David Holloway

This qualitative study investigated corporate governance and management practices, with a particular focus on communications between the board and senior management, in two disability service organisations in the nonprofit sector. Fifteen interviewees participated across the two case studies and their insights and contributions were thematically analysed. Among the key findings was a significant contrast in communication processes across the two organisations. In one, communications were tightly controlled by the CEO (hourglass-shaped approach) and, in the second, there was a more accessible communication process between the board and senior management. This paper explores these two communication models.

Australian bushfires are renowned for their ferocity and destructive capability. Although much attention is paid to fires in the comparatively well-populated southern half of Australia, most fire activity occurs in the northern half of the continent (Russel–Smith and Yates et. al. 2007). Further, fires in this area are usually anthropogenic [man made] in origin (Russel–Smith and Yates et. al. 2007: 369). This paper calls attention to community discontent about landscape and fire in the Kimberley region in northern Western Australia and suggests that fire-related public authorities should pay more attention to community engagement and the views of long-term residents .Via the use of qualitative research, including in-depth interviews, this research reveals that many long-term residents of the Kimberley region are concerned about fire-management regimes and the effect these have on the landscape, cultural heritage and biodiversity of the area. Some feel that the prescribed burns in the area are not small-scale mosaic burns, and frequently get out of control, and that there is a lack of operational transparency and effective community engagement on the part of relevant authorities involved in the management of fire. It appears that a number of respondents construct ‘fire’ as something that is managed successfully (either for carbon farming or for the preservation of assets) while others represent ‘fire’ as something that needs to be managed more effectively (for the preservation of biodiversity and cultural value of the landscape). These issues underline other pressures and constructions around residents who live with the impacts of fire -based practices, and the expert authorities who make the relevant decisions in this highly-charged area of land/resource management. The qualitative fieldwork that informs this paper has been carried out with community members in the Kununurra area of Western Australia. The informants were interviewed about existing information and communication practices around fire, fire information, fire safety, fire suppression and fire mitigation. The interviews, carried out in 2012 and 2013, have been analysed using a ‘communicative ecology’ framework.

This paper is an organisational ethnographic study of the university re-registration process that the SAI (the University) has undergone as part of the new regulatory regime under the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) legislative requirements. This was an arduous and complex ten-month process that resulted in a one hundred and thirty three page application document with more than five hundred and thirty pieces of individual evidence to support the claims being made by the University in responding to the one hundred and two threshold standards. The co-authors were organisationally embedded key actors and this paper is their collective and self-reflective autoethnographic organisational ‘story’ collated into a combined written voice.

This paper addresses intersections of communication, technology and geography in remote areas of Western Australia. It uses verbatim accounts from fieldwork bracketing decades of communication development to explore changes and constants in the micro-geographical exchange strategies of people living in the remote northwest of Australia. It articulates the continuing irony that the Australians who most need reliable and effective communications are those who experience the greatest difficulty in accessing them. We contend that geographical isolation and continuing problems with the reliability and reach of communication technologies in remote Western Australia have cultivated a robust community in which flexibility, resilience and interdependence redress, to some degree, the vulnerability remote communities often experience—especially in times of stress or crisis. The paper includes historical interviews from the 1980s and contemporary (2012) interviews carried out as part of an ARC Linkage-funded project, 2012-14, with industry partner Landgate, a Western Australian government entity.

Volunteer management is at an impasse in the nonprofit sector. Not yet recognised for its complexity, salary levels tend to be low and organisational support varied for those staff members who are employed to undertake this important role. We contend that it is necessary for volunteer involving organisations to recognise the complex job that is volunteer management, and to value more highly the skill set, role and work of volunteer managers. This will inevitably lead to better volunteer experiences, and to greater appreciation of volunteering as well as ensuring the ongoing commitment of volunteers to their respective organisations.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a new and significant education initiative. MOOCs are online courses (units/subjects) provided free of charge with the pedagogical content prepared, and delivered, by the world's 'best' professors from the world's elite universities. They are a significant challenge for local universities. Why should domestic students learn from local academic faculty when they can learn (at no expense) from the world's best and most charismatic educational experts from the world's best universities? MOOCs are a real threat to those local universities that decide this is just 'another' educational technology fad that will have a short life cycle with no lasting impact on higher education. We argue that this disruptive innovation (MOOCs) requires a pioneering response from universities. We suggest that the rise of MOOCs provides Australian universities with greater opportunities to attract prospective students by the delivery of sound educational courses which ensure the development of generic and specialist skills in a well-supported, systematised manner. Local universities can synthesise and integrate discipline-based learning provided by MOOCS with local pedagogical content delivery in an intensive small group environment. Local universities who use smaller face to face classes (in conjunction with MOOCs) will also be able to provide a dynamic educational experience for students and one that is immediately responsive to students' understanding of educational content. Local universities will also need to provide additional face to face services in terms of further initiatives in work integrated learning and employment services, to ensure that students will still continue to enter local higher education institutions. Keywords: educational technology, disruptive innovation, small group learning, educational services