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Findings of a study conducted among the headquarters staff of a major Council in Perth, Western Australia are examined. It was found that women were less satisfied than men with their jobs. Women also appeared to believe that female‐dominated jobs were the first to be reduced during times of economic hardship, because people in authority did not rate their jobs as highly as male‐dominated jobs. Although, there was no difference between males′ and females′ overall occupational stress there were differences when individual occupational stressors were considered. Women were more affected by situations which prevented them growing within their jobs while males′ stress was negatively influenced by factors related to their status within the organisation. Males were less likely to use the social support contacts within the organisation because they appeared to consider such help could be a disadvantage when promotion opportunities arose.

The research reported in this article was conducted in Government schools in Western Australia. The results indicate that there was a problem concerning perceived stress among the principals. Two major stressors were identified, namely Role Overload and Role Conflict. However, primary principals were significantly more stressed than secondary principals. These stressors, and others which were measured, appeared to cause stress‐related illnesses such as hypertension and headaches. Suggestions are offered on how the Education Department can reduce the level of stress of its employees by such means as altering its leadership style and/or offering stress relief programmes.

The research reported in this article is the study of the preferences for decision‐making responsibilities indicated by white‐collar workers of a mining company′s headquarters in Perth, Western Australia. The research methodology used a “specific situation” item questionnaire with the preferred style for making the decision concerning the specific situation measured on a continuum with five alternatives of decision making. The results suggested that there were five factors underlying the data collected, each with a different desired decision‐making style. These preferred styles appeared to be influenced by the personal skills and experiences which allowed the person to feel (s)he could have some constructive input into the decision. Hence, management should consider installing a system of leadership which recognises that differences do exist concerning the preferred leadership styles depending on the worker′s perceived impact of the decisions on the individual′s work life.

Considerable research has been conducted into the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, although most of this research has been undertaken in the United States, particularly since the 1970's (Mackinnon, 1979; Rowe, 1981; Collins and Blodgeth, 1981). In 1974, for example, a group of women, almost equally black and white and with economic backgrounds ranging from very affluent to poor, discovered a common thread in their employment careers, which Farley (1980, p.1) summed up, saying:

The research reported in this article was conducted among nurses in a teaching hospital in Perth, Western Australia. The study looked at the perceived influence of different items on the job satisfaction of nurses. It was discovered that intrinsic motivators were the major motivators for the respondents, with salary ranking tenth in a list of twelve items. The study also supported earlier findings by other researchers that job satisfaction is multidimensional with the finding of three factors underlying the data. Therefore, the growing modern approach of designing compensation packages by considering the total job rather than some of the parts of the job such as the traditional areas of pay and working conditions. This means that the human resource manager has a more difficult problem in having to design a compensation package which the individual will find motivating rather than the traditional method of adjusting the pay or working conditions. It is suggested firstly, that a company wide survey be conducted periodically, at least once every two years, to measure the workforce′s view of the motivators used by the organisation. Secondly, a conjoint analysis on the desired compensation packages of the members of the workforce could be carried out. Finally, the research identifies the need to continue training for nurses because of the need for them to remain an integral part of medical teams.

Supervisors are key factors in staff motivation. Existing research is drawn on and the author's own questionnaire‐based study is described. The conclusions suggest what companies can do to improve morale and performance among staff.

This study was conducted in the headquarters of major local government organisation in Western Australia. The emphasis of the study was to measure the influence of six sources of social support on the job satisfaction and occupational stress of an individual. The research was conductedas work‐related rather than a more general support rasearch. Therefore, six types of support were offered and six sources were measured on these types. Conclusion was that the immediate manager and the peers of the individual had the greatest positive influence on the two outputs measured. Thus, it appears that the senior management of an enterprise should consider setting up work‐teams within the enterprise consisting of the manager and immediate subordinates. This concept is in fact Likert's linking‐pin concept and this present study suggests that such a process will not increase job satisfaction, it will also help to reduce occupational stress with the consequential reduction in organisational and personal problems.

Reports the study of the preferences for decision‐making responsibilities indicated by deputy principals of Catholic schools in Western Australia. The research methodology used a “specific situation” item questionnaire with the preferred style for making the decision concerning the specific siutuation being measured on a continuum with five alternatives of decision making. The results suggested that there were seven factors underlying the data collected, each with a different desired decision‐making style. These preferred styles appeared to be influenced by the personal skills and experiences which allowed the person to feel he/she could have some constructive input into the decision. Hence, management should consider installing a system of leadership which recognizes that differences do exist concerning the preferred leadership styles depending on the worker′s perceived impact of the decisions on the individual′s work life.

Research is reported which was conducted using a randomly selected Western Australian community sample and involved measuring the respondents′ preferred style of leadership. The results suggest that people do not think employees should participate in decisions which can lead to possible conflict between themselves and fellow workers. The study also identified certain background factors which influence the respondents′ ideal leadership style. For instance, women appeared to prefer a more democratic style than their male colleagues, being a member of a trade union seemed to influence a greater preference for non‐managerial workers and being in the workforce also tended to increase a preference for a democratic style. The results, therefore, suggest that the introduction of participative management systems should be piecemeal rather than an involvement in all decisions by all members of the enterprise and this may well differ between organisations. Thus managers of organisations, if they wish to introduce a participative managerial process, will have to consider the type of decisions to be made, the gender composition of the workforce and the union penetration of the workforce.

Research was conducted in Western Australian Government‐funded Child Care Centres; and results suggest that the global level of job satisfaction of the directors was high; however no background variable was significantly related to job satisfaction. Intrinsic motivators were perceived to influence both the level of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of individuals and were more important for members of the plateaued group, while the groups were not different on extrinsic motivators. The conclusion is that people should be given the opportunity of working in other centres and in the central administration office, allowing directors to face new challenges and have new interests thus lowering the level of job dissatisfaction.