Researcher

Dr Vanessa McDermott

My Expertise

Drugs in sport; sport regulation; corporate governance, worker / occupational health and safety, performance management

Keywords

corporate governance

doping in sports

risk management

Fields of Research (FoR)

Sociology

SEO tags

Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society

Biography

Dr Vanessa McDermott is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra.

Dr McDermott is a sociologist who critically assesses governance and regulation and the diversion of risk, or ‘risk shifting,’ and the impact of this for worker, public and community safety. Her research reveals that there are public safety implications when risk-oriented regulatory frameworks, with different and sometimes competing objectives...view more

Dr Vanessa McDermott is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra.

Dr McDermott is a sociologist who critically assesses governance and regulation and the diversion of risk, or ‘risk shifting,’ and the impact of this for worker, public and community safety. Her research reveals that there are public safety implications when risk-oriented regulatory frameworks, with different and sometimes competing objectives conceptualise risk in different ways. Vanessa takes an innovative approach to show that risk-driven regulatory responses affect worker safety in a range of contexts, and has explored this issue in civil construction and anti-doping policies in elite sport.

Dr McDermott received her PhD in sociology from the Australian National University (ANU) and was a Research Fellow in the Energy Pipeline Cooperative Research Centre at ANU and later at RMIT. She has conducted evaluation projects in the Australian Public Service and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Business at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.

My Grants

Connor, J., Henne, K. and McDermott, V. 2013 Legitimating the Fight? Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Anti-Doping Strategies in the Pacific, funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (ongoing).

Owen, J., Connor, J., Linger, H., Algeo, C. and McDermott, V. 2012-16 The Project as a Tool of Policy Implementation: The Role of Project Management in Health, on behalf of the Project Management Institute (completed).

Hayes, J., McDermott, V. and Holdsworth, S. ‘Urban Planning for Pipelines: evidence-based recommendations for policy change to support public safety and community welfare’ (completed, at RMIT).

My Qualifications

PhD in Sociology, from The Australian National University (ANU) - Conceptualising Legitimacy, Moral Panics and Performance Enhancing Drugs: Crisis? Whose Crisis?

First Class Honours (Sociology) from ANU - Court in the Middle – Gender Relations, the Family Court and Child Support Agency.

Bachelor of Arts, ANU (Development Studies and Sociology).

My Awards

McDermott, V. & Hayes, J. 2016 ‘We’re still hitting things’: the effectiveness of third party processes for pipeline strike prevention, in Proceedings of the 11th International Pipeline Conference (IPC), 26 – 30 September, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Best Paper Award Runner Up.

Lingard, H., Harley, J., Pink, S., Hayes, J. and McDermott, V. 2016 Breaking the Rules: Using Video To Understand Sub-Contracted Workers' Safety-Related Rule Violations And Errors, in Proceedings of the 32nd ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September, Manchester, United Kingdom, Best International Research Paper.

McDermott, V. 2011 Conceptualising Legitimacy, Moral Panics and PEDs: Crisis? Whose Crisis?, Sports Medicine Australia, ACT Sports Research Awards, Canberra, Winner of the 2011 ACT Sports Research Award – Open Category.

My Research Activities

Senior Executive Attitudes to Risk: the role of senior executive incentive schemes in corporate governance and organisational safety performance

Safety in the construction sector is an important part of organisational performance. Workplace injuries and large-scale accidents bring personal and organisational costs and expose construction companies to commercial, reputational, and legal risks. Despite research into accident causation and strategies to improve safety, little is known about the interactions of different corporate governance processes and any impact on organisational safety performance in the construction sector. This research will contribute towards addressing this gap by investigating relationships between senior executive incentive schemes and safety performance.

Legitimating the fight? Questions about Cross-cultural perspectives on anti-doping strategies in the Pacific

The fight against doping in sport requires support from governments, sporting organizations, athletes, athlete support personnel and the public. Crucial to this support is the perception that the anti-doping fight is a ‘good thing’ to do and that anti-doping polices are perceived to be legitimate. Problematically for the fight against doping there is a growing crisis of legitimacy. Doping rules and processes are continually challenged, sporting organizations, athletes and even some countries only partially buy into the anti-doping message, resources are sparse and cultural differences ignored. Further, criticisms of the value of anti-doping regulations take aim at the manner in which the anti-doping fight is undertaken. This World Anti-Doping Agency funded research project investigates cross-cultural perceptions of the legitimacy of anti-doping regulation. This research empirically examines how various actors perceive the anti-doping framework with the aim of understanding factors that build positive (or negative) perceptions of the legitimacy of anti-doping policies or procedures.