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This research explores perceptions of knowledge management processes held by managers and employees in a service industry. To date, empirical research on knowledge management in the service industry is sparse. This research seeks to examine absorptive capacity and its four capabilities of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation and their impact on effective knowledge management. All of these capabilities are strategies that enable external knowledge to be recognized, imported and integrated into, and further developed within the organization effectively. The research tests the relationships between absorptive capacity and effective knowledge management through analysis of quantitative data (n = 549) drawn from managers and employees in 35 residential aged care organizations in Western Australia. Responses were analysed using Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation Modelling. Additional analysis was conducted to assess if the job role (of manager or employee) and three industry context variables of profit motive, size of business and length of time the organization has been in business, impacted on the hypothesized relationships.

Structural model analysis examines the relationships between variables as hypothesized in the research framework. Analysis found that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities correlated significantly with effective knowledge management, with absorptive capacity explaining 56% of the total variability for effective knowledge management. Findings from this research also show that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities provide a useful framework for examining knowledge management in the service industry. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the perceptions held between managers and employees, nor between respondents in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Furthermore, the size of the organization and length of time the organization has been in business did not impact on absorptive capacity, the four capabilities and effective knowledge management.

The research considers implications for business in light of these findings. The role of managers in providing leadership across the knowledge management process was confirmed, as well as the importance of guiding routines and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. Further, the results indicate that within the participating organizations there are discernible differences in the way that some organizations manage their knowledge, compared to others. To achieve effective knowledge management, managers need to provide a supportive workplace culture, facilitate strong employee relationships, encourage employees to seek out new knowledge, continually engage in two-way communication with employees and provide up-to-date policies and procedures that guide employees in doing their work. The implementation of knowledge management strategies has also been shown in this research to enhance the delivery and quality of residential aged care.

This study investigates the relationship between aged care accommodation pricing options (refundable accommodation deposits (RADs), daily accommodation payment (DAPs) and concessional) and the profitability of aged care facilities.

Data are obtained from 33 aged care facilities across New South Wales in Australia. This study uses multivariate regression for analyses.

The estimation results suggest that higher level of RADs has a negative and significant relationship with profitability of aged care facilities. The authors also find that concessional pricing option is positively associated with higher profitability.

These findings may benefit aged care operators by reviewing their strategies and portfolios to enhance their financial performance. The results are also useful to the Australian Government to further explore how the removal of RADs may transform the aged care sector's profitability.

This paper aims to assess the face validity to inform content validity of the Quality of Life – Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC), a new measure for quality assessment and economic evaluation in aged care.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with older adults (66–100 years) receiving aged care services at home (n = 31) and in residential care (n = 28). Participants provided feedback on draft items to take forward to the next stage of psychometric assessment. Items were removed according to several decision criteria: ambiguity, sensitive wording, not easy to answer and/or least preferred by participants.

The initial candidate set was reduced from 34 items to 15 items to include in the next stage of the QOL-ACC development alongside the preferred response category. The reduced set reflected the views of older adults, increasing the measure’s acceptability, reliability and relevance.

Quality of life is a key person-centred quality indicator recommended by the recent Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Responding to this policy reform objective, this study documents a key stage in the development of the QOL-ACC measure, a new measure designed to assess aged care specific quality of life.

By developing a conceptual model, the purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the role of social assistive technologies in facilitating the process of service innovation in care providing organisations to adopt the principles of the consumer-directed care strategy and reduce perceived consumer vulnerability.

Using a cross-sectional survey method, the authors collected data through a survey questionnaire distributed among 335 aged caregivers and specialists. The conceptual model and its 11 research hypotheses were examined using confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modelling. The rival and mediation models were also estimated.

The conceptual model was validated and eight of eleven hypotheses were supported. It was found that dynamic capabilities are crucial to developing service innovation concept in care providing organisations. In this way, social assistive technologies play a facilitating role to promote the consumer-directed care strategy throughout care providing organisations and allow care providers to enhance wellbeing of vulnerable older people based on their socio-economic status. From the lens of aged care providers, it was also found that the consumer-directed care strategy implemented in aged care facilities may help reduce consumer vulnerability among older people especially when they use social assistive technologies in their service settings.

This study suggests aged care service providers should boost dynamic service innovation capabilities to improve the need for social assistive technologies in aged care facilities with respect to the importance of the consumer-directed care strategy.

This study contributes to the development and validation of a conceptual model for the use of social assistive technologies to sustain service innovation in aged care business models and enhance the consumer-directed care strategy’s performance to better understand consumer vulnerability among older people.

This paper analyses the risks of the elderly and needs for aged care in China as a major social problem faced by the Chinese government in the 21st century, suggests the development of aged care accounting as a tool of providing information for policy‐makers, and outlines a general framework for such a development. The role of accounting in addressing aged care issues is recognised with a view to expanding social and demographic dimensions of accounting. Social and economic developments in China have increased people’s life expectancy which is leading to rapid population ageing. Meanwhile, the economic reform has largely dismantled the infrastructure of the traditional socialist care system. Consequently, there is growing concern about the risk and financing of aged care. The “one couple with one child” policy in China has also brought up the issue whether China will be able to afford the enormous amount of cost that aged care needs in the 21st century. The emergence of accounting for aged care is likely to provide information which can be used to address these demographic issues.

This study aims to fill the gaps in mandated reports with social accounts to provide more inclusive accountability during a crisis using the illustrative example of Anglicare’s Newmarch House during a deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

This study uses a close-reading method to analyse Anglicare’s annual review, reports, board meeting minutes and Royal Commission into Aged Care submissions. Informed by Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, the study collocates alternate “social accounts” in the form of investigative journalism, newspaper articles and media commentary on the events that transpired at Newmarch House to unveil a more nuanced and human-centric rendering of the ramifications of a public health/aged care crisis.

COVID-19 exacerbated pre-existing issues within the aged care sector, exemplified by Newmarch House. The privileging of financial concerns and lack of care, leadership and accountability contributed to residents’ physical, emotional and psychological distress. The biopolitical policy pursued by powerful actors let die vulnerable individuals while simultaneously making live more productive citizens and “the economy”.

Organisations express their accountability by using financial information provided by accounting, even during circumstances with more prevailing humanistic concerns. A transformational shift in how we define, view and teach accounting is required to recognise accounting as a social and moral practice that should instead prioritise human dignity and care for the betterment of our world.

This paper contributes to the limited literature on aged care, extending particularly into the impact of COVID-19 while contributing to the literature concerned with crisis accountability. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is also the first to examine a form of biopolitics centred on making live something other than persons – the economy.

This paper aims to provide an invaluable insight into long‐term forecasting of demand for aged care facilities. This will ensure the provision of adequate supply by government bodies, stakeholders and developers in order to meet the anticipated level of demand, without creating an over‐supply or an under‐supply scenario.

Using an innovative approach, different data sources were collectively used to forecast separate individual supply and demand levels, which were then examined together in order to measure the difference between the two variables between 2009‐2020. A case study approach was used for Victoria, Australia.

The paper finds that, although there is excess supply between 2009‐2010 and 2019‐2020, the period between 2010 and 2019 will experience an under‐supply period which cannot be easily rectified over the short term.

The case study was limited to residential care facilities in Victoria, Australia, although some countries have substantially different age profiles and accommodation supply for older residents. Forecasts are based on information sources from various data suppliers and collectively analysed.

The results are also of direct interest to place managers and planning authorities who are charged with providing medium‐ and long‐term visions and plans for specific locations. This type of research is essential when planning for the eventual aging of the population, where the methodology can be replicated in different areas. Most importantly, this research approach provides a solid basis for decisions regarding the supply of residential aged care facilities as opposed to a simple estimate.

The study adopted a unique approach to analysing the individual supply and demand components for aged care facilities over the long term. This approach is able to accurately determine when there will be an under‐supply or over‐supply situation and thus provide the opportunity to address the difference before it occurs. This will allow informed decisions about planning aged care facilities in the future to be made as required.

This paper offers an exploration of contextual factors that influence carer-to-resident talk in Australian residential aged care.

A qualitative exploratory multiple case study methodology and a theoretical framework of service language were applied to explore the perspectives of 21 registered nurses, assistants in nursing, leisure and lifestyle officers, general managers and care managers at three residential aged care homes in Australia.

The findings demonstrate contextual factors related to the care home environment, the carer and the relationship between carers and residents that impede or enable carer-to-resident talk in residential aged care. Multiple factors related to the care home environment were found to impede carer-to-resident talk, including time pressures, staffing levels, team culture and the prioritisation of tasks. Factors related to carers had potential to either impede or enable talk, including carers' awareness of the importance of communication, level of experience and individual characteristics, values and attitudes. A strong relationship between a carer and resident built on knowledge of individuals was a key enabling factor.

The paper advances an understanding of factors that influence talk and interaction in residential aged care in Australia from carers' and care home leaders' perspectives. The findings can be used to support verbal communication management strategies aligned with a person-centred care approach, including training and development of staff, cultural change interventions and a review of care delivery procedures.

The purpose of this paper is to explore career identity within the aged care sector.

The research employs a descriptive interpretive methodology using 32 in-depth, semi-structured interviews.

This paper shows that social processes and occupational and professional status issues shape career identity in an aged care context. Individuals seek positive career identities through emphasising job fit in relation to their personal experience and values in order to counteract the impact of “taint”.

This study was based in one organisation. Future research could explore its findings in the context of multiple organisations, and include the concept of career identity in other low status, “tainted” occupations, such as childcare, in order to develop a more complete understanding of identity construction processes.

The findings suggest that aged care providers could employ a values-driven approach to recruitment, complementary to pay and career development, to enhance recruitment and retention of aged care employees. Universities and professional bodies could consider more active use of aged care student placements to highlight the opportunities that aged care offer to new graduates in allied health professions.

This paper extends our understanding of career identity in relation to “taint” and “dirty work” in the context of two occupational groups in the understudied sector of aged care.

The broader challenges of youth employment and ageing population have collectively received global attention in the Sustainable Development Goals. Under the assumption that there are fertile opportunities to judiciously address the youth unemployment and labour shortages within the aged care sector, the purpose of this paper is to draw on the experiences of millennial aged care workers (MACWs) in Western Australia (WA).

The paper makes use of an exploratory research approach which involved three aged care facilities in WA. A total of 19 semi-structured interviews with MACWs (n=14), human resources managers of aged care facilities (n=3), government official (n=1), and a union representative (n=1) were carried out.

The results revealed that millennials prefer positive working relationships with managers, co-workers and residents, flexible work schedules and value the altruistic nature of the profession. In addition, unsupportive work environment and workplace pressure to satisfy the needs of elderly residents reduced millennials’ desire to remain in the industry.

These findings have the potential to inform human resources managers, aged care service providers and policy makers to formulate strategies to retain the millennials, especially the unemployed, considered vital to the vitality of the Australian aged care industry.