Griffith Business School has ushered in a new era for one of its most enduring and significant Departments, officially launching the freshly rebranded Department of Business Strategy and Innovation at an event in South Bank last week.
Joined by industry partners, alumni, students, colleagues and distinguished guests, Pro Vice Chancellor (Business) Professor David Grant officially opened proceedings to celebrate the Department’s reinvigorated vision alongside the new Head of Department, Professor Rosemary Stockdale.
Professor David Grant speaking at the launch
Also in attendance as guest presenters were the Honourable Leeanne Enoch MP — the Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef, Minister for Science and Minister for the Arts — and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Ms Leanne Kemp.
Formerly known as the Department of International Business and Asian Studies, the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation (BSI) will retain its focus on engaging with the Asia-Pacific, and particularly with Asia-Pacific business, while expanding its remit to reflect the nature of the evolving labour market.
“In the past decade alone, we’ve experienced the rise of the so-called gig economy, an increased focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, and rapid technological changes, all of which have brought with them a diversity of opportunities and challenges for employers and employees alike,” Professor Grant said.
“As a key incubator for the business leaders of tomorrow, it is only fitting that we, too, adapt, to both better respond to and anticipate the ever-changing nature of work.
“The renaming of the department to Business Strategy and Innovation, and the expansion of its activities to reflect this, is about ensuring that Griffith Business School is able to devote sufficient attention to these changes through our education, research and engagement.”
The Hon Leeanne Enoch MP addresses the crowd
Professor Stockdale echoed Professor Grant’s sentiments, noting the Department’s origins at the beginning of Griffith’s nearly 50-year history, when the University was founded with a commitment to prioritising Asian studies and regional engagement.
“These are things we will not change, but rather build on as we seek to reform and refocus the department to meet the changing needs of a society increasingly influenced by what many are calling the fourth industrial revolution,” Professor Stockdale said.
The Hon. Ms Enoch MP also acknowledged the rapidly changing business landscape, noting the need for proactive leadership to anticipate and respond to future uncertainty.
“If we do not lead, we will be left behind or followers of other nations’ viewpoint on how we incorporate our economy, our social aspects and our cultural aspects into the changing world,” she said.
During an enlightening Q&A session with Griffith Business School’s Dean (Engagement), Professor Anne Tiernan, the Chief Entrepreneur, Ms Kemp, noted the vital role institutions such as Griffith play in influencing the direction and development of social innovation and entrepreneurship.
Ms Leanne Kemp (left) and Professor Anne Tiernan
“Universities have the most critical responsibility in the ecosystem,” she said. “They will survive and thrive beyond the choice of any government or any construct of leadership.”
All of the evening’s speakers highlighted Griffith’s strong collaborative ties to industry, government and the community, at regional, national and international levels.
These relationships — whether producing engaged research, influencing policy and legislation regulation, or improving service delivery — are crucial to the work being done by the reinvigorated Department for the betterment of society, Professor Grant said.
“Part of the mission of the Department, through its interdisciplinary, engaged research and teaching, is to break down silos, bring people together, and thereby address significant challenges faced by business, government and the community more broadly,” he said.
“And,ultimately,that is going to be achieved by the community of alumni, staff, students and industry partners that makes up the new Department of Business Strategy and Innovation.”
Griffith University has announced the launch of a new ‘Data Dashboard’ that allows Queenslanders to make an informed vote.
Developed by Griffith University’s Regional Innovation Data Lab (RIDL), the application allows voters to dive into important decision-making data on any Queensland electorate.
The Data Dashboard is an open-source public resource that breaks down key information about Queenslanders and their electorates, including home ownership status, income, population projections and employment.
Presented in an easy-to-digest way, the Dashboard helps users find information about their electorate community quickly, as well as providing links to the Australian Electorate Commission to help young people and new citizens enroll to vote.
“Queensland has some electorates with the lowest political engagement in Australia,” Griffith expert Professor John Wanna said.
“What the Data Dashboard aims to do is make the voting process as accessible and understandable as possible, to encourage citizens to make full use of their democratic right to have their say in determining how their country is governed.”
It’s not just voters who stand to benefit from the app’s rollout; the Data Dashboard also provides valuable information to candidates and sitting members of parliament to help them better understand the profile and needs of their electorates.
Funded by Griffith University as part of the University’s commitment to being a socially engaged institution, the Data Dashboard is an element of Griffith’s multifaceted, independent analysis of the 2019 Federal Election.
This initiative includes a range of resources produced by some of Australia’s best political scientists and policy researchers, and includes a web television series, Below the Line, and a series of ‘PoliStat’ cards, baseball card-like breakdowns of members’ performance statistics including attendance and voting history.
“By laying out the bare facts of politicians’ track record, the PoliStat cards provide a means of holding our representatives accountable for their actions,” Professor Wanna said.
“Conveniently, it also links to the Data Dashboard’s express goal of boosting engagement with, and understanding of, who and what people are voting for when the election comes around.”
Visit the RIDL Data Dashboard to find out more.
By Dr Fran Humphries
Senior Research Fellow
The United Nations (UN) has a golden opportunity to protect 64% of the world’s oceans that are the lifeblood of the planet. This ‘area beyond national jurisdiction’ (ABNJ) includes the high seas water column and living resources in the ocean floor below the water column. The ABNJ is not governed by any country and is essentially a ‘free for all’ when it comes to taking and using the areas’ biodiversity. While ABNJ comprises 64% of the oceans’ surface, it includes nearly 95% of the oceans’ volume, which is a massive amount of biodiversity to leave at the mercy of unregulated human activity.
Recognising the risk to what is essentially the world’s last global commons, in 2015, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 69/292 committed its 193 Member States to develop a treaty under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of ABNJ. A UN Intergovernmental Committee commenced treaty negotiations in September 2018, the second session will be in March 2019, the third in August 2019 and others in 2020.
The proposed treaty will address four elements of governance:
(1) access and benefit sharing of marine genetic resources;
(2) area based management tools, including marine park areas;
(3) environmental impact assessments; and
(4) capacity building and transfer of marine technology.
After presenting at a side event of the first negotiating session, the International Council of Environmental Law invited me to join its delegation at the second negotiating session of the treaty at the United Nations next week in March 2019. I am advising them on the first element — access and benefit sharing or ABS. ABS was a concept developed under the UN’s 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity which recognised the sovereign rights of countries to regulate the biological resources within their national jurisdiction. Under this ABS framework or ‘transaction’, a person needs a provider country’s prior informed consent before collecting and using their biological resources, in return for sharing the benefits from the resource’s use with the provider country, such as technology transfer or a percentage of profits from a commercialised product. The idea is that the benefits compensate the provider for the costs of conserving the biodiversity and generates incentives for conservation and sustainable use of resources.
The idea sounds simple but countries have found its implementation problematic. Griffith has a growing team of ABS experts including Charles Lawson, Fran Humphries, Leanne Wiseman, Michelle Rourke and Todd Berry who research the challenges and opportunities of implementation. Our latest publication, ‘The Future of Information under the CBD, Nagoya Protocol, Plant Treaty and PIP Framework’ explores the conflict between treaty obligations to disclose and exchange information and the increasing tendency of countries to treat information, such as digital sequence information, as subject matter of the ABS transaction in its own right, with restrictions on its use. Other challenges include managing traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources and managing the unforeseen effects of ABS on sectors such as virus research and aquaculture that depend on the rapid exchange of genetic resources for global health and food security.
The ABNJ will face these and other unique challenges, the most obvious being the lack of a ‘provider’ with legal capacity or sovereign rights to give ‘consent’ to access in return for benefits. Countries are yet to decide on the objectives for the system that they hope will share
the benefits from the use of ABNJ resources with less technologically advanced countries and achieve some conservation outcomes. The new ABS system will need to fit with a growing patchwork of national ABS laws that apply to the marine species that flow between jurisdictional areas. My contribution to the UN negotiations in March will be ideas and insights into how to design a system that peacefully co-exists with national approaches to ABS, while delivering conservation and equitable outcomes for countries from the sharing of resources, information and technologies.
Whatever countries agree upon over the next few years, the treaty has the potential to change our relationship with the world’s oceans to one of respect and understanding. As humanity’s and the oceans’ fates become increasingly intertwined, all life on earth depends on a more healthy relationship.
Griffith Film School alumnus Steve Jaggi will screen his directorial debut in Brisbane this weekend.
Chocolate Oysterwas a labour of love for the filmmaker, who wrote, directed and produced.
Shot in black and white, with a largely improvised script, the film follows the trials and tribulations of a group of millennials pursuing their dreams in the big smoke.
“We’ve all been through those big decisive moments in our 20s, where we have to start making choices about our careers and relationships,” he said.
“This film is an exploration of universal themes in a contemporary setting.
“It also allowed me to experiment creatively – it’s so hard to make an independent film, so we really went for broke and tried to make a film that looks and feels different.”
The film premiered last year at Sydney Film Festival where it made it into the curators Top 10 list and garnered praise from the critics, who called it “captivating and complex” and “a charming black and white comedy”.
It is now receiving a limited theatrical release around the country, where audiences are responding to its expose of millenial life.
“I think it offers audiences a glimpse into what life is like for young people today,” he said.
“My generation has been sold an impossible dream by popular culture and social media, but people are caught on the hamster wheel, trying to live their best lives.
“We have a lot of millennials coming to see the film, but also people in their 50s, who’ve told me that the film has helped them understand their kids!”
Since graduating from Griffith, Steve has established his own production company and carved out a niche producing big-budget teen movies for Disney and Netflix. His movieRip Tide, was one of the highest grossing Australian films and picked up by Netflix for worldwide release. He recently finished Back of the Net, which will be distributed by Disney and open on 100 screens around Australia over Easter.
Steve said moving from his native Canada to study film at Griffith had prepared him to forge a diverse career in the industry.
“I really enjoyed the course and I feel like it has given me an edge in my professional career,” he said.
“I think I also received a boost from coming to study abroad – it gave me the confidence and connections to build up my company and approach these huge companies in LA and London.”
Chocolate Oyster screenings and Q&As will take place in Brisbane this weekend: 4pm, Saturday 23 March at New Farm 6 cinemas and 4pm, Sunday 24 March at Dendy Coorparoo.
Back of the Net is released in theatres on 11 April.
The head of the Australian branch of one of the world’s largest environmental organisations has called onvotersto think beyond the left and right political divide, and instead demand more of our political leaders, regardless of their party allegiance.
Greenpeace CEO David Ritter says it is also time for political parties on both sides of the left and right divide to listen to the concerns of Australians, particularly about conservation.
Speaking to the Griffith University podcast A Middle Ground, David Ritter explains how a recent independent poll commissioned by Greenpeace showed climate change was the number one concern for voters in the leadup to the federal election.
“Look it unfortunately didn’t surprise me because we’d seen such a range of consequences fall on our country, on our people over the last few months,” Mr Ritter says.
“Forests burning that shouldn’t burn, reefs bleaching that shouldn’t bleach, rivers drying up that shouldn’t be dry. And then the consequences for individual lives.
“Now, this is adding up. This sense that things have to change, that we have reached a moment of when the crisis is breaking on us. That is why we are now seeing an electoral mood that says we must have action on climate change.”
But he says that politicians from all sides are not listening to those concerns, and it shouldn’t be reduced to an issue just for the left side of politics.
“Well I think when it comes to our two major parties, there is an enormous gap between their offering and what the people of Australia want on a whole range of things,” he says.
“They want politicians who are free from vested interest, have an ethic of public service and are prepared to lead in ways that involve and explain difficult things and sticking to the task.
“And I think all of us, we citizens of Australia, we just keep having to ask for more from our politicians and we have to be putting our energy into reforming the system so that we get better politicians.
“InAustralia Malcolm Fraser turned the Great Barrier Reef into a marine park, Sir Garfield Barwick was an early patron of the Australian Conservation Foundation.
“There is in both liberalism and conservatism a deep set of ideological roots that could give you a perfectly well formed flourishing environmentalism, which would be different to an environmentalism of a kind you would have if you were a social democrat.
“The argument that we should be having is about how we protect nature to the best of our abilities, not denying the evidence of our own eyes and our own bodies, which is where we are at the moment.”
David Ritter has written the essay “We all took a stand” in the newly released edition 63of Griffith Review,examininghow the community of Margaret River has taken on the might of the coal industry.
He says Margaret River’splight has great significance for the nation, as Australians grapple with how much of a place coal has in our future.
“It narrates the story of the remarkable stand taken by the Margaret River community to defeat proposals to build a coal mine in the heart of Margaret River country,” he says.
“And it was really interesting because this was a huge success for what you would ordinarily call the environment movement, but there was some fairly unusual factors involved there. But it was almost like it was regarded as such an anomaly, because Margaret River is this iconic place, that people sort of saw it as the exception.
“Now I think that’s not the right interpretation, because what happened here is a community that in many ways is quite conservative stood up and said, `There are some things more important than coal, and we can’t believe what the companies are telling us’.”
“Now the moment that watershed has been reached of saying some things are more important than coal, and you can’t believe what the companies are telling us, it’s very difficult to put that genie back in the bottle. So I really wanted to tell that story.”
He says in his new book The Coal Truth, that it is possible to transition to renewable energy, and look after coal-mining communities.
“One of the stories in the book is the story of my Dad’s first job, and my Dad’s first job was as a coal miner. My parents were post depression era kids, there was an ethic around the nobility of coal mining that was in my family when I grew up,” he says.
“In a sense we’re all part of the coal industry, because we all belong to a society that has been built on industrialisation that was built on coal.
“So what we have to do as a country is not treat the industry, or the communities who have built the industry, as enemies, but as a part of a family that we need to shift into doing something else for the great good of all of us.”
Part of the challenge he says, is for Australia to embrace transition, rather than fear it.
“We’ve done this kind of stuff before. As a country, we are really, really good at these sorts of transitions,” he says.
“In the 20th century, we twice transitioned to fight wars. We once transitioned, whatever one thinks of it, we transitioned to make the reforms to our economy in the 1980s.
“We are perfectly capable of making the kind of transition, the structural transition we need to, in a way that doesn’t leave workers behind, that doesn’t leave communities behind.
“It is not just renewables industry, it is regenerative agriculture, it is the sort of transitions we need to make in our buildings, in our transport.
“Well it will create real challenges for people who are directly engaged in that industry. There is no doubt, and we shouldn’t underplay those, but for us as a society and as a nation, we can engage with this with kindness and with creativity and with imagination and emerge from it a bigger country than we are now.”
https://soundcloud.com/user-830439520/a-middle-ground-episode-15-natasha-stott-despoja-and-david-ritter
Two new federally-funded Griffith University projects are set to help police in the fight against child exploitation material.
Led by Professor Martine Powell (Centre for Investigative Interviewing) and Associate Professor Benoit Leclerc (Griffith Criminology Institute), the projects are part of the Australian Institute of Criminology’s Child Exploitation Material (CEM) Reduction Program.
The first project aims to improve the ways police assume the identity of juveniles during undercover CEM investigations.
“Police from law enforcement agencies frequently pose as children or adolescents online to identify and proactively engage sex offenders,’’ says Professor Powell who is conducting the research with Queensland Police.
“But little research has examined how this should be done and there are currently no formal police training opportunities locally or internationally.
“There is however an urgency in covert CEM work because the longer a potential sex offender remains unidentified the more opportunity there is for that person to offend.
“The development of a set of evidence-based guidelines for playing the child will enhance police effectiveness in the identification and apprehension of offenders and position Australian police as global leaders in reducing CEM.”
Uncovering the step-by-step process (or scripts) involved in creating and distributing CEM is the aim of the project led by Associate Professor Leclerc with colleagues from the University of New South Wales and Michigan State University.
“This will boost investigators’ ability to find and neutralise CEM cases before online access to CEM occurs,’’ Associate Professor Leclerc said.
“Crime script analysis offers new avenues for situation crime prevention to operate against crime.
“By breaking down the crime commission process into a series of steps, script analysis reveals a number of different intervention points that might otherwise have remained undiscovered if the crime had been treated a single event in time and space.
“It also provides insight into what offenders are thinking and helps in understanding the rationale behind their actions.”
Former Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja has criticised the lack of women representing Australia in parliament, andthe falling behavioural standards of parliamentary behaviour.
The founding chair of Our Watch -the national organisation to prevent violence against women and their children – spoke exclusively to Nance Haxton for the Griffith University political podcast A Middle Ground from the WOMADelaide world music festival in Adelaide where she gave the International Women’s Day address.
The former leader of the Democrats says societal attitudes underpindomestic violence, with international evidence showing that high levels of familial abuse are rooted in attitudes that disrespect women, and see women as inferior.
Part of this problem, she believes, is that behavioural standards in federal Parliament have diminished, with attitudes towards women improving little in the nearly 25 years since she was first voted into the Senate.
“I’ve had the chance to reflect on, some of the ridiculous stereotypes and double standards that I was subjected to, but also I just think, we really lack diversity and difference in our Parliaments generally, but we need more women specifically in ourdecision-making institutions but Parliament especially,” Ms Stott-Despoja says.
“I think, generally, there’s been a diminution in behavioural standards.
“I don’t want to discount progress and certainly political parties have increased in the main, their representation, particularly the Labor Party.
“TheLiberal Party has been woeful, particularly in recent elections, but I honestly didn’t think in 24 years since I first entered Parliament, that we’d actually see a decline during some modern electoral cycles in women’s representation.
“The fact that we’re only around, what 32 per cent representation of women in Federal Politics and Parliament, that is shameful.”
She says while women are called ‘sluts’ in parliament, and a woman’s suitability for office is judged by her parental responsibilities, it shows that even in this modern age Australians are not used to women in positions of power or leading the country.
“We certainly have a lot to make up for,and I think it can be done but we just need the political goodwill, the commitment from politicians and indeed all those men who are scurrying out the Parliamentary doors right now … why are they not being represented by women? Why are they not being replaced by the talented women that we know are out there?” she says.
“There is no question that women, in the Liberal Party who have been in positions of power, are either leaving or not being promoted and certainly men, in the Liberal Party who are leaving Parliament are … in the main being replaced by men.”
Ms Stott-Despoja says that critical mass is not enough, and gender parity is the heart of the solution, for not just ethical but economic reasons.
“The research is pretty clear…there’s no question, you increase a nation’s economic growth if you get greater participation rates of women in the workforcegenerally.
“We also know that if you solve issues that affect women, like say violence against women, in Australia you’d probably save around 21 billion dollars a year.
“So this is an issue that has economic issues associated with it, but in the main,it’s also fair. It’s also about human rights and surely we want a fair equal, safer, respectful society?”
Melbourne University Press has just published theessay”On Violence”byMs Stott-Despoja as part of its essayseriespairing Australia’s leading thinkers and cultural figures with some of the big themes in life.
Ms Stott-Despoja describes domestic violence as “Australia’s national emergency”.
She says it’s a sad fact of Australian life, that every two minutes, police are called to a family violence matter, and every week, a woman is murdered violently by a current or former partner.
“You have one in four women over the age of 15, experiencing some form of physical or sexual abuse in their lifetime,” she says.
“That is a pretty poor indicator of gender progress and gender equality.
“My focus in entirely primary prevention and it’s aboutaddressing those attitudes and behaviours that give rise to violence in the first place.
“I find there are so many people, ordinary Australians come up to me every day and say, what can I do? So, this is my attempt to show people, what maybe you could do.
“I’m hopeful because I know that violence is preventable. I know it’s not an innate part of thebiological condition or make up of people. I know that we’ve seen progress in places where you do address attitudes and behaviors. I know that if you have countries where gender equality is greater, the rates of violence against women and children decrease.
“But I also feel that there’s momentum for change right now. I feel the community is sick of the death toll. They’re sickened by the statistics, they want change.
“So, that gives me hope. I just want it to happen a little faster than it’s happening.”
https://soundcloud.com/user-830439520/a-middle-ground-episode-15-natasha-stott-despoja-and-david-ritter
Griffith Communication and Journalismstudents recently travelled to Mumbai, India where they worked on an environmental communication project aimed at sharing water-related local stories with a global focus.
The four-week project highlighted the environmental science of sustainable water in India, as well as the social experiences of people living in Mumbai.
The students collaborated with Mumbai University and Xavier’s Institute of Communication in sharing experiences and skills in developing solutions based on long-form multimedia and housed on a digital storytelling platform – The Water Story.
“At Griffith University, we believe that education should have a practical purpose, in creating socially and environmentally responsible communities,” says Dr Kasun Ubayasiri from Griffith’s School of Languages, Humanities and Social Science.
“The whole ethos of The Water Storyis to do just that.The Water Story is aimed at teaching tomorrow’s journalist and communicators from different parts of the world, on how to work together to tell better stories and educate local communities on how to care for our precious water resources.”
India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and India’s growth will depend at least in part on how it deals with a massive water problem.
Griffith University HLSSPlacement Officer Ashil Ranpara said with its growing population and industrialisation, India has a huge stake in water security.
“Parts of India, primarily the west, are worse off. The groundwater is depleted, and rainfall is scanty. What the students found is that Mumbaikars have adjusted to limited and unequal distribution of water.
“Developing strong communication strategies is going to be vital in finding a solution to an ever-looming water crisis and this is what we are trying to do with projects like the Water Story.”
Bachelor of Arts student Kriti Gupta in Mumbai. Photo: Dylan Crawford
Bachelor of Arts student Kriti Gupta says being part of project was a wonderful opportunity.
“As a communications practitioner, I was able to take what I’velearned in the classroom and apply it in a practical setting.”
Final-year journalism and photography student Ari-Balle Bowness said the project helped develop his skills as a writer and communications professional with an international backdrop.
“Students have the chance to work with industry profession, while also making lifelong friends. I highly recommend this to those interested in perusing a career in media or communications.”
Fellow student Brittany Edwards agrees. “The four-week mobility tour in Mumbai was an incredible way to gain a unique experience for my degree. It gave me the opportunity to have hands-on experience, converse with locals and create memories to last a lifetime.”
The first of its kind project was funded under the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) New Colombo Plan.
Griffith University’s acclaimed MBA program has improved its placing in the annual CEO Magazine Global Online MBA rankings, earning equal third in Australia and joint #11 overall.
The Griffith MBA has also retained its overall Tier One ranking for all offerings.
The result reflects Griffith’s growing impact and influence in the highly competitive online MBA market, and represents a rise of five places from 2018’s result of #16 globally (fourth in Australia).
The improvement demonstrates the Griffith program meeting student needs and the requirements of a rapidly changing labour market,Acting MBA Director Associate Professor Stephanie Schleimer says.
“Now, more than ever, the world needs leaders that believe intransforminghow we think aboutdoing well inbusiness;with socially responsible, environmentally sustainable and economically inclusive practices,” Associate Professor Schleimer said.
“Griffith’s MBA offerings are the forefront of the movement creating positive and lasting impact for the community here in Australia, a fact that is demonstrated by our improved rankings in 2019, and of which we are most proud.”
Dr Stephanie Schleimer
Associate Professor Schleimer highlighted the growth of the online MBA, providing aspirant professionals with a flexible, self-driven way to upskill and improve their own career prospects.
“We know that undertaking an MBA while working full-time can be a daunting and demanding prospect, which is why the online MBA is such a valuable offering for so many of our students,” Associate Professor Schleimer said.
“Not only does it allow students to study at a time and pace that best suits them; it also provides the same opportunities as the on-campus model to engage and collaborate with fellow professionals, develop new skills and foster valuable networks that will help carry the Australian business world into the future.”
Pro Vice Chancellor (Business) Professor David Grant congratulated the MBA team on the result, and highlighted the diverse ways the program helps its students achieve remarkable outcomes in their careers.
“The Griffith MBA is founded on the principles of responsible leadership, sustainable practices and a global orientation,” Professor Grant said.
“Its courses canvass a variety of areas reflecting those values, and provide the necessary skills and knowledge for students to succeed in all facets of the changing business world, including fields such as finance, economics, data analysis, international business and entrepreneurship.
“I would like to acknowledge our wonderful MBA team and congratulate them on a hard-earned result for their tireless efforts in delivering and refining the program, which continues to grow in impact and influence both here in Australia and abroad.”
Griffith’s MBA is delivered over a two-year period (part-time), with six intakes available — in January, March, May, July, August and October — each year.
Find out more about studying an MBA at Griffith University.
In authoring her new book, Advanced Research Methods for Applied Psychology, Professor Paula Brough sought to fill the gap she continuously encountered while supervising postgraduate students.
“The idea came to me during a PhD confirmation where the student was assessing the different methods to conduct missing data analysis,” Professor Brough said. “I realised most students wouldn’t be aware of the different methods – but should be!
“I wanted to write a friendly and approachable book and this student even ended up writing the chapter on missing data analysis.”
Professor Paula Brough
Professor Brough says that many postgraduates are not fully equipped to consider the multiple nuances involved in conducting high-quality psychological research.
“They flounder in the information thrown at them from every direction on research designs,” she said, “and I found that students often struggle to start their projects.”
The aim of Advanced Research Methods for Applied Psychology is to assist beginner researchers to understand how topics such as research design, data collection techniques, missing data analysis, and research outputs are all inter-related, and that each should be duly considered when starting a research project.
“The ‘siloing’ of such key research topics is acknowledged to be necessary for a suitable depth of detail; however, it can prevent researchers from seeing the big picture,” Professor Brough said.
The book provides updated research techniques from across the globe for data collection platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and social network analysis, and discusses the pros and cons of these methodologies.
Some of the research designs described in Professor Brough’s book have been applied to nationally renowned projects, such as her ‘Work-stress contagion’ research — recently featured on Sunrise — and ‘Workplace mental wellbeing: lessons from criminal justice workers’, conducted by Dr Amanda Biggs, a contributing author.
Professor Brough believes that the increasing volume of postgraduate researchers in psychology and related fields is indicative of several key drivers, including a growth in intrinsic interest to conduct psychological research; recognition of the value of a post-graduate qualification for career development; and — arguably the strongest driver (within Australia at least) — the increased requirement for psychologists to complete a postgraduate qualification containing a research thesis component for professional psychology registration purposes.
At the same time, most university academics are experiencing significant work intensification processes; academic time spent in teaching, research, and supervision work tasks are subject to increased monitoring and being reduced into specific allocations of work hours.
For example, Professor Brough says, it would not be uncommon for an academic to be given a formal allocation of 18 hours per year to supervise a Psychology Masters student in their thesis research.
“For this reason, we also intend this book to be of direct value to both increasingly busy academic supervisors and their theses students, as a useful reference point for the most relevant issues concerned with the conducting of postgraduate thesis research,” she said.
