Evaluation of a workplace bullying intervention program - pilot study

Summary

Background
An industry-wide culture and capability for innovation will help ensure that the red meat industry is positioned to meet consumer and market demands, capture new opportunities, enhance efficiencies as well as improve competitiveness and sustainability. The growing complexity within enterprises places increased pressure on their ability to:
accelerate the adoption of new technologies and systemsembed a more strategic approach to developing innovation systemsderive greater impact from their investments in innovation
Building the skills and capabilities of enterprises throughout the value chain is therefore essential to sustain productivity and competitive advantage.
Enterprise innovation capability is defined as the underlying capacities that enable a firm to be innovative on a sustained basis, rather than producing one-off product innovations from time to time. To assist companies in improving their innovation capability, AMPC and MLA focus on a range of activities including:
forming partnerships with individual enterprises to facilitate the implementation of sophisticated innovation strategies and accelerate the development of an innovation culture within the industryproviding a range of innovation tools to build capability at the enterprise levelidentification and facilitation of innovation diagnostics to benchmark the performance of innovation systems
These initiatives are delivered through individual projects, the Collaborative Innovation Strategy Program and the Innovation Managers Network.
Capability Projects
P.PIP.0310Evaluation of a workplace bullying intervention program. This project aimed to identify the prevalence and characteristics of bullying and harassment in a meat processing plant, evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-level intervention strategy to reduce bullying behaviour, and to make recommendations for specific intervention strategies that can be utilised in the meat processing sector in Australia.
Projects P.PIP.0191-0193  funded a 6 month intensive meat inspection training program in South Eastern NSW.  The program had a significant weekly face to face delivery component and was trialled with students nominated and supported by three domestic plants. The students were trained in work hours and their on the job practice was facilitated by their employer.
Project P.PIP.0372 was a case study of the implementation of helmets across two entire JBS operations and reports on the effectiveness of using the JBS Alchemy system to delivery training in potentially a significant change management area.   The project was undertaken in three phases with initially assessing feedback on using Alchemy as a training method, then design and implementation of a case study initiative (implementing helmets in all operational areas) and evaluation after implementation to measure successes of using Alchemy.  
A.SCC.0023 aimed to encourage the adoption of ‘Lean Thinking’ across the red meat industry. The objectives were as follows:
Introduce the basic idea of ‘Lean Thinking’.To run through some of the key approaches of ‘Lean Thinking’ and in particular ‘Value Chain Mapping’.Describe what it could mean to companies along the Red Meat supply chain.Provide information on how a company could get started and who is available to help.Describe some case studies that have been undertaken within the Red Meat Industry in Australia
A.SCT.0063 focussed on innovation skills coaching for JBS Australia Pty Ltd as part of the CLO program.
 
A.SCC.0028 funded a consultant to assist MLA in developing a case ready/retail ready workshop.
A.SCC.0036 provided technical advice on value chain mapping.
A.CIS.0051 looked at market diversification opportunities for Northern W.A. Pastoral Cattle.
Capability projects (pre 2000)
The objective of project M.387B was by March 1995 to have conducted a case study implementing Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) at an export meat processing plant in Queensland. The end purpose of the case study was to determine whether the use of TPM approached at a large export meat processing plant, where a formal maintenance program is already in place, further increased the value for money in that plant. Enhancements to the TPM principle and technique can also be obtained through this case study.
Under project UMON.010 in 1996, a  survey of 71 red meat processing plants in Australia was undertaken by researchers from
the University of Western Australia for the Meat Research Corporation to establish a profile of the characteristics and the adoption of certain work organisation practices linked to increased competitiveness in manufacturing organisations.
Under project UWA.010 in 1996, Castricum Brothers Ltd, a major meat processor based in Dandenong, Victoria, commenced an Australian Vocational Training System (A VTS) 1-3 pilot training program. The A VTS program was linked to the Castricum Brothers internal grading system as part of their Enterprise Bargaining agreement.