Professor Philip Bohle
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Publications
Philip Bohle is Professor of Work and Health and leads the Work and Health Research Team.
He has previously worked at The University of Queensland, Griffith University and The University of New South Wales, where he was Head of the School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour (2000-2003) and Director of the Industrial Relations Research Centre (2000-2001). He has also held visiting appointments at The University of Sheffield, The University of Wales, and The University of Connecticut.
For the past 20 years, Professor Bohle’s research has concentrated on various aspects of occupational health. His principal research interests currently include
- working hours, work-life conflict and health;
- the impact of workplace death on victims’ families;
- the health and safety of ageing workers; and
- the health and safety effects of precarious employment.
Professor Bohle’s research on working hours and health (including work with Anne Pisarski and Andrew Tilley) has received funding from the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission and the ARC.
It has made a substantial contribution to knowledge of structural relationships between working hours, social and organisational support, work-related control, work-life conflict and health. Related research (with Lee DiMilia and Andrew Tilley) has focussed on the psychometric refinement of diurnal type measures.
The stream of research on precarious employment, principally conducted in collaboration with Professor Michael Quinlan, has also received substantial ARC and NHMRC funding.
It has yielded several well-cited systematic reviews, several empirical studies (in conjunction with Maria McNamara and Ann Williamson), and contributions to theory regarding the mechanisms through which precarious employment affects health and safety.
Professors Quinlan and Bohle have also jointly authored Managing Occupational Health and Safety (Macmillan 1991, 2000), which offers an innovative, multidisciplinary perspective on the field. The third edition benefits from the contributions of a third author, Felicity Lamm, and will appear in 2010.
Several ARC Linkage grants and an NHMRC/ARC strategic award have funded the research stream on ageing. One ARC project (with Libby Brooke and Philip Taylor) is currently evaluating the ‘work ability’ construct and the efficacy of related interventions for improving the health and retention of older workers.
An element of this project (led by Martin Mackey) is examining the effects of worksite-based physical activity interventions. In a related NHMRC/ARC project conducted with colleagues at the University of New South Wales and the Australian National University, Professor Bohle is leading research (with Michael Quinlan, Nick Glozier, Philip Taylor, Maria McNamara) on individual and organisational variables affecting the work attitudes, workforce participation, and health and safety of older workers.
Prof. Bohle is also leading a key element of an ARC-funded project on the attitudes of retirees to different forms of retirement accommodation (in collaboration with Hal Kendig, David Kennedy and Olivia Rawlings-Way).
An earlier ARC grant (with Maria Fiatarone-Singh and David Kennedy) examined of the factors affecting the effects of fitness and balance training on the strength, fitness, health, and attitudes of retirement village residents.
Most recently, Professor Bohle has begun collaboration with several colleagues (Nick Glozier, Lynda Matthews, Michael Quinlan, Olivia Rawlings-Way) on a project examining the effects of traumatic workplace death on the partners and dependents of victims. Early pilot work has been promising and the research team will soon seek ARC funding in conjunction with the support of interested trade unions and employers.