Last year, I did near daily updates about what it’s like working as an applied sociologist. I wanted to promote more awareness about our careers beyond academia. I stopped doing the regular diary in October, except for the odd check-in. Here’s what I’ve been up to, along with reflections on work-life balance.
Continue reading “Work-Life Balance”
For International Women’s Day, I attended, In Conversation – Governor-Designate The Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC.
Continue reading “Love of the ‘Why’ of Things”
People’s social relationships are organised in clusters – groups of individuals who are connected together, who share norms and values, and who exchange information.
Knowledge tends to stick within each cluster, but there are people who have bridging social ties to more than one group. Let’s delve deeper using social science. Continue reading “Social Networks at Work”
I have worked in both interdisciplinary teams where everyone’s skills and knowledge were fused into new technologies, and I’ve also worked in multidisciplinary teams where everyone carried out their specialist jobs whilst working towards a common goal. In both settings, our teams tried and failed with different engagement styles because of our education and training gave us different perspectives, and our personalities and modes of interaction were so different. Today, I want to share one specific strategy that worked well in increasing positive interdisciplinary collaboration.
Continue reading “Strengthening Interdisciplinary Teams”
A significant but growing minority of Australia-educated international graduates show signs of economic disadvantage in the Australian workforce, despite their Australian qualifications. While these students have gained their degrees in Australia, my research shows they are less successful in finding work in their chosen profession relative to students from English-speaking countries and Australia-born graduates. The largest disadvantage occurs for students born in India and China who are aged in their 20s.
They face discrimination from employers who exclude considering them for roles, presuming that their English language skills are poor, or that their cultural differences would make them a poor organisational fit. This is not aligned with evidence showing that cultural diversity enriches workplaces.
Continue reading “Supporting International Graduates in the Workplace”
Social science shows how space affects people’s enjoyment in public places. One study of the Tate Museum used behavioural observation methods and computer simulations to study visitors. The study found that the layout of the building predicted movement and enjoyment. … Continue reading Space and the Museum
In many Western societies, we go about our daily routine, we generally think about our life trajectory following a fairly linear path. We think of life stages as being sequential: each stage follows the next. We are born, then we go through our childhood: we go to school, we go through our teenage years. We then become adults – we leave home, we go to work, we get married, we have kids. Then we grow old: we retire, we enjoy our leisure time, and eventually as we age we will die. The issue is that life does really fit this neat journey. Not everyone can or wants to have kids. Not everyone can jump straight from study to work. We know this yet society doesn’t really help us prepare for the disruptions along the way.
So what happens specifically if our work lives are disrupted? What can employers learn from taking a life course approach to hiring new staff? This post discusses the social science research on how work disruptions can be better supported through community services and better workplace planning. Continue reading “Rethinking the Life Course”
Is generation y lazy and self-entitled? Spoiler alert: no. This infographic draws on a number of market research surveys by popular websites. The data show that Millennials are highly educated, entrepreneurial and hard-working. But what does the social science research say? Research by Pew Research Centre shows that while a high proportion of American millennials are highly educated and employed, 37% of young adults under the age of 30 are struggling to find employment. This is an outcome of economic forces, rather than some inherent “laziness.” At the same time, 40% of 18 to 24 year old youth are still at … Continue reading Beyond Lazy Stereotypes of Gen Y
Sociologists Martha Crowley and Randy Hodson conducted a study of the organisational dysfunction at General Motors. In a climate where people feared job cuts, every layer of management was afraid to report problems upwards, as there were many examples of people who had been fired after raising issues. Their case study of this company has broader implications, as the conditions and attitudes they examined are not unique to General Motors.
Continue reading “Toxic Management”
In mid-2015, I was featured on the University College London Researchers about my time running my consultancy. Read more below about my career transition and how I use social science when working with not-for-profit organisations and businesses. By S Donaldson, … Continue reading Turning social science into a business
Social Science Insights 