Developing and testing dynamic models of goal striving in approach and avoidance contexts. This project will examine how people manage competing goals, such as productivity and safety, in a dynamic environment. The results will improve understanding of human motivation and have implications for practice in military, industrial and commercial settings.
Motivating work teams: An emergence-based process model . With work teams having to undertake more critical and complex tasks, this project aims to develop and evaluate a new process model of team motivation emergence through field studies using varied samples of workers, simulation studies, and computational modelling. The project expects to generate solutions to Australia's declining work engagement by answering calls for research on how to develop team motivation. Expected outcomes include n ....Motivating work teams: An emergence-based process model . With work teams having to undertake more critical and complex tasks, this project aims to develop and evaluate a new process model of team motivation emergence through field studies using varied samples of workers, simulation studies, and computational modelling. The project expects to generate solutions to Australia's declining work engagement by answering calls for research on how to develop team motivation. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of team motivation disseminated through scholarly and practitioner-oriented publications and presentations, as well as practical team assessment and training tools made available to organisations so they can improve team performance.
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The dynamics of goal-oriented leader behaviour in action teams. Organisations increasingly rely on action teams - those that form swiftly to tackle urgent, potentially dangerous incidents that unfold rapidly in uncertain environments. Effective leadership is critical for managing teams in such dynamic situations. However, little is understood about the dynamic behaviours required of action team leaders to effectively manage goal-directed action. The project will integrate self-regulation, team l ....The dynamics of goal-oriented leader behaviour in action teams. Organisations increasingly rely on action teams - those that form swiftly to tackle urgent, potentially dangerous incidents that unfold rapidly in uncertain environments. Effective leadership is critical for managing teams in such dynamic situations. However, little is understood about the dynamic behaviours required of action team leaders to effectively manage goal-directed action. The project will integrate self-regulation, team leadership and team theories to propose when team leaders should perform various behaviours and for how long, in order to develop the team states required for effectiveness. The project will then test the model with Incident Command and Surgical teams. Results aim to uncover prescriptive guidelines for the training and management of action team leaders.Read moreRead less
Older workers & psychological contracts: A dynamic perspective. This project aims to track the trajectories of older workers’ psychological contracts that shape their give-and-take with the organisation. Little is understood about how these psychological contracts change as older workers continue to pursue work through their fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth decades of life. This project tracks older workers over intensive, repeated in-depth interviews and a large-scale longitudinal panel study. ....Older workers & psychological contracts: A dynamic perspective. This project aims to track the trajectories of older workers’ psychological contracts that shape their give-and-take with the organisation. Little is understood about how these psychological contracts change as older workers continue to pursue work through their fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth decades of life. This project tracks older workers over intensive, repeated in-depth interviews and a large-scale longitudinal panel study. The outcomes fill significant gaps in our understanding of older workers’ needs and orientation toward work, and identify the age-related changes and organisational practices that spur older workers to sustain a strong trajectory of productive participation in the workforce.Read moreRead less
How leaders integrate safety goals for employees to build adaptive safety capabilities in organisations. How can organisations maintain high levels of safety while adapting to constant technological, social, and economic change? This project will investigate how leaders align complex individual goals to develop adaptive safety capability: the capacity of organisations to successfully modify safety systems in the midst of change.
To use or not to use financial incentives for motivation and performance. For decades, compensation experts have advocated for the use of financial incentives to motivate work performance, yet organisations keep encountering performance issues caused by these incentives. Using agency, expectancy, and self-determination theory to inform a meta-analysis and a series of experiments, this research will help uncover the most important motivational mechanisms that explain how financial incentives infl ....To use or not to use financial incentives for motivation and performance. For decades, compensation experts have advocated for the use of financial incentives to motivate work performance, yet organisations keep encountering performance issues caused by these incentives. Using agency, expectancy, and self-determination theory to inform a meta-analysis and a series of experiments, this research will help uncover the most important motivational mechanisms that explain how financial incentives influence different types of performance. Given that compensation accounts for an important proportion of an organisation's operating expenses and that employee engagement is on the decline around the world, this research will provide a strong empirical basis to develop more effective compensation systems.Read moreRead less
Work Design Matters: The Dynamic Interplay of Work, Person and Context. Work design is critical for social and economic outcomes, as exemplified by the International Labour Office's 'Decent Work agenda'. This project first proposes new, long-term dynamic processes by which personality and demographics, and their interactions, shape or constrain individuals' opportunities for high quality work. Second, it considers how family, education, and workplace factors mitigate the pathways between these i ....Work Design Matters: The Dynamic Interplay of Work, Person and Context. Work design is critical for social and economic outcomes, as exemplified by the International Labour Office's 'Decent Work agenda'. This project first proposes new, long-term dynamic processes by which personality and demographics, and their interactions, shape or constrain individuals' opportunities for high quality work. Second, it considers how family, education, and workplace factors mitigate the pathways between these individual variables and work design. Finally, taking account of contemporary challenges in today's organisations, it examines how work design affects the person, including their health, performance, behaviour, and cognition. The project aims to address these questions using a unique longitudinal cohort study, the Raine Study.Read moreRead less
Assessing the determinants and consequences of safety climate in the maritime industry. This project will examine the predictors and outcomes of safety climate in the Australian maritime industry. Findings from this project will be used to improve safety policies, regulations and practices that aim to minimise the number of accidents and incidents in Australian waters.
Wise proactivity: making the right things happen in the right way. Little is known about how organisations can motivate their staff to make things happen and at the same time prevent misguided and ineffective proactivity. This project focuses on the concept of wise proactivity. The aim is to develop managers who balance interests beyond their own to make the right things happen in the right way.