The role of technology in maintaining work-life balance and the factors keeping older Australians out of the workforce will be investigated in two of the new University of Canberra research projects to win funding today.
A total of four prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) grants worth more than a million dollars were awarded to the University today. Professor John Campbell will lead a project entitled Productivity and work-life balance in technology-enabled virtual work, to understand the impact of technology on work-life balance.
Professor Campbell said at times professionals could find their work and home lives were in conflict – with work interrupting family time or personal responsibilities disrupting the working day.
“Sometimes the very technologies designed to improve our work-life balance can do exactly the opposite,” Professor Campbell said. “This project is about finding ways to ensure technology is a help and not a hindrance in maintaining a healthy balance.”
Professor Alan Duncan will investigate how baby boomers can be excluded from the workforce in his project: Understanding and preventing workforce vulnerabilities in mid-life and beyond.
Professor Byron Keating will lead a project to improve IT outsourcing, while complex mathematics with the potential to unlock the mysteries of the quantum realm is the focus of Dr Sergey Sergeev’s successful bid.
Productivity and work-life balance in technology-enabled virtual work environments
Summary: This project examines the impact of technology-enabled virtual work environments on the productivity and work-life balance of professional knowledge workers. Guidelines will be developed that improve organisational and individual outcomes for professional knowledge workers who use technology extensively in their interactions with others.
Professor John Campbell
T: 02 6201 5478
ARC Discovery funding: $210,000
Understanding and preventing workforce vulnerabilities in mid-life and beyond
Summary: This project brings together frontline service agencies with researchers from two universities to study involuntary non-participation and under-participation in the labour market by mid-life Australians. Quantitative and qualitative approaches will be used to understand pathways and outcomes so as to inform policy and practice responses.
Professor Alan Duncan
M: 0400 210568
ARC Linkage funding: $374,823
The impact of strategic alignment on IT outsourcing success in a complex service setting
Summary: Improved conceptual and methodological understanding of strategic alignment is essential for better IT outsourcing decisions. This research will improve the performance of Australian industry by investigating how strategically well aligned ITO investments can lead to improved performance and greater competitive advantage.
Professor Byron Keating
T: 02 6201 5441
ARC Discovery funding: $255,000
Canonical quantisation for classical integrable equations
Summary: This project is in the area of fundamental, enabling science. Integrable systems, both classical and quantum, arise as certain classes of dynamical universality in various problems of pure and applied mathematics and in physics. The project will significantly deepen our understanding of cross-relations between geometry and integrable systems.
Dr Sergey Sergeev
T: 02 6201 2198
ARC Discovery funding: $315,000
