Proposed leadership problem
It took some time to arrive at a point whereby the problem statement and research questions were clarified however this latest draft does provides that necessary direction.
You have outlined where the weakness lies in the organisation, and demonstrated your understanding of the scaffolding between the institutional factors, and an organisation’s response to embedding legislative requirements. Your problem statement or research focus:
To examine the role of normative leadership in the implementation of OHS practices in an educational institution
is appropriate but besides those research questions you have developed:
What specific leadership behaviours are required to encourage compliance with OHS regulations in GOTAFE?
What factors (or behaviours?) influence low compliance with OHS regulations in GOTAFE? we feel there is one other pertinent aspect (embedded in your Lit Review discussion) that should also be addressed in your research which is a key factor in embedding a working OH&S culture in your organisation:
psychological safety that encourages people to share issues without being seen as disruptive, critical, or incompetent
and therefore could form the third research question:
What specific leadership behaviours are required to encourage compliance with OHS regulations in GOTAFE?
What factors (or behaviours?) influence low compliance with OHS regulations in GOTAFE?
What leadership behaviours encourage people to feel psychologically safe and share issues without them being seen as disruptive, critical, or incompetent?
Literature review
This was better structured and highlighted appropriate leadership theories. The relationship between leadership and a safety culture was acknowledged. Use of the Entropy Model and Systems Model (Integrated with Managerial Safety) is appropriate to your leadership discussion.
We noticed that on a number of occasions your report included sentences that may well have been true but were not properly supported/substantiated by relevant literature.
Whilst this is predominantly a workplace-based report, it must be underpinned by rigorous, peer reviewed articles or texts so that the reader does not need to question the validity of the comment.
The breadth of articles researched for leadership skills and competencies relating OH&S was good although you need to be a little more discerning about selection of those.
There are two cases in point: the first issue is with using reference material that
doesn’t quite fit your sector; in the section on Problem Identification-Macro on p4 you state: “these requirements for the safe operation of major hazard facilities and mines, training for high-risk work and others”.
Without placing this in context with your setting a reader might question its relevance. The sentence denotes high risk however is your workplace considered a “high risk workplace”?
The second issue is with generalising “existing studies” on p6 in the Lit Review. You only cite one study (not several to support ‘existing studies’) and the one you do cite is drawn from Nigeria, a third world country and not an appropriate comparison.
Finally, the literature gap you highlight should not be a separate section but part of it should follow straight on from the discussion of OH&S between industries (construction and agriculture):
There is extensive literature regarding safety leadership from a broader perspective,but no industry research undertaken in Australia in relation to OHS research in education
And part should be included in the discussion on Leadership & OH&S Culture:
The normative leadership attributes that are essential for the implementation of an OH&S framework in an education setting have not been researched in the existing literature. This concept needs to be investigated from an individual perspective, such as a specific Organisation, and in this case, it includes the degree of fit with current leadership attributes in GOTAFE.
Citations and References
Please use the Deakin Guide to Harvard referencing when setting out your citations in-text; this is the accepted citation/reference list approach.
We look forward to reading Task 2.
Regards