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Meet Lioba, our most recent international visitor at the centre.


Lioba is a PhD student at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Chair of Leadership) under the supervision of Professor Dr Fabiola. H. Gerpott. In her research, she focuses on the interaction dynamics of leaders and followers in meetings.


She visited the centre for seven weeks as part of the CTWD Visiting Scholarship program to encourage collaboration with CTWD researchers and help advance work design research.


It was always fun to talk about research with her, according to our Research Fellow Dr Florian Klonek who closely collaborated with Lioba during her visit.


Her presence, and her enthusiasm to explore the Australian culture will be greatly missed.


Lioba generously answered some of our questions to learn more about her, her research and her experience in Perth:


Who did you work with? What did you work on?

I worked together with Dr. Florian Klonek on a paper in which we research entrainment processes in one-on-one meetings between leaders and followers in the workplace. What are some of the highlights of your visit? What did you learn and what did you enjoy?

What I enjoyed most during my stay at FOWI was the passion with which the team supports each other’s research projects and the value that is seen in collaborating and exchanging expertise.

For instance, I had the opportunity to present my research on leader-follower interactions at the institute’s weekly seminar, from where I received valuable insights and additional ideas. Overall, I experienced my time at FOWI as a very enriching phase during my PhD, during which I was able to continue collaboration and expand my international network. Are there any particular achievements/developments that were a result of your visit?

Next to substantially moving my research projects forward, I also had the chance to present my research findings on organizational context factors that are beneficial for female leaders to the Athena Swan project group. One particular observation that I made was that at FOWI, everyone is not only aiming for high quality publications but also at translating research insights into practice. Where did you stay?

Coming to Perth by myself, I wanted to live in a shared apartment to meet other people. I looked for shared apartments on FlatmateFinders, flatemate.com.au and in various Facebook groups. In the end, I found the home for my stay through a Facebook group.

I lived in East Perth and I can definitely recommend it; public transportation is good, it’s walking distance to the office and close to the river – ideal for morning runs. :) Although I have to say I did miss the beach a bit… What did you think about Perth and Western Australia? Do you have any special memory, highlights and recommendations you would like to share?

I loved my time in Perth and at FOWI in particular. The friendly character of the people combined with the sunny weather is a perfect match and makes Perth a fantastic city to live in. I can just echo previous visiting researchers in saying that Rottnest Island and Margaret River are great places to visit! Something I’d like to add are the great opportunities to become active outdoors. As a runner, I enjoyed the great running path in Kings Park as well as along Swan River and the coast.





The Centre for Transformative Work Design has been awarded funding for a landmark study into mental health and workplace culture across Western Australia's mining sector.


Funded through the WA Government's Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety program, which was initially launched in December 2021, the funding enables the centre (part of Curtin University’s Future of Work Institute) to undertake a four-year research project to gather and evaluate data on sexual assault, harassment, mental health, drug and alcohol use, and emerging mine safety issues.


This funding aims to further develop mental health and workplace culture initiatives and improve safety outcomes, with preliminary findings expected to be available by September this year.


“Workers and their families are the backbone of WA’s mining sector and we remain committed to ensuring they work in a safe environment,” Mines and Petroleum and Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston said in the media release.


“Important steps have already commenced to create safe, gender-equitable and inclusive workplaces through the implementation of the Stronger Together: WA’s Plan for Gender Equality plan and the WA Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Strategy.


“Health and safety champions such as the Centre for Transformative Work Design will play an important role in shaping our future workforce.”


Director of Curtin University’s Centre for Transformative Work Design, ARC Laureate Fellow Sharon Parker said the study will assess the impact of what mining organisations have already been doing to create healthy workplaces, as well as identify what they can do in the future.


“Mining plays a key role in our economy, so it is crucial that people who work in this sector have jobs that are not only physically safe, but also safe from a mental health perspective,” Professor Parker said.


“With this funding, a team of experts will work closely with companies, industry bodies, unions and others to deliver evidence-based guidance on how to ensure quality work for all mining employees.”

The full media statement can be found here .


Are you facing increasing job demands at work?


You can engage in two job crafting strategies to make changes in your job demands:


1️⃣Reducing demands, where you would avoid or reduce demanding tasks and relationships, 2️⃣Optimising demands, where you simplify or optimise work methods or processes to improve work efficiency and therefore lower your experienced demands.


Reducing demands is withdrawal-oriented and has been found dysfunctional while optimising demands is more functional and effective.


In this new paper, we found that when individuals saw a job demand as a challenge, they felt more control over the demanding situation, hence were more likely to use optimising demands as a strategy.


To encourage employees to use job crafting strategies that lead to positive outcomes, organisations and managers should pay attention to whether employees perceive the job demands as challenges or hindrances.


New paper: Reducing demands or optimizing demands? Effects of cognitive appraisal and autonomy on job crafting to change one’s work demands, by Fangfang Zhang and Sharon K Parker: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1359432X.2022.2032665



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The Centre for Transformative Work Design

is part of the Future of Work Institute at Curtin University.

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The Centre acknowledges Whadjuk Nyungar people who remain Custodians of the lands on which we research, learn and collaborate.

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