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This article examines the impact of compulsory voting on grassroots electioneering in Australia between 1910 and 1951. It argues that the introduction of compulsory voting resulted in a shift from mobilization-focused campaigns to more persuasive campaigns. Grassroots campaigners in the 1930s and 1940s adopted new methods, such as amplifier campaigning and candidate-focused leaflets, to reach a larger and less engaged electorate. The article emphasizes the significance of these changes in campaign practices and highlights the continued use of candidate-focused literature and personal canvassing in modern times. [Extracted from the article]

This paper reports on the results of a comparative case study of innovation capability in Australian manufacturing companies. Following a review of the salient literature in the field, six case studies were undertaken with organisations having a degree of variance across company size, ownership type and industry sector. All the cases reflected a history of successful innovation and the managers were interviewed about the attributes of innovation and the ways in which sustained innovation was manifested in their organisations. Based on the interview data, a model of innovation capability was developed with a view to identifying attributes common to systematic and sustained innovation. These companies derived competitive advantage from differentiation through their innovation. The implications of the model for manufacturing organisations in general, and their managers in particular, are subsequently discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reproductive performance in dairy cattle has declined over the last 50 years as an unintended consequence of selection for high milk yield. Since the early 2000s, dairy geneticists have released successive versions of fertility estimated breeding values (EBV) to assist in reversing this trend. At the herd level, fertility EBV can help managers accelerate improvements in reproductive performance by acting as a second selection criteria when used in tandem with a breeding index. However, use of the fertility EBV in sire selection currently varies between herd managers. The aim of this study was to better understand the reasons why herd managers choose or do not choose to select high-fertility EBV sires, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a social research framework. Thirty-five Victorian dairy herd managers were recruited as part of a larger study investigating the daughter fertility Australian Breeding Value and interviewed using a series of questions examining TPB constructs. The interviews were recorded and transcribed using template analysis. A wide range of herd manager types were enrolled into the study, with representation from diverse systems. Out of the 35 herd managers, 27 included fertility in their list of high-priority breeding objectives. A wide variation in results was consistent with previous studies that have demonstrated marked heterogeneity in herd manager attitudes toward bull selection. Herd manager-perceived barriers to selection of sires with high daughter fertility EBV included a lack of high daughter fertility bulls with other desirable traits, a lack of trust in the fertility EBV or in the Australian EBV system, difficulty in interpreting international proofs, information overload, semen prices, low bull reliability, and difficulty in understanding bull catalogs. Not all herd managers found the process problematic, however, particularly if a breeding consultant was employed to select all or most of the sires. Herd manager-perceived barriers for choosing to select daughter fertility as a breeding objective include a lack of awareness of the EBV, a lack of interest in genetics in general, low confidence in the impact of genetic selection for fertility, and a feeling that fertility was not important for their production system. The results of this study suggest that animal geneticists and on-farm service providers need to work together to allow the opportunities arising from appropriate use of fertility EBV to be realized more broadly across the dairy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the relationships of perceptual congruence of management behavior and its effects on salesperson job satisfaction and effort. The data for this study was based on sales manager and salesperson evaluations of one another. In addition, we extend this study to a cross-cultural examination of U.S. and Australian sales forces. The survey findings suggest salesperson leadership perceptual congruence is an important antecedent to job satisfaction and effort. The results also indicate significant differences between Australian and U.S. sales personnel. Implications for research and practice are developed which recognize the importance of perceived differences of leadership perceptual congruence on intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction and effort for sales personnel in both countries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the private sector, incentive plans are one of the major means used by Boards of Directors to align the interests of senior management with organizational interests. However, research conducted in the energy and resources sector revealed a poor alignment between incentive plans and the need to have senior management focus on safety. The research discussed here examined long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) for senior executives in the construction sector to investigate whether these direct senior managers attention to long-term safety objectives and if they include any long-term safety indicators. Annual Reports of publicly listed companies in the Australian non-domestic construction sector were used as the major information source and subjected to content analysis. Despite a strong safety commitment expressed by all the companies, LTIPs were exclusively associated with financial indicators. Although safety indicators are included in Annual Reports, these only appear in short-term incentive plans, indicating that senior executives are not incentivized to align their long-term decision-making with long-term safety objectives. Findings from the research demonstrate that valid and meaningful safety indicators should be developed and included in LTIPs in order to better align the focus of senior management to include safety performance in the construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a scoping review of literature on human resource management ( HRM) and management practice that impacts on workers with physical, mental health and intellectual disabilities, employed or entering paid employment. The aim is to illuminate the use of HRM practices, managerial attitudes and employee outcomes in the disability literature. The methodological research framework commenced with seven databases and was supported with evidenced-based literature to find three main themes. Themes highlight the management and employer support for workers with disabilities, discrimination and attitudes towards employment of this cohort of workers, and performance and employment outcomes. As governments around the world seek to reduce welfare costs and increase the employment of people with disabilities this paper is timely. Overall, the paper contributes to a dearth of literature on the management of people with disabilities at the workplace to unpack the key barriers, challenges and trends, and develop a comprehensive research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofit volunteer motivations have been widely researched and discussed as the sector is volunteer-dependent. For nonprofit, community-based events, volunteers frequently fulfill multiple roles, yet motivations across roles are infrequently studied. This study explores managers’ views of volunteers across roles for Open Gardens Australia and whether existing typologies for leisure motivations and generic volunteering can be used to classify volunteer motivations. Examining managers’ perceptions is important as managers deliver volunteer-driven events by designing strategies to attract and manage volunteers’ experiences. Results suggest that existing typologies do not adequately capture the motivations of volunteers for these events with additional motivations of significance for some roles being - Obligation, Inertia, Filling a Personal Void or Gap, Elitism and Competitiveness. Of the 14 motivations found, many overlap and more than half may be simultaneously altruistic and egoistic, suggesting complex interactions within and across the different motivations, although motivational differences across volunteer rolesare limited. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports results of analyses of data from an online 360° feedback survey with 19 heads of school, 23 line managers and 120 significant others (peers, academic staff and administrative staff) from Australian universities. It focuses on the heads' effectiveness, and the extent and importance of several leadership roles. A series of repeated measures analyses of variance that examined the differences between the heads' of school self-perceptions and the perceptions of their line managers and significant others were undertaken. The analysis of the effectiveness data showed that the heads' of school self-evaluations were lower (but not significantly so) than the scores from the other two groups. The three groups agreed on how much importance they ascribed to the leadership roles, and on the extent to which these roles were displayed by the heads of school. There were significant differences between the roles in the extent to which they were displayed and considered important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The current research aims to determine to what extent Australian managers are behaviourally flexible and to identify what factors are associated with the development of leader behavioural flexibility (LBF) and its contribution to positive organisational outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - Because of the exploratory nature of the questions to be addressed, a qualitative approach to data collection was selected. In particular, the grounded theory methodology was utilised due to its ability to aid with the theory building process. Semi-structured interviews based on the critical incident interview technique were used as the data source. Findings - The findings illustrate that the Australian managers who participated in this study exhibited significant degrees of LBF. The results also suggest that education level and group size may be antecedents to LBF. In addition, it appears that leader-member exchange may mediate the relationship between LBF and positive organisational outcomes, while social intelligence may moderate this relationship. Research limitations/implications - The current research makes several contributions in terms of theoretical development and reveals a richer insight into the underlying processes associated with the relationship between LBF and positive organisational outcomes. Practical implications - As the current research was conducted in the field with 20 practising organisational managers, the findings also highlight some important practical applications regarding LBF. Originality/value - Although previous studies have been able to establish a relationship between LBF and positive organisational outcomes, they have explained very little about the processes associated with this relationship. The present study attempted to uncover some of these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of innovation within organizations has been demonstrated on numerous occasions, which has subsequently led to the identification of effective leadership as a potential catalyst. Accordingly, empirical findings have repeatedly demonstrated a positive relationship between transformational leadership and work unit effectiveness measures. This study explores the relationship between transformational leadership and employee innovative work behaviour, additionally examining the moderating effect of gender of the manager and gender of the employee. Data were gathered within four Australian hospitals, generating a dataset of 335 respondents. The findings revealed a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership and innovative work behaviour. Furthermore, gender of the manager moderated the latter relationship, indicating that employees report more innovative behaviour when the transformational leadership is displayed by male in comparison with female managers, confirming our gender bias hypothesis. No significant effect was found for the three-way interaction of transformational leadership, gender of the manager, and gender of the employee. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian firms are attempting to internationalize and to become global companies. One way of staffing the forays into international business is by incorporating international work into domestic jobs. This study sought to understand the factors related to the amount of international work Australians perform in their domestic jobs. Alumni from an Australian university were surveyed, providing 1,046 full-time domestic employees working in a range of industries. Regression analysis showed that, beyond individual and organizational controls, employees performed more international work in domestic jobs when they worked in organizations at higher than at lower international levels with human resource support, worked in jobs at higher rather than at lower managerial levels and had international skills. However, there was no or little link with employees' international attitudes or family situation. As predicted, the managerial level of the job made a difference to the effects of the work environment. Working in MNCs and domestic organizations with operations abroad was related to the amount of international work in domestic jobs performed by senior managers and executives more than by lower and middle managers or subordinates and supervisors. Analysis of open-ended responses shows the major reasons Australians take up domestic international work are money, professional development and challenging content. The major reasons they would not are family commitments and disruption, in contrast to the quantitative results in which family factors are unimportant. The difference between the quantitative and qualitative results and the importance of family factors, international skills versus attitudes and human resource support are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the author's views on the application of public policy, including social marketing, to programs designed to control an environmentally harmful introduced species in Australia. Managers involved in dealing with the issue identify a range of factors that contribute to the lack of success of existing control programs. The results suggest that there needs to be a broad-based integrated program that incorporates changes in stakeholders' attitudes as well as governmental resources and support for implementation of relevant initiatives.

This study investigated the business ethics experiences of Australian managers in China, using qualitative methodology to identify themes. Thirty-one Australian managers who had spent on average 8.7 years working in business connected to China participated in in-depth interviews regarding their business ethics experiences in China. Commonly, managers identified issues relating to a broad spectrum which could be labelled "bribery and facilitation". Other repeated themes included requests for visa assistance, employee theft, nepotism and non-adherence to contractual obligations. This study has important implications for helping Australian managers improve the way they approach potential ethical situations in China. Four key coping strategies can be identified from the data: managers spoke of not compromising their own morals, of attempting to understand the motivation of Chinese colleagues, of talking to others and of adhering to company policy. These strategies suggest practical steps may be taken by organisations when training managers for business activities in China. In particular, structuring of mentoring relationships between experienced and less experienced practitioners may be of assistance. Cultural training for managers and clear company policy on contentious issues such as bribery may also be of benefit. The themes identified in the study also have implications for academics researching expatriate business peoples' experiences in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparative study of Malaysian and Australian managers used the Carson and Bedeian multidimensional career commitment measure and the individualism-collectivism scale developed by Singelis et al. (1995) in a survey to test the hypothesis that career commitment is likely to be higher in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. Malaysian managers were more collectivistic but also more vertically individualistic than Australian managers, and the two groups differed only in their levels of career resilience commitment and were not significantly different in career identity and career planning commitment. These results may reflect a shift from collectivism towards individualism with Malaysia's economic development, but collectivism may also be adapting to economic development and social change and the findings add weight to recent criticism of accepted conceptualizations of cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Share buy-backs are a relatively new concept in the Australian business environment. This study surveys managements’ motivations and various other aspects concerning share buy-back activity. The results reveal that these motivations vary across the five different types of buy-backs. For on-market buy-backs the most relevant motivations are to improve financial performance (i.e., earnings per share) and financial position (i.e., net asset backing per share) followed by signalling of future expectations or underpricing. Interestingly, managements’ response regarding the relevant motivations is similar regardless of whether their companies had conducted a buy-back or not. This provides evidence of widespread support for the relevant motivations. In addition, Australian managers believe that they are familiar with the potential benefits and legislative requirements of buy-backs, but that their shareholders often do not understand or are not favourably disposed towards buy-back events. Finally, two major explanations are identified for the initial conservatism towards buy-backs. Those explanations are (i) legal complexity and cost and (ii) the perceived negative disposition of the sharemarket towards buy-backs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analysed the way 20 managers in the information technology industry in Australia viewed their lives, and identified two dimensions of central importance cutting across the work. family and leisure spheres encompassed by them. One dimension was positively loaded towards activities which were challenging, creative and under the individual's control. These activities were enjoyable, and included examples such as consulting with clients, creating new business, and communicating and dealing with others, whether at work or at home. The opposite pole of this dimension involved activities such as completing paperwork, general administration, doing the shopping, and disciplining the children. Such activities were seen as necessary, routine or stressful, and were generally disliked. The other dimension dealt with activities which, at one pole, were emotionally involving or involved moral standards, and included examples such as attending meetings, doing things as a family, and settling disputes, either at work or at home. At the other pole were activities which were usually done alone and involved no sense of social or moral obligation. Leisure activities typically fell into this category. The results indicated that these managers generally pursued a lifestyle which was seen to be non-stressful, and one valued for the challenge, enjoyment, freedom of choice and personal control which it offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the motivation and satisfaction of Australian managers with those of managers in other countries. To do this, it is necessary to find out both the importance they attribute to the various needs they are attempting to satisfy through their jobs and the extent to which the needs are being satisfied. There is an association between the importance of a need and the extent to which it is dissatisfied. The results for the Australian managers are the same as for all managers in the study, both in order of importance and in order of dissatisfaction. No one group of countries was found to be clearly more satisfied than other groups on all types of needs. On self-actualization and autonomy Japan is the most satisfied; on social security the England-U.S. duo is the most satisfied.

The article presents an investigation which executives and leader's perceptions have for each other's attitudes to industrial relations in Australia. The investigation that relates to a particular groups of union leaders in one country at a particular time show a broader issue which concerned with the sources of perceptual distortion. The union leaders and executives were given a questionnaire which contained 17 forced-choice items and one open-ended item. After expressing its opinion, the results reveals that there is a strong net tendency to overestimate or underestimate on a number of items. However, the degree of consensus of predictions varies widely on the different items and the correlation with accuracy of perceptions.

No study has yet examined whether self-esteem moderates the impact of performance-appraisal confidence on work attitudes. In Australia, 103 middle managers working for a variety of organizations, both public and private, completed the 5-item scale of general confidence in performance appraisal. Work attitudes were measured by a scale consisting of three 7-point subscales assessing job involvement, work motivation, and job satisfaction. A stepwise multiple regression was conducted to test whether self-esteem interacts with confidence in determining differences in work attitudes, with the interaction term entered after the main effects of confidence and self-esteem had been assessed. Results suggest that, for these managers, work attitudes are positively affected both by their confidence in performance appraisals and by their self-esteem. Also, the impact of confidence on work attitudes appears to be moderated by self-esteem, with the attitudes of low self-esteem managers affected more by confidence than those of high self-esteem managers.

The article discusses the findings of an international survey conducted by Robert Half among managers. The survey was participated by over 5,000 managers from 17 countries. Results show that 17 percent of New Zealand managers work three weekends or more per month which states that they work longer compared with their counterparts in other countries. It also found that only 20 percent of Australians and 26 percent of New Zealanders always switch-off their work phones and emails during weekends.