Search results

Previous research has suggested high levels of unaddressed mental health needs among male-dominated work settings. The mining industry has been a recent focus internationally. This paper aims to critically examine research regarding organizational mental health interventions for people working in mining industries.

The narrative review used a systematic standardized search strategy in six databases and grey literature from 1990 to 2019.

Of the 418 studies identified, seven studies (five quantitative and two qualitative studies) met the inclusion criteria. Analysis of these studies revealed the organisational interventions available to address mental health needs of miners. Interventions were categorised into organisational and individual-focused approaches. Evidence shows there is great potential in conducting workplace mental health programs, yet further research is required to create a strong evidence base for substantiated policy and practice implications.

Mental health interventions and programs should be available in mining industry to enhance mental health. Organisations can also improve mental health by implementing significant changes in the work environment and identifying workplace factors that induce strain and contribute to psychological distress in employees. Attempt can be made at restructuring safety policies and practices to include mental health, addressing organisational structures such as work schedules and providing training for managers and supervisors.

This review focuses on the unique characteristics pertaining to male-dominated mining industries and workplace mental health interventions which are aimed at supporting employee mental health.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the injured worker’s perspective of experiences with their workplace return to work coordinator (RTWC), and explore some of the barriers they encountered in the return to work process.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten injured workers from New South Wales, Australia. The thematic analysis of transcripts was completed.

The findings provide an insight into the experiences of injured workers and their relationship with RTWCs. Five key themes emerged from the data: return to work experiences and the RTWC role, high turnover and lack of consistency in the role, RTWC “ideal”, knowledge and skills, communication skills and the RTWC role and GP visits privacy and conflict of interest with peer RTWCs.

The role of the workplace RTWC in the return to work process for injured workers is important and these findings are highly relevant to the return to work sector. Consistency within the role at the workplace and careful consideration of the specific traits and characteristics required by an individual to perform the role need to be observed during the selection process by employers when appointing a workplace RTWC to assist injured workers return to work.

This is the first Australian study to examine the injured workers views and experiences with the workplace RTWC and other factors that shape the return to work process.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the experiences of tertiary students learning oral presentation skills in a range of online and blended learning contexts across diverse disciplines.

The research was designed as a “federation” of trials of diverse online oral communications assessment tasks (OOCATs). Tasks were set in ten courses offered across all five faculties at University of Newcastle, Australia. The authors collected and analysed data about students’ experiences of tasks they completed through an anonymous online survey.

Students’ engagement with the task was extremely positive but also highly varied. This diversity of student experience can inform teaching, and in doing so, can support student equity. By understanding what students think hinders or facilitates their learning, and which students have these experiences, instructors are able to make adjustments to their teaching which address both real and perceived issues. Student experience in this study highlighted five very clear themes in relation to the student experience of undertaking online oral communications tasks which all benefit from nuanced responses by the instructor: relevance; capacity; technology; time; and support.

Using well-designed OOCATs that diverge from more traditional written assessments can help students successfully engage with course content and develop oral communication skills. The student experience can be used to inform teaching by catering for different student learning styles and experience. Student centred approaches such as this allows instructors to reflect upon the assumptions they hold about their students and how they learn. This understanding can help inform adjustments to teaching approaches to support improved student experience of learning oral communications tasks.

The importance of learning oral communication skills in tertiary education is widely acknowledged internationally, however, there is limited research on how to teach these skills online in a way that is student centred. This research makes a contribution toward addressing that gap.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of institutional investors’ ownership and type on information asymmetry and stock market liquidity in France.

The sample includes 162 French-listed firms from 2007 to 2009. The methodology relies on linear regressions using the method of ordinary least square. Before examining the interaction between liquidity and institutional investors, the authors check for the existence of the endogeneity problem by applying the Durbin-Wu-Hausman test of Davidson and MacKinnon (1993). The results of the endogeneity test show that institutional investors’ ownership and stock liquidity are endogenous. A simultaneous equation model using the double least square method is then tested to address this problem.

The findings show that the proportion of institutional investors has a positive and significant effect on stock-market liquidity, which confirms the signal theory and trading hypothesis. These investors perform high trading activity which favorably affects market liquidity. The results also show that pension funds improve stock liquidity. This result suggests that pension funds manage huge assets decreasing transaction costs and improving liquidity. They display a positive signal to the market about more transparency and a low level of informational asymmetry.

These results highlight the institutional investors’ role in defining the level of liquidity on the French market. The findings also stress the relevance of developing institutional investors’ demand for the Paris market in order to better assess firm value, protect minority ownership and improve market liquidity.

In the French institutional setting, institutional investors act as a control device since minority shareholder interests are less protected than in Anglo-American counterparts. This result highlights the significant role of institutional investors in corporate governance structures and on financial markets. Their presence is a guarantee for minority interest protection and for more liquid stocks.

Key elements of a curriculum are presented for a faculty development program that integrated sustainability content with effective course design methodology across a variety of disciplines. The study aims to present self-reported impacts for a small number of faculty participants and their courses.

A yearlong faculty development program to introduce content and effective course design for teaching about sustainability was created through a content-driven, backward design approach. Faculty participants from two cohorts were surveyed electronically to evaluate their perceptions of the impact of the program on their courses and professional development either one or two years after completing the program.

The theoretical model, curriculum and assignments for the sustainability-enhanced program are presented and discussed. Faculty participant responses to a survey (n = 14) following completion of the program indicated that the process changed pedagogical approaches, created a sense of community and raised awareness of campus resources. Faculty perceived that sustainability content enhanced their course redesign by providing “real-world” relevance, awareness and engagement. More than half of the respondents reported using tools they learned in the program to redesign elements of other courses. Three respondents indicated that integrating sustainability content into their courses had little to no benefit.

The study did not explore the impact of the program on faculty and student learning.

The tools presented are practice-ready.

This study can inform the design and evaluation of other sustainability-related faculty development programs.

The North West Business Management Working Group, with members from health and social care agencies, has been responsible for providing data that improves knowledge of the market and supports strategies and initiatives to match need to provision. This paper describes three projects making successful use of its services.

In the mid nineteenth-century Victorian government-aided schools were patronised by a broad spectrum of the community, many of whom sought a higher, or “middle-class”, education for their children. The various educational boards responsible for the administration of the public system, while not objecting to the provision of advanced tuition, were determined to ensure it was not offered on a socially selective basis. The purpose of this paper is to examine how accusations that some schools had engaged in socially selective practices led to the eventual removal of higher subjects from the curriculum.

Documentary evidence, particularly the correspondence between the central educational boards and the local school committees, is examined to assess the validity of the claims and counter claims made by those involved.

It appears that administrators used accusations of social exclusion to justify the removal of advanced subjects from the curriculum; with the result that it was not until state high schools were established early in the twentieth century that a higher education was again offered in the public sector.

The paper looks at an area of educational provision that has attracted little attention from researchers.