Andrew Guilfoyle

The attribution of success and failure in IT projects

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to determine how project managers attribute information technology (IT) project success and failure.Design/methodology/approach – IT personnel from large Australian organisations completed an adapted version of the Attributional Styles questionnaire, which asked them to attribute causes along a number of attribution dimensions, for IT projects which have either succeeded or failed.Findings – The results indicate that IT support workers attribute failure to external factors, whilst attributing success to themselves. On the other hand, executive management took a more balanced perspective which attribute success to external factors and only partially to themselves, whereas they attribute significant personal responsibility for failure.Practical implications – More junior professionals and operational IT employees can learn from their senior professionals in attributing success and failure. Post‐implementation reviews and debriefings conducted by senior IT profession...

Self-determination theory and physical activity among breast cancer survivors.

The study aim was to examine constructs of autonomy support and competence as well as the motivation continuum from the self-determination theory (SDT) as a framework for understanding physical activity (PA) motivation and behavior in breast cancer survivors. Questionnaires assessing demographics, medical factors, PA, motivation continuum, perceived autonomy support, and competence were completed by 558 breast cancer survivors. Results showed that lymphedema (chi2 = 7.9, p < .01) (chi2 = 4.6, p < .05) were associated with meeting PA guidelines. Moreover, survivors meeting PA guidelines reported more identified regulations and intrinsic motivation (p < .01), autonomy support (p < .01), and competence (p < .01). Forced entry hierarchical regression analysis showed that SDT constructs explained 20.2% (p < .01) of the PA variance. Significant independent SDT predictors included identified regulation (Beta = .14, p < .05) and competence (Beta = .23, p < .01), with autonomy support approaching significance (Beta = .9, p = .057). SDT may be a useful model for understanding PA motivation and behavior in breast cancer survivors.

Central motor drive and perception of effort during fatigue in multiple sclerosis.

ObjectiveTo determine if task performance and fatiguability during repeated low-level contractions of an intrinsic hand muscle differ in a group of MS subjects compared with a control group, and what central changes accompany the development of fatigue and the period of recovery, whether these measures are related to subjective ratings of fatigue or perception of effort.MethodsForce of index finger abduction, rating of perceived effort, and motor evoked potential amplitude and silent period duration were measured during and after a 20-min. intermittent submaximal (40%) contraction of the first dorsal interosseous muscle in 23 clinically definite MS subjects with mild-moderate symptoms, and 15 controls.ResultsRating of perceived effort increased at a greater rate in the MS group than in control subjects during exercise, and this was associated with larger increases in both MEP amplitude and silent period duration.ConclusionsSubmaximal fatiguing exercise is associated with an enhanced central motor drive and increased perception of effort in MS.SignificanceMS subjects can increase central drive during fatiguing exercise to a greater degree than controls, but this is associated with greater perceived exertion. These factors may underlie the more general complaint of fatigue experienced by people with MS.

Relationships between quality of life, spiritual well-being, and psychological adjustment styles for people living with leukaemia: An exploratory study

This paper reports on the relationships between quality of life, spiritual well-being, and psychological adjustment styles for people living with leukaemia. Participants were 40 adults (26 women and 14 men) aged between 22 and 80 years living with acute or chronic leukaemia in Western Australia. Participants completed three scales measuring spiritual well-being (FACIT-Sp-12-C Version 4; Cella, 1997), psychological adjustment styles (MAC; Watson, Greer, & Bliss, 1989), and quality of life (FACIT-G; Cella, 1997). No differences were found between the men and women participants, with the exception of the anxious preoccupation adjustment style. Significant positive correlations were found between spiritual well-being and quality of life (r = 0.72, p = <0.01), and between fighting spirit and both spiritual well-being (r = 0.55, p < 0.01) and quality of life (r = 0.67, p < 0.01). Spiritual well-being and quality of life were both significantly negatively correlated with hopelessness/helplessness, fatalism, and anxious preoccupation, suggesting that people who are able to find meaning in their illness are more likely to utilize functional psychological adjustment styles. A stepwise multiple regression revealed that spiritual well-being was most strongly associated with quality of life for people living with leukaemia, followed by a fighting spirit; together, these accounted for 61% of the variance in quality of life scores. Thus, having a reason for living, making life more productive, finding comfort in faith or spiritual beliefs, being determined to control the environment, and feeling a sense of meaning, peace, harmony, purpose, and comfortable in oneself are factors that contribute to a better quality of life among patients with leukaemia. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the findings are discussed.

Attributions of Responsibility: Rural Neoliberalism and Farmers' Explanations of the Australian Rural Crisis

Abstract Many farmers struggle to maintain farm viability amidst the ongoing commitment to a trade liberal paradigm in Australian agricultural policy. Significantly, governmental neoliberal discourses insist on Australian farmers taking personal responsibility and control for any socio-economic hardship or farm viability problems they face and down play structural explanations. In this article we argue that the neoliberal discursive environment creates the potential for self-blame where farmers ‘fail’. To investigate this argument, open-ended responses from a survey of farmers in a NSW rural local government area were examined using coding categories of attribution theory from social psychology. The analysis identifies how individual farmers have borrowed from these discourses and the extent to which the attributions these discourses encapsulate are replicated, transformed or contested. Areas for future research, including impacts of attributions on psychological health and political mobilisation, are discussed.

Achieving outcomes for children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds

This paper reports on research (both primary research and a literature review), undertaken with the aim of demonstrating strategies for successful inclusion into Australian society of children and families from culturally and linguistically different (CaLD) backgrounds. The authors recognise that CaLD children and families are commonly disadvantaged through being part of a minority group in Australia, their experiences prior to migration (for example refugee trauma), the different values and practices they may encounter here, the difficulty of learning a new language, the problems they face having qualifications and experience ratified, and the varying forms of racism the may experience. A number of innovative and highly successful programmes operate in different areas of Australia that are very successful in supporting CaLD families.

Neoliberal governance and ‘responsibilization’ of agents: reassessing the mechanisms of responsibility-shift in neoliberal discursive environments

ABSTRACT The ‘governmentality’ approach has been influential in analyzing how neoliberal governance transfers responsibility to individual agents through an ‘appeal of freedom’ mechanism. This productive conceptualization of power has generated a solid body of research on the workings of (neo)liberal governance and contemporary Western capitalism. However, such research has largely ignored a complementary mechanism characteristic of situations where ‘appeal of freedom’ lets actors down, that is, dynamics of ‘threat to personal control’. Studies focusing and elaborating on this aspect, and ‘control constructs’ more generally, have remained mostly within the disciplinary boundaries of (social) psychology. In this paper we aim to bring the social psychological research on control constructs into a dialogue with governmentality theorizing and to show how neoliberal ‘responsibilization’ can work through threats to personal control, insecurity and governance by fear. We propose one way of utilizing, and advancing, these approaches in tandem with empirical research, by focusing on the analysis of control attributions of the subjects of (neoliberal) governance. With a brief empirical illustration from the context of Australian neoliberal agricultural policies we then show how neoliberal ‘responsibilization’ can be viewed as relying on farmers’ striving to maintain personal control under uncertainty, in addition to the workings of the ‘appeal of freedom’ mechanism.