced practice activities overall. CONCLUSION: Essential and appropriate use of advanced practice nurses requires clarity in defining roles and practice levels. This research delineated nursing work according to grade and level of practice, further validating the tool for the Queensland context and providing operational information for assigning innovative nursing service.

The doctrine of command responsibility in the midst of war : legal fallacy or reflection of reality

The history of war is blighted with astonishing reminders of man’s ability to cast his sense of humanity aside and inflict unspeakable harm upon one another. The ruthless bombing of Dresden, the callousness of the Nazi concentration camps and the massacre of the Tutsis are but a few of the atrocities that have haunted our past. In response to these atrocities, society has imposed an ever-increasing number of laws and rules to regulate warfare. Amongst these is the doctrine of command responsibility. The doctrine of command responsibility states that a commander is criminally liable for the crimes of his subordinates if he knew or should have known of their crimes. This paper will examine whether the doctrine is an appropriate and realistic legal standard to hold commanders accountable to or whether the doctrine is more a reflection of social sentiment and legal rhetoric. If the doctrine, and indeed the law of war in general, is unrealistic then the law cannot fulfil its purpose - that is, the prevention of atrocities. Instead of being solely a reflection of moral authority and social sentiments the law must also be a tool that guides and shapes the decisions and actions of the military through the chaotic and brutal nature of war...

Finding our way to the future : directions for a city of opportunity

This Australian case study of futures methodologies in local government explores the development and implementation of the Logan 2026 City Directions project. As an innovative approach to strategic planning, and forming the city visioning umbrella for the Strategic Planning and Performance Management Framework of Council, Logan 2026 City Directions has facilitated greater engagement with the community and represents an opportunity for Council to explore and build on the organisation's foresight capacity and to enhance internal communications within the organisation. One significant by-product has been ongoing dialogue and actions of the workshop groups in Council seeking to address such issues as climate change.

(Re)-regulating care : employing foreign carers for older persons in Taiwan

The purpose of this research was to develop a theoretical understanding of the social phenomenon of the employment of foreign carers for older Taiwanese in households. Foreign carers were introduced into Taiwan in 1992 to address the care needs of the older population. By 2012, over 200,000 foreign caregivers from Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam were providing care in households in Taiwan. There has been little research on the interactions between and experiences of family employers, foreign carers and older persons receiving care. The theoretical framework brought together symbolic interactionist concepts and the social constructionism of Berger and Luckmann. Data collection and analysis were informed by Charmaz‘s formulation of grounded theory. Two focus groups and 54 in-depth interviews with a total of 57 Indonesian and Vietnamese foreign carers, Taiwanese family employers and older persons receiving care were undertaken. The analytical findings of the research reflect the ways in which the foreign carer, older persons receiving care and family employer participants were socially situated within the research context and how their respective social realities were shaped differently by changing social structures and cultural values within a globalising context. (Re)-regulating care was generated as the core category, forming a coherent and overarching framework that integrated the three analytical dimensions of the reality of the social change, resituating roles and struggling for control. The reality of social change refers to the employment of foreign carers as a manifestation of the reshaping of the social worlds of the three groups of participants. Resituating roles reflects the processes that underpin the hierarchical positioning of participants, the resultant asymmetrical power relations and associated interactions. Struggling for control, depicts how each group employed strategies to create space and identities that would sustain a sense of self and autonomy. In the current situation of economic and social change in Taiwan the three participant groups shared a desire for control. The autonomy of the women employers was negotiated through employment of foreign carers; for the foreign carers, a pragmatic decision to work abroad became a means for personal empowerment; and the older persons receiving care regained some authority through relationships with carers.

Constructions of children's needs in informal kinship care in rural China

Kinship care is the oldest form of alternative child care in the world. Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in the number of children being placed in kinship care across Western countries. However, in contrast to rapid knowledge advances about formal kinship care, far less is known about the needs of children in informal kinship care, especially in Asian contexts. This thesis and the study upon which it is formed sought to redress this knowledge gap. Qualitative approach was adopted to explore social constructions of children in informal kinship care in rural China. Parents in China seeking work in cities have left behind around 58 million rural children, mostly with relatives and without the involvement of the state. The present study examined caregivers’ and school personnel’s understandings of these school-age children’s needs through semi-structured interviews with 23 kin caregivers and five school personnel in Shijiapu Town, Jilin Province, China. The central question that guided the whole study is: What are the needs of children in informal kinship care in rural Jilin Province, China? Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to categorise and interpret the qualitative data. Based on participants’ constructions, this study developed a need model with eight themes. They are: (1) emotional needs and mental health, (2) relationships, (3) empowerment and agency, (4) safety, (5) education, (6) basic care, (7) physical health, and (8) personal development. These needs are grounded in the Chinese context, and therefore a good understanding of Chinese culture is essential to address them. The first four needs particularly capture children’s separations from their parents, and the rest are more general, and can be applied to most Chinese children. To meet the most important need for children left behind, namely education, these caregivers determined that others needs sometimes have to be compromised. Children left behind are a vulnerable group in contemporary rural China, and their diverse needs are attended to by several groups. This study found that as children’s closest kin while their parents are away, caregivers play a vital role in salving the children’s emotional loss. Caregivers’ love and familial obligations strongly motivate them to care for these children, and sensitivity to social stigma makes them strive to show their love and care to compensate for perceived differences between these children and their peers. Caregivers’ efforts to make children happy, however, were sometimes criticised by some school personnel, who see this as spoiling. The conflicting viewpoint between caregivers and school personnel indicate their different roles and perceptions in children’s lives, and the latter influence these children in a more authoritative way. Informal kinship care has several advantages of addressing children’s needs, especially their needs for emotional bonds with family. Community-based kin networks provide children with both emotional and material support. However, these advantages sometimes are restricted by caregivers’ child rearing capacity. Having developed a model of the needs of children left behind in China, this study suggests that caregivers, school personnel and government social services work in harmony to be child-centred and meet these children’s diverse needs. The unmet needs of children left behind mainly result from unbalanced development between urban and rural China, therefore, it is imperative to enhance state policies and programs that improve wellbeing for this growing part of China’s people.

Climate change adaptation in urban systems : strategies for planning regimes

Adaptation is increasingly being viewed as a necessary response tool in respect of climate change effects. Though the subject of significant scholarly and professional attention, adaptation still continues to lag behind mitigation in the climate change discourse. However, this situation looks likely to change over the coming years due to a increasing scientific acceptance that certain climate change effects are now inevitable. The purpose of this research is to illustrate, consider and demonstrate how urban planning regimes can use some of their professional tools to develop adaptation strategies and interventions in urban systems. These tools include plan-making, development management, urban design and place-making. Urban systems contribute disproportionately to climate change and will also likely suffer considerably from the resulting effects. Moreover, the majority of the world’s population is now urbanised, suggesting that adaptation will be crucial in order to develop urban systems that are resilient to climate change effects. Informed by a reflexive, qualitative methodology, this paper offers an informed understanding and illustration of adaptation as a climate change response, its use in urban systems and some of the roles and strategies that planning may take in developing and implementing urban adaptation. It concludes that urban planning regimes can have key roles in adapting urban systems to numerous climate change effects.

Sharing news, making sense, saying thanks : patterns of talk on twitter during the Queensland floods

This paper examines the discursive aspects of Twitter communication during the floods in the summer of 2010–2011 in Queensland, Australia. Using a representative sample of communication associated with the #qldfloods hashtag on Twitter, we coded and analysed the patterns of communication. We focus on key phenomena in the use of social media in crisis communication: communal sense- making practices, the negotiation of participant roles, and digital convergence around shared events. Social media is used both as a crisis communication and emergency management tool, as well as a space for participants to engage in emotional exchanges and communication of distress.

An ecological dynamics approach to skill acquisition : implications for development of talent in sport.

This paper proposes how ecological dynamics, a theory focusing on the performer-environment relationship, provides a basis for understanding skill acquisition in sport. From this perspective, learners are conceptualized as complex, neurobiological systems in which inherent self-organisation tendencies support the emergence of adaptive behaviours under a range of interacting task and environmental constraints. Intentions, perceptions and actions are viewed as intertwined processes which underpin functional movement solutions assembled by each learner during skill acquisition. These ideas suggest that skill acquisition programmes need to sample information from the performance environment to guide behaviour in practice tasks. Skill acquisition task protocols should allow performers to use movement variability to explore and create opportunities for action, rather than constraining them to passively receiving information. This conceptualisation also needs to characterize the design of talent evaluation tests, which need to faithfully represent the perception-action relationships in the performance environment. Since the dynamic nature of changing task constraints in sports cannot be predicted over longer timescales, an implication is that talent programmes should focus on developing performance expertise in each individual, rather than over-relying on identification of expert performers at specific points in time.

Bioecological factors influencing women's alcohol consumption across the life span

Background Substantial changing trends in women’s alcohol consumption show increased proportions women drinking at risky/ high risk levels. Not confined to the younger female population, these increases are also occurring in older female age groups (aged 35 and over), posing a set of risks differing to those of their male counterparts. However, little research investigates the influences behind these changing trends. The current research examined multiple level influences (i.e. cultural, social and psychosocial on women’s drinking across a range of age groups. Methods Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with thirty-five women (aged 18-55) residing in Australia. Interview development was guided by an adaptation of Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model of Development to assess multiple areas of influences from cultural through to psychosocial (i.e. intra-individual). Each interview took approximately 1 hour to complete. Findings Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model could account for multiple-level factors impacting women’s drinking with multidirectional influences interacting across each level. Cultural influences included gender roles and national identity. Exosystem influences (e.g. infrastructure, legislation, and media) and microsystem influences (e.g. drinking context, family, partner and peer influence) were clearly identified as impacting drinking behaviours. Finally, at the psychosocial level, attitudes and expectations around the disinhibiting effects of alcohol and social facilitation emerged as key influences. Discussion The outcomes indicated the importance of these influences as women’s alcohol-related attitudes and behaviours changed across a woman’s life span and across age cohorts. Future research will build on these initial findings in order to underpin targeted interventions of the key factors influencing women’s drinking.

Targeting histone deacetylases for the treatment of disease : Epigenetics Review Series

The 'histone code' is a well-established hypothesis describing the idea that specific patterns of post-translational modifications to histones act like a molecular 'code' recognized and used by non-histone proteins to regulate specific chromatin functions. One modification, which has received significant attention, is that of histone acetylation. The enzymes that regulate this modification are described as lysine acetyltransferases or KATs, and histone deacetylases or HDACs. Due to their conserved catalytic domain HDACs have been actively targeted as a therapeutic target. The pro-inflammatory environment is increasingly being recognized as a critical element for both degenerative diseases and cancer. The present review will discuss the current knowledge surrounding the clinical potential and current development of histone deacetylases for the treatment of diseases for which a pro-inflammatory environment plays important roles, and the molecular mechanisms by which such inhibitors may play important functions in modulating the pro-inflammatory environment. © 2009 Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine/Blackwell Publishing Ltd.