Making Ethics Work: A New Model for Business and Professional Ethics. Sound ethical practice is fundamental to long-term business success and organizational well-being. In developing a new framework for applied ethics, this project will enhance understanding of the foundations of ethics in business, organizational and professional contexts, as well as enabling improved ethical practice in those domains. As such, it will assist in strengthening Australia's social and cultural fabric, in promoting ....Making Ethics Work: A New Model for Business and Professional Ethics. Sound ethical practice is fundamental to long-term business success and organizational well-being. In developing a new framework for applied ethics, this project will enhance understanding of the foundations of ethics in business, organizational and professional contexts, as well as enabling improved ethical practice in those domains. As such, it will assist in strengthening Australia's social and cultural fabric, in promoting the conditions that facilitate innovation and creativity, in developing leadership capacities and organisational structures, and in supporting Australian business and industry through promoting greater ethical awareness and expertise.Read moreRead less
Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism. This project aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment. Expecte ....Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism. This project aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment. Expected outcomes include practical recommendations for improved professional standards, a rigorous building integrity system and a means for measuring change. Anticipated benefits include greater awareness by professions, trades and regulators of their role in in delivering the public goods of a trustworthy construction industry.Read moreRead less
Integrity, Leadership and Behaviour in Organisations. Recent high profile corporate scandals such as those involving Enron and HIH have demonstrated how important it is for leaders and managers to demonstrate integrity in their actions. However, organisational researchers have struggled to reach agreement on the qualities of character and behaviour that define integrity. This work draws on work in the philosophical tradition to propose a new multidimensional conceptualisation of leader integri ....Integrity, Leadership and Behaviour in Organisations. Recent high profile corporate scandals such as those involving Enron and HIH have demonstrated how important it is for leaders and managers to demonstrate integrity in their actions. However, organisational researchers have struggled to reach agreement on the qualities of character and behaviour that define integrity. This work draws on work in the philosophical tradition to propose a new multidimensional conceptualisation of leader integrity and to develop a measurement instrument for its assessment. The influence of leader integrity on the behaviour of leaders and subordinates is explored, and a program aimed at enhancing integrity in organisational leadership developed and trialled.Read moreRead less
The expanding disciplinary scope of research ethics committees: an inquiry into need and resistance. Do ethics committees have a bias toward quantitative and clinical research methods? Using a mixed methods approach, this project will systematically study whether ethics committees fail to understand and evaluate qualitative research methods; and whether some disciplines are more resistant to ethics review than others.
Attitudes towards Sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Era: The First Comprehensive Analysis, in two volumes. This study investigates how attitudes towards sexuality in early Judaism and Christianity developed and were shaped in interaction with Hellenistic culture which largely dominated their world. It thus provides information about a formative period which continues to influence attitudes towards sexuality in many communities today and will provide them with a ....Attitudes towards Sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Era: The First Comprehensive Analysis, in two volumes. This study investigates how attitudes towards sexuality in early Judaism and Christianity developed and were shaped in interaction with Hellenistic culture which largely dominated their world. It thus provides information about a formative period which continues to influence attitudes towards sexuality in many communities today and will provide them with a useful resource in the form of a two volume work and an abridged account for exploring where such attitudes came from and how they developed.Read moreRead less
Judgment, responsibility, and the life-world: The phenomenological critique of formalism. This project will contribute to building Australia's capacity in the area of phenomenology and connecting Australian researchers into the international network of phenomenology research. More generally the project will contribute to the broader community debate that is currently emerging around issues of the role and limits of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, but also knowledge as it arises and i ....Judgment, responsibility, and the life-world: The phenomenological critique of formalism. This project will contribute to building Australia's capacity in the area of phenomenology and connecting Australian researchers into the international network of phenomenology research. More generally the project will contribute to the broader community debate that is currently emerging around issues of the role and limits of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge, but also knowledge as it arises and is applied in organisational and social contexts, and the importance of responsibility and judgment even in areas of technical problem-solving and decision-making. In this latter respect, the project is likely to have an impact in more directly applied areas such as policy formation and decision-making across many different areas.Read moreRead less
Collective Obligations and Partial Compliance. The research I would conduct is likely to have considerable impact at both the national and international level. Despite the lack of systematic work on the issues my projects tackles, the importance of those issues is now widely recognized, and so work on them is likely to be widely noted and discussed. In addition, the research will have important implications for a number of the most prominent issues in contemporary life in Australia, such as issu ....Collective Obligations and Partial Compliance. The research I would conduct is likely to have considerable impact at both the national and international level. Despite the lack of systematic work on the issues my projects tackles, the importance of those issues is now widely recognized, and so work on them is likely to be widely noted and discussed. In addition, the research will have important implications for a number of the most prominent issues in contemporary life in Australia, such as issues concerning refugees, relations with the aboriginal community, and international aid.Read moreRead less
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
Protecting while they prosper? Organisational responses to whistleblowing. This project aims to examine the adequacy of organisational responses to whistleblowing (employee reporting of wrongdoing). So far, research into public-interest whistleblowing has revealed much about the incidence, significance and experience of whistleblowers. This project now extends the research to the other side of the issue — the organisations. By comparing employee and managerial experience in multiple public and p ....Protecting while they prosper? Organisational responses to whistleblowing. This project aims to examine the adequacy of organisational responses to whistleblowing (employee reporting of wrongdoing). So far, research into public-interest whistleblowing has revealed much about the incidence, significance and experience of whistleblowers. This project now extends the research to the other side of the issue — the organisations. By comparing employee and managerial experience in multiple public and private sector organisations in Australia and New Zealand, the project intends to identify the factors that influence good and bad responses across a range of institutions; provide a clearer basis for reform of policies, procedures and law; and set benchmarks for comparative research worldwide.Read moreRead less
Police Leadership in the 21st Century: Redesigning Roles and Practices. Leaders are seen as exemplifying and guiding the climate of police organisations. This project will deliver comprehensive, comparative, and internationally relevant empirical data on the relationship between leaders' approach and behaviours and the achievement of outcomes in these significant, high profile public sector organisations. On this foundation the project will make recommendations on innovative institutional desi ....Police Leadership in the 21st Century: Redesigning Roles and Practices. Leaders are seen as exemplifying and guiding the climate of police organisations. This project will deliver comprehensive, comparative, and internationally relevant empirical data on the relationship between leaders' approach and behaviours and the achievement of outcomes in these significant, high profile public sector organisations. On this foundation the project will make recommendations on innovative institutional design to achieve ethical, effective and efficient policing capable of withstanding the challenges of the future. This will increase public confidence in policing, resulting in safer communities and improved crime control. This proposal contributes to the ARC research priority of Safeguarding Australia.Read moreRead less