Research Students
Some Current Work and Organisational Studies PhD Students
| Research Student | Thesis Topic | Thesis Description |
|---|---|---|
An Analysis of the Contribution of Corporate Real Estate to Strategic Competitive Advantage |
As the field of strategic management has developed and expanded over the past few decades, the role of organisational resources as contributors to - or enablers of - competitive advantage has received much attention in management literature. In particular, the attention given to strategic human resource management and information technology strategy as contributors to value has seen these aspects move into the mainstream in organisational behaviour theory and practice. However, the potential for corporate real estate (CRE) resources to support value creation in organisations has not been given much attention. Business managers and industry practitioners tend to focus on CRE cost reduction and as a result, business-relevant outcomes from organisations' occupation of CRE are poorly understood. This research aims to address the knowledge gap through a holistic examination of CRE as a resource that combines in complex ways with other organisational resources to produce positive (or in some cases perhaps negative) outcomes. In particular, it aims to identify and analyse the positive (or negative) contribution CRE makes to competitive advantage. The focus is on highly knowledge-dependent organisations, and within this context top- and premium mid-tier law firms have been selected for the case studies. Associate Professor John Shields is supervising this project. |
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Changing shades of blue reshape police organisational culture |
The overall aim of the study is to find out how the changing ethnic diversity in New Zealand Police (through targeted recruitment of Maori, Pacific Island Peoples and Asian) impacts on and shapes organisational culture. The study aims to identify what diversity management policies are implemented and practised and what adaptations the organisation makes in recognising the contribution of this changing ethnic mix to the organisation and to the community. Associate Professor Suzanne Jamieson and Dr Dimitria Groutsis are supervising this project. |
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Organisational determinants of work-family arrangements in South African organizations. |
South Africa has unique work-family concerns, and, with increasing HIV/AIDS prevalence rates, its citizens face an enormous burden of care - concerns with this area of care (as opposed to elder care or child care) raise new and interesting perspectives that adds to the research undertaken in developed nations. This project involves the collection of primary data on work-family arrangements in South African organizations through a large scale survey of small and large organizations in different sectors in South Africa. The data analysis will provide both descriptive statistical information on the nature and spread of work-family practices that may have implications from a public policy perspective, but will also be utilized to test the propositions that have been developed to establish which organizational characteristics act as predictors of work-family arrangements in South African. Dr Marian Baird and Dr Diane van den Broek are supervising this project. |
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Managing expatriate recruitment and selection - rhetorics and realities |
This study explores variations between the organisational rhetoric and practice of expatriate recruitment and selection. It examines how expatriate recruitment and selection policies and practices are created, developed and justified; how managers and employees interpret and enact these policies and practices; and how variations between organisational rhetoric and practice can be explained. Associate Professor Susan Mcgrath-Champ and Professor Christopher Wright are supervising this project. |
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Insolvency, Employee Rights and Employee Buyouts |
Insolvency is an intractable issue. In Australia the priority rights of employees in a winding up are comparatively advantageous by international standards. However what has been a continuing problem is the inability or unwillingness of government to legislate to better protect employee entitlements. The present insolvency policy has been criticised as reactive and costly. The central aim of this research project is to examine the use of the employee buyout as a potential strategy, used with trade union support, to save jobs and entitlements in a failing company. A further aim is to examine whether this strategy extends trade union influence and membership as well as the industrial and political power of working people. Associate Professor Bradon Ellem and Dr Rae Cooper are supervising this project. |
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Equity and Efficiency In the Labour Market: The Origins and Effects of the Public Employment Service in Australia |
This PhD thesis examines and builds on a new area of industrial relations thinking, that is, state intervention in the labour market through labour market intermediaries: public employment services. In particular, it seeks to examine the origins and effects of two labour market intermediaries: NSW State Labour Bureau 1888-1945 and the Commonwealth Employment Service 1946 -1972. Professor Greg Patmore and Dr Harry Knowles are supervising this project. |
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A Tale of Leadership Identity |
Leadership identity has played a prevalent role within leadership studies since we first asked the question, 'What makes a leader'?. With the recently emerged but already widely discussed concept of 'authentic' leadership, the role of identity has most markedly been brought to the fore. Existing authentic leadership literature reveals divisive tensions between the self as fixed and the self as dynamic. The latter view perceives leaders to be capable of adapting to their unique contexts while maintaining their authenticities. Helena's doctoral research aspires to investigate this fascinating tension within the literature. Assuming that the self is indeed dynamic, she adopts a constructionist approach in examining leaders' public life stories through narrative analysis to reveal the processes by which leaders construct their identities. Furthermore, by introducing a cross-cultural comparison of leadership, the relativity of leadership identity will become apparent. Dr Leanne Cutcher is supervising this project. |
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A study of the career of coaching in organisations - an examination of the professionalisation project of coaches |
Over the last fifteen years in Australia coaching has emerged as an occupation and increasingly is being used within organisations. To date there have been no qualifications required and no restrictions on who is able to call themselves a coach. However, in the last few years the coaching associations have been attempting to place restrictions on who has the right to use the term coach and to make coaching a profession. This study is an examination of this process and aims to investigate the actions being taken to achieve this professionalisation project and to understand the reasons behind the desire of the coaching organisations to have coaching recognised as a profession. Associate Professor Richard Hall and Associate Professor Jim Kitay are supervising this project. |
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Comparative anti-bullying public policy in Australia, Britain, Canada and United States |
This thesis examines the comparative anti-workplace bullying public policy in Australia, Britain, Canada and United States. Specifically, this research is to compare the similarities and differences of anti-workplace bullying public policy in these four countries' regulatory framework and it seeks to explore how bullying as an industrial/OHS issues has emerged and come to be regulated in these four industrialised countries. Professor Greg Patmore and Dr Harry Knowles are supervising this project. |
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Being Classy: Australian white collar employee organizations, 1942-1968 |
Australian white collar employees created class positions for themselves in Australian society. Some of these positions lay within the working class, some outside it. The circumstances they did this in were partly inflicted, but partly open to negotiation with the Australian state or capital. White collar employees formed their class position by creating employee organizations. These organizations structured demands about the appropriate social position for their particular occupation. Demands that were largely aimed at status and control issues over work: class conscious demands. Class consciousness, through the potential for action and organizational capacity to undertake action, produced the class position of white collar employees. Professor Greg Patmore and Dr Harry Knowles are supervising this project. |
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| Abz Sharma | The Routinisation of Charisma | Abz's thesis aims to investigate the 'routinisation' of charismatic leadership - a process by which charismatic authority is succeeded by traditional and/or bureaucratic authority. In particular, the project will bring into focus the ways in which the values, attitudes and behaviours of charismatic leaders and their followers sustain the 'charismatic mission' after the leader's departure from the organisation. The project will utilise a discourse analytic methodology and case study approach in order to provide a fine grained, qualitative account of the routinisation of charisma. In so doing, this research seeks to contribute to contemporary understandings of the routinisation of charisma by empirically testing, evaluating and building on extant theory. Professor David Grant and Professor Christopher Wright are supervising this project. |
Fatalities in the Construction Industry: politics, power and justice |
State and Federal Royal Commissions into the building and construction industry in the last 17 years paved the way for the introduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the Industry Taskforce and the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act (2005) (BCII). This thesis argues that these measures have undermined health and safety in one of the most dangerous industries in Australia, and contributed to the increasing fatality rate. It also argues that penalties for fatal incidents in NSW for prosecutions under the NSW OHS Act (2000) are inadequate on several levels. Associate Professor Suzanne Jamieson is supervising this project. |
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Building capable capabilities: The role of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) in achieving competitive advantage through Talent Management |
The aim of Sharna's thesis is to further develop an understanding of the use of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) in the area of talent management by applying the established theory of the resource-based view of the firm to create sustainable competitive advantage. This research will explore the role of the HRIS in the management of talent in organisations which will contribute to our understanding of the role of technology in human resource management and its impact on the organisation to maintain and sustain competitive advantage. Furthermore it aims to address salient concerns of human resource and non-human resource practitioners. Professor David Grant and Dr Kristine Dery are supervising this project. |