"My research aims to understand employees’ environmental behaviours in the workplace."
Deakin Business School doctoral research students Sarah Steen and Rashad Hasanov recently competed in Deakin's Three Minute Thesis (3MT) finals.
Established by the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT has grown to be an international event, with universities from around the world competing virtually and in person.
Ms Steen says she was proud to compete in the 3MT finals because her thesis titled Towards an understanding of employees’ workplace recycling behaviours is growing in importance around the globe.
‘Environmental sustainability is a hot topic, and becoming high on the agenda for a lot of organisations.
‘The idea of being green is in favour with consumers and society today.
‘The focus of existing research has typically been focused on senior management and how they are incorporating environmental targets into their business strategies. However this can only be translated into their business operations with the help of the employees’ Ms Steen says.
Her research aims to understand employees’ environmental behaviours in the workplace and while Ms Steen has found that employees have the intention to recycle, her research has discovered that they are not doing so.
‘I’m trying to understand why this is not occurring.
‘We need an understanding of employees’ environmental behaviours as it is particularly crucial to organisations’ environmental sustainability efforts,’ she says.
Ms Steen would like to see her research contribute to an understanding of employees’ recycling behaviours and ultimately help organisations reduce their environmental footprint and once she finishes her PhD hopes to continue her career in academia.
The second business student to speak about his research, titled Essays on financial crises, was Rashad Hasanov.
The first essay of the series, Political regime and financial crisis, which was also the topic of his 3MT presentation, looks at how a ruling government’s ideology affects a country’s response to financial crises and his second essay explores how political factors affect banking crises.
‘In the lead up to elections, governments can increase the availability of credit to their citizens, to increase their popularity before elections, giving their constituents easy credit. Because of this, this increases the likelihood of banking crises,’ he says.
Mr Hasanov’s third essay looks at governments’ role during financial crises. He argues that governments should increase their spending (e.g. on infrastructure) during recessions and financial crises, helping the economy recover faster.
‘Economists who look at financial crises tend to only look at economic aspects,’ but Mr Hasanov would also like economists to take political aspects into consideration as well.
Mr Hasanov is also currently working as a part-time economist with the Victorian Government’s Department of Treasury and Finance. He hopes to continue working with them, or other financial institutions, after the completion of his PhD.
Access Sarah and Rashad's full 3MT presentations: