Outcome Trust: An Experimental Validation. Scholars have studied trust from a host of disciplinary perspectives. With such a diversity of scholarship, we find both a conflict over approaches and methods as well as the inevitable differences about the fundamental nature of the concept of trust. Bhattacharya, Devinney & Pillutla develop a remarkably robust operational model of trust that is a function of two factors, the uncertainty faced by the parties to a relationship and the conjectures they ....Outcome Trust: An Experimental Validation. Scholars have studied trust from a host of disciplinary perspectives. With such a diversity of scholarship, we find both a conflict over approaches and methods as well as the inevitable differences about the fundamental nature of the concept of trust. Bhattacharya, Devinney & Pillutla develop a remarkably robust operational model of trust that is a function of two factors, the uncertainty faced by the parties to a relationship and the conjectures they form about each other's actions. We propose to test this formulation rigorously, using experimental methods, thereby allowing us to broaden our understanding of the critical concept of trust.Read moreRead less
Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. Episodic Volunteering for Non-Profits. This project seeks to improve the policy and practice of volunteer involvement in the non-profit sector. Non-profit organisations rely on volunteers, and their capacity to deliver vital community services is threatened by the decrease in long-term, continuous volunteering and increase in episodic (short-term, flexible) volunteering. The interdisciplinary project aims to use mixed methods (qualitative interviews and quantitat ....Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back. Episodic Volunteering for Non-Profits. This project seeks to improve the policy and practice of volunteer involvement in the non-profit sector. Non-profit organisations rely on volunteers, and their capacity to deliver vital community services is threatened by the decrease in long-term, continuous volunteering and increase in episodic (short-term, flexible) volunteering. The interdisciplinary project aims to use mixed methods (qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys) and multiple perspectives (volunteers and staff who manage them) to develop an episodic volunteering definition; to explore the economic and social impact of episodic volunteering, and to develop a theoretical model of volunteer retention. The findings are intended to provide an evidence base and recommendations for non-profit sector policy and practice.Read moreRead less
Flexible Expertise in Senior Executives. The prosperity of Australian society requires effective management in the face of accelerating economic, technological, social, and environmental changes. Leaders of Australian organizations must display flexibility in responding to the increasingly fluid and complex problems that confront them if they are to succeed in the global economy. An innovative model of flexible expertise that links synergisms of knowledge, self-regulatory processes, transfer and ....Flexible Expertise in Senior Executives. The prosperity of Australian society requires effective management in the face of accelerating economic, technological, social, and environmental changes. Leaders of Australian organizations must display flexibility in responding to the increasingly fluid and complex problems that confront them if they are to succeed in the global economy. An innovative model of flexible expertise that links synergisms of knowledge, self-regulatory processes, transfer and learning will be developed in studies of managers from leading Australian organizations. The results will be used to inform programs to accelerate the development of flexible expertise and leadership skills and address the current lack of human capital to fill executive leadership roles.Read moreRead less
Motivating Employee Proactivity by Redesigning the Work Context. Self-starting and innovative employees are increasingly important in today's decentralised organisations. The central question investigated in this project via a longitudinal research design is how organisations can facilitate this type of proactive behavior amongst employees. The project also investigates the nature of employee proactivity (e.g. how it differs from other behaviors), and its consequences for employee performance, i ....Motivating Employee Proactivity by Redesigning the Work Context. Self-starting and innovative employees are increasingly important in today's decentralised organisations. The central question investigated in this project via a longitudinal research design is how organisations can facilitate this type of proactive behavior amongst employees. The project also investigates the nature of employee proactivity (e.g. how it differs from other behaviors), and its consequences for employee performance, innovation, and mental health. The project is significant because it focuses on how to promote behaviors that have often been neglected in research.Read moreRead less
The Heart of Health Care: Advancing Emotional Well-being, Engagement and Performance in Hospitals. This research will improve our understanding of the drivers of effective health care delivery and will identify practical ways to improve the well-being, performance, retention and engagement of health care professionals and improve patient care, satisfaction and safety. In light of significant staffing shortages of health care professionals, the knowledge created will have substantial benefits in ....The Heart of Health Care: Advancing Emotional Well-being, Engagement and Performance in Hospitals. This research will improve our understanding of the drivers of effective health care delivery and will identify practical ways to improve the well-being, performance, retention and engagement of health care professionals and improve patient care, satisfaction and safety. In light of significant staffing shortages of health care professionals, the knowledge created will have substantial benefits in developing more effective models of quality care. In addition this research will enable health care professionals to build holistic, adaptable and multidisciplinary approaches to patient care in order to ensure a sustainable health care system for the future.Read moreRead less
Delivering Better Patient Care: Promoting Well-Being and Performance of Health Care Professionals. The research offers three broad benefits. First, given the serious challenges currently facing the Australian health care system, the research addresses a national research priority and will have significant policy implications. Second, it will improve our understanding of how to enhance health care professionals' performance and well-being, and thereby increasing staff retention, organisational ef ....Delivering Better Patient Care: Promoting Well-Being and Performance of Health Care Professionals. The research offers three broad benefits. First, given the serious challenges currently facing the Australian health care system, the research addresses a national research priority and will have significant policy implications. Second, it will improve our understanding of how to enhance health care professionals' performance and well-being, and thereby increasing staff retention, organisational effectiveness, and improving the quality and efficiency of health care delivery. Third, the knowledge generated will be a valuable input into development programs aimed at improving managerial practices within Australian health care organisations.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
Integrating between-person and within-person approaches to personality in the workplace. Personality tests are used to predict well being and productivity at work and are often used for personnel decisions within organisations in developed countries, including Australia. The treatment of personality as a fixed set of traits that produce similar responses across situations ignores human variability across situations which is needed for design of interventions to make humans happier and more effec ....Integrating between-person and within-person approaches to personality in the workplace. Personality tests are used to predict well being and productivity at work and are often used for personnel decisions within organisations in developed countries, including Australia. The treatment of personality as a fixed set of traits that produce similar responses across situations ignores human variability across situations which is needed for design of interventions to make humans happier and more effective at work. The results of tests of the integrated model of personality will be used to design interventions for the development of responses that lead to greater well being and effectiveness of managers in work settings.Read moreRead less
Understanding the learning and development of employees' emotion regulation strategies over time: rethinking the paradigm. This project investigates how new employees develop strategies for managing emotions at work. Using applied and laboratory designs, this research extends our understanding of how organisational socialisation processes influence new employees' management of emotions and identifies the levers to improve employee wellbeing, productivity and retention.
Developing employee well-being and performance through transformational leadership. This proposal contributes to the ARC priority area of strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric. A key national benefit of this research is increasing understanding of how specific leadership behaviours improve employees' well-being and performance.This research also identifies which followers are most responsive to leadership and in what contexts these behaviours are most effective. This information i ....Developing employee well-being and performance through transformational leadership. This proposal contributes to the ARC priority area of strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric. A key national benefit of this research is increasing understanding of how specific leadership behaviours improve employees' well-being and performance.This research also identifies which followers are most responsive to leadership and in what contexts these behaviours are most effective. This information is critical as it enables development of selection and training packages specifically designed to provide leaders with the skills needed to build employee well-being and performance.Read moreRead less