This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing university management control strategie... more This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing university management control strategies have influenced higher education workers’ job security, stress and happiness. The primary quantitative and qualitative data are drawn from a survey of fourteen universities across Australia and Canada, supplemented by secondary research. The analysis examines institutional and worker responses to the pandemic, and resulting conflict over financial control at the macro (sector), meso (university) and micro (individual) levels. At the macro level, university responses were shaped by public policy decisions at both national and subnational layers of the state, and the higher education sector in both countries had a distinctly neoliberal form. However, Australian universities were exposed to greater financial pressure to cut job positions, and Australian university management might have been more inclined to do so than Canadian universities overall. Different institutional support for unio...
Regular physical activity benefits health across the lifespan. Women in middle-age often juggle c... more Regular physical activity benefits health across the lifespan. Women in middle-age often juggle carer and work responsibilities, are often inactive, and may benefit from tailored support to increase physical activity. Establish the acceptability, feasibility, and impact on physical activity of a scalable program for women 50+ years. This pilot trial randomized participants to immediate program access, or to a wait-list control. [Active Women over 50 Online] program included: (1) study-specific website, (2) 8 emails or 24 SMS motivation-based messages, (3) one telephone health-coaching session. Outcomes, at 3 months, were acceptability (recommend study participation, intervention uptake), feasibility (recruitment, reach, completion), intervention impact (physical activity), intervention impressions. At baseline, 62 participants of mean (SD) age 59 (±7) years took 7459 (±2424) steps/day and most (92%) reported ≥2 medical conditions. At 3 months, acceptability and impact data were avai...
Contemporary Issues in Work and Organisations, 2019
This chapter reviews the life cycle of women’s employment in Australia, arguing that while women’... more This chapter reviews the life cycle of women’s employment in Australia, arguing that while women’s labour force attachment has shifted and increased significantly in the last forty years, it still does not match male employment patterns over the life cycle and around which our policy framework was constructed. The result of this is a number of inequality markers between genders. Three of these inequality markers are examined: working hours, pay and superannuation. The causes and interconnections between them are discussed as they relate to the four life phases we identify.
This report shows that Australia has caught up to - and on some measures surpassed - the United S... more This report shows that Australia has caught up to - and on some measures surpassed - the United States in female labour force participation and in relation to women's representation in senior and strategic organisational roles. The report offers a unique snapshot into the working lives of women in Australia and the United States.
This report presents key findings from Enhancing Mothers’ Workforce Engagement in the Preschool Y... more This report presents key findings from Enhancing Mothers’ Workforce Engagement in the Preschool Years, an Australian Research Council Linkage project in partnership with the Department of Social Services, commonly referred to as the Millennium Mums (MM) project. The aims of the project were to examine women’s expectations of employment and their experiences of returning to employment following the birth of a baby. More broadly, the project provided an opportunity to investigate a range of related issues including child care, father’s leave taking arrangements, gender divisions of labour within the household and the health and wellbeing of mothers and children. All of these issues are of interest to those concerned with women’s employment transitions and all are intricately bound up with mother’s expectations and experiences of combining employment with the care of a young child or children.
Background Physical activity has many physical and mental health benefits and can delay the devel... more Background Physical activity has many physical and mental health benefits and can delay the development of disability in older age. However, uptake of this health behaviour is sub-optimal in women in their middle and older age. This trial aims to establish the acceptability and feasibility of the Active Women over 50 programme involving online information, telephone health coaching and email or SMS support to promote physical activity behaviour change among women aged 50 years and over. Methods Sixty community-dwelling women who are insufficiently active according to national guidelines, will be recruited and randomised to 1) receive the Active Women over 50 programme or 2) a wait-list control. Active Women over 50 is a 3-month physical activity programme guided by behaviour change science, providing access to a website, one telephone-delivered health coaching session from a physiotherapist and 8 email or 24 SMS messages. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants at 3 mo...
In the debates about the future of work there is a lack of analysis on how young women and men ar... more In the debates about the future of work there is a lack of analysis on how young women and men are approaching their future work and family lives. In this article we use data collected in the Australian Women’s Working Future (AWWF) Project 2017 to analyse what young workers imagine will be important to their future success in work and family. We find that formal workplace supports for care, such as paid parental leave and childcare, and workplace flexibility are identified as very important. Shared domestic labour is also desired. Parents have the strongest expectations for care policy supports. Young men without children are least likely to factor these into future work trajectories, while young women do. However, data on women’s plans for family formation, compared with men’s, suggests that difficulties accessing vital care supports pose a risk to young women’s ability to work, form families and care.
The pros and cons of part-time work have attracted considerable attention in recent years, not le... more The pros and cons of part-time work have attracted considerable attention in recent years, not least because of its presumed potential to enable employees to reconcile paid work and family needs. This article focuses on job-sharing, which is a unique yet underexplored form of part-time work and one which has rarely been analysed in terms of the consequences for all stakeholders. This case study of job-sharing details its positive outcomes for some employees, in assisting them to balance career and family. The study also highlights some previously unexplored and, we argue, unintended negative consequences of job-sharing. In this case, job-sharing contributed to the increased use of temporary employees who were locked out of many of the benefits of quality flexible work. Furthermore, the case study reveals competing interests between permanent and temporary employees, creating a range of challenges for human resource practitioners in managing and developing both groups.
Reworking Work Airaanz 05 Proceedings of the 19th Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, 2015
Long run shifts in the industry and workforce structure of the Australian construction industry: ... more Long run shifts in the industry and workforce structure of the Australian construction industry: Implications for a sustainable labour supply
The paper examines access to and use of maternity leave and return to work policies in a large or... more The paper examines access to and use of maternity leave and return to work policies in a large organisation. The analysis is set within the context of evidence from a recent national survey which illustrates the combinations of paid and unpaid leave arrangements utilised by Australian mothers around the birth of a child. The case study provides insight into these
This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing university management control strategie... more This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing university management control strategies have influenced higher education workers’ job security, stress and happiness. The primary quantitative and qualitative data are drawn from a survey of fourteen universities across Australia and Canada, supplemented by secondary research. The analysis examines institutional and worker responses to the pandemic, and resulting conflict over financial control at the macro (sector), meso (university) and micro (individual) levels. At the macro level, university responses were shaped by public policy decisions at both national and subnational layers of the state, and the higher education sector in both countries had a distinctly neoliberal form. However, Australian universities were exposed to greater financial pressure to cut job positions, and Australian university management might have been more inclined to do so than Canadian universities overall. Different institutional support for unio...
Regular physical activity benefits health across the lifespan. Women in middle-age often juggle c... more Regular physical activity benefits health across the lifespan. Women in middle-age often juggle carer and work responsibilities, are often inactive, and may benefit from tailored support to increase physical activity. Establish the acceptability, feasibility, and impact on physical activity of a scalable program for women 50+ years. This pilot trial randomized participants to immediate program access, or to a wait-list control. [Active Women over 50 Online] program included: (1) study-specific website, (2) 8 emails or 24 SMS motivation-based messages, (3) one telephone health-coaching session. Outcomes, at 3 months, were acceptability (recommend study participation, intervention uptake), feasibility (recruitment, reach, completion), intervention impact (physical activity), intervention impressions. At baseline, 62 participants of mean (SD) age 59 (±7) years took 7459 (±2424) steps/day and most (92%) reported ≥2 medical conditions. At 3 months, acceptability and impact data were avai...
Contemporary Issues in Work and Organisations, 2019
This chapter reviews the life cycle of women’s employment in Australia, arguing that while women’... more This chapter reviews the life cycle of women’s employment in Australia, arguing that while women’s labour force attachment has shifted and increased significantly in the last forty years, it still does not match male employment patterns over the life cycle and around which our policy framework was constructed. The result of this is a number of inequality markers between genders. Three of these inequality markers are examined: working hours, pay and superannuation. The causes and interconnections between them are discussed as they relate to the four life phases we identify.
This report shows that Australia has caught up to - and on some measures surpassed - the United S... more This report shows that Australia has caught up to - and on some measures surpassed - the United States in female labour force participation and in relation to women's representation in senior and strategic organisational roles. The report offers a unique snapshot into the working lives of women in Australia and the United States.
This report presents key findings from Enhancing Mothers’ Workforce Engagement in the Preschool Y... more This report presents key findings from Enhancing Mothers’ Workforce Engagement in the Preschool Years, an Australian Research Council Linkage project in partnership with the Department of Social Services, commonly referred to as the Millennium Mums (MM) project. The aims of the project were to examine women’s expectations of employment and their experiences of returning to employment following the birth of a baby. More broadly, the project provided an opportunity to investigate a range of related issues including child care, father’s leave taking arrangements, gender divisions of labour within the household and the health and wellbeing of mothers and children. All of these issues are of interest to those concerned with women’s employment transitions and all are intricately bound up with mother’s expectations and experiences of combining employment with the care of a young child or children.
Background Physical activity has many physical and mental health benefits and can delay the devel... more Background Physical activity has many physical and mental health benefits and can delay the development of disability in older age. However, uptake of this health behaviour is sub-optimal in women in their middle and older age. This trial aims to establish the acceptability and feasibility of the Active Women over 50 programme involving online information, telephone health coaching and email or SMS support to promote physical activity behaviour change among women aged 50 years and over. Methods Sixty community-dwelling women who are insufficiently active according to national guidelines, will be recruited and randomised to 1) receive the Active Women over 50 programme or 2) a wait-list control. Active Women over 50 is a 3-month physical activity programme guided by behaviour change science, providing access to a website, one telephone-delivered health coaching session from a physiotherapist and 8 email or 24 SMS messages. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants at 3 mo...
In the debates about the future of work there is a lack of analysis on how young women and men ar... more In the debates about the future of work there is a lack of analysis on how young women and men are approaching their future work and family lives. In this article we use data collected in the Australian Women’s Working Future (AWWF) Project 2017 to analyse what young workers imagine will be important to their future success in work and family. We find that formal workplace supports for care, such as paid parental leave and childcare, and workplace flexibility are identified as very important. Shared domestic labour is also desired. Parents have the strongest expectations for care policy supports. Young men without children are least likely to factor these into future work trajectories, while young women do. However, data on women’s plans for family formation, compared with men’s, suggests that difficulties accessing vital care supports pose a risk to young women’s ability to work, form families and care.
The pros and cons of part-time work have attracted considerable attention in recent years, not le... more The pros and cons of part-time work have attracted considerable attention in recent years, not least because of its presumed potential to enable employees to reconcile paid work and family needs. This article focuses on job-sharing, which is a unique yet underexplored form of part-time work and one which has rarely been analysed in terms of the consequences for all stakeholders. This case study of job-sharing details its positive outcomes for some employees, in assisting them to balance career and family. The study also highlights some previously unexplored and, we argue, unintended negative consequences of job-sharing. In this case, job-sharing contributed to the increased use of temporary employees who were locked out of many of the benefits of quality flexible work. Furthermore, the case study reveals competing interests between permanent and temporary employees, creating a range of challenges for human resource practitioners in managing and developing both groups.
Reworking Work Airaanz 05 Proceedings of the 19th Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, 2015
Long run shifts in the industry and workforce structure of the Australian construction industry: ... more Long run shifts in the industry and workforce structure of the Australian construction industry: Implications for a sustainable labour supply
The paper examines access to and use of maternity leave and return to work policies in a large or... more The paper examines access to and use of maternity leave and return to work policies in a large organisation. The analysis is set within the context of evidence from a recent national survey which illustrates the combinations of paid and unpaid leave arrangements utilised by Australian mothers around the birth of a child. The case study provides insight into these
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