title: Do mindfulness and exercise reduce occupational stress and burnout? A meta-analysis

authors: Shuker, Anna Jane

subjects: Mindfulness

abstract: The effects of job stress and burnout pose a large threat to employee health and organisational success in modern society. Company spending is highly affected by increased employee turnover, absenteeism, stress-related sick leave, and other issues that arise from exposure to workplace stress. For these reasons, organisations often implement stress management initiatives such as mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to help manage stress and prevent burnout. Mindfulness-based interventions have already provided researchers with significant results in workplace stress reduction, therefore, the purpose of this present study was to examine this relationship whilst investigating exercise as a potential moderating variable. This was achieved by conducting a meta-analysis of 17 controlled and uncontrolled studies and calculating a combined effect size using meta-analysis software. The combined effect size (Hedge’s g) for all controlled mindfulness-based intervention studies was 1.366 (95% confidence interval = 0.678, 2.055), a very large, significant effect. The combined effect size for controlled studies whilst accounting for exercise as a moderator was 0.992 (95% confidence interval = 0.386, 1.597), which also indicates a very large effect. Due to a lack of studies in the extant literature which incorporated moderate to high intensity exercise, it was not possible to examine the impact of different intensities of exercise on workplace mindfulness-based interventions. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of mindfulness, future research needs to incorporate exercise of moderate to high intensities, as well as examine the potential mediators of the main relationship between mindfulness, job stress, and burnout. This meta-analysis should encourage organisations to use mindfulness-based interventions to improve employee well-being.

text: Do mindfulness and exercise reduce occupational stress and burnout? A meta-analysis The effects of job stress and burnout pose a large threat to employee health and organisational success in modern society. Company spending is highly affected by increased employee turnover, absenteeism, stress-related sick leave, and other issues that arise from exposure to workplace stress. For these reasons, organisations often implement stress management initiatives such as mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) to help manage stress and prevent burnout. Mindfulness-based interventions have already provided researchers with significant results in workplace stress reduction, therefore, the purpose of this present study was to examine this relationship whilst investigating exercise as a potential moderating variable. This was achieved by conducting a meta-analysis of 17 controlled and uncontrolled studies and calculating a combined effect size using meta-analysis software. The combined effect size (Hedge’s g) for all controlled mindfulness-based intervention studies was 1.366 (95% confidence interval = 0.678, 2.055), a very large, significant effect. The combined effect size for controlled studies whilst accounting for exercise as a moderator was 0.992 (95% confidence interval = 0.386, 1.597), which also indicates a very large effect. Due to a lack of studies in the extant literature which incorporated moderate to high intensity exercise, it was not possible to examine the impact of different intensities of exercise on workplace mindfulness-based interventions. In order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of mindfulness, future research needs to incorporate exercise of moderate to high intensities, as well as examine the potential mediators of the main relationship between mindfulness, job stress, and burnout. This meta-analysis should encourage organisations to use mindfulness-based interventions to improve employee well-being.

year: 2018

title: Trashing New Zealand: A critical evaluation of food waste management discourses in New Zealand and their implications for sustainable development

authors: Hetherington, Laura Elizabeth

subjects: food waste

abstract: Food waste is an issue that transcends state borders and governments increasingly recognise as imperative to address. However, in New Zealand, this concern has not necessarily translated into adequate political commitments on the part of both central and local government to reduce the generation of food waste production. In fact, New Zealand has one of the highest levels of municipal waste production per capita amongst the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (OECD, 2018). It is estimated that the annual value of food waste produced in New Zealand is approximately NZD $1.8 billion. More fundamentally, the issue of food waste with its implications for environmental, social and economic sustainability, poses a significant challenge to New Zealand’s commitment to the United Nations sustainable development goals.

This thesis examines dominant food waste discourses by researching food waste policy and practices in New Zealand. It draws on an analysis of documents and in-depth semistructured interviews to study policies at the national level and undertake a case study of a local food waste programme. The research focuses specifically on the discourses that inform food waste action in New Zealand and how the way in which food waste is positioned affects food waste reduction efforts.

This study uses a discourse analysis approach to analyse the principal waste document of New Zealand, the Waste Minimisation Act. This approach, grounded in the work of Fairclough, allows for a critical study of both written and spoken text. Applying this method reveals the way in which food waste is conceptualised in New Zealand by exposing the framing and dominate discourses that privilege certain waste disposal and responsibilities over others.

A case study methodology was used to underpin this research. This method allowed for comparisons between central government representations and awareness of food waste and those that existed within a very waste-conscious community where food waste reduction is a priority. Alongside the discourse analysis and case study, a sustainable development framework of analysis was developed to evaluate the dominant food waste discourses that were identified by the analysis.

This study contributes to scholarship on food waste minimisation and management in New Zealand by identifying how dominant food waste discourse influences political efforts aimed at food waste reduction. The findings show how little food waste features on the political agenda of central government, which, in turn, hinders what can be achieved at the local level. This study underscores the need for a central government-led, long-term vision for a comprehensive food waste policy that targets all actors involved in the food chain, in order to reduce the amount of food disposal sent to landfill.

text: Trashing New Zealand: A critical evaluation of food waste management discourses in New Zealand and their implications for sustainable development Food waste is an issue that transcends state borders and governments increasingly recognise as imperative to address. However, in New Zealand, this concern has not necessarily translated into adequate political commitments on the part of both central and local government to reduce the generation of food waste production. In fact, New Zealand has one of the highest levels of municipal waste production per capita amongst the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (OECD, 2018). It is estimated that the annual value of food waste produced in New Zealand is approximately NZD $1.8 billion. More fundamentally, the issue of food waste with its implications for environmental, social and economic sustainability, poses a significant challenge to New Zealand’s commitment to the United Nations sustainable development goals.

This thesis examines dominant food waste discourses by researching food waste policy and practices in New Zealand. It draws on an analysis of documents and in-depth semistructured interviews to study policies at the national level and undertake a case study of a local food waste programme. The research focuses specifically on the discourses that inform food waste action in New Zealand and how the way in which food waste is positioned affects food waste reduction efforts.

This study uses a discourse analysis approach to analyse the principal waste document of New Zealand, the Waste Minimisation Act. This approach, grounded in the work of Fairclough, allows for a critical study of both written and spoken text. Applying this method reveals the way in which food waste is conceptualised in New Zealand by exposing the framing and dominate discourses that privilege certain waste disposal and responsibilities over others.

A case study methodology was used to underpin this research. This method allowed for comparisons between central government representations and awareness of food waste and those that existed within a very waste-conscious community where food waste reduction is a priority. Alongside the discourse analysis and case study, a sustainable development framework of analysis was developed to evaluate the dominant food waste discourses that were identified by the analysis.

This study contributes to scholarship on food waste minimisation and management in New Zealand by identifying how dominant food waste discourse influences political efforts aimed at food waste reduction. The findings show how little food waste features on the political agenda of central government, which, in turn, hinders what can be achieved at the local level. This study underscores the need for a central government-led, long-term vision for a comprehensive food waste policy that targets all actors involved in the food chain, in order to reduce the amount of food disposal sent to landfill.

year: 2019

title: Contextualising Māori writing: a study of prose fiction written in English by Witi Ihimaera, Patricia Grace, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff

authors: Calvert, Julia Helen

abstract: All prose fiction written in English by Māori is political on one level or another. The authors considered in this thesis, Witi Ihimaera, Patricia Grace, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff, choose to identify as Māori, but for each writer exactly what this entails implies something different. The diverse range of Māori characters represented in their work illustrates the heterogeneity of contemporary Māori identity. Whilst bearing in mind that there is no fixed Māori identity, this thesis proposes that all fiction written in English by Māori is motivated by a belief that Māori are a disadvantaged group within New Zealand society. 

Three of the four writers, Ihimaera, Grace and Hulme, write against a background of colonisation. Their fiction confronts grievances based on perceived injustices committed against Māori in the past by European colonists and is concerned with the restoration of Māori rights pertaining to land, language, identity and political voice. While all three engage with these issues in their fiction, this thesis specifically considers the way in which Ihimaera treats the theme of land, Grace focuses on issues of education and Hulme explores Māori mythology.

Alan Duff stands apart from the other three writers in his belief that colonisation is not to blame for contemporary Māori disadvantage. Rather, Duff considers the situation to be the result of inherent flaws within Māori society. Through his often didactic writing he proposes that improved Māori socioeconomic levels can only be achieved through a radical structural and economic re-evaluation of Māori culture.

This thesis contextualises the work of the four authors and explores the ways in which their fiction engages with historical and contemporary issues of “race relations” and cultural identity in New Zealand. A sociological approach has been applied to the texts. This approach derives from the Māori writers’ own insistent reading of contemporary Māori identity as the product of historical encounter between Māori and Pākehā. The authors work in a dialectical relationship to previous Pākehā representations of Māori in literature, are historically revisionist, and are frequently adversarial. 

Despite the differences in personal and political perspectives held by the authors, their fictions share a common goal in their search for Māori pathways to empowerment. This thesis argues that prose fiction written in English by Māori writers contributes to the political activism of the Māori people and helps to foster an environment in which new perspectives on Māori culture and bicultural relations can be articulated.

text: Contextualising Māori writing: a study of prose fiction written in English by Witi Ihimaera, Patricia Grace, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff All prose fiction written in English by Māori is political on one level or another. The authors considered in this thesis, Witi Ihimaera, Patricia Grace, Keri Hulme and Alan Duff, choose to identify as Māori, but for each writer exactly what this entails implies something different. The diverse range of Māori characters represented in their work illustrates the heterogeneity of contemporary Māori identity. Whilst bearing in mind that there is no fixed Māori identity, this thesis proposes that all fiction written in English by Māori is motivated by a belief that Māori are a disadvantaged group within New Zealand society. 

Three of the four writers, Ihimaera, Grace and Hulme, write against a background of colonisation. Their fiction confronts grievances based on perceived injustices committed against Māori in the past by European colonists and is concerned with the restoration of Māori rights pertaining to land, language, identity and political voice. While all three engage with these issues in their fiction, this thesis specifically considers the way in which Ihimaera treats the theme of land, Grace focuses on issues of education and Hulme explores Māori mythology.

Alan Duff stands apart from the other three writers in his belief that colonisation is not to blame for contemporary Māori disadvantage. Rather, Duff considers the situation to be the result of inherent flaws within Māori society. Through his often didactic writing he proposes that improved Māori socioeconomic levels can only be achieved through a radical structural and economic re-evaluation of Māori culture.

This thesis contextualises the work of the four authors and explores the ways in which their fiction engages with historical and contemporary issues of “race relations” and cultural identity in New Zealand. A sociological approach has been applied to the texts. This approach derives from the Māori writers’ own insistent reading of contemporary Māori identity as the product of historical encounter between Māori and Pākehā. The authors work in a dialectical relationship to previous Pākehā representations of Māori in literature, are historically revisionist, and are frequently adversarial. 

Despite the differences in personal and political perspectives held by the authors, their fictions share a common goal in their search for Māori pathways to empowerment. This thesis argues that prose fiction written in English by Māori writers contributes to the political activism of the Māori people and helps to foster an environment in which new perspectives on Māori culture and bicultural relations can be articulated.

year: 2002