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This study provides much needed empirical data to conceptualise organisational distrust in communications' scholarship. A limited understanding of distrust has implications for corporate communication scholars and practitioners as, ultimately, efforts to rebuild trust and reduce distrust in organisations and corporations may be hindered if we do not truly understand the complexity and nature of the concepts we are trying to repair.

A repeated single-criterion card-sort method was utilised in this study to allow the sample of 40 respondents to identify the terms they associate with organisational trust and distrust.

From the current study's findings, it is proposed that there is support for organisational distrust to be considered and studied as a separate and distinct concept to organisational trust within the corporate communications and public relations literature. The current study's findings do not neatly reflect all the items included in existing scales for organisational distrust, and accordingly this suggests that further research into distrust as a concept is warranted.

This study contributes to the literature by presenting a proposed conceptualisation of organisational distrust and providing further evidence for organisational distrust and organisational trust to be studied as related but separate concepts. Developing a more comprehensive conceptualisation of organisational trust and distrust is important for both communication scholars and practitioners as it allows for a more accurate understanding of relationship quality between stakeholders and organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to propose advances for developing our understandings of valuable resources in small family firms. The focus is on group support behavior within firms. It is proposed that this behavior is unique and valuable within small family firms. Propositions are presented that are built upon previous work in psychology and family business research and is linked to the concept of familiness.

Two small family businesses are the two cases used to investigate the propositions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the owner/manager and several other staff within each firm.

The paper presents evidence for the propositions, showing that work group support is unique in family firms as it is based on factors beyond the workplace. These relationships have the potential to be strong, contributing positively to the firm’s competitive advantage.

Two in-depth case studies of firms are included in this investigation. They are in a similar industry and location. As the findings are similar it lends weight to the evidence for the propositions; however, care should be taken with generalizing to other firms in other industries.

This research pulls together previous evidence and understandings and applies them to a specific aspect of small family firms that has not previously been examined in depth. The increased understanding can help family firms leverage their unique competitive advantage.

Previous research has shown that perceptions of justice have a relationship with many organizational outcomes, but has concentrated on employees or job applicants who were directly affected. In contrast, the purpose of this study is to investigate work colleagues' perceptions of justice of a personnel selection decision when they were not directly involved themselves.

An experimental design incorporating vignettes provided information about an internal and an external job candidate, and information about who was selected for a position. In total, 297 participants rated the vignettes from the perspective of co‐workers, using a qualitative and quantitative questionnaire.

ANOVA results showed that participants believed there was greater justice when the internal candidate was offered the position. The qualitative results showed that this was due to the perception that previous employment in the position was something positive that needed to be considered.

The findings have implications for selection panels, who may not have considered the impact of previous experience with the organization when making selection decisions.

This paper has investigated the issue from a perspective which has not been given much previous attention. Organizational members, not directly involved in the decision‐making process, but affected by, and with views on, the decision‐making process are the focus of this study into perceptions of justice in selection decisions.

The construction industry in Australia is characterised by a long work‐hours culture, with conditions that make it difficult for staff to balance their work and non‐work lives. The objective of this paper is to measure the success of a work‐place intervention designed to improve work‐life balance (WLB) in an alliance project in the construction industry, and the role the project manager plays in this success.

The paper focuses on an alliance case study. Interviews were conducted at two points in time, several months apart, after the interventions were implemented.

Results showed that staff on the whole were more satisfied with their work experience after the interventions, and indicated the important role that managers' attitudes and behaviours played.

Managerial support for work‐life initiatives is a critical element in achieving WLB and satisfaction with working arrangements. The fact that the manager “talked the talk and walked the walk” was a major contributing success factor, which has not previously been demonstrated.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organisational support for career development (OSCD) and employees' career satisfaction. Based on an extended model of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and an integrative model of proactive behaviours, the study proposed that career management behaviours would mediate the relationship between OSCD and career satisfaction, and between proactive personality and career satisfaction.

Public and private sector employees (N=90) participating in career development activities completed a survey regarding their proactivity, OSCD, career management behaviours and career satisfaction.

OSCD, proactive personality and career management behaviours were all positively related to career satisfaction and career management behaviours mediated the relationship between proactive personality and career satisfaction. There was no support for the career management behaviours mediating between OSCD and career satisfaction.

This study provided support for the extended SCCT model by testing a subset of its proposed relationships using a cross‐sectional approach. The sample surveyed (employees participating in career development activities) and the large proportion of full‐time employees, may limit the generalisability of the findings. Future longitudinal research could more fully test the relationships proposed by the extended SCCT model and include a greater representation of part‐time and casual employees.

The results suggest that there are benefits for organisations and individuals investing in career development.. First, from an organisational perspective, investing in OSCD may enhance employees' career satisfaction. Second, employees may enhance their own career satisfaction by participating in career management behaviours.

This study integrated the predictions of two models (an extension of SCCT and a model of proactive behaviours) to test the influence of environmental (OSCD) and individual difference (proactive personality) variables on career satisfaction. Exploring how organisational and individual variables together influence career satisfaction provides a more balanced approach to theoretical development.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a labour process theory interpretation of four case studies within the Australian construction industry. In each case study a working time intervention (a shift to a five‐day working week from the industry standard six days) was implemented as an attempt to improve the work‐life balance of employees.

This paper was based on four case studies with mixed methods. Each case study has a variety of data collection methods which include questionnaires, short and long interviews, and focus groups.

It was found that the complex mix of wage‐ and salary‐earning staff within the construction industry, along with labour market pressures, means that changing to a five‐day working week is quite a radical notion within the industry. However, there are some organisations willing to explore opportunities for change with mixed experiences.

The practical implications of this research include understanding the complexity within the Australian construction industry, based around hours of work and pay systems. Decision‐makers within the construction industry must recognize a range of competing pressures that mean that “preferred” managerial styles might not be appropriate.

This paper shows that construction firms must take an active approach to reducing the culture of long working hours. This can only be achieved by addressing issues of project timelines and budgets and assuring that take‐home pay is not reliant on long hours of overtime.

Organisational work‐life policies and programs allow employees to have greater control over how, when and where they work but these policies are often under‐utilised, particularly by men and career‐oriented employees. In what is largely an atheoretical area of literature, the paper aims to theoretically integrate the empirical literature related to the uptake of organisational work‐life policies.

The paper links three related areas of literature: the associations between work‐life policies and individual/organisational outcomes; explanations for the low uptake of work‐life policies in many organisations; and preliminary studies which have explored organisational culture and its relationship to work‐life policies. These literatures are integrated to develop a five‐dimensional construct, “organisational work‐life culture”, for testing in future research.

It is suggested that the following five dimensions underlie this aspect of organisational life: lack of managerial support for work‐life balance; perceptions of negative career consequences; organisational time expectations; the gendered nature of policy utilisation; and perceptions of unfairness by employees with limited non‐work responsibilities.

The development and validation of the organisational work‐life culture construct requires further research and may result in specific organisational strategies and policies which address the barriers to work‐life policy utilisation.

Based on existing empirical evidence, the paper suggests an original theoretical proposition: that organisational work‐life culture is underpinned by five dimensions and explains much of the provision‐utilisation gap in work‐life policy.

This mixed‐method study aims to determine the extent to which the career paths of senior managers conform with the traditional versus protean elements described in the careers literature and whether these paths vary by gender.

A total of 15 senior managers (seven women and eight men) in a large public sector agency in Australia were interviewed about their career trajectories to date. Data were coded according to four major areas which characterise and distinguish between traditional and protean careers: development, orientation of the employee, definition of success, and organisational environment. A total of 81 managers (34 women and 47 men) from the same organisation were also surveyed. Variables of interest were those that could be triangulated with qualitative data such as the availability of career opportunities.

Results suggest that, contrary to much existing literature which proposes that all careers have been fundamentally altered, the traditional career which relies on length of service, geographic mobility and a steady climb up the corporate ladder, is still the dominant model in some organisations. However, the trend towards protean careers is evident and is more pronounced for women than for men.

The specific nature of the organisation (large, male‐dominated, public sector) may limit the generalisability of results.

The framework used to explore career paths according to traditional/ protean elements in this study may assist human resource practitioners to develop appropriate strategies which maximise the professional development of employees.

The results of this research challenge the universality of change in the nature of careers, particularly in public sector environments.

A process of organisational change has accompanied managerial reforms in the public sector and is oriented towards the development of a post‐bureaucratic organisational culture. However, there remains a limited empirical understanding of culture in public organisations. Contributes to an understanding of organisational culture in the public sector through survey research that analyses culture by reference to the competing values of internal/external orientation and control/flexibility. Focuses on six organisations in the Queensland public sector which have been encouraged to depart from traditional bureaucratic values and to adopt a greater emphasis on change, flexibility, entrepreneurialism, outcomes, efficiency and productivity. Suggests, however, that public sector organisations continue to emphasise the values of a bureaucratic or hierarchical organisational culture.

This study seeks systematically to investigate the extent to which the documented aims of formal work‐family policies are being achieved at the level of individual employees.

Consistency between policy and practice in the case study organization was explored via an analysis of organizational documents which described work‐family policies and 20 interviews with employed women with dependent children.

Results show that the use of flexible work arrangements was consistent with aims related to balance and productivity. However, women’s experiences and perceptions of part‐time employment conflicted with policies aiming to support the same career opportunities as full‐time employees.

The nature of the organization and its policies as well as certain characteristics of the sample may limit the generalizability of findings to other sectors and groups of employees.

The research highlights the need to assess whether work‐family policies are experienced as intended, a process which may contribute to future policy development and assist human resource specialists to promote genuine balance between work and non‐work responsibilities.

The results inform the current understanding of how organizational policy translates into practice.