1,721,009 research outputs found
Does mentoring deserve another look?
No full textIn recent decades, mentoring has been identified as a worthwhile workplace learning activity for men, women and minority groups in a variety of organisational settings such as large and small corporations, government departments, hospitals, universities and schools. Mentoring has received enormous coverage in both the popular literature and academic literature. Some of these sources have hailed the mentoring process as a panacea for a variety of personal ills (Torrance 1984), while a smaller body of literature has cautioned about the 'dark side' of mentoring (Long 1997). The purpose of this chapter is to report on findings from empirical research conducted in the area of mentoring in order to draw more than tentative conclusions about its benefits and limitations, and its implications, challenges and future directions for human resource (HR) managers and other stakeholders affected by it
Minimising Motor Vehicle Incidents (MVI’s) through teams and rewards (PeerSafe)
No full textThe overall ‘Motor Vehicle Incident (MVI) Reduction Pilot’ (called hereafter the 'Linfox PeerSafe project' for the purpose of this report) was designed to reduce MVIs in Linfox utilising peer teams and rewards/recognition. The main objective of the Linfox PeerSafe Project pilot was to reduce MVIs although the project was initiated with the following underlying assumptions:
• Peer groups (teams) have a significant effect on how people choose to behave.
• When an individual becomes part of a team they will likely behave in a way that meets the team’s needs.
• Driver teams are likely to create a strong enduring link between driver performance and Site MVI performance and will enhance the sense of ownership of drivers to take responsibility for MVI performance.
• The Linfox PeerSafe project will enhance key motivators such as driver autonomy, decision making and responsibility.
Overall, the results discussed in this report strongly support these assumptions.
The report outlines the results of the pilot conducted at Schweppes Archerfield, BOC Rocklea and WoW Larapinta. The pilot for Schweppes Archerfield and BOC Rocklea was conducted from 3 September until 3 March 2013. The pilot at Larapinta initially also commenced on 3 September 2012 but there was a change in site management during the first three months of the pilot which caused disruption to the execution of the pilot. The pilot then recommenced with new site management on 1 March 2013. A pre-pilot survey was conducted during April–May 2012 and pre-pilot focus groups were conducted during May 2012 involving three potential pilot sites, including Wow Larapinta, Schweppes Archerfield and BOC Rocklea. This was done to determine the feasibility of conducting the pilot at the three sites and identify issues that may negatively impact upon the conduct of the pilot. The pre-pilot survey and focus groups constituted two steps in the overall project (see Steps 6 and 7 in Figure 1). The pilot was launched at these three sites on 3 September 2012. Post-pilot focus groups were conducted at Schweppes Archerfield and BOC Rocklea during April 2013 and a post-pilot survey was conducted at these sites during May 2013. With the recommencement of the pilot at Larapinta in March 2013, post-pilot focus groups and a post-pilot survey were conducted at WoW Larapinta during September 2013. Importantly, the findings in this report relate to the three mentioned sites only and a viability analysis needs to be conducted at other sites prior to implementation of the Linfox PeerSafe project within the wider Linfox. This is important to identify any specific issues that may have a negative impact on the execution of the project and to ascertain positive issues that could be leveraged in the conduct of the PeerSafe project.
The objective of this report is to evaluate the success of the PeerSafe pilot. The following interrelated tasks inform this objective:
• A comparison of MVI statistics pre- and post-pilot.
• A comparison of the cultural key performance indicators (KPIs), pre- and post-pilot. These KPIs were measured with pre-pilot surveys and focus groups.
• An examining of the issues important in the successful conduct of the PeerSafe project.
• An outline of recommendations.
• An outline of the lessons learnt in the PeerSafe project.
• A outline of recommendation
The WiRE program: advancing women in rural, regional and remote enterprises through entrepreneurship, detailed final report to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science
No full textThe WiRE Program addresses the following problems:
• There are 8 million people in rural Australia – half are women. However in regional Queensland alone only 13% of businesses are founded by females compared to 34% in metropolitan areas (Regional Queensland 2015 – Startup ecosystem report, 2016). Women also struggle to find suitable employment and acquire new employability skills without support. The WiRE program supports female participants in venture development and also enhancing their employability;
• Rural women struggle to develop businesses owing to unique challenges such as lack of confidence, distance, lack of networks and mentoring opportunities, lack of access to entrepreneurship capacity building, lack of funding. The WiRE program assists women through self-directed development and accountability and establishes networking, collaboration and mentoring;
• Women in rural areas have significant less employment opportunities and financial security than their city counterparts. The WiRE program increases women’s access to finance and helps enhance their life-long financial position;
• Finding ways to foster the capacity of rural, regional and remote (RRR) women can change their lives and communities.
During the past 18 months this $290,000 program co-funded by the Federal and Queensland Government, has assisted 1795 female participants to increase their confidence and entrepreneurial skills, provide access to support and mentorship, fill knowledge gaps, build networks/collaborations, overcome distance barriers and provide no or low cost access to capacity entrepreneurship building.
The aim of the Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Enterprises (WiRE) Program is to promote entrepreneurial behaviour of women in rural, regional and remote enterprises through enhancing individual and organisational awareness, participation, skills, competencies, capacity, building support networks, sharing knowledge, growing resilient communities and creating sustainable change in the Queensland region through delivering an integrated program consisting of multiple capacity-building activities.
The WiRE Program is unique because:
(1) It focuses specifically on rural, regional and remote women entrepreneurs;
(2) it’s about self-employment but also becoming employable;
(3) it’s unique because it helps women in all stages of their entrepreneurial journey;
(4) it provides a safe place for women to network, collaborate and support each other;
(5) it delivers a cutting edge program from light to deep learning components;
(6) it was co-created with over 300 women in rural, regional and remote enterprises;
(7) it integrates academic research and emerging entrepreneurial trends with participant’s development objectives. All of this is underpinned by evaluation;
(8) it is steered by a consortium made up of university, industry, government and community organisation partners.
As will be reflected in this report, the evidence is that the WiRE Program is working.
For example:
• Eighty-seven percent of women who participated in the deep learning aspects of the program such as the 19 hour Bootcamps and WiRE Hubs, indicated that their entrepreneurial confidence improved;
• Eighty-two percent indicated their entrepreneurial skills improved;
• All respondents felt they benefited in terms of receiving peer support;
• Ninety-percent of respondents indicated that they benefited by way of an enhanced feeling of belonging in an entrepreneurial sense;
• Eighty-six percent of respondents felt they benefited in terms of networking with like-minded peers, and 86% felt they benefited with an increased sense of accountability;
• Ninety-one percent of women saw knowledge-sharing as a significant benefit of the program;
• All participants in these aspects of the program indicated that other components like the WiRE webinars and virtual workshops added significant value to their journey to achieve their main goals they set out to achieve in the program; and
• Nine out of ten participants indicated that they were satisfied to very satisfied with the program, with 1% neutral and not one dissatisfied.
Stimulation of self-employment and employability are central to the program. The WiRE Program builds RRR women’s personal, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial capacity, become part of a strong entrepreneurial community and support them regardless their location in RRR Queensland. The program enhances their confidence, creates an entrepreneurship mindset, develop entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial behaviour, opportunities to enhance their financial position and a rural entrepreneurship eco-system. Participants also give back through mentoring others in their communities.
This flexible innovative program encompasses blended learning and a flipped-classroom approach where technical content is developed and delivered by university, industry and community specialists. Participants engage in numerous program components (See Figure 1), with various levels of interaction with peers, mentors and facilitators. One component, the WiRE Hub Program, takes participants through a 90-day challenge of actual venture/project development and growth. Our approach is to continuously build, measure and learn.
This report reflects the activities, outcomes and evaluation of the WiRE Program between 2 January 2017 and 30 June 2018
Contemporary issues and emerging themes in leadership
Get PDFThe 21st century brings a diverse set of challenges which are fundamentally changing the way organisations are operating. These challenges are the result of times of uncertainty and insecurity caused by rapid changes in the external and internal environments of organisations. In view of this competitive reality faced by Australian leaders, the following question could be asked: what are some of the contemporary issues and emerging themes in leadership? The objective of this chapter is to address some of the answers to this question
Women in rural, regional and remote enterprises (WiRE): playing big in business - Final Report (DESBT19241)
No full textThe aim of the Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Enterprises (WiRE) Program is to promote entrepreneurial behaviour of women in rural, regional and remote enterprises through enhancing individual and organisational awareness, participation, skills, competencies, capacity, building support networks, sharing knowledge, growing resilient communities and creating sustainable change in the Queensland region through delivering an integrated program consisting of multiple capacity-building activities. This particular project focused up rural, regional and remote women who needed to reset and reimagine the start-up and progression of their business during COVID-19.
The Department of Employment Small Business and Training (DESSBT) have contracted the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) to deliver the WiRE: Playing Big in Business (WiRE:PBB) project as part of the 2019-2020 Advancing Women in Business Industry Partnership Initiative (AWB).
To the best of our knowledge this study is reporting on a first of its kind virtual hub model using multi-mentoring and masterminding principles to develop RRR women entrepreneurs’ social capital and support their entrepreneurial goal achievement. It attempts to analyse a bold idea in the form of a less conventional approach to tackle entrepreneurship development and support for women in RRR Australia. This research is particularly timely as COVID-19 severely impacted the traditional face-to-face entrepreneurship development models throughout the world, and new virtual models of entrepreneurship development are explored.
The Virtual Hub Model, Virtual Bootcamp and Virtual Interactive Workshops achieved very positive results:
For example:
• All WiRE Hub participants (100%) gave an overall rating of 'very satisfied' their Hub experience.
• Almost eighty percent (78%) of respondents giving their improvement in confidence a rating of between 7 and 10 out of 10.
• Almost eighty-percent of respondents (78%) gave their improvement in skills a rating of between 7 and 10.
• Regarding the overall construct of social capital (defined as the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships, a shared sense of identity, a shared understanding, shared norms, shared values, trust, cooperation, and reciprocity), all respondents responded that they agree or strongly agree with 26 of the 29 statements, indicating an overwhelming positive response to their experience in the Hub (See Table 11).
• In rating their level of satisfaction in terms of knowledge-sharing during the Hub, all returned a rating of satisfied to very satisfied.
• Ninety-percent of respondents indicated that they have achieved their main entrepreneurship goal set during the Hub Program and that they are motivated keep progressing their main goal or start progressing a new main goal.
• All respondents indicated that they were satisfied overall with the opportunities for engagement in Hub Program.
• All respondents indicated they would recommend participating in a Hub to other rural, regional and remote women.
• Participants in the 'Reset and Reimagine You and Your Business Bootcamp' were highly satisfied with ninety-three percent of participants indicating they were either satisfied or very satisfied (93%).
• Qualitative feedback from participants on the activities on the impact on them and their business was consistently outstanding.
Stimulation of self-employment and employability are central to the program. The WiRE Program builds RRR women’s personal, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial capacity, become part of a strong entrepreneurial community and support them regardless their location in RRR Queensland. The program enhances their confidence, creates an entrepreneurship mindset, develop entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial behaviour, opportunities to enhance their financial position and a rural entrepreneurship eco-system. Participants also give back through mentoring others in their communities
Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Enterprises (WiRE): Playing Big in Business Project
No full textThe aim of the Women in Rural, Regional and Remote Enterprises (WiRE) Program is to promote entrepreneurial behaviour of women in rural, regional and remote enterprises through enhancing individual and organisational awareness, participation, skills, competencies, capacity, building support networks, sharing knowledge, growing resilient communities and creating sustainable change in the Queensland region through delivering an integrated program consisting of multiple capacity-building activities. This particular project focused up rural, regional and remote women who needed to reset and reimagine the start-up and progression of their business during COVID-19.
The Department of Employment Small Business and Training (DESSBT) have contracted the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) to deliver the WiRE: Playing Big in Business (WiRE:PBB) project as part of the 2019-2020 Advancing Women in Business Industry Partnership Initiative (AWB). Owing to the COVID 19 crisis and the negative impact on businesses, the main theme of each program component was to “Reset and Re-imagine Your Business”. This allowed participants to not only reflect on their current business and business context and challenges but also enabled them to redesign, reset and re-imagine their business to progress and grow during the current COVID-19 and beyond.
The AWB initiative encourages women to start and grow their own businesses and achieve positions of leadership. WiRE:PBB contributed to this agenda by delivering five (online) components that particularly target women in rural, regional and remote Queensland
The WiRE Start-up, Scale-up and Going Global Project: final report
No full textStimulation of self-employment and employability are central to the WiRE Program. The WiRE Program builds RRR women’s personal, entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial capacity, become part of a strong entrepreneurial community and support them regardless their location in RRR Queensland. The program enhances their confidence, creates an entrepreneurship mindset, develop entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial behaviour, opportunities to enhance their financial position and a rural entrepreneurship eco-system. Participants also give back through mentoring others in their communities.
This flexible innovative program encompassed blended learning and a flipped-classroom approach where participants engaged with university, industry and community specialists. Participants engaged in numerous program components, with various levels of interaction with peers, mentors and facilitators. One component, the WiRE Hub Program, takes participants through a Hubs Program (a 90-day challenge of actual venture/project development and growth). Our approach is to continuously build, measure and learn.
This report reflects the activities, outcomes and evaluation of the WiRE Program between 15 October 2018 and 31 May 201
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Human resources and sustainability
No full textThis chapter:
Explains the human resources foundations of a sustainable organisation;
Discusses organisational change in relation to achieveing sustainable business practices;
Discusses the internal dimension of sustainable business
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