Business & Economics Collected Works - Research Publications
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ItemWorkplace Gender Equality Strategy Project - Final Report(Centre for Workplace Leadership, University of Melbourne, 2015)Progress towards workplace gender equality is a national priority. For Australian organisations, closing the gender gap and maximising the potential of both male and female employees is crucial for increasing productivity and securing future growth. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA’s; 2014) gender equality indicators have found that while 45% of Australian employers have policies on flexible work, and family and caring responsibilities, only about 13% have a strategy for implementing such policies. Over half of organisations have a standalone gender equality policy, but only 7% have a gender equality strategy. Women’s representation is low at management levels, with women comprising around 26% of the top three layers of the management hierarchy in Australian organisations with 100 or more employees. Pursuit of flexible work practices and promotion of gender equity needs to be implemented in a more strategic, integrated and sustainable way in order to have real effect at the workplace level.
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ItemDeveloping Leaders in Business Schools: A Case Report on First Year Student Leaders(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2016)Developing leadership capabilities in young people comes with the territory of being in a business school. The Faculty of Business and Economics at The University of Melbourne offers a First Year Leaders Forum on a voluntary basis to all students. Centre for Workplace Leadership researchers surveyed two groups of first year students – those who took part in the Forum, and those that chose not to. The survey was administered immediately before the Forum and repeated six months later. Testing for four leadership competencies and two leadership attributes, they established that the intervention in the form of the Forum, improved first year students motivation to lead. Further they found that those who joined student groups or associations, volunteered or had served internships demonstrated higher levels of motivation to lead. The study showed that even small interventions can develop leadership attributes and as a result increase the levels of motivation to lead.
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ItemCreating a high performance leadership culture: The case of a leading Australian financial services firm(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2016)The Centre for Workplace Leadership was invited by a leading Australian financial services firm to conduct research on the firm’s capacity to adapt and innovate in a rapidly changing economic environment. The research took place between 2014 and 2016. It involved analysis of proprietary documents, surveys, and interviews with employees and managers from frontline business to senior managers, the executive team and board members. Key Findings: The analysis of the firm’s systems for innovation and decision-making found the following factors were affecting the firm’s ability to innovate. These were: • Employees’ shared commitment to a strong, values-based culture created a stable and rewarding informal culture; • However, the firm’s culture was a ‘double-edged sword’: although it was a major strength in building cohesion, it also tended to block innovation and change; • In particular, ‘bureaucratic brakes’ impeded the spread of internal innovation and development; • Strong risk aversion tended to be used defensively against the possibility of change; • Positive examples of innovation highlighted the need to develop better mechanisms for knowledge diffusion and organisational learning. Each of these findings is described in more detail in the report, along with quotes from the interviews.
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ItemMiddle Managers - Leading for Performance The case of a major Australian retail business(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2016)The Centre for Workplace Leadership was invited by a major Australian retail business to conduct research on the company. The CEO wished to have a solid basis of evidence on which to improve communication, innovation and decisionmaking in the company. The research took place over a year between mid-2014 and mid-2015. It involved interviews with staff at all levels, from CEO to frontline business staff. Key Findings: The analysis of communication, innovation and decision-making processes found three main issues that were impacting organisational effectiveness. These were: • shifting to hierarchical leadership had reduced employee engagement; • increased bureaucracy had reinforced organisational silos; • top-down decision-making had crowded out collaboration and innovation. Each of these findings is described in more detail below, along with quotes from the interviews.
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ItemThe impact of leadership and leadership development in higher education: A review of the literature and evidence(Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, 2016)
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ItemWorkplace Leadership: A Review of Prior Research(Centre for Workplace Leadership, 2014-07-01)Almost twenty years ago, the last major review of management capability in Australian organisations, the Karpin Report, was released. Titled, Enterprising Nation, it focused on the question of whether Australian management could meet the challenges of the Asian Century. The report demonstrated the case for renewal—new skills and capabilities that would enable Australian industry to make the most of Asia's growth.
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ItemExploring and explaining the dynamics of osteopathic regulation, professionalism and compliance with standards in practice: Report to the General Osteopathic Council(Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, 2015)