Qantas Business case-study

Shift work and its impact on organizations and individuals can be discussed from several approaches. Due to the limited extent of this work I want to summarize and discuss the importance of attributes of 12-hour shifts in the mining industry under social, psychological, physiological and performance aspects. Of these attributes, the first three are more important for the employees.
Social attributes include domestic life and social life. A longer period of leisure time allows workers to go home, although this probably depends on the location of the mine. The chance to join family and friends, to watch the development of the children, to experience ‘full fathering’ (ACTU report, 2001) and to participate in other leisure pursuits has a positive impact on the social life of the employee. “Twelve-hour shifts offer larger and more frequent blocks of leisure time…” and “…minimizes the number of trips to and from work.”(Williamson, Gower and Clarke, 1994, p 287). “Being...