Overview
Background
Caroline Knight is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Queensland Business School. Caroline’s research focuses on understanding how we can design work which is optimally healthy for individuals and organisations. Her focus is on work design, remote and hybrid work, work redesign interventions, and well-being. She collaborates with researchers, practitioners and industry partners internationally and has attracted funding worth over AUD$1,000,000, most recently leading a successful Australian Research Council Discovery Grant worth over AUD$650,000. Caroline currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Organizational Behavior and has published in several leading top-tier academic journals including the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Relations, Human Resource Management, the Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Work & Stress, as well as practitioner journals such as Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review.
Availability
- Dr Caroline Knight is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Research interests
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Remote and hybrid work
A core stream of my research focuses on how remote and hybrid work impacts work design, wellbeing and performance. My research during Covid-19 showed that individuals who experienced high demands when working from home, such as close monitoring, were more likely to experience increasing distress over time. Those in hybrid jobs who experienced low support even when in the office were more likely to feel lonely when at home. Given that hybrid work looks set to stay and is highly prevalent, there is a need to better understand how we can design hybrid work which is optimal for individuals, teams, and organisations.
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Work redesign
A second core stream of my research focuses on work redesign. I am interested to understand how we can redesign work both top-down, by applying organisation wide, manager-led interventions (e.g., flexible working, training), and bottom-up, self-initiated interventions (e.g., job crafting), to enable individuals and organisations to thrive. I apply evidence-based research in practice to help organisations redesign work, and am also interested in the underlying mechanisms, processes, and boundary conditions. That is, I am particularly keen to understand under what conditions work redesign interventions are effective, why they are effective, and for whom they are effective.
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Future of Work
I am interested in exploring how the changing nature of work is impacting work design, wellbeing and performance. This includes investigating how the relational aspects of work are shaped by new technologies and working styles, and impact outcomes such as engagement, motivation, and wellbeing. It also includes unpacking the changing nature of work demands (e.g., close monitoring, pressure to be available beyond office hours), and relationships with coping responses (e.g., multitasking, detachment from work, recovery) and wellbeing.
Works
Search Professor Caroline Knight’s works on UQ eSpace
2017
Journal Article
Building and sustaining work engagement–a participatory action intervention to increase work engagement in nursing staff
Knight, Caroline, Patterson, Malcolm, Dawson, Jeremy and Brown, Jayne (2017). Building and sustaining work engagement–a participatory action intervention to increase work engagement in nursing staff. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26 (5), 634-649. doi: 10.1080/1359432X.2017.1336999
2017
Journal Article
Building work engagement: a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of work engagement interventions
Knight, Caroline, Patterson, Malcolm and Dawson, Jeremy (2017). Building work engagement: a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of work engagement interventions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38 (6), 792-812. doi: 10.1002/job.2167
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Caroline Knight is:
- Available for supervision
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Available projects
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Optimising hybrid work for improved wellbeing and performance
Examine how, why, and for whom hybrid work impacts wellbeing and performance, and evaluate workplace interventions to increase the effectiveness and beneficial outcomes of hybrid work
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Caroline Knight directly for media enquiries about:
- Flexible work
- Hybrid work
- Job quality
- Quality of work
- Remote work
- Wellbeing at work
- Working from home
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