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This paper examines an identified but unexplored career gap evidenced at a mid-level classification in the academic career path for women in Australia. This career-stalling effect or holding pattern, is examined to determine underlying causes of career trajectory interruption.

Guided by the epistemological stance of standpoint theory, this exploratory abductive study employs a novel arts-based method, draw, write, reflect, to access experiences that may be difficult to convey verbally. The obtained drawings and reflections were thematically analysed.

Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of illusio this article finds support for female academics’ bifurcated consciousness. Results demonstrate how opposing social role prescriptions result in the deliberate avoidance of work-life conflict, a nuanced lack of confidence in work tasks in combination with other, often competing responsibilities, and the uneven distribution of administrative duties known as “academic housework”, which combine to stall careers. Female academics feel pressure to prioritise their domestic role and eschew career progression.

Despite the small sample size, the findings provide rich career narratives and experiences of female academics in Australia providing additional impetus for increased gender equity efforts.

This study is the first to explore the previously unidentified holding pattern for female academics in Australia. Findings suggest there is a range of previously unexplored impediments resulting in a gendered stalling at a mid-level classification interrupting female academic career progression.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of expectation formation and matching for university student volunteers and their hosts.

This research involved a multi-stage data collection process including interviews with student volunteers, and university and host representatives from six Australian universities. The project team undertook an iterative process of coding and interpretation to identify themes and develop understanding of the phenomenon.

University student volunteering has the potential to fail to meet the expectations of at least one of the parties to the relationship when the expectations of the parties are not clearly articulated. Universities operating volunteer programmes have an important role in facilitating expectation formation and matching, minimising the chances of mismatched expectations.

The study confirms the operation of a psychological contract for university student volunteers and organisations who host them which is consistent with other research in volunteering demonstrating the importance of matching expectations.

The paper identifies the importance of expectation formation and matching for hosts and students, and highlights the role of universities in facilitating matchmaking.

This paper contributes to the growing body of research on the role of the psychological contract in volunteering, in particular in university student volunteering and host organisations.

Literature around the careers of female academics is targeted mainly toward identifying and examining career progression inhibitors, while the drivers appear largely unexplored. This paper aims to contribute to contemporary knowledge by identifying drivers to the career progression of female academics in Australia. With COVID-19 currently impacting the careers of female academics this knowledge can assist universities and human resource (HR) professionals in developing policies and practices to better facilitate female academic career progression.

Empirically this paper draws on a qualitative study of 18 male and 29 female academics, as well as nine senior university stakeholders. The authors employed semi-structured interviews and a novel methodology, Draw, Write, Reflect.

In line with attribution theory, senior stakeholders mainly identified organisational efforts, including leadership, gender equity endeavours, recruitment and promotion approaches, as well as a construct known as “relative to opportunity considerations”, as drivers of female academics’ career progression. Female academics, however, largely attributed their career progression to personal factors, such as family support, informal mentoring, and determination and persistence.

The findings have implications for universities and HR practices seeking to facilitate female academic career progression. Implementation of the drivers identified may enhance female academics’ abilities to progress their careers.

By focussing on the drivers of, rather than the barriers to, female academic careers, the research is novel in its identification of a previously unexplored mismatch between organisational attribution and individual attribution of career progression drivers thereby advancing knowledge of gender differences in academic careers.

The purpose of this paper is to explore target experiences of workplace bullying across Australia, India and Turkey, uncovering cross-cultural convergence and divergence.

A questionnaire-based qualitative data survey of business school students with current/prior work experience (n=399) was undertaken. In total, 114 respondents (57 Australian, 34 Indian, 23 Turkish) identified themselves as targets of workplace bullying. Close-ended data pertaining to sociodemographic details were analysed via Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for descriptive statistics while open-ended data pertaining to experiences of bullying were thematically analysed against pre-figured categories derived from literature.

Manifestations of, etiology of and coping with workplace bullying were similar across all three countries, highlighting cultural universals. Clear variations in source of bullying behaviour and availability and use of formal interventions as well as more subtle variations relating to coexistence with category-based harassment, outcomes and bystander behaviour underscored the influence of national culture.

Inclusion of a student population, notwithstanding their work experience, as well as reliance on the questionnaire as a tool pose limits in terms of external validity and communication congruence.

Understanding into the similarities and differences of workplace bullying across cultures facilitates the design of interventions tailor-made for a particular society, serving as inputs for international/multi-national and offshored business enterprises.

The study, focusing on multiple aspects of target experiences, not only draws on both dimensional and metaphorical cross-cultural frameworks but also includes geographically dispersed and socially diverse nations. Thus, it extends insights from previous cross-cultural explorations of workplace bullying which, apart from being few in number, are limited either by their frameworks, spatial range and/or thematic coverage.

Volunteers in some organisations are subject to new protections under legislative amendments in Australia which proscribe workplace bullying. These new protections provide impetus for the question of whether workplace bullying is an issue for (unpaid) volunteers and (paid or unpaid) volunteer managers. The purpose of this paper is to outline key exploratory findings.

This exploratory and descriptive qualitative study employed an online survey to collect data on the experiences of participants and on their perception of what constitutes bullying in volunteering.

The evidence suggests that many of the negative behaviours which might be found in workplaces are also found in volunteering, but there are also aspects unique to this setting.

This study was exploratory in nature and will benefit from further expansion and empirical testing.

Many respondents reported that they have been subject to, or witnessed events which they considered to be bullying. Recognition of the possibility of bullying in volunteering is a step towards amelioration.

Volunteering has benefits for individuals and organisations, as well as contributing to social capital. Organisations which are cognisant of, and actively build positive cultures are better able to attract and retain talented and committed volunteers and managers.

There is an absence of research relating to workplace bullying in volunteer settings. As context plays a significant role in workplace bullying scenarios, this study opens up a unique perspective to this negative behaviour in a new setting.

The purpose of this paper is to explore issues associated with sector specific change in the Australian Public Service (APS). Evidence is presented on the impact of New Public Management (NPM) on work intensification and subsequent negative behaviors by giving voice to APS employees who were subject to the NPM changes.

Data were collected from APS employees, human resource managers and policy makers across 11 agencies on the nature of the changes, context of work, and workplace interactions. The study adopted a triangulated mixed method interpretivist approach using a survey instrument, stories, focus groups, and interviews.

The NPM changes were aimed at creating a more professional and accountable APS. This resulted in individual agencies pursuing different approaches to productivity and efficiency while being accountable to the public and the government within a tight regulatory framework. These changes created competing priorities, affected the nature of the work through intensification, and fueled workplace tensions, thus affecting progress toward the goals of NPM.

The findings of this study will be useful in alerting organizational leaders of possible unintended negative consequences of poorly implemented change programs.

This current study provides evidence that the negative behaviors which arise from the implementation of efficiency focussed change can be damaging to individuals, the nature of work, and therefore organizations and the outcomes sought. Many change management activities in the public sector can lead to negative behaviors if implemented in a way lacking in respect for staff.

This cross-sectional online survey in Oman in April 2021 aimed to assess university students' resilience, stress levels and meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify characteristic profiles.

A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from full-time students at one University in Oman. Outcomes included sociodemographic information, the brief resilience scale, the perceived stress scale-4 and the meaning in life questionnaire to explore the students' profiles.

A total of 964 students participated (response rate = 34.8%), of which 35% had low resilience scores. The average perceived stress, presence of meaning in life and search for meaning in life scores were 7.9 ± 2.3, 24.2 ± 6.9 and 24.9 ± 7.7, respectively. Cluster analysis identified three groups: low-risk and fewer impacts (cluster A, n = 503, 523%), moderate-risk and moderate impacts (cluster B, n = 160, 16.6%) and high-risk and more impacts (cluster C, n = 301, 31.2%). Cluster C students experienced more psychological problems and were at high risk during the pandemic.

The respondents' honesty is a possible error that could influence the results. Low response rates limit its generalizability, and cause-effect relationships among mental health outcomes cannot be discerned.

This study identified three distinct groups of students, each with different levels of severity in their health problems. There is an increased need for education and counseling to support students during this period, and university management should focus on implementing personal precautionary measures and providing high-tech, user-friendly platforms for students to enhance their learning.

These findings suggest that tailored strategies should be developed to address the unique psychological needs of each group. The study provides important information for university management to understand the pandemic's psychological impact on students and develop effective interventions to support their well-being.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the lockdown and the increased spread of food delivery applications (FD Apps) during COVID-19 pandemic have augmented the consumption of fast foods.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 673 adults from different regions of Saudi Arabia using an online questionnaire.

Data showed that 61% (N = 410) of participants used FD Apps during the pandemic. Among those users, 54.9% (225) were females and 70.5% were in the 18–44 years old group. Most FD Apps’ users were university graduates (74.4%). The increased use of FD Apps during the pandemic significantly affected the eating behavior and the nutritional pattern. It has further significantly augmented the consumption of fast foods (p-value < 0.05).

This study reports on the use of FD Apps during COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia and its impact on consumer eating pattern. This study shows the need for prudent use of these applications to limit ordering fast foods and consider healthier choices. It further calls for education programs, awareness campaigns, legislative measures and formal policies to rationalize the use of such applications for better nutrition, health and well-being.

This study aims to revisit the empirical debate about the asymmetric relationship between oil prices, energy consumption, CO₂ emissions and economic growth in a panel of 184 countries from 1981 to 2020.

A relatively new research method, the PVAR system GMM, is applied.

The outcome of the PVAR system GMM model at the group level in the study suggests that oil prices exert a positive but statistically insignificant effect on economic growth. Energy consumption is inversely related to economic growth but statistically significant, and the correlation between CO₂ emissions and economic growth is negative but statistically insignificant. The Granger causality test indicates that oil prices, CO₂ emissions, oil rents, energy consumption and savings jointly Granger-cause economic growth. A unidirectional causality runs from energy consumption, savings and economic growth to oil prices. At countries’ income grouping levels, oil prices, oil rent, CO₂ emissions, energy consumption and savings jointly Granger-cause economic growth for the high-income and upper-middle-income countries groups only, while those variables did not jointly Granger-cause economic growth for the low-income and lower-middle-income countries groups. The modulus emanating from the eigenvalue stability condition with the roots of the companion matrix indicates that the model is stable. The results support the asymmetric impacts of oil prices on economic growth and aid policy formulation, particularly the cross-country disparities regarding the nexus between oil prices and growth.

From a methodological perspective, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the study is the first attempt to use the PVAR system GMM and such a large sample group of 184 economies in the post-COVID-19 era to examine the impacts of oil prices on countries’ growth while controlling for other crucial variables, which is noteworthy. Two, using the World Bank categorisation of countries according to income groups, the study adds another layer of contribution to the literature by decomposing the 184 sample economies into four income groups: high-income, low-income, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income groups to investigate the potential for asymmetric effects of oil prices on growth, the first of its kind in the post-COVID-19 period.