PurposeProfessional turnover intention has emerged as a significant global concern in the nursing profession, which is characterized by high job demands and widespread burnout, necessitating targeted interventions through HRM systems. Drawing on the JD-R model and the COR theory, this study seeks to examine a caravan of organizational and personal resources that can mitigate the adverse effects of work intensification and burnout on nurses' turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachTwo-wave dyadic matched data (N = 204) were collected from nurses in the United States. A moderated serial mediation model was developed and tested using SPSS and Amos 29.FindingsThe findings of this study demonstrate that leadership emotional support mitigates employee burnout, which subsequently reduces professional turnover intention through a serial mediation process involving perceived organizational support and enhanced adaptability to work stress among nurses. Additionally, the study examines the protective buffering role of professional identity in alleviating the impact of burnout on turnover intention. Furthermore, the research offers empirical support for the mediating role of burnout in the relationship between work intensification and professional turnover intention.Originality/valueTheoretically, this study advances existing turnover literature by shifting the focus from organizational to professional turnover, providing a novel perspective on how professional identity and adaptability to work stress influence nurses' decisions to remain in or leave the profession. By integrating the JD-R model and COR theory, the study highlights the synergistic interaction between personal and contextual resources in forming resource caravans that mitigate burnout and professional turnover.

Sister city relationships (SCRs) are a platform through which local governments (LGs) engage internationally. Increasingly, there is an expectation that such international engagement delivers economic opportunities and returns. Many LGs are therefore pursuing local economic development (LED) through their SCRs. Drawing on a national survey of Australian LGs (stage 1) and interviews with key council staff and stakeholders in five LG areas maintaining Australia-China SCRs (stage 2), this paper contributes to growing literature on LED by examining how LGs have developed their own capacities and supported local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage internationally. Our findings reveal insights into how Australian LGs have achieved international engagement through two strategies that leverage their SCRs, namely building government's capabilities and developing SMEs' capabilities. This paper contributes new insights into the evolving role of LGs in LED, including both current experimentation, challenges, and future opportunities. Points for practitioners A growing number of Australian local governments pursue LED through their Chinese sister city relationships. Supporting the internationalisation of SMEs is an emerging component of local government pursuit of LED. International engagement of local governments has necessitated enhanced capacities in human, external, and financial resources. Findings highlight the unique and often overlooked role of local-to-local diplomatic and economic relations.

Purpose Aged-care work has become an extreme form of work. Anti-violence HRM, comprising practices to combat workplace violence, is important in an industry with widespread violence. In this paper, we employ social exchange theory to better understand the effect of anti-violence HRM and trust in the manager on perceived nurse and PCA cynicism working in Australian aged care facilities and their subsequent intention to leave. Design/methodology/approach This study used a mixed method with two stages. Stage 1 comprised semi-structured interviews with 10 managers and 50 nurses and PCAs working in Australian aged care facilities. Stage 2 comprised a survey of nurses and PCAs with a total of 254 completed responses in Time 1 (first wave) and 225 completed responses in Time 2 (second wave). Findings We tested three hypotheses and reported that interestingly anti-violence HRM was positively associated with organisational cynicism. Organisational cynicism mediated the relationship between anti-violence HRM and intention to leave. Worker trust in the manager moderated the relationship between anti-violence HRM practices and organisational cynicism, such that high levels of trust in the manager increased the effect of anti-violence HRM practices to reduce organisational cynicism and subsequently reduce intention to leave. Originality/value We find evidence that in aged care, workers' trust in their managers is critical for effectual anti-violence HRM. We argue that implementation of HRM practices may be more complex in extreme work settings. It is crucial to study HRM in situ and understand the root of social exchange(s) as a foundation for HRM to influence employee attitudes and behaviour.

This chapter focuses on allied health professionals and human resource management (HRM) in the hospital environment. It explores allied health professionals in three jurisdictions, namely Australia, the USA and the UK. It notes that a major issue in understanding the key HRM challenges in this important section of the health workforce is the lack of a systematic approach to what constitutes the allied health profession across different jurisdictions. In addition, these professions are under-researched from both a HRM and a more general workforce perspective. Allied health professionals work across a range of health care settings and are often marginalised, or their contribution is hidden in the doctor- and nurse-dominated hospital environment. This has major implications for HRM research and theory development. Nevertheless, the chapter argues that the HRM function at the hospital level can introduce policies and practices that can engage and empower allied health professionals and improve patient care.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the rostering practices and work experiences of medical scientists at four health services in the Australian public healthcare sector. There are over 16,000 medical scientists (AIHW, 2019) in Australia responsible for carrying out pathology testing to help save the lives of thousands of patients every day. However, there are systemic shortages of medical scientists largely due to erratic rostering practices and workload issues. The purpose of this paper is to integrate evidence-based human resource management (EBHRM), the LAMP model and HR analytics to enhance line manager decision-making on rostering to support the wellbeing of medical scientists. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative methodological approach, the authors conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with managers/directors and nine focus groups with 53 medical scientists, making a total 74 participants from four large public hospitals in Australia. Findings Across four health services, manual systems of rostering and management decisions do not meet the requirements of the enterprise agreement (EA) and impact negatively on the wellbeing of medical scientists in pathology services. The authors found no evidence of the systematic approach of the organisations and line managers to implement the LAMP model to understand the root causes of rostering challenges and negative impact on employees. Moreover, there was no evidence of sophisticated use of HR analytics or EBHRM to support line managers' decision-making regarding mitigation of rostering related challenges such as absenteeism and employee turnover. Originality/value The authors contribute to HRM theory by integrating EBHRM, the LAMP model (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007) and HR analytics to inform line management decision-making. The authors advance understandings of how EBHRM incorporating the LAMP model and HR analytics can provide a systematic and robust process for line managers to make informed decisions underpinned by data.

This paper examines the factors that have led to the undervaluing of the medical science profession and how a union can take a strategic approach to strengthen the professional identity of its membership to overcome challenges. We draw on interviews with union officials and managers and focus groups with medical scientists in four health services in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on the union strategy literature, we argue that professional identity is related in a recursive way to the attitudinal context and the narrative capabilities of the union. We found that first, many medical scientists believed that medical science was invisible and undervalued contributing to a weak professional identity due to underlying structural and institutional factors. Second, this has been exacerbated by the attitudinal context in which the profession has been subordinated to the other stronger professions of doctors and nurses. Third, we report the union is attempting to strengthen the professional identity of medical scientists through developing union campaigns with a narrative around work intensification and the critical nature of medical science work. Union strategy underpinned by union campaigns seeks to transform medical scientists’ attitudinal context by harnessing their sense of associational power through narrative capabilities to strengthen professional identity.

Purpose This study examines the management rostering systems that inform the ways medical scientists are allocated their work in the public healthcare sector in Australia. Promoting the contributions of medical scientists should be a priority given the important roles they are performing in relation to COVID-19 and the demand for medical testing doubling their workloads (COVID-19 National Incident Room Surveillance Team, 2020). This study examines the impact of work on medical scientists and rostering in a context of uncertain work conditions, budget restraints and technological change that ultimately affect the quality of patient care. This study utilises the Job-Demands-Resources theoretical framework (JD-R) to examine the various job demands on medical scientists and the resources available to them. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative methodological approach, this study conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with managers and trade union officials and 9 focus groups with 53 medical scientists, making a total 76 participants from four large public hospitals. Findings Due to increasing demands for pathology services, this study demonstrates that a lack of job resources, staff shortages, poor rostering practices such as increased workloads that lead to absenteeism, often illegible handwritten changes to rosters and ineffectual management lead to detrimental consequences for medical scientists’ job stress and well-being. Moreover, medical science work is hidden and not fully understood and often not respected by other clinicians, hospital management or the public. These factors have contributed to medical scientists’ lack of control over their work and causes job stress and burnout. Despite this, medical scientists use their personal resources to buffer the effects of excessive workloads and deliver high quality of patient care. Originality/value Findings suggest that developing mechanisms to promote sustainable employment practices for medical scientists are critical for the escalating demands in pathology.

The 2019 AIRAANZ Conference was held at RMIT University city campus located in central Melbourne. The broad theme of the conference was ‘Global Work, Quality Work’. At the conference there was over...

Bushfires (wildfires) present an increasing threat to rural Australia. Effective messaging about planning and preparing for bushfires is essential, as is the provision of accurate and timely information to residents when they come under bushfire threat. We argue that an understanding of the ways in which collective narratives about disaster events are developed at a locality level is required, and that these narratives are influenced by features of locality, community and rural life which act as filters that enable residents to shape their perceptions of bushfire risk and views on what constitutes "good information". This process eventually drives their choice of bushfire information sources and communication pathways. The outcome is a preference for local sources of information and a level of mistrust of information provided by centrally orchestrated bushfire information sources. This conclusion raises challenging questions about the idea of shared responsibility in relation to disaster events between agencies and communities. We propose that bushfire safety initiatives must be tailored to take into consideration locality and community features. Of note, these processes are likely to be ineffective unless they are also tailored in relation to the narratives and understandings of these communities within the localities that define specific populations confronted by the prospect of bushfire events. We present three case studies of contrasting rural towns in Australia to identify how locality and community features inform resident perceptions of bushfire risk and preferences for bushfire information.

Unions have a distanced relationship from the practice of regional governance. Studies of regional governance tend to focus on the role of the state in combination with politically and economically dominant interest groups. In these analyses, and in practice, unions and their members are at best marginal and often absent. The argument presented in this study is that to understand the relative absence of unions, it is necessary to consider the forms and processes of regional governance and the capacities of unions to engage. These themes are addressed with reference to the North West Tasmania region in Australia.

situation when the sixty days are up, suit may be brought. In essence, this gives the environmental groups, and anyone who has any interest in this field, the means to stop air pollution every place in the United States, and there will no longer be the excuse that a state has six inspectors and We just can't see everything. The fellow who lives across the street is an inspector. This will be discussed at more length. But we are all anxious to see what happens under this provision. It could, in some ways, be a disaster, and it could be a tremendous force for getting something done. THE MODERATOR: Our next speaker is Matthew S. Walker, District Counsel for the Bay Area Air Pollution Control District in San Francisco. He is a graduate of the University of California and the University of California Law School. He served as Deputy District Attorney for Contra Costa County for twelve years and was active in the drafting of the Bay Area Air Pollution Control Law. Mr. Walker has served as a past Panelist on the ABA National Institute on Air and Water Quality Control.

Emergency management agencies are confronted with problems when communicating preparedness information to communities. Levels of community preparedness remain low despite the availability of education materials and bushfire safety programs. To address these challenges innovative approaches to engage communities are needed. This paper presents evidence from an arts-based community engagement initiative that promoted disaster resilience in a regional Victorian town. This approach allowed staff of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to initiate conversations with local community members about bushfire safety. Some challenges identified with this approach related to CFA staff skill levels, appropriate organisational support, and response capacities of the local volunteer brigade. The question this paper raises is whether agencies can engage communities effectively using innovative activities.

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