Knowledge sharing in teams. There is considerable interest in understanding principles governing effective management and sharing of knowledge in organisations. Members of organisations acquire much knowledge from external sources, other staff, practice, and experience, which, if shared efficiently, makes a significant difference to performance. This project focuses on the team, the basic unit in modern organisations. Four studies are proposed to examine antecedents of knowledge sharing, the re ....Knowledge sharing in teams. There is considerable interest in understanding principles governing effective management and sharing of knowledge in organisations. Members of organisations acquire much knowledge from external sources, other staff, practice, and experience, which, if shared efficiently, makes a significant difference to performance. This project focuses on the team, the basic unit in modern organisations. Four studies are proposed to examine antecedents of knowledge sharing, the relationship between amount and type of knowledge shared and team performance, identification of different knowledge-sharing roles taken by team members, and the effect of several highly active knowledge sharers on team performance. The findings will add to the literature on communication and information exchange in organisations, and will point to strategies for implementing effective knowledge sharing practices.
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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
Determinants of Researcher Productivity and Impact Over Career Lifespan. As Australia's population is ageing at one of the fastest rates among OECD countries, it is imperative to understand the relationship between age and worker productivity. This project will develop our understanding of how age relates to productivity not only in terms of quantity but also quality of innovations produced. It will also identify personal and contextual influences on productivity. This will help identify ways of ....Determinants of Researcher Productivity and Impact Over Career Lifespan. As Australia's population is ageing at one of the fastest rates among OECD countries, it is imperative to understand the relationship between age and worker productivity. This project will develop our understanding of how age relates to productivity not only in terms of quantity but also quality of innovations produced. It will also identify personal and contextual influences on productivity. This will help identify ways of supporting productivity and participation among older workers. Additionally, this project will provide a sophisticated framework for developing cultures and work environments that are supportive of innovation, by modelling the dynamic interplay between individuals and their environments across several years.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
The role of organisational events and emotions in strategic decision-making. Australia's international competitiveness depends to a large extent on the effectiveness of its business organisations. This effectiveness depends, in turn, on the quality of top managers' decision-making. Thus, understanding the way that managers make decisions is of critical importance if we are to develop programs to improve the competitiveness of Australian business organisations. The Australian researchers involve ....The role of organisational events and emotions in strategic decision-making. Australia's international competitiveness depends to a large extent on the effectiveness of its business organisations. This effectiveness depends, in turn, on the quality of top managers' decision-making. Thus, understanding the way that managers make decisions is of critical importance if we are to develop programs to improve the competitiveness of Australian business organisations. The Australian researchers involved in this grant application have been at the forefront of the international movement to include the study of emotions in organisational research. In a series of four projects, they combine with a noted US scholar, who specialises in the study of organisational justice, to study the decision-making patterns of top managers.Read moreRead less
Improving Team Performance: The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Team Training. Increasingly organisations are searching for ways of improving team performance. Recent research shows that emotions play a central role in increasing organisational commitment and performance. In particular, the newly developed notion of emotional intelligence is promoted as a method of enhancing performance however these claims often lack empirical support. In this project, the role of emotions in team-based wor ....Improving Team Performance: The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Team Training. Increasingly organisations are searching for ways of improving team performance. Recent research shows that emotions play a central role in increasing organisational commitment and performance. In particular, the newly developed notion of emotional intelligence is promoted as a method of enhancing performance however these claims often lack empirical support. In this project, the role of emotions in team-based work settings will be examined, together with the impact of emotions on performance. The study will assess interventions designed to assist employees in public and private organisations to gain the necessary emotion-based skills to improve their performance in teams.Read moreRead less
Designing Human Resource Practices that Promote the Retention of Volunteers. This project aims to examine the effects of human resources practices on the attraction and retention of high-quality volunteers. Volunteers provide essential health and educational services to the Australian population, which makes it important for non-profit organisations to develop effective human resource practices that attract and retain the best people. However, non-profit organisations often struggle to attract a ....Designing Human Resource Practices that Promote the Retention of Volunteers. This project aims to examine the effects of human resources practices on the attraction and retention of high-quality volunteers. Volunteers provide essential health and educational services to the Australian population, which makes it important for non-profit organisations to develop effective human resource practices that attract and retain the best people. However, non-profit organisations often struggle to attract and retain a sufficient number of volunteers. This project will examine the effects of three human resource practices on the thriving and organisational attachment of volunteers using theories of motivation and retention. This knowledge is intended to help governments and non-profit organisations improve on policies and procedures to manage Australia’s volunteer workforce sustainably.Read moreRead less
Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in c ....Emotions and Employee Turnover: New Methods for Complex Dynamic Systems. This project aims to vastly improve the data-analytic capabilities of social and health researchers, while increasing knowledge about emotion dynamics and their link to employee turnover. By drawing on and advancing methods from ecology and applied physics, this project plans to investigate the role that individual emotions play in employee turnover with new quantitative methods for characterising and testing causality in complex dynamic systems. The expected outcomes include an improved capacity for researchers, managers, and policy makers to understand complex organisational, economic, and health systems. This will provide immediate societal benefits by informing the development and deployment of targeted interventions in such systems.Read moreRead less
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
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