Reprimandable offences: defining employee misbehaviour for investigations of employer disciplinary practices

Even with the abundance of misbehaviour definitions existing in the literature, there still appears to be a void when it comes to describing employee misbehaviours that are judged by the employer to be unsuitable and deserving some form of disciplinary response. This article considers current definitions of misbehaviour with a view to framing a definition for reprimandable offences: a concept suitable for examining misbehaviour from an employer's disciplinary viewpoint

A conceptual model of employee self reported rationale for engaging in deviant acts

When an employee is accused of engaging in a deviant act by his/her employer, natural justice affords the employee the right to respond to the allegation. In this study, the texts of unfair dismissal arbitration decisions of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission are examined to identify the defences raised by workers (or their union representatives) to accusations of serious misconduct that ultimately resulted in their immediate dismissal. These defences provide the foundation of a conceptual model of three categories of ‘rationale’ that employees offer in their defence: personal-inside; personal-outside; and workplace related. The model further conceptualises a ‘conflated reason’ in which categories are not mutually exclusive and can result in the employer dealing with a complexity of contexts and issues. The value of this paper is that it provides insight into the range of defences that employees provide for behaviours that cut to the core of damaging the employer-employee relationship

The intergenerational perpetuation of achievement messages in whānau

The current research is an open exploration of achievement messages that are carried from generation to generation in whānau, in relation to the mainstream education system of Aotearoa. Participant groups comprised of two to three generations within each whānau. A maximum of eight whānau will be asked to participate. A series of continuous conversations will be held with each member of the whānau, reminiscent of the narrative approach, but most recently described as a methodology that allows for ensuring that data is collected in its fullest form. Differing views about achievement and how it is negotiated within whānau will be explored; along with issues on what, and who, within whānau are the most predominant indicators of achievement views. Detracting from an ethnocentric view of scholastic ability (a common marker for achievement) is done through abandoning mainstream ideals. This research favours an open exploration approach allowing for differing values about what constitutes achievement, and what context achievement is based in. Outcomes of the research are intended to show patterns within whānau and among Māori on the mainstream school system, and how this system has contributed to achievement messages. The positive or negative nature of the contribution from mainstream education is highly important and relevant to further research goals, including the ability to use outcomes to suggest social change in education provision for Māori

Catching them is one thing, keeping them is something else: reflections on teaching first year university students

[Abstract]: This paper documents teaching practices that have been identified, by the teaching team, as improving student success rates in a first year tertiary level compulsory subject. Constructivism, scaffolding, social presence and reflective practice are the key concepts which have proved to be successful in transitioning students in this subject to university study. Outcomes have consisted of goal achievement by individual students, increased student retention and success rates

The collected letters of Robert Southey. Part six, 1819-1821

Part Six collects together, in one place, for the first time, the surviving letters written by Robert Southey between 1819 and 1821. It follows the editorial conventions described in About this Edition and presents newly transcribed, fully annotated texts of 546 letters written by Southey in this three year period; 314 letters are published here for the first time and an additional 76 are published here in full for the first time [...

Tolerating employee misbehaviour: where does our federal industrial tribunal stand?

Industrial tribunal decisions are believed to contribute to public standards (Donaghey 2006) and to reflect societal values (Wright 2002). How much tolerance employers and unions must show towards employees who may have engaged in misbehaviour is therefore likely to be influenced by unfair dismissal decisions made by Australia’s federal industrial tribunal. The endless manifestation of employee misbehaviours can be classified according to Robinson and Bennett’s (1995) employee deviance typology. Using this typology, the research question examined the level of ‘judicial’ tolerance for offences committed by employees across Australian workplaces that culminated in an arbitration hearing before the country’s federal industrial tribunal

Wildfires in the Cape floristic region : exploring vegetation and weather as drivers of fire frequency

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-76).This study assessed the spatial and temporal patterns of wildfires in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). It focused on the factors that influence fire frequency; namely vegetation age, ignition sources and weather conditions. This work was done to aid decisions on fire management in fynbos nature reserves. Fire intervals were extracted from historical fire records in four reserves in the CFR. The study sites were the Cederberg and Hottentots-Holland (western) reserves and the Swartberg and Outeniqua (eastern) reserves, and fire records were used from 1970 to 2007. A non-parametric technique and smoothing methods were used to highlight patterns in the extracted fire intervals. Comparisons of fire frequency were made between the study sites to analyse spatial patterns of burning. The impact of anthropogenic ignitions on fire frequency was analysed to explore the effect of people on fire patterns. The relationship between fuel age and fire size was analysed to determine the influence of vegetation age on fire patterns. Two novel methods were described in this thesis. The first method developed a technique to analyse temporal patterns in fire frequency while avoiding the impacts of temporal autocorrelation. The second method analysed the relationship between weather condition and fire events by utilising self-organising maps of synoptic states. A temporal change in the frequency of these synoptic states was tested for over the recording period. Synoptic states were used to produce two regional fire risk indicators for the CFR. I found that fire intervals in western study areas of CFR were shorter than fire intervals in eastern study areas. The effect of anthropogenic ignition sources shortened fire intervals in all study sites; however, this was relative to the natural fire frequency of each study site. Prescribed burning as a form of fire management contributed relatively little to the total area burned in all study sites. Fuel age has a significant correlation to fire size in only the drier (Swartberg) study site. A decreasing trend in fire return intervals was found in three study sites; Cederberg, Hottentots-Holland and Outeniqua. Synoptic states characteristic of the southern-most extent of a tropical easterly wave low were correlated to frequency fire events in the western study areas. Fires in the eastern study areas were correlated to a synoptic state characteristic of a tropical temperate trough. Easterly wave lows are associated with strong atmospheric convection whereas tropical temperate troughs are associated with pre-frontal conditions and strong, hot and dry winds. The frequencies of these synoptic states were shown to have increased in recent decade. The factors influencing fire frequency in the western CFR are predominantly sources of ignition, while the availability of fuels and suitable weather conditions restrict fires in the eastern CFR. Fire frequency has increased in the study sites where weather exerts the dominant control and this is due to the increase in synoptic states that promote wildfires. Historical records show that fire management has had little impact on the total area burned, thus fire management under climate change is unlikely to influence fire frequency

Wildfires in the Cape floristic region : exploring vegetation and weather as drivers of fire frequency

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-76).This study assessed the spatial and temporal patterns of wildfires in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). It focused on the factors that influence fire frequency; namely vegetation age, ignition sources and weather conditions. This work was done to aid decisions on fire management in fynbos nature reserves. Fire intervals were extracted from historical fire records in four reserves in the CFR. The study sites were the Cederberg and Hottentots-Holland (western) reserves and the Swartberg and Outeniqua (eastern) reserves, and fire records were used from 1970 to 2007. A non-parametric technique and smoothing methods were used to highlight patterns in the extracted fire intervals. Comparisons of fire frequency were made between the study sites to analyse spatial patterns of burning. The impact of anthropogenic ignitions on fire frequency was analysed to explore the effect of people on fire patterns. The relationship between fuel age and fire size was analysed to determine the influence of vegetation age on fire patterns. Two novel methods were described in this thesis. The first method developed a technique to analyse temporal patterns in fire frequency while avoiding the impacts of temporal autocorrelation. The second method analysed the relationship between weather condition and fire events by utilising self-organising maps of synoptic states. A temporal change in the frequency of these synoptic states was tested for over the recording period. Synoptic states were used to produce two regional fire risk indicators for the CFR. I found that fire intervals in western study areas of CFR were shorter than fire intervals in eastern study areas. The effect of anthropogenic ignition sources shortened fire intervals in all study sites; however, this was relative to the natural fire frequency of each study site. Prescribed burning as a form of fire management contributed relatively little to the total area burned in all study sites. Fuel age has a significant correlation to fire size in only the drier (Swartberg) study site. A decreasing trend in fire return intervals was found in three study sites; Cederberg, Hottentots-Holland and Outeniqua. Synoptic states characteristic of the southern-most extent of a tropical easterly wave low were correlated to frequency fire events in the western study areas. Fires in the eastern study areas were correlated to a synoptic state characteristic of a tropical temperate trough. Easterly wave lows are associated with strong atmospheric convection whereas tropical temperate troughs are associated with pre-frontal conditions and strong, hot and dry winds. The frequencies of these synoptic states were shown to have increased in recent decade. The factors influencing fire frequency in the western CFR are predominantly sources of ignition, while the availability of fuels and suitable weather conditions restrict fires in the eastern CFR. Fire frequency has increased in the study sites where weather exerts the dominant control and this is due to the increase in synoptic states that promote wildfires. Historical records show that fire management has had little impact on the total area burned, thus fire management under climate change is unlikely to influence fire frequency