Tuwhera Research Repository

The Tuwhera Research Repository provides sustainable open access and archiving to a broad range of AUT produced research - theses, research outputs and datasets.

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Access status: Open Access ,
In-Season Resistance Training Intervention Improves Strength and Power Characteristics in Academy Freestyle Freeski Athletes – a Quasi-experimental Study
(SAGE Publications, 2026-08-21) McPhail, Jonathan; Cross, Matt; Linnamo, Vesa; Spörri, Jörg
Resistance training (RT) is recognized for enhancing strength and power in athletes, yet its application and effects in freestyle freeski athletes remain underexplored. This study examined the impact of an in-season RT intervention on lower-body strength and power characteristics in freeski athletes. Twenty-four male athletes (mean ± SD; age 17.5 ± 1.3 years, height 177.2 ± 3.9 cm, mass 71.9 ± 4.4 kg) participated in a nonrandomized controlled study. Participants were assigned to two groups: 13 freeski athletes formed the RT group, 11 sports athletes served as historical control. A repetitions in reserve RT approach (including knee and hip dominant exercises) were performed twice per week. Assessments, CMJ height, drop jump (DJ) height, DJ contact time, reactive strength index (RSI), absolute peak force (PFₐꙏₛ), and relative PF, were conducted pre-and post-intervention. Differences were analysed using repeated measures MANOVA Wilks’ lambda (Λ), magnitude of effect with partial-eta squared (ηp²), and pairwise comparisons with Cohen's d. Within-group pre-to-post changes were assessed using paired sample t-tests. A significant effect between timepoint and group was found (Wilks’ Λ=0.3, F(8,15) = 4.33, p < 0.007, ηp²=0.7), indicating changes over time (pre vs. post) differed significantly between the RT intervention and control groups. There was a significant main effect of group (Wilks’ Λ=0.4, F(8,15) = 2.65, p = 0.049, ηp²=0.6), highlighting differences across all dependent variables. Timepoint effect was significant (Wilks’ Λ=0.15, F(8,15) = 10.3, p < 0.001, ηp²=0.8), reflecting considerable changes across dependent variables. The RT group demonstrated significant improvements in all dependent variables (p < 0.05). A 10-week in-season RT intervention twice per week elicited significant improvements in lower-body strength and power characteristics in freeski athletes.
Access status: Open Access ,
Rewriting the Self at Work: A Scoping Review of How Digital and Social Structures Shape Accountants’ Occupational Identity during Digital Transformation
(Auckland University of Technology, 2026) Bayot, Luisa; Cooper-Thomas, Helena; Sharma, Himanshu
Digital transformation, the strategic use of information technology to achieve organizational outcomes, is not only reshaping accountants’ work but also their understanding of their professional roles. As routine tasks become automated and data-driven tools expand, accountants are increasingly expected to take on advisory, analytical, and strategic responsibilities. These shifts can unsettle established professional identities, making it important for organizations to understand and actively support how individuals adapt. This scoping review examines how digital and social structures influence accountants’ occupational identities during such transformations. Drawing on 44 empirical and conceptual studies, it uses an abductive reflexive thematic analysis to identify patterns in how accountants respond to changing work environments. Two key insights were developed from this analysis. First, agency that is structurally supported through training, governance, and competency frameworks enables transformative identity work. Second, the iterative mutual reshaping of socio-technical structures and occupational identity enables optimization of organizational identification and outcomes. This study contributes to information systems and identity theories by bridging two interrelated but different disciplines: information systems and identity. Using a socio-technical perspective, it shows how technological features embody affordances and constraints that influence the reshaping of accountants’ occupational identities around emerging roles and value creation. It also contributes to identity work research by advancing a practice-based perspective that emphasizes how technology-enabled work outcomes strengthen occupational legitimacy, organizational identification, and the co-evolution of identity with digital and social structures. This study also contributes to practice by suggesting how organizations can support agentic identity work and create an environment that allows accountants to initiate changes in the system and processes, ultimately leading to optimized outcomes. Moreover, this study guides professional associations and large accounting firms on how they can support the profession in preparing accountants for digital disruptions to their identity.
Access status: Open Access ,
O le Lagi. Ma le Lagi. Ma le Lagi: Moana Films and the Re-imaging of Belonging in the Diaspora
(Auckland University of Technology, 2026) McCartney, Marina Alofagia; Refiti, Albert; Kothari, Shuchi
Through the practice-led component of the thesis, the film "The Return", this study examines how a ‘Moana’* worldview has influenced the film form of Moana filmmakers** . As a focus on films made by Moana creatives increase (Strong, 2025, para. 5), the literature has historically explored the politics of representation on screen. Rather than only interrogating Moana representations in the film text, this research considers the vā (relationality) between filmmaker and film to investigate how it informs creative decisions made during the creative process. The Samoan tradition of su’ifefiloi (Ellis, 1998; Figiel, 2006; Tielu, 2016), is employed as a framework to thread together the gafa (genealogy) of "The Return" with constructions and explorations of Moana identity, and how these manifest in the themes and aesthetics of Moana films. Tala fa’a’aiga is used as a secondary framework that emerged in response to the su’ifefiloi as a methodology. These frameworks allow for a combination of Moana creativity and spirituality that developed the short film "The Return" and explored a theoretical approach to analysing the Moana films "O le Tulāfale" (Tamasese, 2011), "Hiama" (Freshwater, 2021), "Vai "(Arahanga et al., 2019) and "O Tamaiti" (Urale, 2019). These films are explored through the lens of the Moana values of vā, spirituality and/or fa’aaloalo (respect) to understand how film form is shaped by the identity reference of the filmmakers. The research adds to the canon of Moana film by considering whether a Moana film grammar is emerging. The films discussed have had at least one key creative stage located and funded by a government organisation outside the filmmaker's ancestral homeland. The study seeks to situate Moana film within the Moana rather than under the umbrella of diasporic or accented cinema. By doing so, the research reveals how Moana films can nurture the vā between mafaufau (mind), tino (body) and agaga (soul) for both the Moana filmmaker and the audience. The thesis consists of three components: a narrative short film, a contextualising exegesis that includes tala fa’a’aiga, which contextualise and position the creative researcher(s). The central component of the work is "The Return", with the exegesis and tala fa’a’aiga being produced in response to the creative practice. The study is significant as it is the first PhD study in Aotearoa New Zealand by a practising Moana screenwriter and director to specialise in Moana film. *‘Moana’ is the Samoan word for "deep sea" or "deep water" (Milner, 1992, p. 146). In this research, it replaces the label Pacific, which was introduced by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 (National Ocean Service, n.d., para. 2). **'Moana filmmakers', as used in this research, follows the convention of identifying those of ‘Pacific’ heritage working in ‘Pacific’ art in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Access status: Open Access ,
Painted Relationships: Reconstructing the Lens of Childhood
(Auckland University of Technology, 2026) Gresswell, Neve; Hooper, Julian; Amundsen, Fiona
My childhood was full of wonder and imagination; it was carefree and joyful. My project has arisen from my own experience; it explores how childhood is recollected. I am interested in the processes of recollection, and how painting can physicalise the significance of childhood memory. This painting project places me back behind that lens of my childhood, immersing me in a process of recalling memories from ages seven to thirteen. As time passes, memories fade and specific moments and objects blur, but the feelings from those experiences remain, forming the base upon which my thoughts, beliefs and behaviours, and by proxy this project, are built. This practice-led research project examines the invisible emotional ties that bind one to childhood. Adopting an autoethnographic methodological framework, I aim to reveal the unseen relationships between people, objects, and places. The resulting paintings situate recollection of childhood within a psycho-social space where they can be recognised and appreciated. This project aims to develop specific painting methods that can initiate conversations about childhood and the inevitability of growing older. My paintings bridge connections between my personal narratives and those of viewers.
Access status: Open Access ,
Moral Distress: For Primary Care Doctors, ‘Doing the Right Thing’ Can Feel Impossible
(The Conversation, 2026-07-24) Greenslade-Yeats, James; Mharapara, Tago L