Leaders as motivators: A test of an integrated theory of leadership and motivation to predict employees' psychological health and productivity. The effectiveness of organisations depends upon the quality of its leaders. While research shows that certain leader behaviours can enhance psychological heath (increase job satisfaction, reduce stress) and productivity, it is not clear why this occurs. This proposal addresses this shortcoming by developing a model of leadership that places motivation ....Leaders as motivators: A test of an integrated theory of leadership and motivation to predict employees' psychological health and productivity. The effectiveness of organisations depends upon the quality of its leaders. While research shows that certain leader behaviours can enhance psychological heath (increase job satisfaction, reduce stress) and productivity, it is not clear why this occurs. This proposal addresses this shortcoming by developing a model of leadership that places motivation as a core process between the leader's behaviour and outcomes. The model is tested across new innovative research designs, including a study that tests an intervention to improve leadership effectiveness. The research will increase the understanding of workplace leadership and provide practical ways to improve employees' psychological health and productivity.Read moreRead less
State-contingent analysis of productivity, efficiency and innovation. Productivity growth is a fundamental precondition for sustainable improvements in living standards. The main drivers of productivity growth are technological innovation and improvements in the efficiency of resource use. Effective public policy in this area requires identification of these components. This project develops improved productivity measurement methods that are applicable in economic environments characterised b ....State-contingent analysis of productivity, efficiency and innovation. Productivity growth is a fundamental precondition for sustainable improvements in living standards. The main drivers of productivity growth are technological innovation and improvements in the efficiency of resource use. Effective public policy in this area requires identification of these components. This project develops improved productivity measurement methods that are applicable in economic environments characterised by production and/or demand uncertainty. The methods will be used to obtain improved estimates of rates of innovation and changes in the relative efficiency of selected Australian enterprises. The empirical results will inform National Competition Policy and the process of microeconomic reform.Read moreRead less
Multiscale stochastic modelling of genetic regulatory mechanisms. The completion of the human genome marked the culmination of one hundred years of reductionist science in cell biology. Although further bioinformatics analysis will continue, the focus is shifting towards synthesis and understanding how the regulatory genetic components dynamically interact to form functional phenotypes. The key to this is the understanding of the roles of stochasticity in cellular processes. This project will ex ....Multiscale stochastic modelling of genetic regulatory mechanisms. The completion of the human genome marked the culmination of one hundred years of reductionist science in cell biology. Although further bioinformatics analysis will continue, the focus is shifting towards synthesis and understanding how the regulatory genetic components dynamically interact to form functional phenotypes. The key to this is the understanding of the roles of stochasticity in cellular processes. This project will explore these roles and will develop an integrated complex systems modelling, simulation and visualisation framework for exploring and validating genetic regulatory models in general. This will be used on an exemplar application for understanding the induction process in lambda phage.Read moreRead less
ARC/NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well. The ARC Research Network on Ageing Well will support interdisciplinary, high quality research in the National Research Priority Goal of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. It will build scale and focus on Australia's notable research strengths in ageing, promote collaborative research, and extend research capacities. The Network will link outstanding researchers from many disciplines, nurture developing researchers, relate social to health researchers, s ....ARC/NHMRC Research Network in Ageing Well. The ARC Research Network on Ageing Well will support interdisciplinary, high quality research in the National Research Priority Goal of Ageing Well, Ageing Productively. It will build scale and focus on Australia's notable research strengths in ageing, promote collaborative research, and extend research capacities. The Network will link outstanding researchers from many disciplines, nurture developing researchers, relate social to health researchers, strengthen international collaboration, and involve and inform end-point users. It will foster research which responds to the aspirations and needs of older Australians and informs action that can improve experiences of individual and population ageing.Read moreRead less
Integrating Database Technologies and Visual Analysis in Bioinformatics for Genome Data. Solving modern biological problems, especially those involving genome data, requires advanced computational and analytical methods. The huge quantities of data and escalating demands of modern biological research increasingly require the sophistication and power of object-relational database tools. Key techniques include relational data management, pattern recognition, data mining and visualization of biolog ....Integrating Database Technologies and Visual Analysis in Bioinformatics for Genome Data. Solving modern biological problems, especially those involving genome data, requires advanced computational and analytical methods. The huge quantities of data and escalating demands of modern biological research increasingly require the sophistication and power of object-relational database tools. Key techniques include relational data management, pattern recognition, data mining and visualization of biological data. In this project we will develop efficient methodologies and data structures for gathering high-quality approximations of full genomic information, and will use these innovations as the foundation to develop novel, practical tools for clustering and visualization in genomic data mining and database management.
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InformationTechnology (IT) Audit Methodologies in the Australian Public Sector: Addressing Mandatory Requirements of International Standards. The primary benefit occurs in relation to National Research Priority 3: Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, notably Priority Goal 'Smart Information Use', as it will enable more sophisticated and accurate assessments of current IT audit methodologies. In turn, these improvements will enable more effective IT audits by ....InformationTechnology (IT) Audit Methodologies in the Australian Public Sector: Addressing Mandatory Requirements of International Standards. The primary benefit occurs in relation to National Research Priority 3: Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, notably Priority Goal 'Smart Information Use', as it will enable more sophisticated and accurate assessments of current IT audit methodologies. In turn, these improvements will enable more effective IT audits by government audit offices in Australia, bringing reduced risk and increased efficiency to organisations subject to audit, as well as increasing conformance with the new accounting and auditing standards. Furthermore, all Australian citizens, (the indirect clients of public sector audit services), will benefit from well-managed program-delivery systems.Read moreRead less
Ontologically-based Evaluation, Comparison and Engineering of Integrated Process Modelling Techniques. Integrated process modelling techniques such as UML and ARIS form the conceptual platform for many management and IT projects. Though most IS development tools contain these techniques, anecdotal evidence indicates many shortcomings. This project uses a well-established theory developed in philosophy and applied in information systems domains for the evaluation of these techniques. The expec ....Ontologically-based Evaluation, Comparison and Engineering of Integrated Process Modelling Techniques. Integrated process modelling techniques such as UML and ARIS form the conceptual platform for many management and IT projects. Though most IS development tools contain these techniques, anecdotal evidence indicates many shortcomings. This project uses a well-established theory developed in philosophy and applied in information systems domains for the evaluation of these techniques. The expected outcomes are evaluations of ARIS and UML. Thus, this project contributes to the development of two of the most popular modelling techniques. Based on the theory used and the results of an international empirical study, suggestions for the further development of these techniques will be derived.Read moreRead less
Using Measures of Ontological Distance to Evaluate the Alignment between Organizational Needs and Enterprise Systems Capabilities. Enterprise Systems (ES) packages are software systems that seek to provide their organizational users with comprehensive, integrated support for their information system needs. The development, implementation, operation, support, maintenance, and upgrade of enterprise systems is a multi-billion dollar industry. This industry is replete with stories of high-cost pro ....Using Measures of Ontological Distance to Evaluate the Alignment between Organizational Needs and Enterprise Systems Capabilities. Enterprise Systems (ES) packages are software systems that seek to provide their organizational users with comprehensive, integrated support for their information system needs. The development, implementation, operation, support, maintenance, and upgrade of enterprise systems is a multi-billion dollar industry. This industry is replete with stories of high-cost problems. Many of these problems arise because the business models embedded within ES packages do not align with the needs of their users. This project develops a methodology and measures to evaluate how well the business models embedded in an ES package meet user needs.Read moreRead less
The Sustainability of Agricultural Productivity Growth in a Changing Environment: An International Perspective. The project could provide significant benefits to Australia. Australia is a dry continent with fragile natural resources, and a significant exporter of agricultural products. A sound knowledge of the factors that affect agricultural sustainability is crucial. Perhaps more importantly, identifying economic, environmental, social, institutional and political factors that influence agric ....The Sustainability of Agricultural Productivity Growth in a Changing Environment: An International Perspective. The project could provide significant benefits to Australia. Australia is a dry continent with fragile natural resources, and a significant exporter of agricultural products. A sound knowledge of the factors that affect agricultural sustainability is crucial. Perhaps more importantly, identifying economic, environmental, social, institutional and political factors that influence agricultural sustainability in other countries, especially our Asian neighbours, will provide valuable information to relevant agencies in designing strategies aimed at ensuring that these countries are stable and well fed. This is of particular importance in the current climate, with growing influences of terrorist organisations in places where poverty exists.Read moreRead less
The contribution of project leader behaviours to processes and outcomes in large scale projects. In Australia and worldwide, large-scale projects often fail to meet quality, time or budget goals resulting in outcome dissatisfaction, and large time and cost project overruns. This project focuses on achieving better project processes and leadership practice, especially in large-scale, complicated projects, in order to improve project success (as viewed by multiple stakeholders) and the performance ....The contribution of project leader behaviours to processes and outcomes in large scale projects. In Australia and worldwide, large-scale projects often fail to meet quality, time or budget goals resulting in outcome dissatisfaction, and large time and cost project overruns. This project focuses on achieving better project processes and leadership practice, especially in large-scale, complicated projects, in order to improve project success (as viewed by multiple stakeholders) and the performance, health and wellbeing of staff. We focus on Australian defence acquisition projects in order to test our theoretical model. This project will provide a major contribution to Australian defence capability by identifying how project leaders can improve project operations and deliver successful innovative acquisition products on time and budget.Read moreRead less