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Employees are always motivated to do something. But motivating them to accomplish goals which are actually important requires a certain skill, according to Dr James Beck , inaugural Early Career Visiting Fellow in Management and Organisations at the UWA Business School.

Dr Beck, an organisational psychology expert from the University of Waterloo in Canada, is working with UWA Business School researchers examining competing demands and goals in the workplace.

Competing demands are often difficult for employees to balance, and Dr Beck is investigating this area with Professor Kerrie Unsworth and Professor Gillian Yeo from the UWA Business School.

"Maximising any one particular goal in the short term may not result in the best overall outcomes in the long run," Dr Beck explains.

"You need to take a long-term approach and know when to prioritise different goals."

One particular example of competing demands Dr Beck studies is the potential for trade-offs between efficiency and safety.

"We show that framing efficiency as something you're obligated to do can be dangerous, because when under time pressure people may push safety aside because ‘it [the job] has got to be done,'" he said.

The implications of how goals are framed are expected to be particularly important in industries such as mining, manufacturing and farming.

In related research, Dr Beck is also examining work-life balance and how people manage limited resources such as time and energy.

Living in Australia while continuing to work with colleagues in Canada, says Dr Beck, has given him a personal insight into the difficulty of ‘switching off' from work.

"We [the research team] have been thinking about our own lives, basically, when it comes to energy replenishing," he says.

"When you are getting work emails in the middle of the night from North America, it can make it really hard to go to sleep. But if you try and maximise your performance by pulling an all-nighter, it might not be good for your wellbeing and can lead to burnout, so again you have to take the long view."

But it isn't all work for Dr Beck.

While in Perth, he has visited Fremantle, Rottnest Island and the city centre, and been excited to see kangaroos in Caversham Wildlife Park.

Dr Beck has also been exposed to new ideas, made a site visit to a safety training facility, and developed new research streams which he hopes to continue working on when he returns to Canada.

"This trip was a good opportunity to come and work with Gillian Yeo because I had known her for years and have wanted to work with her but it's been hard because we live on different continents," he said.

"I now have more ideas than I have time to pursue, and I have developed several new collaborations. It [the visit to UWA] has been really satisfying and has broadened my thinking."

Dr Beck is visiting the UWA Business School between 20 August and 1 November. The Early Career Visiting Fellowship in Management and Organisations was first awarded in 2013.

Media references

Karen Della Torre (UWA Business School)     (+61 8) 6488 8538
Verity Chia (UWA Business School)              (+61 8) 6488 1346