Search

A philosophical and communication shift is needed in river management if we are to meet sustainable development goals and tackle environmental challenges brought about by ongoing anthropogenic and climate change. In some parts of the world, recovery‐enhancement approaches to river management have been adopted, communicated and used for many years. At the heart of these approaches lies an understanding of the biogeomorphic forms, processes and evolutionary trajectories of rivers that differs philosophically from notions of restoration, rewilding or creation of a utopian natural state. Instead, recovery‐enhancement approaches aim to improve the biogeomorphic condition of rivers, recognising that they are dynamic entities and new evolutionary trajectories and novel ecosystems are being created that are now part of the environment. Accepting shifting baselines and moving targets is inherent as boundary conditions (water, sediment and vegetation interactions) continue to be altered under the influence of anthropogenic and climate change, and the impacts of 'unprecedented' wildfires, floods, heatwaves and drought are manifested on the ground. The river management sector has not yet fully adapted to this reality with large amounts of applied science and on‐ground practice still focussed on restoration, re‐engineering and rewilding, words which in themselves produce a false impression of the aims, visions and achievability of river management. Embracing recovery‐enhancement approaches to river management requires a conscious shift in communication strategies and terminology to present more realistic expectations and possibilities for river condition improvement, a responsibility that is incumbent upon us, the scientists and practitioners, who work in the applied science and river management profession. In this Short Communication, I use a case study from eastern Australia to illustrate what biogeomorphic river recovery can look like. I use this to discuss the potential for adoption of a recovery‐enhancement approach to river management more broadly, and call on scientists and practitioners to make a conscious philosophical and communications shift when working in applied science and river management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Fire danger rating systems are used daily across Australia to support fire management operations and communications to the general public regarding potential fire danger. Aims: In this paper, we introduce the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS), providing a short historical account of fire danger rating in Australia as well as the requirements for an improved forecast system. Methods: The AFDRS combines nationally consistent, spatially explicit fuel information with forecast weather and advanced fire behaviour models and knowledge to produce locally relevant ratings of fire behaviour potential. Key results: A well-defined framework is essential for categorising and defining fire danger based on operational response, the potential for impact and observable characteristics of fire incidents. The AFDRS is modular, supporting continuous and incremental improvements and allowing upgrades to components in response to new science. Conclusions: The AFDRS provides a new method to estimate fire danger based on the best available fire behaviour models, leading to potentially significant improvements in the way fire danger is calculated, forecast and interpreted. Implications: The Australian Fire Danger Rating System was implemented in 2022, the most significant change to fire danger forecasting in Australia in more than 50 years. We introduce the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS), providing a history of fire danger rating in Australia and requirement for advancements. We describe development, design principles and the supporting framework of the AFDRS as an introduction to subsequent papers in this series. This article belongs to the Collection Australian Fire Danger Rating System. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on Australian data regarding the predictors of unmet demand for labor unions in non-union workplaces as of 2017, and it mentions problems involving declining labor union membership and the loss of institutional power. The ability to recruit non-union employees to join a labor union is examined, along with information about the willingness to join a labor union and a perceived lack of managerial responsiveness to workers.

Purpose - This study aims to explore deterrents to knowledge-sharing in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Effective knowledge-sharing is fundamental to stimulation of the process of knowledge absorption. The limited proximal communication between the employees in the pharmaceutical industry stifles their knowledge-sharing behaviour significantly. Design/methodology/approach - A cross-sectional case study, consisting of semi-structured interviews with managers and scientists, was conducted in a multinational pharmaceutical company in Australia. Respondents were asked to answer questions regarding their current knowledge-sharing practices and to identify organisational deterrents to knowledge-sharing. The data were condensed into themes according to the thematic analysis method. Findings - The pharmaceutical industry is extensively regulated and its excessive competitiveness is cultivating organisational reticence towards the development of a knowledge-sharing culture. Nine categories of deterrents to intra- (within) and inter-organisational (between organisations) knowledge-sharing have been identified. These categories include high cost of sharing knowledge, information technology limitations, knowledge-hiding, lack of socialisation, lack of trust culture, non-educational mindset, organisational politics, poor leadership and time pressure. Research limitations/implications - The population of this study consists of managers and practitioners working for a pharmaceutical company. Hence, the generalisability of the findings to other health-care settings is unknown. Practical implications - The findings have implications for leaders and managers who should be aware of these professional diversities, instigators as well as the ripple effects of limited knowledge-sharing to guide the organisation towards developing an optimal knowledge-sharing culture. Originality/value - A focussed investigation of knowledge-sharing behaviour within the pharmaceutical industry in Australia, considering the pressure applied to this industry over the past decade. This case study specifically focusses on the diversity of deterrents to knowledge-sharing in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Wide Web can enhance the communication of social and environmental issues, commonly referred to as sustainability communication. This paper explored the factors that influence the use of the web for sustainability communication. Previous literature identified economic factors, internal organisational factors and external stakeholder influences as particularly influential. This case study, in the context of three Australian mining companies, and through the use of interviews and website monitoring, expands upon the literature by confirming these factors and by identifying two additional factors that impact the corporate use of the web for sustainability communications. These are referred to as the “double-edged sword” and organisational restructuring. This study, through a focus on a particular communication medium, the web, and a socially and environmentally sensitive industry, the Australian minerals industry, highlighted that the impact of the medium used for sustainability communication requires conceptual insights that extend beyond the current understanding of sustainability accounting and reporting. In addition to this theoretical contribution, this study contributes to the emerging web-based sustainability communication literature, and provides insights to companies and their stakeholders into future use of the web for communication of social and environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What behaviours define Bullying and why do these occur? When is a behaviour not Bullying? More importantly, what can an organisation do to minimise the potential for Bullying to occur in their workplace? This paper seeks to answer these questions using the experiences of a corporate ombudsman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to ascertain to what extent organisations specifically use communication skills as a key criterion in their selection and subsequent development of managerial staff. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents empirical findings from semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with senior HR managers in large to medium sized organisations in Southern Australia. Findings - This study suggests that HR practitioners regard communication skills as subsumed under a generic idea of leadership. There were no specific programs reported that explicitly targeted communication skills. Practical implications - The findings contribute to knowledge concerning the nature of communication skills for managerial staff such as, interpersonal, verbal, written and listening skills. Further, time needs to be allocated to the audit of training in the development of communication skills so that HR professionals are clear on the action that needs to be taken. Originality/value - The paper will be of value to researchers, HR practitioners and consultants in the management development field. The paper's main finding is that despite repeated claims that communication skills are important for successful managerial performance, HR managers only assess these informally during managerial selection and rarely target these skills in training staff for managerial positions. It is recommended that HR staff need to review these practices towards a more targeted communication skills appraisal that would measure the extent to which these skills are already apparent at selection and develop further following additional training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ineffective communication has been identified as the major cause of critical incidents in public hospitals in Australia. Critical incidents are adverse events leading to avoidable patient harm. This article discusses a study that focused on spoken interactions between clinicians and patients in the emergency department of a large, public teaching hospital in New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of the study was to identify successful and unsuccessful communication encounters. It combined two complementary modes of analysis: qualitative ethnographic analysis of the social practices of emergency department healthcare and discourse analysis of the talk between clinicians and patients. This allowed the researchers to analyse how talk is socially organised around healthcare practices and how language and other factors impact on the effectiveness of communication. The complex, high stress, unpredictable and dynamic work of emergency departments constructs particular challenges for effective communication. The article analyses patient-clinician interactions within the organisational and professional practices of the emergency department and highlights some systemic and communication issues. It concludes with some implications for the professional development of clinicians and an outline of ongoing research in emergency departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to identify culturally distinct features that characterise management discourse in 20 meetings in two Australian banks, as compared with Hong Kong Chinese discourse in similar contexts. Australian managers were found to display a discourse pattern of leadership styles markedly different from the Hong Kong Chinese. For instance, the Australians exhibit a distinctive consultative mode. Instead of using genuine bipolar and multiple choice questions like the Hong Kong Chinese, the Australian managers often ask leading and loaded questions to enlist support from the subordinates. Unlike the Hong Kong Chinese managers who invite subordinates' participation in problem solving, the Australian managers tend to engage in perfunctory consensus-checking before making final decisions. While such features are attributable to cultural and organisational differences, they also indicate a configuration of Australian management styles rather different from that expostulated in the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the contributions of Australian accountant Raymond John Chambers to accounting communication. Arguably, accounting is as much about communication as it is to do with measurement. No matter how effective the process of accounting quantification, its resultant data will be less than useful unless they are communicated adequately. Hence, Chambers has recognized these points consistently and continuously in his writings, typically identifying accounting as a form of communication between organizational entities and interested parties and accounting communication as a basis for accounting theory. Indeed, he has linked accounting positively with communication theory. Chambers reveals his thinking on the communication aspect of accounting, that it is concerned with the transmission of messages about economic events and effects. As well, accounting can be seen as a function concerned with transmitting a series of signals about economic events and effects with the intention of modifying the behavior of their recipients. This contrasts with the traditional view of accounting as a series of procedural techniques designed to compute required quantifications of economic transactions and it reveals the need to educate accountants in the nature of communication systems.