About QQSR Based in Canberra, Australia’s national capital, QQSR is a specialist firm that has provided advanced capacity building, change management, and research and evaluation services to private and public sector clients since 1992. Adopting an "action research" approach, QQSR applies current social science knowledge to practical issues. Our work not only helps organisations to develop but also builds capacity, thus improving their social and educational capital. QQSR does not provide "off-the-shelf" solutions without consideration of each client’s unique situation and needs. From the use of cognitive-behavioural approaches to improve staff effectiveness, to group-based action for values clarification, strategic planning and problem solving, to scenario methods for future orientation, QQSR problem resolution is built upon a foundation of research. For example, we often integrate a brief program of research with developmental workshops, then tailoring intervention to organisational need and enabling the organisation to continue change processes for themselves. Where relevant, QQSR accesses specialist providers and teams up with other individuals and companies that have expertise in advanced statistics, cognitive psychology, social work, strategic planning and market research. The firm has two principals. Stephen Mugford is formerly a Reader in Sociology at ANU. He holds an Honours degree in Sociology from the University of London (1968) and a PhD from the University of Bristol (1974). Dr Mugford is involved in a number of organisational change projects providing high-level advice to, team building with, and executive coaching of, senior managers. He also conducts social research with an applied/policy focus. His academic background and experience in sociological research provides wide-ranging knowledge and conceptual skills, underpinned by a distinguished record of academic publications. This includes national and international journal articles and book chapters as well as numerous research and policy reports for Federal government agencies and the private sector. Dr Mugford has worked extensively with uniformed services and has carried out major projects for the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Army, the Defence Equity Organisation, the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and the Royal Australian Navy as well as Commonwealth and State Government Departments (e.g. Health, Family and Community Services, Transport and Regional Development, ACT Health & Community Services), statutory bodies and offices (e.g. Federal Office of Road Safety, NSW Roads & Traffic Authority, Australian Institute of Criminology), tertiary institutions (e.g. University of Technology Sydney (UTS), and Sydney University) as well as organisations such as Divisions of General Practice (ACT, Wagga Wagga), and service providers (e.g. Karralika Drug Rehabilitation Service) Currently, he is involved with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in several aspects of their cultural change program (including executive development with the senior leadership team), with the Australian Defence College, and with executive training programs for Macquarie Graduate School of Management and the Australian Institute of Police Management. Work for the RAAF blends training, development and research aspects with coaching, advice and assistance with achieving strategic goals in the human resources area. Jane Mugford has longstanding research consultancy, research management and training experience. She is a sociologist and holds a BA from Victoria University of Wellington and an MA(Qual) from the Australian National University. She has worked in tertiary institutions in both teaching and survey research positions (including seven years at the Australian National University), and for the Commonwealth Government in training, research and policy contexts. After 14 years with the Australian Institute of Criminology, she left in 1998 to join QQSR. Gender issues, both in the workplace and in the community, have been, a major focus of her work. At the Australian Institute of Criminology she was initially in the training and conference unit and, after a secondment to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to coordinate a national education campaign on domestic violence issues in the late ‘80s, returned to the Institute to develop its research consultancy role. She was subsequently involved in research consultancy, and in management of the violence prevention research team and the Criminology Research Council. Her own criminological research and evaluation was mainly in crime prevention and related health fields, particularly in relation to domestic violence and sexual assault, and also in community safety and violence prevention, and safety and risk in police work. Since joining QQSR she has continued with a research, training support and policy advice role. Recent projects have covered the topics of illicit drugs and crime, drugs in sport, and cultural change in a military context. In the military setting she has worked, for example, on the Review of Navy’s Good Working Relationships Project (an anti-harassment program) and on a scoping exercise for Navy on Retention of Personnel (with particular focus on female seaman officers), was part of the equity and diversity training team at ADFA, and is currently working with Air Force on its People Capability Project located at Richmond Air Base. She also continues to advise on a range of policing matters, for example, in relation to women in policing (she is a member of the Australasian Council of Women and Policing and adviser on past/future national and international conferences on women in policing). Jane has just completed a mentoring program for Women’s NGOs who were applying for funding under the Women’s Development Program and is currently managing QQSR’s long term evaluation of the introduction of alternative dispute resolution into the Australian Defence Organisation.