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    The role of the private sector in providing access to educational and employment opportunities in PNG : a case study of the Work Readiness Institute, Lihir Island, PNG : a research project presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development, Institute of Development Studies, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020-06) Tyro, Sophie Lynne
    Despite Papua New Guinea being resource rich, the country has struggled to turn these revenues into positive development results with PNG still lagging behind in all development indicators. Mining companies within the country have made effort to contribute positively to development, and are increasingly held to account through critical evaluation and measuring effects by way of social impact assessments. This paper seeks to look specifically at the role of the Work Ready Institute, situated within the special mining lease of Newcrest Mining Ltd., Lihir Island, New Ireland Province. The WRI has been developed by the mining company as a training and development program that provides trainees with the skills necessary to access employment opportunities available within Newcrest and is specifically aimed at young Lihirians. The aims of this research project are, firstly, to investigate the obstacles to educational success that exist for students at the Work Ready Institute, an educational training facility administered by Lihir Gold Limited (LGL). In understanding these challenges, the second aim is to explore how the mine, the WRI, and the trainees can work together for better educational outcomes. The overall context of this research project is to critically examine the education system in PNG by looking at the history of education in PNG and how this history relates to recent curriculum reforms. The research considers the available literature surrounding education in PNG as well as the extractive industries and the way in which the latter can partner with the government to improve educational outcomes in the country. This research considers these through the framework of Corporate Social Responsibility, particularly looking at the motivations of CSR within the mining industry and its influence on outcomes and sustainability of social performance initiatives. Broadly speaking, the conclusion of this research project speaks to the need for social performance initiatives to be well considered in partnership with the very people the project is aimed at through effective social assessment and monitoring. There needs to be a clear objective for the program, and all stakeholders need to understand the objective in order to find success. Most importantly, the outcome of the initiative needs to satisfy business objectives in order to ensure continuity and sustainability during the mine life, as social performance requires long-­term investment in order to deliver effective social change. And herein lies the difficulty: placing priority on business outcomes, like social performance, while also prioritising the needs of the community. True partnerships in sustainable development are when interests of all stakeholders are met.
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    In what ways and to what extent is the global oil and gas industry able to deliver enduring empowerment outcomes for women in Asia-Pacific? : a case study exploring the employment and skills development of Timorese women on Timor Sea offshore facilities : a dissertation presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Adams, Virginia
    The sustainable development agenda seeks to enlist big business as a development agent to help redress persistent and pervasive conditions of women’s disadvantage in the developing world. Global corporations are being urged, among other imperatives and initiatives, to open decent work opportunities for females, thereby enabling them to traverse the basic empowerment thresholds of enjoying dignity of and in work and of becoming economically self-reliant. Rare to find in the development literature, this case study brings to light a corner of global industry (that of offshore oil and gas operations in the Timor Sea) in which, irrespective of sustainable development’s grand vision for women’s empowerment, opportunities have opened for host-country women to enjoy capabilities gains beyond the crossing of these thresholds. Moreover, the study, atypically to the dis-empowered portraits of women that abound in the development literature, brings to life the existence and experiences of dissident female (Timorese) identities imbued with high levels of agency who have been able to navigate the mesh of patriarchal belief structures and norms in their society and enter, earn respect and realise potential in the nontraditional, historically masculinised job field of offshore oil and gas. The case study has considerable breadth of scope in its pursuit of two main interconnected avenues of inquiry relating to the Timorese females’ work skills development and employment. These are: a) the associated agendas, workplace protocols, decision-making and ensuing actions within the stakeholder organisational networks of the Timor Sea oil and gas projects, and: b) the women’s own aspirations, efforts and achievements. The research methods used, of qualitative, open-ended interviews combined with long-term on-going communication with many of the group have provided a considerable depth of insight into the women’s empowerment trajectories, and a detailed illumination of the human and organisational influences on these within their training and work spaces. Near-40 Timorese women took part in the study along with 20 respondents from the stakeholder companies involved directly or indirectly with their oil and gas industry learning and earning journeys. What this research says helps to construct a more textured narrative around how gender and development is framed. It does this by capturing in multidimensional (personal, relational, social and economic) and multifaceted (cognitive, psychological and practical) ways the meanings of the empowerment gains of women from a male –dominated society who have trained, worked and been well-paid in gender-equal employment spaces. The conceptual lens is shaped using as a starting point Sen’s Capabilities Approach, feminist notions of power, theory on self-determination and around the meeting of employees’ cognitive, psychological and social empowerment needs in the workplace. The dissertation introduces a new methodological tool of the women’s owned ‘human capital portfolios’ (as their offshore-enhanced caches of knowledge, skills, abilities and attributes) to encapsulate the ballast of their capabilities sets as these contribute to their empowerment status. With its main aim being to evaluate not simply the achievement of but, importantly, the durability of the women’s empowered identities into uncertain futures, the knowledge produced in this research provides critical meaning around women’s empowerment often neglected in gender and development discourse.
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    An empirical study of beliefs about work in Tonga : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies in Human Resource Management at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1997) Lopeti, Mele 'Anitoni Lauteau Lucy
    The aim of this research study was to identify the predominant beliefs that employed Tongan people hold about work, and to investigate the relationship between beliefs about work and selected demographic variables. The first step was to determine whether the instrument used to measure beliefs about work in the Tongan cultural context is a valid and appropriate measure. The sample consisted of 804 employed Tongans from Tongatapu, Vava'u, Ha'apai, 'Eua and Niuatoputapu islands. The sample was limited to Tongans employed mainly by government sector organisations that have an identifiable personnel function within paid employment in the formal economy of Tonga. Buchholz's Beliefs About Work Scale was used as the measure of employee attitude in the present study, using the same scales that have been developed in previous studies. This study attempted to replicate the five dimensions of the Beliefs About Work Scale and extend findings concerning beliefs about work in the Tongan context. It was concluded that the measurement of beliefs using the five dimensions from the Belief About Work Scale was not a valid and appropriate measure in Tonga. The results of the analysis revealed three factors of beliefs about work in Tonga. This suggests the need to sort out appropriate definitions and measurement in favour of research on indigenous samples, rather than simply applying results from countries of different cultural settings. Of the three factors of beliefs about work in Tonga, the highest mean scores were obtained on the humanistic belief system, then the work ethic, and the lowest mean scores were obtained on the leisure ethic. The analysis of variance of the factor scores revealed differences in beliefs exist in relation to gender, age and job level. Marital status and length of employment did not appear to be related to beliefs about work. These are discussed in this research study.