Digital Commons Network^™

Testing And Self-Management Of Cognitive Load In Accounting. A Case Example Of Zimbabwe University Students, Seedwell Tanaka Muyako Sithole

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Previous research using Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has established the importance of integrating a diagram and the relevant text in instructional material. It is widely acknowledged that cognitive load theories play an important part in facilitating the structure of learning materials in physics, biology, mathematics, accounting, and other related disciplines. What has not been established is whether self-management of split attention (separated diagram and explanatory text) by learners has any effect on learning. In Zimbabwe learners have been exposed to a wide range of instructional format. However, the need to improve learning persists. The importance of students taking control of …

Can Education And Training Decision Making Be Improved Using A Risk-Management Decision-Making Framework?, Barry Horton

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Current research and literature reviews indicate that Australian organisations do not use consistent and effective decision making processes when undertaking education and training. This paper provides both context and background to underlying training decision making problems in Australia and introduces an innovative training decision making model for research and testing. The model to be tested develops a heuristic training decision making sequence based on risk management theory and is supported by the International Risk Management Standard ISO 3100:2009. The application of risk management logic to training decisions enables the development and testing of a unique decision making sequence that ranks …

The Australian Corporate Closet, Why It’S Still So Full: Investigating The Relationship Between Sexual Orientation (Disclosure And Concealment) And Heterosexism And How This Affects Glbt Employee Well-Being, Ian Smith

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

There is minimal research on the effects of ‘outness’ (sexual orientation disclosure) on the work experiences of GLBT employees. Few international empirically sound studies from the literature have compared the variable of outness, its effect on workplace heterosexism, and job satisfaction. To date, no Australian studies have compared the variables of workplace heterosexism, the psychological well-being of GLBT employees and their general life and job satisfaction. Due to the stigmatised status of sexual minority members in our society, GLBT employees hold varied attitudes and value systems regarding their sexual identity. Evidence suggests that GLBT employees apply sexual identity management strategies …

The Role Of Alignment Between Corporate It And Sbu It In Creating Sbu Agility, Magno Queiroz

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Information technology (IT) is considered to be an important enabler of organizational agility. Yet, managers continue to speak of their frustration with IT-based rigidities that hinder responsiveness to market threats and opportunities. This implies that the IT function is not always aligned to the aims of an agile business. Prior research has not investigated this issue in multi-business organizations where strategic business units (SBUs) compete across distinct market segments. To establish synergy across the organization, management defines a corporate IT platform to be shared by SBUs. In contrast, each SBU defines its own IT portfolio to increase local flexibility. This …

The Influence Of National Culture On Third Party Logistics Outsourcing: An Asia-Pacific Focus, Stephanie Krishnan, Ciorstan Smark, Matthew Pepper

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

This work aims to contribute to the theory with regards to the effects of national cultural influence on the decision-making and implementation process of logistics outsourcing within multi-national corporations in the Asia-Pacific region. By attempting to investigate one of the areas where relationships fail, this paper aims to identify where organisations utilising 3PL services can gain insight into the effect of culture on success in company relationships, and be able to use this to gain a competitive advantage through outsourcing relationships.

Application Of An Input-Output Econometric Model To Investigate The Illawarra Economy, Ashkan Masouman

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

There are a number of tools that regional analysts apply to analyse and forecast the economy of a region. Two of the most commonly used tools are input-output (IO) modelling and econometric modelling. However, the standalone IO models are static and have restrictive assumptions of constant returns to scale. On the other hand, the econometric models lack the detailed sectoral disaggregation of IO models. As a result the integrated econometric input-output (EC-IO) modelling attempts to consider the timeline of the economy through time series in order to provide a more accurate picture of the dynamic characteristics of structural changes in …

Nsw Public-Hospital Dietitians And Their Workplace: True Love Or A Marriage Of Convenience?, Marianna Milosavljevic

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

This study examines how NSW public-hospital dietitians are affected by their workplace. Hospitals have undergone rapid changes over the last 50 years and 43% of the dietetic workforce is located within this environment. Three different approaches were used to examine this topic: a direct overt observational study; a cross-sectional NSW wide survey; and in-depth interviews. The major findings were: the majority of tasks undertaken by the hospital dietitian occurred away from the patient; there were low to moderate levels of burnout experienced by dietitians, but level or years of experience and the type of hospital affected burnout levels. Dietitians sought …

Can Education And Training Decision Makiing Be Improved Using A Risk Management Decision Making Framework?, Barry Horton

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Current research and literature reviews indicate that Australian organisations do not use consistent and effective decision making processes when undertaking education and training. This paper provides both context and background to underlying training decision making problems in Australia and introduces an innovative training decision making model for research and testing. The model to be tested develops a heuristic training decision making sequence based on risk management theory and is supported by the International Risk Management Standard ISO 3100:2009. The application of risk management logic to training decisions enables the development and testing of a unique decision making sequence that ranks …

Accounting For Carbon In Australia – How Does A Cfo Choose The Most Appropriate Accounting Approach?, Ron Bryant

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Today’s CFOs are involved in strategy determination and implementation together with their traditional role of reporting and compliance. A factor in the complexity of the CFOs role has been the increase in accounting regulation through standard development as a response to corporate governance challenges over the past 30 years. There has been little research into the choices made by CFOs in accounting methods, especially in the Australian environment. The focus of this paper is to highlight the opportunity to research an accounting area where there is currently much debate and issues around the choice of accounting method and disclosure. This …

Coaching For Targeted Intentional Personality Change, Lesley Sue Martin

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Intentional targeted personality change is a relatively unexplored research area. Related literature, however, suggests that personality change is likely to be both feasible and desirable in a coaching context, in clients without major psychopathology. This study examines the effects of a 10 week personality change coaching program. Participants were randomly assigned to a personality change coaching group (n=26) or a waitlist control group (n=26). One to one weekly coaching was conducted by psychologists, trained in personality change coaching processes, using resources developed in a previous phase of this research. Participation in the personality coaching program was associated with significant change …

Management Skills For Professionals - Are They Required? A Case Study On The Needs Of Engineering Undergraduate Students, Peter Childs, Peter Gibson

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

This paper examines issues around graduate professional engineers and their management skills, questioning whether they are adequate for the modern engineering workplace and goes on the consider the notion that for the majority of engineers, the development of managerial skills will be essential and cannot be 'picked up on the job'. Engineers increasingly need to understand the interactions between design, quality, sustainability, product planning, and organisation, management of people, team work and finance. This paper considers the need to develop managerial skills and will discuss the development of a survey to be carried out in an Australian context. The survey …

Methodologies Of Soliciting Customer Feedback In Clinical Hospital Staff: Understanding What Information To Obtain In Order To Improve Customer Service, Louise Wienholt

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Health services are undergoing a period of dynamic change in the Australian health market, especially relating to creating and maintaining strong relationships between healthcare facilities such as hospitals and the clinicians who utalise and refer patients to their services. This paper outlines a number of key considerations of behavioural determinants of customer relationship management (CRM) including attitude to serve, understanding expectations, quality perceptions, reliability, communication, customisation, recognition, ensuring agreements are met, satisfaction audit and retention. Understanding these factors and how to implement them into healthcare practice will not only identify areas of improvement but also enable organisations to set achievable …

The Relationship Of Employee Engagement And Wellbeing To Organisational And Student Outcomes, Aylin Dulagil

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Employee engagement is gaining popularity in management literature; however it remains an unclear and somewhat undifferentiated psychological construct. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) outlines three basic psychological needs that enhance human flourishing and offers a potentially comprehensive framework for defining and predicting employee engagement. This paper reviews the literature surrounding employee engagement, well-being and perceived autonomy support in organisations. In doing so, this paper examines existing theories of employee engagement. Finally, this paper reviews the literature regarding the relationship between employee engagement and organisational outcomes.

Exploring Positive Organisational Development In An Educational Organisation, Aylin Dulagil

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

The objective of this paper is to explore different concepts that relate to facilitating and measuring positive organisational development. It examines the positive change approach of appreciative inquiry, in order to explore the impact of appreciative inquiry on enhancing employee self-determination. Self-determination has been found to increase well-being and has been proposed as a framework for researching employee engagement. The proposed studies will examine this framework further, specifically in relation to autonomy support. Coaching is proposed as another important intervention for enhancing self-determination and employee engagement and also as a complementary technique for embedding and enhancing organisational change. The proposed …

Understanding Student Choice Criteria For Selecting An Indonesian Public University: A Conjoint Analysis Approach, Andriani Kusumawati

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

This research aims to estimate the relative importance the students attach to the factors that influence them to select an Indonesian public university and determine whether there are groups of students for whom different factors were more important. The data was examined using conjoint analysis approach, a widely accepted method for evaluating multiattribute alternatives in marketing. Findings indicate that high school leavers in developing markets, view advice from family, friends, and/or teachers, reputation, and job prospect as the most important factors for selecting a public university. However, two different preference-based segments of prospective students were identified from cluster analysis, and …

The Impact Of Social Capital And Policy Inducement On Collective Efficiency In Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises (Msmes) Cluster, Mukhammad K. Mawardi

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Cluster or industrial district has long been acknowledged as firm’s, in particularly micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) mechanism to cope their limitation. Two compelling theories explaining this phenomenon are cluster and industrial district. Although, root on common theoretical ground, these theories focus on different unit analysis and emerges in different context. This paper propose the conceptual model in interpreting the dynamics of cluster and how social capital and cluster policy impact on the collective efficiency of cluster. To support the model, literatures explaining the collective efficiency, social capital and cluster policy are critically reviewed. This paper is ended by …

Sustainable Supply And Supply Chain Mapping - Sri Lankan Tea Supply Chain, Pradeepa Jayaratne

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Sustainable supply chain management has gained great attention during last few decades. Companies not only need to deliver quality products, but also have to comply with environmental, economical, ethical and social aspects. This has created more challenges for managing the supply chain. Increased customer awareness in sustainability concepts has further increased the challenges. In supply chain management sustainable supply is an important part of any business and it is critical for the success of the whole supply chain. With identifying the importance in these concepts; this paper tries to define the sustainable supply and supply chain mapping using a theoretical …

The Challenges Of Corporate Performance Measurement, Scott Reed-Stephenson

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Corporate performance measurement has evolved in recent decades to encompass perspectives beyond historical financial information provided by accounting systems. Despite this evolution, organisations still face challenges in selecting performance measures and combining them into a performance measurement system to guide the implementation of strategy and improve corporate performance. This paper reviews the literature related to corporate performance measurement to highlight the challenges facing organisations in measuring and managing corporate performance.

Corporate Drumming, Flow And Team Efficacy: The Use Of Drum Circles And Shared Flow Experiences To Promote Team Efficacy, Barry Hemmings

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Drum circles are popular examples of team building activities and there are aspects of the drumming activity that mark them as being somewhat different to other offerings in this space. Particularly, the activity is often completed without speech or interaction of a hierarchical nature. Also, this apparently simple activity appears to produce strong positive emotions in participants. Of interest in this research is that the drumming activity appears to include many of the attributes and conditions that support the presence of the psychological concept of flow. Also, the activity is group based so there may be the presence of a …

Impact Of Authentic Leadership & Virtuousness On Organisational Performance During A Downsizing Exercise, Abby Rodwell

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Leadership plays a pivotal role in organisational performance which is often highlighted during periods of crisis (Cameron & Lavine, 2006). Typically in today’s modern society it is the board of directors who are given the role of leading organisations, the board operates by making decisions collectively in an environment where the relationship between the Chairperson of the board and the CEO has a cascade effect throughout the organisation (Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2010).

This paper will examine the impact authentic leadership & virtuousness has on organisational performance during a downsizing exercise, highlighting the cascade effect of the Chairperson’s role …

Adding Value To Public Hospital Pathology: Identifying Key Attributes That Requestors Associate With Quality, Louise Wienholt

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Pathology services are undergoing a period of dynamic change in the Australian health market. As costs continue to be rationalised there has been an increasing requirement to quantitate and improve the clinical utility and value of pathology in healthcare delivery.

Through literature review we propose a model to assess how this service is valued by clinicians and the dimensions that influence the perception of quality.

A number of concepts of service delivery are examined and their applicability to pathology service discussed. From these 14 dimensions are proposed as having substantial influence on the perception of the quality of pathology services …

The Aging Workforce: How Can Australian Universities Address Future Workforce Challenges?, Susan Loomes

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Australia is facing major demographic challenges fueled by low workforce participation rates and the exit of the baby boomers from the workforce. Universities are likely to face the same workforce challenges. However, they may be in a better position than mainstream businesses due to the skills required, the flexibility of hours, and the nature and casualization of the workforce. This opens the door to attract retiring business professionals and aiding them to transition into academic teaching roles. For this non-traditional recruitment pathway to succeed, universities will need to ensure they have appropriate education and training pathways, mentoring along with peer …

Determining Demographic Influences On Managers’ Use Of Accommodation Or Non-Accommodation In Communication With Direct Reports In Australian Workplaces, Ann Rogerson

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

This paper outlines a project aiming to identify demographic influences that influence communication by managers with their direct reports in Australian workplaces. A study has been designed using an online survey to identify whether and in what circumstances managers, in the interests of effective communication at work, consciously alter modifiers such as words, tone and the pace of speech, to accommodate perceived demographic differences. The study will also capture whether and in what circumstances managers decide not to alter the way they communicate when demographic differences are perceived. Managers’ responses rating the outcome of a critical interpersonal communication event will …

A Position Paper On What Is Supply, Fadi Kotob

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Supply is an important topic which needs to be well researched for providing insight about the needed characteristics for fulfilling the customer supply needs. Researched topics are mainly focused on specific features of supply. This research is aimed at providing an understanding of the supply characteristics relevant to the 21st century. In order to understand these characteristics, journal articles relevant to the topic were researched and analysed. The study resulted in collating a supply definition which incorporates the various views of supply identified in the research. The study also proposed a hypothetical supply model that supports the new definition. Having …

Sustainable Supply, Mark Edwards

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Supply chain management literature has a variety of definitions to describe supply chain management. The original discussion was to discuss what is sustainable supply. Yet, it became apparent that this was not possible. In order to understand sustainable supply you first need to know what do we mean by supply. The focus of this paper to be relevant needed to focus its research to find the foundation of the definition of supply. To define supply, a literature review was conducted. The reviews specific attention focussed on finding a definition for supply from the various supply chain and supply chain management …

Position Paper ‐ Supply, Carol Mcgowan

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Over the last 30 years there has been considerable research associated with supply related matters. Even though there has been much activity no one has attempted to define and explore ‘supply’ in and of itself. By observation it would appear that approximately 80% of the activities relates to ‘Supply Chain’ and its various constructs some of the more significant ones being: Supply Chain Management (SCM), Supply Chain Performance (SCP), Supply Chain Orientation (SCO) and Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). This paper will outline what has been found in the extant literature. It highlights the fact that consensus of definitions has …

Sexual Orientation Disclosure, Concealment And The Effects Of Heterosexism, Ian Smith

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

There is minimal research on the effects of ‘outness’ (sexual orientation disclosure) on the work experiences of GLBT employees. Few empirically sound studies from the literature have compared the variable of outness, its effect on workplace heterosexism, the psychological well-being of GLBT employees and their general life and job satisfaction. Due to the stigmatized status of sexual minority members in our society, GLBT employees hold varied attitudes and value systems regarding their sexual identity. Evidence suggests that GLBT employees apply sexual identity management strategies to manage the stress involved in disclosing ones sexual orientation. The present study intends to examine …

The Role Of Strengths In Managing Midlife Career Transition For Corporate Professionals, Yu Dan Shi

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Trends within midlife professionals suggest individuals are increasingly seeking opportunities for career transitions, and are often searching for careers that are more intrinsically motivated, individually meaningful and self-congruent. However, developmental transitions are by their very nature stressful. This research seeks to understand how corporate professionals between the ages of 35-54 successfully manage midlife career transition amidst the stress and anxiety associated with that transition. The traditional approach to career transition is based on a competence framework either focusing on retraining or applying transferrable skills. This approach might not be most appropriate for corporate professionals over the age of 35. A …

Presenteeism In Australian Workforce; Impact Of Psychological Flexibility And Autonomous Motivation, Nazanin Najafi

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

Modern workplaces should acquire proper strategies in reacting effectively to presenteeism and its associated cost of productivity loss in order to increase firm’s profitability. Presenteeism is defined as being present at work but unable to be fully engaged with the work environment. In fact, presenteeism is employees’ inappropriate copying strategies to deal with stress and exhaustion caused by unfavourable work environment and fear of job or payment loss (Cooper, 1999 & Lack, 2011).

Wide range of physiological, financial, social, and medical studies has been conducted in relation to presenteeism in the workplace; however, escalating costs of presenteeism is still one …

Psychological Flexibility As A Mechanism Of Change In The Quality Of Care In Health Care Settings: A Brief Review Of Literature And Study Outline, Gorjana Brkic

Business HDR Student Conference 2010-13

The construct of psychological flexibility is emerging as a relevant variable for study of individual and organisational outcomes. This paper provides a brief review of literature on the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ACT in the workplace settings and outlines elements of the current study, seeking to investigate psychological flexibility as a change mechanism in the quality of care in health settings. It is hypothesised that enhancing psychological flexibility will have a positive effect on the quality of care delivered and the capacity of employees to cope with the demands of the workplace as evidenced in better psychological health …