AREAS OF FOCUS
The Initiative focuses on the following five areas and examines their applications to organisational practices and public policy.
- Quality of Life and Well-Being
- Culture and Behaviour
- Thinking and Decision Making
- Work Behaviours
- Methods in Behavioural Sciences
The study of human behaviour in the contexts of organisational practices or public policy is directly dependent on and draws from the research in the above five areas. For example, understanding and predicting behavioural responses to various policy options related to work-life balance will require scientific research, employing multiple methods of investigation (Area 5), to examine what constitutes quality of life and well-being for different individuals (Area 1), how individuals think and make decisions (Area 3) in various work and organisational situations (Area 4) and cultural contexts (Area 2).
Multiple Research Methodologies
The Initiative uses multiple complementary research methods to increase the reliability and convergent validity to the conclusions drawn. Examples of research methods include experimental design and laboratory-based methods, social network analyses, scientific surveys, experience sampling methods, standardised testing, focus group discussions, assessment centres and observational methods.