To mark last week’s launch of the Macquarie Business School, we highlight some of the School’s outstanding business minds.

Collaboration key at new Macquarie Business School

Professor Stephen Brammer, Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School was featured in The Australian regarding the launch of the new Business School.

Climate wars: what you need to know before you vote on Saturday

Carbon pricing expert Stefan Trueck, Professor of Business Analytics, sits down for a Q&A on the differences between the major parties’ climate policies.

Can numbers be trusted? How annual reports could look in the future

Dr Andreas Hellman from the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance addresses how new technology may soon replace questionnaires to delve deeper into our subconscious reactions to financial information, which could revolutionise the way annual reports are designed.

Meet Australia’s most diverse board

Associate Professor Lan Snell explains Macquarie University’s Business School has reimagined the MBA for a future, global workforce, advised by an industry board whose composition also leaves the past behind.

How Blockchain could change the way you buy your next house

Slashing the cost of real estate conveyancing is just one of the ways blockchain technology will transform commerce and affect our daily lives. Professor Tom Smith, Head of Macquarie’s Department of Applied Finance, explains.

Keep it local to help break third world poverty cycle

New research from Professor Aron O’Cass from the Department of Marketing will provide a road map for governments and manufacturers in developing countries to help end entrenched economic disadvantage.

Why is Australia still opening coal mines?

 While most countries see renewables as the way of the future, Australia is still obsessed with fossil-fuels. Macquarie Business School’s Professor Martina Linnenluecke examines the business case for coal.

Cashless society a foil for rogue banks

The potential for money laundering by rogue banks will diminish as Australia transitions to a cashless society, says Macquarie Business School’s Professor Tom Smith.

Macquarie Business School fully integrates all business and economics education and research at Macquarie into a comprehensive entity. It retains and celebrates the best of the Faculty of Business and Economics, the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) and the Macquarie Applied Finance Centre (MAFC), ensuring that Macquarie remains a strong global competitor.

“The change positions us to be more impactful, sustainable and innovative on the world stage and will better meet the changing needs of our students, alumni, staff and business partners. As a business school that is part of a world-leading university, we are better positioned to draw upon knowledge from multiple disciplines, and connect with multiple global and local communities as part of our research and teaching,” said Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School, Professor Stephen Brammer.

“At Macquarie Business School we will continue to invest significantly in our programs, facilities, support services and alumni engagement activities and are committed to maintaining excellence in our global rankings.”

Macquarie Business School is looking to the future with its integrated and cross-disciplinary research and innovative programs, such as the fully online Global MBA and new appointments of directors of Alumni and Career Services to provide an even greater focus on career-enabling opportunities for students in multidisciplinary areas throughout their careers.

“Business education must shift to a focus on working together to create real world solutions rather than a focus on discrete disciplines operating in a traditional siloed way. In Australia for example, the Banking Royal Commission outcomes have shown what happens when businesses are too inward facing rather than focused on best practice and community engagement.

“Macquarie Business School has a modern approach to business education, to set ourselves up for future challenges and be competitive on the world stage in this globalised environment. We want our researchers, educators and students to be empowered to lead the changes they want to see in the world,” said Professor Brammer.

New online presence

To mark the launch, the Macquarie Business School has a new web presence within the Macquarie University site: mq.edu.au/business. We have also launched a new LinkedIn Showcase page – follow us to stay up to date with all the latest Macquarie Business School news.

Virtual reality workplaces, cheap video-conferencing, and an endless array of collaborative work tools make it easier than ever to remain an intrinsic part of your work team when working remotely.

But despite huge advances in technology, Dr Yvette Blount says many organisations still struggle with the same management barriers that have hampered ‘anywhere working’ for more than 40 years.

“Rather than seeing remote work as just another way of working, some managers see it as a privilege, while others manage by ‘presenteeism’ – judging workers by their visibility rather than their productivity,” says Blount.

Blount is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Research Coordinator for the Australian Anywhere Working Research Network.

She is co-author of the book, Anywhere Working and the New Era of Telecommuting, published this year, which explores such topics as virtual offices, leadership challenges, digital inclusion, tele-health and professional isolation.

More productive off-site

While some managers baulk at leading off-site workers, research suggests many people working from home are more productive than their office-based peers.

“Knowledge workers tend to keep working outside business hours, check emails on their days off, work when sick and contribute significant amounts of unpaid time,” Blount says.

Some of Australia’s leading organisations – including ANZ, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Australian Stock Exchange and Telstra – have successfully introduced flexible work policies that give staff far more choice about where and how they work.

Dr Blount says that all these organisations have company-wide flexibility policies, which means individual managers have more difficulty rejecting employee requests for a flexible work arrangement.

Diverse and productive

The results can be astounding, she adds, leading to a happier, more diverse and productive workforce.

One of her research subjects, an employee who commuted daily to Sydney from her Blue Mountains home, had a complicated and stressful life situation to balance with her work commitments.

“She was up at 5am taking her two small children to the neighbours with packed breakfasts and lunches, and back by 4pm to pick them up from another neighbour for daily activities,” Blount says.

“I interviewed her before she started teleworking and six months after. She was a different person, the stress had gone. She was organised, structured and visited the office when needed.”

Pros and cons

Blount says that technology is the enabler, not the driver, of ‘anywhere working’. Success relies on strong policies that support flexible work, and administrators who can effectively manage diverse and complex work arrangements.

In response, fans of ‘anywhere working’ say it gives better work-life balance, drops workplace costs for employers – and is becoming accepted as business as usual.

But opponents say it elicits social and professional isolation and reduces collaboration and innovation. They argue technology doesn’t replace person-to-person communication.

“The same issues were raised long before the iPhone or broadband or even widespread use of personal computers, since the 1970s,” says Blount.

Some work-from-home pioneers like Yahoo and IBM are now shifting to more office-based work. In March, IBM reduced its work-from-home options. In 2009 the tech giant had 40 per cent of employees working from home, saving an estimated $100 million in office space.

Telecommuting research began with a 1976 book published by former NASA engineer Jack Nilles, which advocated remote work as a solution to long commutes, traffic jams and housing density issues – and was partly a response to the 1973 OPEC oil crisis.

Blount says that today’s challenges include the need to manage a complex workforce where workers (from full-time employees through to freelancers) may be working from any location.

Her future research will also explore how technology such as AI could resolve some remote work limitations, such as telepresence robots.

The Lucy Mentoring Program is offered to female undergraduate students in the Faculty of Business and Economics, and provides them with the opportunity to engage with industry professionals from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

The students have one-on-one access with an industry mentor, getting to know them professionally and personally and giving them the chance to work through some of their goals together.

Two former Lucy mentees, Jacqueline and Julie Gerodias share a common thread. As sisters, they attended the same high school and are studying the same degree (Bachelor of Arts with Bachelor of Commerce).

They both participated in the Lucy Mentoring Program and have since secured full-time employment and a paid internship at their respective mentors’ organisations.

Jacqueline is majoring in Human Resources and Commercial Law and was paired with a senior HR manager at a well-known Australian airline. At their first coffee meeting, Jacqueline was pleasantly surprised when her mentor listened attentively and wanted to hear about her life, both inside and outside university. Their mentoring catch ups consisted of shadowing her mentor in her work environment, attending a weekly meeting, observing workplace culture and etiquette and interviewing her mentor’s colleagues.

The program has given Jacqueline the opportunity to meet with successful and motivated people, including her mentor. By being open to new perspectives she has gained a greater outlook on corporate life as well as an understanding of what she wants from her career and how she can best achieve this.

Her sister Julie is majoring in Marketing, International Communications and Human Resources. Her first meeting with her mentor, an HR Director at a multinational software corporation, was held at a local coffee shop. Prior to the meeting, she had prepared a list of her goals and potential questions in case there were awkward silences with her mentor. But the meeting was relaxed and they were able to find out about each other’s backgrounds and discuss goals. During the program, Julie received feedback on her résumé and discussed with her mentor her struggles in deciding whether to focus on finding a job or search for internships. While interning, Julie was able to sit near and speak with her mentor’s HR team, giving her a better understanding of what a career in HR would look like. A challenge for Julie was networking in the office. Learning to do ‘small talk’ with people within her team and in other departments seemed difficult at times but was a learning experience for her.

The Lucy Mentoring program is one example of how the University supports students in helping them achieve their aspirations and provides an incubator for the next generation of leaders.

As someone who connects the dots and matches students with industry mentors, I find it immensely satisfying seeing students like Jacqueline and Julie succeed.

If you are interested in finding out more about Lucy Mentoring, please contact me on christine.chung@mq.edu.au or phone 9850 4755.

We invite staff to contribute stories – in their own voice – to help celebrate the diversity, passion and collaborative spirit of Macquarie staff.

Associate Professor Cooper has previously served as both Acting Director and Deputy Director of the Applied Finance Centre, having joined the Centre with more than 15 years of banking experience, specialising in balance sheet management issues.

Associate Professor Cooper has held executive positions in Institutional Banking and as Head of Strategy for the Financial Services division of a major Australian Bank. More recently, she was the Education Director at the Centre for International Finance & Regulation and is currently a member of AFMA’s Accreditation Advisory Board. Anne has more than 10 years of experience in delivering graduate education programs to finance professionals.

The Centre’s previous Director, Professor Kevin Jameson, has been appointed Interim Executive Dean for the Faculty of Business and Economics.

Hear from more Pioneering minds in our podcast series.

“For two decades I have been working on identifying the principles underlying resilient, high-performing organisations – from small firms through to entire nations,” Gayle explained.

The meeting was organised to discuss how countries in the G77 could use the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP), developed by the King of Thailand to successfully implement the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In her presentation, Gayle outlined the SEP process, showing delegates how it applied to several of the SDGs. Her research into sustainable leadership is of great interest in Thailand, which is looking for practical, evidence-based guidelines for implementing the SEP.

“My associates and I have often been invited to address large audiences and conduct various research projects based on the SEP, including editing a forthcoming book of case studies by Thai experts about applying the SEP to business, health, education, community development, prisoner rehabilitation and agriculture,” said Gayle .

The G77 is equivalent to the United Nations’s G20 but for developing economies, giving them an enhanced negotiating capacity in the United Nations. The group currently includes 134 member countries, with Thailand being the chair in 2016.

“The meeting in Thailand is just one of many forums where experts and policy makers can work together to help achieve UN goals,” said Gayle . She has been invited to address the G77 again, at its meeting in June.

 Learn more about Gayle and her research.

Dear colleagues,

I write to advise you that Professor Kevin Jameson has been appointed Acting Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics. Professor Jameson’s appointment will take effect from 21 March 2016.

Professor Jameson currently serves as Head of the Department of Applied Finance and Actuarial Studies and Director of the Macquarie University Applied Finance Centre. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR), and Chair of the Benchmarks Committee of the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA). He is also, a Trustee of CEDA – the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, and a Director of SIRCA Limited.

Professor Jameson has extensive experience across a range of financial and investment organisations at Board and senior management level in Australia and around the world, and will provide excellent guidance and stewardship of the Faculty whilst arrangements for its long-term leadership are considered over the coming months. I look forward to working with him as Acting Executive Dean and to his contributions to the University’s Executive Group.

I would like to thank Professor Gabbott again for his leadership of the Faculty during his eight year tenure, and to wish him well for the future.

Sincerely,

Professor S Bruce Dowton
Vice-Chancellor