title: Labour unions, wellbeing, and individual differences: How are unions related to global and domain-specific wellbeing, and who tends to join them?

authors: Sutherland, Cian

subjects: Psychology

abstract: Labour unions have been instrumental in the institution and maintenance of what many in the Western world would now consider basic business practices, from the forty-hour working week to stringent health and safety regulations. Despite their historical influence and contemporary resurgence in popularity evincing their importance to many members of the past, present, and future working class, unions are a disproportionately large blind spot in the industrial-organisational psychology literature. While several studies have found correlations between union membership or level of participation in one’s union and positive and negative economic, health, and psychological outcomes, we do not know how unions affect their members’ subjective sense of wellbeing. We also do not know who those members tend to be in terms of personality or sociopolitical characteristics—a significant oversight given the relationships between these individual differences, workplace outcomes, and wellbeing. This thesis sought to connect and address both gaps. 

Unionised (n = 307) and non-unionised (n = 162) academic staff from public secondary and tertiary schools in New Zealand (n = 287) and Australia (n = 182) were recruited via email to participate in an online survey from June 25th to September 14th, 2023. Unionised staff were further classified as casual (n = 152) or dedicated (n = 155) members, depending on their willingness to participate in union activities. The survey assessed union attitudes and beliefs (study-specific questions, Kelly and Kelly (1994) questionnaire, New Zealand Worker Representation & Participation Survey), personality characteristics (HEXACO-60, HEXACO Interstitial Altruism Scale, Goldberg’s (1999) 10-item International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO-PI-R Neuroticism Domain, Authenticity Scale), sociopolitical characteristics (Auckland Individualism-Collectivism Scale, study-specific questions), and global and domain-specific wellbeing (I COPPE). 

Two-way ANOVAs comparing total I COPPE scores between members and non-members, and casual and dedicated members, in Australia and New Zealand, found no statistically significant differences in wellbeing; notably, mean wellbeing scores were relatively high in all groups. Logistic regression models using demographics and personality and sociopolitical characteristics significantly predicted variance in union membership (member/non-member) and participation level (casual/dedicated) in New Zealand (22.50%, 25.00%) and Australia (28.20%, 48.70%); the individual differences that served as significant predictors were different in each of the four models. Finally, a linear regression model (collapsed between countries) using demographics, individual differences, and union membership significantly predicted variance in total global wellbeing (15.60%); union membership was not a significant predictor. 

Although union membership was not a significant correlate of wellbeing, most members and many non-members attributed improvements in working conditions and wellbeing to the influence of unions. We believe that, rather than having no significant beneficial or detrimental effect on wellbeing, unions positively affect the standards of the education industry holistically. Additionally, education unions seem to attract different people in different countries. It seems unlikely, then, that differences in the wellbeing of members can be attributed to correlations between individual differences and wellbeing. We conclude that future research should investigate wellbeing and individual differences in unions in different countries, industries, states of industrial relation, and time periods.

text: Labour unions, wellbeing, and individual differences: How are unions related to global and domain-specific wellbeing, and who tends to join them? Labour unions have been instrumental in the institution and maintenance of what many in the Western world would now consider basic business practices, from the forty-hour working week to stringent health and safety regulations. Despite their historical influence and contemporary resurgence in popularity evincing their importance to many members of the past, present, and future working class, unions are a disproportionately large blind spot in the industrial-organisational psychology literature. While several studies have found correlations between union membership or level of participation in one’s union and positive and negative economic, health, and psychological outcomes, we do not know how unions affect their members’ subjective sense of wellbeing. We also do not know who those members tend to be in terms of personality or sociopolitical characteristics—a significant oversight given the relationships between these individual differences, workplace outcomes, and wellbeing. This thesis sought to connect and address both gaps. 

Unionised (n = 307) and non-unionised (n = 162) academic staff from public secondary and tertiary schools in New Zealand (n = 287) and Australia (n = 182) were recruited via email to participate in an online survey from June 25th to September 14th, 2023. Unionised staff were further classified as casual (n = 152) or dedicated (n = 155) members, depending on their willingness to participate in union activities. The survey assessed union attitudes and beliefs (study-specific questions, Kelly and Kelly (1994) questionnaire, New Zealand Worker Representation & Participation Survey), personality characteristics (HEXACO-60, HEXACO Interstitial Altruism Scale, Goldberg’s (1999) 10-item International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO-PI-R Neuroticism Domain, Authenticity Scale), sociopolitical characteristics (Auckland Individualism-Collectivism Scale, study-specific questions), and global and domain-specific wellbeing (I COPPE). 

Two-way ANOVAs comparing total I COPPE scores between members and non-members, and casual and dedicated members, in Australia and New Zealand, found no statistically significant differences in wellbeing; notably, mean wellbeing scores were relatively high in all groups. Logistic regression models using demographics and personality and sociopolitical characteristics significantly predicted variance in union membership (member/non-member) and participation level (casual/dedicated) in New Zealand (22.50%, 25.00%) and Australia (28.20%, 48.70%); the individual differences that served as significant predictors were different in each of the four models. Finally, a linear regression model (collapsed between countries) using demographics, individual differences, and union membership significantly predicted variance in total global wellbeing (15.60%); union membership was not a significant predictor. 

Although union membership was not a significant correlate of wellbeing, most members and many non-members attributed improvements in working conditions and wellbeing to the influence of unions. We believe that, rather than having no significant beneficial or detrimental effect on wellbeing, unions positively affect the standards of the education industry holistically. Additionally, education unions seem to attract different people in different countries. It seems unlikely, then, that differences in the wellbeing of members can be attributed to correlations between individual differences and wellbeing. We conclude that future research should investigate wellbeing and individual differences in unions in different countries, industries, states of industrial relation, and time periods.

year: 2024-01-25

title: Meaningful Witnessing in the United States, India & New Zealand: The Possibility Space for Digital Video Within Human Rights, Protest Movements and Activist Practices

authors: Lenzner, Benjamin

subjects: digital video

abstract: This dissertation examines the emergence of digital video practices rooted in human rights, social justice issues and protest movements through a number of select case studies in the United States, India and New Zealand. This project analyzes and critiques the formation of digital video practices through the lens of Manuel DeLanda’s interpretation of assemblage theory. Examining interactions between crucial elements present in a possibility space that aid in the cultivation and assembling of budding forms of digital video, this study considers the implications in the relationships between both material and expressive qualities of these assemblings. The central argument of this thesis asserts that digital video practices centered on human rights, social justice and protest movements require adaptable linkages between supportive structures, creative capacities and digital video technologies in order to produce sustainable and creative digital video practices buttressed by documentary agendas that fuel their dynamic evolution.

My research seeks to engage with the complexities of agency and technology and examines their significance in different contexts by providing a constructive outlet for practitioners to share the process behind their methods in order to offer insight into their creative workflow. Digital video technologies are proliferating at a rapid pace, yet very few video practices have formed that suggest linkages to documentary traditions. One can bear witness, yet to traverse video documentation in order to create a rhetorical argument of meaningful witnessing is a complex process that requires more than easy access to mobile video tools connected to the Internet. The case studies analyzed in these three democratic nations support the argument threaded throughout the project; digital video practices have the potential to thrive, albeit in pockets where formal or informal support systems are present and through assemblages where digital video technologies are constantly being adapted and an investment in human capital is paramount to the privileging of digital video tools or online platforms. Case studies that focus on individual practices in New York City and New Zealand reinforce the difficulties practitioners face when attempting to cultivate video practices without supportive structures. Comparatively with other case studies in India and New York, individual practices with long-term organizational support navigate challenges and re-assemble their practices in order to remain sustainable and influential.

This study also engages with assemblage theory in the context of documentary history and contemporary digital video practices and reassesses the historic relationship between emerging photographic, film and video tools and the lens based practitioners that harness these apparatuses for documentary purposes. Like assemblings themselves, these creative associations are never smooth at their inception, but require adaptable solutions and adjustable reassemblings in order to maintain the potential for sustainable practices to develop and flourish. This dissertation argues that as digital video practices continue to evolve, they have the potential to redefine creative approaches to documentary media and the opportunity to confront historic traditions of the documentary form.

text: Meaningful Witnessing in the United States, India & New Zealand: The Possibility Space for Digital Video Within Human Rights, Protest Movements and Activist Practices This dissertation examines the emergence of digital video practices rooted in human rights, social justice issues and protest movements through a number of select case studies in the United States, India and New Zealand. This project analyzes and critiques the formation of digital video practices through the lens of Manuel DeLanda’s interpretation of assemblage theory. Examining interactions between crucial elements present in a possibility space that aid in the cultivation and assembling of budding forms of digital video, this study considers the implications in the relationships between both material and expressive qualities of these assemblings. The central argument of this thesis asserts that digital video practices centered on human rights, social justice and protest movements require adaptable linkages between supportive structures, creative capacities and digital video technologies in order to produce sustainable and creative digital video practices buttressed by documentary agendas that fuel their dynamic evolution.

My research seeks to engage with the complexities of agency and technology and examines their significance in different contexts by providing a constructive outlet for practitioners to share the process behind their methods in order to offer insight into their creative workflow. Digital video technologies are proliferating at a rapid pace, yet very few video practices have formed that suggest linkages to documentary traditions. One can bear witness, yet to traverse video documentation in order to create a rhetorical argument of meaningful witnessing is a complex process that requires more than easy access to mobile video tools connected to the Internet. The case studies analyzed in these three democratic nations support the argument threaded throughout the project; digital video practices have the potential to thrive, albeit in pockets where formal or informal support systems are present and through assemblages where digital video technologies are constantly being adapted and an investment in human capital is paramount to the privileging of digital video tools or online platforms. Case studies that focus on individual practices in New York City and New Zealand reinforce the difficulties practitioners face when attempting to cultivate video practices without supportive structures. Comparatively with other case studies in India and New York, individual practices with long-term organizational support navigate challenges and re-assemble their practices in order to remain sustainable and influential.

This study also engages with assemblage theory in the context of documentary history and contemporary digital video practices and reassesses the historic relationship between emerging photographic, film and video tools and the lens based practitioners that harness these apparatuses for documentary purposes. Like assemblings themselves, these creative associations are never smooth at their inception, but require adaptable solutions and adjustable reassemblings in order to maintain the potential for sustainable practices to develop and flourish. This dissertation argues that as digital video practices continue to evolve, they have the potential to redefine creative approaches to documentary media and the opportunity to confront historic traditions of the documentary form.

year: 2015

title: E kore koe e ngaro e tōku reo rangatira

authors: Puke, Te Manawanui

subjects: Reo Māori

abstract: Ka whakapeto ngoi ahau ki te wānanga i ngā tini āhuatanga e kōhuru nei, he patu kino nei, e panoni haere nei, e whakamate nei i tōku reo rangatira! E kaha tōmina nei kia kore rawa ai ia e ngaro. Nā reira, ka tīkina te matū o tēnei kaupapa, ka takitaki haere ai mei kore noa e tūpono ka hīnātore mai he māramatanga, he ihumaneatanga i ēnei kōrero āku.

text: E kore koe e ngaro e tōku reo rangatira Ka whakapeto ngoi ahau ki te wānanga i ngā tini āhuatanga e kōhuru nei, he patu kino nei, e panoni haere nei, e whakamate nei i tōku reo rangatira! E kaha tōmina nei kia kore rawa ai ia e ngaro. Nā reira, ka tīkina te matū o tēnei kaupapa, ka takitaki haere ai mei kore noa e tūpono ka hīnātore mai he māramatanga, he ihumaneatanga i ēnei kōrero āku.

year: 2016