Search results

Senior Indigenous leadership positions across the Australian higher education sector has increased over the past decade. Despite this advancement, there is limited understanding in terms of how to best integrate Indigenous leadership into existing governance structures of Australian universities. In 2018 the Walan Mayiny: Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education project commenced, aimed at establishing a model of best practice for the inclusivity of Indigenous leadership in higher education governance structures. This article presents key findings from the project, namely, a model of senior Indigenous leadership within the Australian universities based on the perceptions of a group of Indigenous academics.

Through qualitative semi-structured interviews with Indigenous academic staff, the perceived value, characteristics and challenges of senior Indigenous leadership were examined. The varying opinions held by Indigenous academics in relation to the qualifications and experience required to fulfil a senior Indigenous leadership position were also highlighted. In doing so, a model of senior Indigenous leadership within the Australian higher education system is presented. The model of best practice presented in this article is underpinned by Indigenous Institutional Theory (Coates et al., 2022), a theoretical framework developed from the Walan Mayiny study.

The research findings highlight the diverse opinions of Indigenous academics in relation to the qualifications and experience required to fulfil a senior Indigenous leadership position. The six essential components are built upon the core characteristics, values and behaviours that senior Indigenous leaders need to have according to Indigenous academics, in order to advance Indigenous success within the academy.

Given Australian universities are being called upon to ensure that senior Indigenous leaders are in the best position possible to forge institutional change, senior Indigenous leaders within the academy may find the contextual Indigenous leadership model beneficial. The model allows one to uphold cultural integrity and fulfil the responsibilities and obligations of their higher education institution, while being able to serve their Indigenous colleagues and communities, leading to the advancement of Indigenous higher education outcomes. Importantly, the model can be adapted to suit all First Nations Peoples globally, who also find themselves working within the shackles of Western institutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions created a range of potential additional stressors for families, particularly for parents living with children. This study aims to explore whether there were any differences in the mental health and emotional experiences of those living with children, and those who were not, during the pandemic and related lockdowns; and whether there were any specific risk factors associated with these mental health outcomes and emotional experiences.

Regression analyses of ten-wave repeated cross-sectional surveys between May 2020 and November 2021 on a total sample of 42,529 UK adults, which measured mental health with a range of pleasant and unpleasant emotional experiences. The interaction effects of living with children and age as well as marital status were tested.

During the pandemic, individuals who were living with children were more likely to feel hopeful (OR: 1.1) and grateful (OR: 1.163), less likely to feel hopeless (OR: 0.918) and lonely (OR: 0.799), while more likely to feel guilty (OR: 1.185), unprepared (OR: 1.195) and pressurised (OR: 1.14), than those not living with children. More nuanced findings and diverse emotional experiences were also found in people of different age groups and marital statuses.

This study has highlighted that being parents and living with children could be important factors of emotional distress, especially during the special circumstances of the pandemic and lockdowns, drawing on the large-scale national data.

This study aims to represent the initial impact analysis of a human resource development (HRD) intervention – the Center for Human and Organizational Potential (cHOP) – for faculty and staff at an academic medical center in the Midwestern US. cHOP seeks to unleash faculty and staff potential and advance organizational outcomes by fulfilling employees’ basic psychological needs, posited by self-determination theory (SDT, Ryan and Deci, 2000): competence, autonomy and relatedness.

Using Cianciolo and Regehr’s (2019) layered analysis framework as a guide, the authors conducted a program evaluation to analyze, in-depth, the nature and impact of two representative cHOP programs: Accelerate and BOOST. Specifically, the authors examined whether the implementation of these programs was consistent with SDT, as reflected in participants’ reported program experiences (i.e. “Did the intervention, in fact, occur as intended?”). The authors also examined program outcomes and opportunities for improvement based on program participants’ voices (i.e. did the intervention, implemented as intended, work?). Because SDT is a theory of individual motivation, the authors identified a need to evaluate outcomes at the individual level and beyond, broadly exploring what would happened if program participants’ basic psychological needs had been addressed. The aim was to determine the potential downstream consequences of intrinsically motivated faculty and staff, while promoting divergent thinking on program impact and sustainability.

Participants reported experiences suggest that Accelerate and BOOST addressed all three psychological needs and strengthened their intrinsic motivation to advance their leadership and career development and improve the performance of their teams and departments. These outcomes suggest the potential for impact at the individual level and beyond, such as the institution and external, professional societies.

The study assessed two representative programs among cHOP’s many offerings. A comprehensive study of cHOP’s impact, directly linking psychological need fulfillment and organizational impact, is beyond the scope of a single study and requires further research.

The authors suggest expanding scholarly discussions in the HRD and health professions education (HPE) literature to characterize the promise of HRD-HPE partnerships and to account for their impact more fully.

The study contributes to both HRD and HPE scholarship by providing a layered account of academic medical center (AMC) faculty and staff development using an HRD approach; and examining the impact of a theory- and evidence-based novel HRD intervention (i.e. cHOP) at the individual level and beyond in an AMC context.

This study examines the condition of working women within Oman’s socioeconomic framework, emphasizing their underrepresentation in senior management, the effects of workplace constraints on career progression and solutions to enhance opportunities for women in leadership roles.

The study used a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative phase involved a survey of 215 Omani professionals − 87 male and 128 female, with data analysed using IBM SPSS 28 and SmartPLS 4. Analyses included measures of central tendency and deviation as well as PLS SEM-based path analysis and multigroup analyses.

The inclusion of women positively influences their career advancement, while harassment and gender discrimination hinder progress. Gender discrimination has a more substantial effect at lower and middle levels but is less impactful at the top level. Harassment affects women over 40 more significantly, with little impact on younger women. Additionally, domestic gender roles particularly hinder the career advancement of women in the 31–40 age group.

The practical consequences encompass the establishment of mentorship programmes, the provision of networking opportunities and the promotion of gender equity awareness. These programmes promote an inclusive workplace, facilitating women’s professional growth. Mentorship and networking offer crucial assistance and connections, whereas growing awareness of gender biases fosters equity and equal treatment for all employees. These initiatives jointly foster a more equal work environment.

By implementing sustainable measures and fostering a culture of equity and inclusivity, Oman can prevent gender discrimination and further solidify its commitment to gender equality. This will create an environment where everyone, regardless of gender, has equal opportunities to succeed and thrive.

This research is distinctive within the Omani setting, as no previous studies have explicitly examined women’s career progression from a socioeconomic perspective.