Search

The 'googlization' of education is emblematic of the growing power of private tech companies in schools across the globe, challenging education as a public good. While critical scholarship has started unpacking the ideological, pedagogical and economical logics underpinning Google's digital infrastructure in schools, we have little insight into how googlization unfolds in education systems across the world. This article addresses this by examining the googlization of education across three countries -- The US, Australia, and The Netherlands -- focusing on the work by new and established intermediary actors which mediate platform power between private tech companies and public education systems. Our findings highlight five different types of intermediary work that broker dependence on Google in schools. The paper concludes by outlining how education researchers and institutions might reclaim public education by intervening in the googlization of education.

After 40 years as a hardworking and productive academic, here I was on a Zoom call fronting two senior colleagues telling me I no longer appeared on the new 'organisational chart'. In short, I was being made redundant. It was no surprise really, as another 40,000 professional and academic staff were to suffer the same fate. And really by then I was over what university life had become: stressed, thankless, driven by meaningless metrics and bereft of social values. But how did we get to this and was COVID-19 but a ruse, a smokescreen for an acceleration of the processes of politicisation, corporatisation, marketisation and casualisation which had brought my beloved system to its knees. Here then is a personal/political reflection on what has occurred in Australian universities over the last few decades -- their long slow agonising destruction.

This paper details the lived experience of the author as an education consultant from the mainstream of Australian education, attempting to assist a remote Aboriginal corporation establish its own secondary school, in its own cultural context on its own land. It is about the experience of an Anglo Australian servant of an Aboriginal corporation. The perspective is that of an outside employee. The paper is not a treatise on Aboriginal education. It does not seek to advance an Aboriginal point of view.

Traditionally, threats to academic freedom are associated with repressive government actions, and sometimes also with compliant university managers. In democracies, academic freedom can be undermined in more subtle ways. Where public funding for university research and teaching has diminished, universities have increasingly pursued relationships with, and money from, the private sector. Private funding can come with expectations that have the potential to limit academic freedom. There is a body of literature that documents ways in which some pharmaceutical companies, in particular, have sought to exercise undue influence on research and publications by academics. So-called 'philanthropic' funding can also function as a Trojan Horse for corporate influence and the business or ideological objectives of donors. This paper examines the problem of corporate power on campus and considers possible remedies, including binding codes of conduct for universities' relations with external partners.

Much of the literature on leadership within education has centred on the heroic leader. Despite recent approaches moving away from trait and behavioural theories, the centrality of the individual leader persists. Recent practice perspectives have shifted the focus from leadership as an individual activity of a leader to leading as practices. This paper discusses how a practice perspective informed by the theory of practice architectures (TPA), has been used in the teaching of 'leadership' in an Australian Masters subject to challenge conceptions of the heroic leader. It explores the use of the TPA to engage students in examining leading learning practices in workplaces and as a way of challenging their often deeply held beliefs and practices around leadership. In so doing, the approach decentres the leader and provides a lens for viewing leading learning as webs of interactions of practices rather than the traits and behaviours of an individual leader.

Environmental and sustainability initiatives seek to respond to the challenges of ecological crises and ongoing environmental degradation by supporting students to develop knowledge and dispositions to respond to the challenges of and live in a climate changed world. However, these initiatives are often marginalised in curriculum and hamstrung by inherent tensions such as which worldviews should be prioritised, the incommensurability of some global and local values, and the pursuit of environmental needs in the age of neoliberalism. These challenges become more complex when considering contextual stakeholders. In this paper we focus on the ethical dilemmas associated with environmental and sustainability education in a coal town where mining company sponsorship heralds mixed community response. In doing so, we unpack the contextual and philosophical complexities which create the crucial conditions for a viable normative case study--genuine uncertainty about issues not yet at tipping point, differences of reasonable perspectives and recognisable local concerns. We argue that teacher educators, particularly those with interdisciplinary philosophical insight should look to their local contexts for pressing ethical issues and engage in the development and field testing of their own normative case studies. We make the case that the process behind developing a normative case study involves insight into the relationships between educational ethics, policy, context, and divergent community perspectives. We argue that pedagogy using normative case study to navigate these elements has the potential to develop world-reading teacher deliberation which surpasses proceduralist approaches in teacher education.

Research on Artificial Intelligence, especially in the field of machine learning, has exploded in the twenty-first century. AI research in universities has long been funded by a combination of government and corporate sources. The funding of AI research in the contemporary university includes technology companies as both funders and generators of research areas. This paper looks at the links between technology companies and AI research in three areas: first, the ways in which technology companies influence both the content and practices of AI research in universities; second, how university research policies enable conditions that blur traditional boundaries between corporate and academic AI research; and third, how an ethos of 'open science', that is increasingly corporatised, moves ideas about AI from universities to companies. We conclude that technology companies influence AI research within established feedback loops in the transformed relationships between economy, society, research, and the contemporary university.

In the last decade education has experienced a shift from privatization to commercialization. This paper argues that the commercialization of education has evolved more recently as a result of artificially intelligent corporate players, enabling forms of insights sales called 'Dark Advertising'. It unpacks how Dark Advertising are profiting from data-driven predictions that reveal where demand is emerging, rather than responding to perceived problems by examining reports by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Able to produce techno-solutions 'just in time' through Dark Advertising, Dark Advertising are considered to be enabling new forms of governance and influencing educational policy. Findings of the examination reveal associations in terms of teachers' privacy, ability to provide consent, and agency. Arguably, circumnavigating Codes of Conduct and Privacy legislation, the author calls for greater scrutiny into various information asymmetries associated with Insight Sales strategies that predict, nudge and experiment with teachers' behavior for profit.

This paper examines the nexus between Indigenous rights, the modern university, and graduate attributes and theorises the potential of the university in postcolonial democracies to address Indigenous rights in its professional education programs. It posits the postcolonial professional as one who has been educated about internationally recognised human rights and economic justice mechanisms, provisions and frameworks within a supportive university policy environment that has focussed both academic work and the formulation of graduate attributes in order that new professionals, emerging from the modern university, will have the skills and knowledge to proactively contribute to the engagement of the professions within postcolonial states. In an era where government funding for universities is becoming increasingly tied to them being able to help businesses and governments to achieve desirable socioeconomic outcomes, and with myriad government policy drivers focussed on improvement of provision of opportunities and services to Indigenous and other traditionally oriented communities globally, this paper investigates the link between graduate attributes and a university's organisational culture to examine the capacity of professional education in the modern university and the new graduates it produces to reorientate from a colonial to a postcolonial engagement with Indigenous peoples. The paper describes international corporate social justice and Indigenous rights mechanisms and their significance for the education of professionals. The paper finds that a university focus on graduate attributes has an influence.

The purpose of this paper is to outline government online training practice. We searched individual research domains of the human-dimensions of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), information and communications technologies (ICT) and instructional design for evidence of either corporate sector or government training practices. We overlapped these domains to investigate primary research outcomes. Corporate sector and government employees encounter barriers to their adoption of web-mediated training. One such barrier is a lack of enthusiasm, possibly due to ineffective instructional design, which in turn affects motivation towards online learning. Although the Australian Government offers training incentives to the general community, a negative attitude towards online training persists in the community, particularly throughout the government sector. Adoption of effective ICT training tools is a critical issue for the corporate sector and government agencies worldwide. This paper presents a compelling case for courseware designers to develop sound instructional design principles to enhance web-mediated learning programmes. (Contains 2 tables.)

Aim/Purpose: Most research on work-based learning and research relates to theory, including perspectives, principles and curricula, but few studies provide contemporary examples of work-based projects, particularly in the Australian context; this paper aims to address that limitation. Background: The Professional Studies Program at University of Southern Queensland is dedicated to offering advanced practice professionals the opportunity to self-direct organizational and work-based research projects to solve real-world workplace problems; two such examples in the Australian context are provided by this paper. Methodology: The paper employs a descriptive approach to analyzing these two work-based research projects and describes the mixed methods used by each researcher. Contribution: The paper provides examples of work-based research in (a) health, safety, and wellness leadership and its relation to corporate performance; and (b) investigator identity in the Australian Public Service; neither topic has been examined before in Australia and little, if anything, is empirically known about these topics internationally. Findings: The paper presents the expected outcomes for each project, including discussion of the 'triple dividend' of personal, organizational, and practice domain benefits; as importantly, the paper presents statements of workplace problems, needs and opportunities, status of the practice domain, background and prior learning of the researchers, learning objectives, work-based research in the practice domain, and lessons learned from research which can be integrated into a structured framework of advanced practice. Recommendations for Practitioners: This is a preliminary study of two work-based research projects in Australia; as these and other real-world projects are completed, further systematic and rigorous reports to the international educational community will reveal the granulated value of conducting projects designed to change organisations and concordant practice domains. Recommendation for Researchers: While introducing the basic elements of research methods and expected out-comes of work-based projects, examples in this paper give only a glimpse into the possible longer-term contributions such research can make to workplaces in Australia. Researchers, as a consequence, need to better understand the relationship between practice domains, research as a valuable investigative tool in workplaces, and organizational and social outcomes. Impact on Society: Work-based learning and research have been developed to not only meet the complex and changing demands of the global workforce but have been implemented to address real-world organizational problems for the benefit of society; this paper provides two examples where such benefit may occur. Future Research: Future research should focus on the investigation of triple-dividend outcomes and whether they are sustainable over the longer term.

Corporations invest heavily in human resource management infrastructures intended amongst other things to provide for the future leadership needs of the corporation. Adopting well-known succession planning techniques, human resource managers routinely engage in corporate leadership identification and development processes, often directly involving the chief executive officer. This paper reports on a tendency for chief executive officers not to take all that much notice of these processes when making appointments to their own senior leadership teams. Drawing on three institutional case studies and in-depth interview data with the 12 chief executive officers, the paper shows that what appears to matter most in these appointments is likely impact of a leadership appointment on corporate profitability, though other pet leadership criteria may also be applied. The paper discusses the implications of this situation for human resource managers. (Contains 1 figure.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the HRD practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Australia to understand the value that MNEs place on investment in their human capital, particularly managerial talent. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on a representative sample of 211 MNEs operating in Australia, this paper investigates the extent (using frequencies) and determinants (using logistic regression analysis) of training and development expenditure, management development strategies, talent management and succession planning policies. Findings: The findings suggest that less than 20 per cent of MNEs operating in Australia are investing over 4 per cent of their annual pay bill on training and development. Furthermore, almost a quarter of firms invest less than 1 per cent in training and development. However, most MNEs invest in their managers and those with high potential through the use of management development programmes, talent management strategies and succession planning. Interestingly, in comparison to US MNEs, Australian MNEs were less likely to use management development or talent management programmes for senior management or high performing staff. Research limitations/implications: The current study is cross-sectional and represents a snapshot of MNEs' HRD practices at one point in time. The study measured the perceptions of the most senior HR manager and did not include the views of other organisational participants. The authors suggest the need for future research studies that incorporate longitudinal research designs and the views of different organisational actors. Practical implications: HR managers or HRD specialists need to develop a strong understanding of the Australian institutional context, as well as demonstrate the importance/business case for an integrative approach to HRD. Originality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to study the HRD practices of MNEs operating in Australia, particularly focusing on the value that MNEs place on their human capital.

Kappan's editor talks with Queensland University researcher Anna Hogan about the rapid growth of commercial activity in Australia's schools and in school systems around the world. Private businesses have always sold textbooks, classroom tools, and other goods and services to public schools, and many teachers are happy to purchase and use them, notes Hogan. However, the biggest corporations in the education market -- such as Pearson and Google -- have grown so large, and are so eager to promote online schools and automated instruction, that teachers have reason to be concerned about the future of their profession, and the public has reason to worry that the quality of their schools will decline.

There are around 400,000 international students studying on Australian campuses in 2018, and the education of international students is Australia's third largest export, behind that of iron ore and coal, thereby playing a significant role in the country's economy and particularly the financial sustainability of Australian universities. Chinese international students, account for one-third in this cohort, are paradoxically both coveted as 'cash cows' and labelled as a 'security threat' to Australian society. The paper examines this particular 'Chinese Student Syndrome' through the lens of 'colonial modernity' and argues that along with the problems of Chinese firms in Australia, Chinese international students on Australian campuses, in many ways, take on the persona of China itself in Australia, and the implications associated with its global rise. At the core of this syndrome lies a deep-seated ontological framing of a historical teleology that centres the Anglo-European pathway to modernity as universal that grounds the epistemic certainty of higher education institutions in Australia and regards Chinese students as the outsider to this teleology.

A review of the literature on corporate universities finds that the peak for research and publishing on the topic occurred between 1998 and 2002 and fell away considerably after 2005. Given the apparent lack of research during the past decade, the purpose of this paper is to present an insight into what has been happening to corporate universities, what changes have occurred and what the emerging trends are in corporate university development. The paper includes two short cases, one from the UK and one from Australia, reflecting developments and trends in corporate universities in the banking industry. The authors examine the move away from corporate universities as highly resourced, geographically based training centres to virtual entities facilitated by the development of digital technologies. At the same time, there appears to be greater emphasis on the alignment of corporate training and people development with the strategic objectives of the organization, so that employees at all levels can provide leadership to the people and functional areas for which they are responsible. The authors conclude by arguing that in an increasingly global and unpredictable digital disruptive age the corporate university must evolve from being a primarily social and knowledge transfer mechanism to facilitating company renewal and transformation; in effect, becoming the organization's learning laboratory.

Purpose: This paper aims to report on case-study research that explores the role of leadership practices, in particular, in enhancing the capacity of an enterprise to learn to create new value from a diverse range of sources. The capacity to sustain value creation over time, and across turbulent environments, increasingly differentiates enterprise performance. Under the umbrella term of "dynamic capabilities", a range of practices have been identified in the literature as contributing to an enterprise's ability to learn to perform this task successfully. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on case studies of three enterprises whose founders have sustained the creation of new value for customers over decades. Through a series of unstructured interviews with each founder, the tacit knowledge gained from years of learning how to create, and re-create, value, is made explicit through hermeneutic analysis of the interview transcripts. Findings: The data identify four key areas of leadership practice that underpin the capacity to learn to continuously create new value over significant periods of time. The most important of these are the social practices that generate and leverage the intangible capital resources (in particular, the resource of trust) that underpin the collaborative learning on which value creation processes depend. Research limitations/implications: As interpretive research, the knowledge accessed through this research is context-dependent and cannot be readily generalised. The validity of the knowledge is high, however, as the epistemological and ontological assumptions of the interpretive research paradigm recognise the political nature of organisations and, thus, of learning and value creation. As such, the knowledge generated by the case analyses offers a rich alternative perspective on the issue under research. Practical implications: The cases illuminate the nature of learning that supports continuous value creation in enterprises. Such learning is framed by several leadership practices that enable the self-reflexivity that underpins the continuous conversion of action-generated tacit knowledge into more strategically useful explicit knowledge. At the core of these leadership practices is stakeholder collaboration and intellectual humility. Social implications: The results show that learning to create sustainable value over time and diverse contexts, has a socio-political dimension in that it depends heavily on generating and leveraging the intangible resources (such as trust, commitment, ideas) that reside within social relationships. Originality/value: The research is located within the interpretive research paradigm and thus offers an alternative view to that of conventional positivist research. Furthermore, the results indicate that learning is a strategic priority in rapidly changing environments and, thus, is a key leadership responsibility. Furthermore, the results show that value creation is a collaborative stakeholder achievement.

Purpose: Curricula is developing from a pure knowledge-based outcome to a more skill-based outcome, with the objective of creating and advancing competencies that meet employer expectations. While the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demand organisations to change practices and adapt to sustainable goals, there is a lack of understanding in how competencies can enhance these goals. The purpose of this paper is twofold: Study 1 explores competencies related to sustainability required in a work force and examines employer perceptions on the existing literature for competencies. Study 2 empirically tests the influence of sustainability scholarship on non-technical competencies in the work force. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach was undertaken. A sample of managers from 39 large Australian organisations participated in the scoping study. This was followed by further interviewing executives from 12 multinational corporations in China to assess the validity of competencies and provide deeper understanding of the issues at hand. The quantitative study analysed a sample of executive responses from 229 multinationals in China using factor and regression analysis to test for the effects of mediation. Findings: The research highlights that the underlying competencies regarding sustainability influences the bigger picture within firms for attaining sustainability. The affective and cognitive growth of sustainability scholarship is governed mainly by a firm's sustainable values. Core organisational values facilitate the development of non-technical competencies. These relationships and their cumulative effect on competencies provide a theoretical framework for acquiring sustainability within organisations. Employees need sustainability scholarship for enhancing sustainability. Sustainability scholarship reflects high-level learning obtained through universities or training. The research found that non-technical competencies such as professional ethical responsibility mediate between core business competencies and sustainability scholarship. Originality/value: By exploring employer's perception of competencies, the study first makes an important contribution in addressing the need to support SDGs by bridging organisational-level competencies and sustainability literacy, which hold significant benefits for practitioners, academia and organisations at large. Second, the theoretical findings strengthen the need for embedding competencies in the curriculum. It conveys the need for sustainability literacy/scholarship to align with organisational training and learning pedagogies, in order to effectively meet industry needs. Third, it provides useful insights on employers' estimation about workplace competencies and broadens our understanding on the contribution that competencies within organisations make to this end.

Theory provides conceptual tools with which to engage in deep thinking about experiences and a shared language by which we can communicate our understandings. Socio-material theory allows us to take account of the role of technology in the performance of learning identities. This has implications for the way that students are produced as learning subjects in relation to the social and material practices they engage in with technologies. This paper describes how Actor Network Theory was used to think about teaching and learning practices in a Year 7 class in Australia. Descriptions of teaching and learning with technology were generated and then analysed as the performance of fluid assemblages. This was done by tracing the many elements that were being combined and recombined to produce the practices of 'breaking out' and 'finding and using information'. The way that learner identities were being performed as concurrently mobile, bounded, self-directed and guided is highlighted.

This paper explores the 'media mentalities' about teachers and their work in the Australian print media. The notion of media mentalities draws on the theoretical concepts of discourse, mentalities, and mediatisation. This refers to the constructed realities and forms of thought in media coverage that circulate particular accounts. These are linked to institutional and journalistic practices in media that are governed by media logics. Drawing on newspaper text and interviews with journalists, the following practices are addressed: agendisation and accountabilisation which are both institutional practices; and the journalistic practices of factualisation, emphasisation, and sensationalisation -- all of which operate globally, to some degree, across and within media institutions and media practitioners, and produce the news about teacher's work within the framework of these practices.

Purpose: This paper describes and analyses an attempt to engage in transformational learning, oriented to the development of a culture of innovation, at a medium-size software development organization in Australia. Design/methodology/approach: An action research methodology was used whereby continuous cycles of strategic social learning were collectively theorized, implemented, evaluated and renewed. Findings: The most important finding of this study is that of the influence of power relations and communication practices upon learning-for-innovation in organizations, and the need for the mediation of this influence through the creation of an organizational role that we have entitled an "external critic". The case also shows the central importance of the relational dimension of social capital generation to learning and the sensitivity of this dimension to power relations. Research limitations/implications: The research provides a rich analysis of one company's attempt to learn how to build and sustain a culture of innovation but, as with all case study research, the findings cannot be reliably generalized to other companies. Similarly, the case generates grounded theory that needs to be tested in other organizational contexts. Practical implications: The case raises the issue of power management in organizations and its relationship to social learning practices. In particular, it argues for the establishment of a "negotiated order" in organizations (through a mission, vision and core values that are collectively and meaningfully constituted) and for the role of an "external critic" whereby the power of the executive, especially, can be mediated effectively in the interests of mission-critical learning within the organization. Originality/value: The paper offers an original strategy for the mediation of power in organizations in the interests of greater learning, creativity and innovation.

The global military-industrial complex is the world's worst polluter, so non-violence is a vital part of a sustainable world. Non-violent activism and education often occur simultaneously, with direct action frequently a dramatic attempt to educate audiences. Therefore, this paper discusses how the arts benefit both educative and non-violent activist processes. In this paper, the arts refer to the whole gamut of artistic activity, from street-theatre to film-making, and combinations thereof. The paper begins by briefly defining environmental education and the "consent" theory of power. It then uses Australian case studies to explore attributes of the arts, which assist environmental education and activism. The case studies show that the arts have many qualities that enhance information transfer and instrumental learning, and expose the covert processes of governments and corporations. The arts can educate holistically and create a liminal atmosphere conducive to emancipatory learning. The celebratory aspects of the arts bring a balance to environmentalism by lightening its often-confronting messages and actions with humour and creativity. The arts can also assist communicative learning, promoting networking and creative group processes. They can reach large audiences, and provide a wide variety of avenues for self-expression and possibilities for inclusion in environmental activism and education. (Contains 8 notes.)

In order to bring the benefits of new education approaches, strategies, and tools to classrooms around the world, we need champions of innovation to blaze the path and serve as role models of creativity and exploration. Teachers are uniquely positioned to serve in this critical role.

Internationally, there is a growing body of research on industry-school partnership, particularly regarding the principles that contribute to effective and efficient partnership models that facilitate vocational-industrial education. However, there are very few articles in the literature that seek to understand the sustainability of industry-school partnerships. Hence, this paper adopted ecological system principles as a framework for understanding the threats that impact on the sustainability of such partnership arrangements. The author reports on a large-scale government led industry-school partnership, the Gateway to Industry Schools Program, established in Queensland, Australia. Central to this initiative is the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy (QMEA), a lead organisation for 34 schools and 12 multi-national sponsor companies. This research used an explanatory case study methodology sourcing data through interviews and documents. The main findings were that resilience and adaptive capacity are critical principles for the sustainability of ISPs.

Objective: Professional sport occupies a prominent cultural position in societies across the globe and commercial organisations make use of this to promote their products. The present scoping review explores existing academic literature on the relationship between professional sports clubs and food and drink marketing and considers how this relationship may impact upon the public's health.Design: The scoping review searched six databases. Experts were also consulted. Records written in languages other than English were excluded. We also excluded records relating to mega events (e.g. Olympics, Football World Cup) and alcohol marketing, because of the attention already given to these.Setting: Professional sports clubs.Results: We identified 18 166 titles, reviewed 163 abstracts and read twenty-six full texts. We included six papers in the review. Four were from Australia and New Zealand. The Australasian literature focused largely on the marketing of foods and beverages to children and the potential impact on consumption. Single papers from researchers in Turkey and the USA were identified. The Turkish paper analysed shirt sponsorship in football leagues internationally and showed food and beverage (including alcohol) companies were the most common sponsors. The US paper examined a mixed reaction to a football team named after an energy drink.Conclusions: Commercial relationships between professional sports clubs and Big Food corporations have largely eluded scrutiny in much of the world. The current review highlights the lack of public health research on these relationships. Research exploring the interdependent commercial practices of food and drink companies and professional sports clubs is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a broad consensus that the corporate sector has an active role in facilitating community development through corporate-community investment. However, there remains uncertainty as to how much the sector should invest without taking on responsibilities and influencing decisions which are traditionally within the realm of the state. This paper explores the contemporary role of mining companies in regional governance through a case study of housing and residential land use planning and supply within the Bowen Basin coal mining and coal seam gas extraction region in Queensland, Australia. Mining companies were found to have a broad role in planning and development with far-reaching implications for land use and the wider regional community. These arrangements have emerged in response to corporate sensibilities, some recent policy requirements and most importantly, in pragmatic response to the institutional void apparent in many regional communities. In the absence of an effective regional framework with a clear and defined role for governments and corporations, powerful corporate interests risk effectively "capturing" the regional development agenda within a framework that works on short-term paternalism rather than long-term regional partnerships. This also has implications for the efficiency of governance. Stronger institutional arrangements need to be developed to strengthen the capacity of the state to oversee these relationships. Regional governance and planning theory also needs to address this deficit. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

Rejecting notions of "creativity" as self-realisation through free expression, this article argues that such discourses currently driving education policy comprise intellectual technologies for the production of student subjectivities required by neoliberal contexts. Using a governmentality framework, it locates the conditions of possibility for the creative subject within dominant policy articulations of the global knowledge economy and emerging rationalities of risk and uncertainty. The analysis focuses on an industry school partnership formed by a state education system in Queensland, Australia, and several multinational corporations. It examines how the partnership has emerged as a novel neoliberal space for the constitution of new education figures such as the enterprising teacher and the entrepreneurial student-worker. These subjectivities are functional to the devolved governing strategy of social investment, which seeks to achieve a broad reconstitution of relationships between students, schools and industry in Queensland. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper seeks to investigate the extent of influence of corporate (or organisational) responsibility on university students' career decision-making. It reports on a pilot study conducted at the University of Sydney which aims to: explore students' ethical, professional and social understanding regarding corporate responsibility; determine the importance of these issues relevant to other career values in career decision-making and choice of employer; understand on what basis students currently judge employers on these issues and how these career decisions are arrived at, and finally identify gaps in current careers resources with the aim of using this information to develop relevant resources. Findings include a strong awareness of the elements of corporate responsibility regarding career decision-making with implications for employers, careers practitioners and theorists. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Climate change represents the grandest of challenges facing humanity. In the space of two centuries of industrial development, human civilization has changed the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, with devastating consequences. Business organizations are central to this challenge, in that they support the production of escalating greenhouse gas emissions but also offer innovative ways to decarbonize our economies. In this paper, we examine how businesses respond to climate change. Based on five in-depth case studies of major Australian corporations over a 10-year period (2005-2015), we identify three key stages in the corporate translation of climate change: framing, localizing, and normalizing. We develop a grounded model that explains how the revolutionary import of grand challenges is converted into the mundane and comfortable concerns of "business as usual." We find that critique is the major driver of this process by continuously revealing the tensions between the demands of the grand challenge and business imperatives. Our paper contributes to the literature on business and the natural environment by identifying how and why corporate environmental initiatives deteriorate over time. More specifically, we highlight the policy limitations of a reliance on business and market responses to the climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What motivates corporate political action? Are corporations motivated by their own narrow economic self-interest; are they committed to pursuing larger class interests; or are corporations instruments for status groups to pursue their own agendas? Sociologists have been divided over this question for much of the last century. This paper introduces a novel case - that of Australia - and an extensive dataset of over 1,500 corporations and 7,500 directors. The paper attempts to understand the motives of corporate political action by examining patterns of corporate political donations. Using statistical modelling, supported by qualitative evidence, the paper argues that, in the Australian case, corporate political action is largely motivated by the narrow economic self-interest of individual corporations. Firms' interests are, consistent with regulatory environment theory, defined by the nature of government regulation in their industry: those in highly regulated industries (such as banking) and those dependent on government support (such as defence) tend to adopt a strategy of hedging their political support, and make bipartisan donations (to both major parties). In contrast, firms facing hostile regulation (such as timber or mining), and those without strong dependence on state support (such as small companies) tend to adopt a strategy of conservative partisanship, and make conservative-only donations. This paper argues that regulatory environment theory needs to be modified to incorporate greater emphasis on the subjective political judgements of corporations facing hostile regulation: a corporation's adoption of conservative partisanship or hedging is not just a product of the objective regulation they face, but also whether corporate leaders judge such regulation as politically inevitable or something that can be resisted. Such a judgement is highly subjective, introducing a dynamic and unpredictable dimension to corporate political action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discover the types of HR outsourcing processes employed by Australian organisations and their relationship to outsourcing outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based upon the results of a survey of medium to large Australian organisations. The survey data were analysed using quantitative analysis to extract the types of HR outsourcing processes, outcomes, and their relationship. Findings - The analyses identified three types of HR outsourcing processes: screening and selecting, strategic fit, and managing and monitoring. The "strategic fit" process exhibited the strongest relationship to the HR outsourcing outcome followed by the "managing and monitoring" process. The "screening and selecting" did not correlate with HR outsourcing outcome. For each type of HR outsourcing process no correlation was found with the outsourced HR functions. It was found that the most important criteria for selecting an outsourced service provider were trustworthiness, reputation in the industry, cost structure, and history with the organisation. The least important criteria were the service provider's financial position and cultural similarity with the organisation. Research limitations/implications - The research design acquired information from a single participant from each organisation which may result in a one-dimensional view. In addition, the data were collected from Australian organisations limiting its generalisation globally. Environmental and political factors were not included in the study. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to consider the influence of these factors on the HR outsourcing process. Practical implications - The discovered HR outsourcing processes, although different from the generic HR outsourcing model, can be used by organisations to outsource HR functions in a more efficient and effective manner within the Australian context. The research results also indicate the importance for service providers to develop a good reputation and establish trust. Originality/value - This study is the first quantitative research that determines the specific HR outsourcing processes and how they related to the HR outsourcing outcome in medium to large Australian organisations. The identification of these process types is unique and useful in validating and refining HR outsourcing knowledge within the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the association between corporate performance and the probability of chief executive officer (CEO) dismissal for large corporations in Australia. Consistent with prior US and UK studies, corporate performance is negatively related to the probability of CEO dismissal, using both accounting and market-based performance measures. This paper also investigates whether key corporate governance characteristics affect the likelihood of CEO dismissal, by examining their effect on the strength of the negative association between corporate performance and CEO dismissal. The only significant variable is size of the board. Although its effect is opposite to that hypothesized, this paper provides a plausible explanation. Overall, the results are consistent with shareholder wealth considerations dominating board behaviour in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique perspective into user difficulties working with the functional business classification scheme (BCS) to register, search and retrieve corporate information at the Western Australia Police (WA Police). Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a single case study. Questionnaire and interview data were collected and analysed from a sample of ten EDRMS users on their perspectives of working with the BCS. An interpretive analysis methodology was used, and inductive reasoning was used for thematic analysis and sense making of the textual data from the transcripts. Findings – Although the research participants were confident working with the BCS, they reported difficulties finding an appropriate folder that matched the information to be classified and deciding where to file the information. Participants reported that the design and structure of the BCS and training were identified as areas needing improvement. Research limitations/implications – Paradigm shifts in the record-keeping role from the professional to the user may have some bearing on the difficulties users face when dealing with their record-keeping responsibilities. The participants provided comments and suggestions for how to make the BCS more user-friendly, more meaningful and more aligned to the business processes of the users that are practicable and workable solutions for the records professionals to implement. Practical implications – This paper provides a unique user perspective of a BCS, their difficulties working with it and how these difficulties can be resolved in a government organisation. Originality/value – This paper provides a unique user perspective of a BCS, their difficulties working with it and how these difficulties can be resolved in a government organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This précis is from Research Paper #1/96, by Jennifer Hill, and published by the Australian Investment Managers’ Association, 1996. It supplements, as a matter of record, the conclusions of the UK report of a study group chaired by Sir Richard Greenbury, and published in Corporate Governance – an international review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys trust deeds supporting listed public debt issues by Australian industrial and commercial companies. It provides evidence on the restrictive covenants and the accounting rules negotiated therein. The survey indicates cross-sectional variation in the covenants/rules which is related to the nature of the debt. The paper also compares the negotiated rules with mandated accounting standards. As in the U.S. the effect of the negotiated accounting rules is, generally, to reduce management's ability to relax constrictive covenants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VicTrack in the State of Victoria in Australia began using fair value to value its assets in 2011. In doing this the company encountered the difficulties normally associated with valuing long-lived assets that are specific to their use. In this paper, a case study is presented centred on VicTrack in order to provide information on the basic difficulties of determining the fair value of assets that are long-lived, specific-to-use and in markets that are incomplete; and to better understand some of the implications of the switch from historical costs to fair value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of an economy taking a geographical journey highlights the importance of changing spatialities and how these shape and result from economic change. It also focuses on the geographical scaling of key processes. Using these insights, this paper explores three decades of economic change in Australia in which the nation State has played a central role in the operation of markets and accumulation processes, albeit with dramatic shifts in the qualitative nature of that role. Such shifts have been crucial during the emergence of Australia's particular variety of neoliberalism. The paper explores the liberalisation of Australia's financial and corporate environment, trade policies and the industrial relations environment. The three cases suggest contradictions inherent in the State's adherence to a neoliberal reform agenda, in the name of globalisation, while facing: first, political needs to retain sovereignty over national security and tighten border protection; and second, multi-scaled political processes including clashes with State governments grappling with regional and local impacts of change. There has been no simple roll-out of neoliberalism in Australia since the mid 1990s. Geographical scales, constructed contingently by social and political agents, have contributed in fundamental ways to the power and direction of economic reform. Despite powerful re-scalings to both global and local levels over the past three decades, there is no evidence of a diminished role for the nation State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has introduced legislation that is aimed at preventing a person from entering into agreements or conducting transactions with the intention of defeating the recovery of employee entitlements. It is essentially aimed at directors and their behaviour in the pre-appointment period. This paper discusses the history leading up to such a legislative move and the likely benign impact now that the Corporations Act in Australia prohibits such behaviour. Further, the paper argues that mooted changes to the legislation giving employees a ‘maximum priority’ ahead of secured creditors is unnecessary. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses administrative data from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to model the effective tax rates (ETRs) of large Australian corporates. The extent to which there is any habit persistence in ETRs is also examined. The results suggest that unobserved entity heterogeneity is important in explaining ETRs. In terms of observed heterogeneity, entity size, level of leverage, capital intensity, foreign income and R&D, are important explanators of ETRs. There is also evidence of a significant amount of habit persistence, implying that ETRs converge monotonically towards the statutory rate of corporation tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish what form of management structure, ownership structure and financial characteristics are exhibited by firms that propose and subsequently adopt anti-takeover charter amendments (ATCAs) in Australia over the period June 1986 to December 1990. An ATCA is a restriction of partial takeover activity implemented though shareholder approval to changes in a firm’s constitution. Approval for such changes is obtained through majority agreement from a plebiscite of shareholders. The study adopts a control sample design to analyse if characteristics differ statistically from adopting ATCA firms and those which do not adopt ATCAs during the investigation period. Following this, a logit analysis establishes the importance of variables considered to have a role in distinguishing between ATCA adoptees and firms without ATCAs. This research is motivated by the fact that little is known about the reasons for alternative corporate governance structures in Australia and is a natural extension to Armstrong, Lange and Woo (1994) which determined that firms adopting ATCAs were likely to experience increases in firm value around the announcement date of the ATCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business is a part of the society. Companies now should not only focus on its financial returns, but should also take utmost care in giving back to the society in which it operates. Every company should be socially responsible and should also broaden its horizons from its stakeholders to general public, at large. It should not only carry on social activities which benefit the public at large, but also report the same in order to create more awareness. Social performance reporting would thus motivate all the companies to expand from within and reach out to the society as a whole. However, there exists a problem of its reporting. "How to measure" and "What to report" are another two questions to be answered upon. This paper attempts to clarify what social accounting is all about- mainly focusing on the reporting practices and measurement of the few randomly selected index based Indian and Australian companies. The objective of this study is to measure the quantity and quality aspects of voluntary social performance disclosures in the various reports of the few randomly selected index based Indian and Australian companies. The result may serve a base or the path towards better social performance disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the market-book relation of Australian and US firms using firm-level dynamic analysis of using annual data for a long-run period in error correction modelling. This paper contributes to a recent call for alternative ways of estimating Ohlson-type linear valuation models (Ohlson and Kim, 2015). Log transformations of the data are used in this study to improve the statistical properties of the models. This study contributes to the findings on linear valuation model estimation for long-run firms. Based on the returns model estimation, we find evidence of a higher level of co-integration between market and book values for Australian firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]