MUCHE is currently seeking views from all stakeholders, including mental healthcare providers, consumer and informal carer groups, Primary Health Networks, Local Health Networks, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, mental healthcare peak bodies, and academics.

Questions and topics open for discussion are presented in this consultation paper.

Register to attend one of three online workshops with participants from key stakeholder groups.

These questions are being addressed in a new brand campaign aimed to increase awareness and recommendation of Macquarie Business School as a high-quality education provider among the postgraduate audience.

The campaign includes advertisements in CBD building elevators, on the light rail and at bus stops across Sydney, as well as digital content in The Guardian and the podcast Equity Mates. Showcasing the power of an individual supported by our unique Macquarie University ecosystem the campaign aims to debunk myths, explain how MBAs have evolved and engage business leaders who want to become more purpose-driven and impactful.

Quoted in The Guardian, Professor Eric Knight, Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School, said, “The way in which the world is changing is that it’s not enough for managers of companies to understand finance and economics.

“They also have to understand politics, social science, philosophy. They have to understand human emotions and science.”

Professor Knight says, “Our MBA is audacious, courageous and transformative. It allows people to lift beyond the subject matter and approach the world in a new way.”

The Macquarie MBA focuses on giving business leaders a unique edge by empowering, challenging and transforming the way they think to become a socially conscious leader. It ranks in the global top 100 – and 11 in the world for career progression.

Doing business with meaning, compassion and boldness is at the forefront of every interaction, negotiation and transaction, says Macquarie MBA director Professor Debbie Haski-Leventhal. This is important because “the future of business is impact”.

Learn more about how you can increase your impact with a program that can be tailored to suit your career goals and find out about postgraduate scholarships available for staff.

Read more

Eric Knight: How have modern MBAs evolved with business needs?

Debbie Haski-Leventhal: No more business as usual: how the modern MBA preps you to be a socially conscious leader

Professor Eric Knight, Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School and Professor of Strategic Management, explains: “Lifelong learning is not just about personal development; it is a strategic investment in your professional success.

“By exposing our minds to new ideas, we fuel our potential and unlock new ways of thinking, enabling us to solve complex business challenges and seize emerging opportunities.”

With Macquarie Business School’s three new graduate certificates – Graduate Certificate of Applied Business Analytics, Graduate Certificate of Digital Marketing and Graduate Certificate of Leadership and Change – you can gain a professional qualification while studying 100 per cent online for maximum flexibility. Our lecturers will teach you how to apply theoretical knowledge in these fields while also focusing on real-world applications to translate what you learn directly to your job.

We are pleased to offer two scholarships for the commencement of study in Term 4, 2023, enabling staff members to undertake one of these new graduate certificates. The scholarship covers 50 per cent of tuition fees for the duration of the course and will be awarded to the first applicants who apply and fully meet the entry requirements before 4 September 2023. For more information, visit the terms and conditions or email the MQBS Engagement team.

This event will take place on Thursday 3 August 2023 from 5.30pm to 7.30pm at Macquarie University City Campus, Angel Place, Level 24, 123 Pitt Street, Sydney. It will bring together Macquarie researchers, government stakeholders, industry partners, funding bodies and project participants who have contributed to the successful completion of this pilot program. The event will share the transition journey of African women who participated in the program to acquire financial literacy, social enterprise and leadership skills.

The ‘Food moves skills into migrant women’ project was conducted over two years to significantly impact the lives of African women with refugee backgrounds residing in regional Australia. With the generous support of Ecstra Foundation through its Women’s Economic Security Project Grant program, the project focused on: 

• creating and providing culturally appropriate financial literacy training in co-creation with participants 
• creating mentorship manuals and resources for refugees on sustainability leadership 
• mentoring on project management skills and social enterprise business creation 
• creating a culturally safe space for developing leadership, social enterprise and financial management skills.

Join the Centre for Risk Analytics to hear from mentees and mentors about their transition journey, and learn about the resources created.

The event will provide a valuable opportunity for researchers, project alumni, philanthropy bodies, government and community stakeholders to come together, celebrate and hear about impactful strategies to address financial literacy, leadership and sustainable food systems for regional populations. 

There is no registration fee for the event, but we ask participants to register for catering purposes. 

For more information about the event, email Dr Fabiola Barba Ponce, Centre for Risk Analytics, at fabiola.barba-ponce@mq.edu.au.
 

The MQBS postgraduate certificate scholarships scheme supports professional staff to develop their management capability.

View selection criteria and information on how to apply.

Applications for professional staff development grants (Round 2) are open from 10 July to 11 August 2023.

Professional staff development grants provide financial support for individuals or teams to develop knowledge, skills and experience through external providers or programs that directly support performance in their current role.

View selection criteria and information on how to apply.

For further information on either of these schemes, contact develop@mq.edu.au

The event was hosted by Professor Eric Knight, Executive Dean of the Macquarie Business School, and Professor Henry Cutler, Director of MUCHE, and was attended by staff from aged care organisations, digital health leaders, researchers and private health insurance providers. 

Informed by the latest MUCHE Health Report, the most comprehensive annual assessment of the Federal Budget’s impact on health and aged care, the group discussed key points of interest across healthcare, mental healthcare, private health insurance, hospitals, aged care and pharmaceuticals. 

While Professor Cutler stated that the budget was a good start aimed at supporting the workforce and boosting digital healthcare, he also urged the government to do more to ensure all Australians can access the healthcare they need, regardless of where they live or how much they earn. 

MUCHE is a strategic university initiative created to undertake innovative research on health and aged care. It is one of four research centres within the Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), Australia’s largest and most integrated health systems research institute. MUCHE’s vision is to create a world where decision makers and the public are empowered with trusted and impactful research. The centre’s mission is to be Australia’s most influential health economics research centre in academic and public policy debate. 

As an Australian-American Fulbright Senior Scholar, he was there to investigate how American universities such as Stanford were changing the research landscape and offering a new model for the modern research university.

Drawing on his scholarly expertise in organisational theory and strategic management, Professor Knight set about interviewing 21 leaders who shaped Stanford’s transformation under its 10th president, John L Hennessy. His resulting book, Voices from the Hennessy Presidency: Collected Interviews, captures the spirit of an organisation united in its resolve to serve the changing needs of the world around it.

Professor Knight says Stanford’s Hennessy years offer valuable lessons for Australian universities, particularly when it comes to collaborative leadership in an environment of diverse – and sometimes conflicting – perspectives.

“One of the most interesting aspects of universities is the dynamic that results from interweaving brilliant minds and competing agendas with a shared commitment to the public good,” Professor Knight says. “As both a university leader and a business school professor, managing this tension is research in practice.

“Leading as a united group in a complex university environment is notoriously challenging. But in spending time with John Hennessy and his colleagues, the persistence of Stanford’s entrepreneurial philosophy of leadership became increasingly evident.

“There was a strong sense of a shared mindset and understanding of the University’s strategy, and the leaders tended to have the same nuanced approach to trade-offs.

“Ultimately, their fundamental commitment to a united philosophy had tremendous resonance for me, and I consider it one of the most important insights that can be taken away from the book.”

In discussing his book with other Macquarie University leaders, Professor Knight noted that there is a great appetite to learn from other successful research institutions that share Macquarie’s dedication to discovery and engagement.

“Of course, macro contexts vary, and institutions are positioned differently within our sector. But with a similarity of purpose, the question we can ask ourselves is, “If [noted Stanford leaders] John Hennessy or Carla Schatz or Bob Joss found themselves in this situation, how might they have responded?

“In the same way that we endeavour to inspire our own students at Macquarie, so too can we be inspired by the way universities like Stanford have pushed the frontiers of discovery.”

Watch Professor Eric Knight in conversation with Stanford leaders John Hennessy, John Etchemendy and Patricia Gumport in the Stanford Historical Society panel event Voices from the Hennessy Presidency – Reflections on University Leadership.

Speed and convenience, increased collaboration and endless possibilities – that is the future of knowledge creation, according to Mel Silva, Managing Director of Google Australia and New Zealand. But with artificial intelligence an increasing presence in our lives, we also need to balance boldness with a sense of responsibility.

Speaking to a packed room at Macquarie University’s City Campus as part of the Dean’s Distinguished Speakers Series, Silva shared insights from Google to explain her views on how artificial intelligence (AI) interacts with knowledge creation to drive increased collaboration and convenience.

“A lot of you have been using artificial intelligence in your Google products for many years, although you may not know it,” Silva explained. “When your calendar tells you it’s time to leave because of traffic, that’s AI. When you open Google and start typing and it finishes your sentence, that’s AI. When you use the smart reply at the bottom of your email, that’s AI. Even the captions on your YouTube video are AI.”

Silva highlighted the importance of open-source approaches to AI and the need for ethical responsibility frameworks as the next step in its development and application.

“We have invested heavily in the research of AI for many years. As part of that research, you realise that there is an enormous ethical responsibility that comes with that knowledge.

“In about 2018, we came out with AI principles about how we will use the technology we create and how we are going to put some guardrails around it. I would define Google’s strategy around AI as ‘boldness underpinned with a sense of responsibility’, because when you are putting a product in the hands of billions of people, not all of them are good. We see this in bank scams, emails, texts and in people coming and knocking on your door.”

Silva also shared the story of her career pathway, from an economics degree at Macquarie Business School to becoming the head of the Australian division of one of the biggest technology companies in the world.

“When I walked into Macquarie University, I couldn’t have even dreamed of the job that I have now. The internet was something that existed on one computer in the library, and it was only two or three years into my journey that I got my first dial-up modem at home,” she recalled.

“I was always fascinated by the banking and finance services industry, and for most of my degree I was actually working part-time while studying. I had various roles and did so many things, and I think that is the hallmark of my career – I never really said ‘no’ to an opportunity that came across my desk.”

A pivotal moment in Silva’s early career came while working at AMP, during her university days. “I overheard a team talking about a project that they were working on called the ‘unified web strategy’. This would have been about 1999 when they were working on AMP’s first website. I was just like a meerkat; my head popped out of my little cubicle and I said, ‘I’ll help’.”

Silva explained that it wasn’t the formal start to a lifelong career that most people imagine, but within a year or two greater responsibilities came across her desk, and Silva was asked to lead complex and exciting projects as an internet expert. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however, and it took time and agility to navigate the various roles that would ultimately lead her to Google.

To the students and alumni in the room, and industry partners looking for inspiration, this provided a unique and refreshing insight into how success can come from being curious and eager for new opportunities.

Silva closed her conversation with Professor Eric Knight, Executive Dean of Macquarie Business School, and Professor Lucy Marshall, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, by providing some advice. The recipe for success, she explained, is “being authentic, being really open and willing to collaborate with people, and being inclusive.”

This study is being undertaken by a Macquarie PhD student and will gather information on how employee learning of new policies, workplace skills and other work-based knowledge is affected by work-from-home arrangements. The survey is entirely confidential. 

Having to learn from home is increasingly common for employees due to the increasing prevalence of working from home (WFH) arrangements during and since the COVID-19 lockdowns. We know little about how the context of the work affects how employees learn. This research project aims to explore how WFH affects employees’ learning of new organisational policies, work-related skills and knowledge.  

The findings from this survey will help better shape learning, training and developmental approaches in the future and promote effective flexible work arrangements.  

Every Macquarie professional staff member from HEW Level 1-10 is eligible to complete the survey.   

Complete the survey here.  

For more information, please contact Maria Sarshad (PhD Student) maria.sarshad@hdr.mq.edu.au or Professor Louise Thornthwaite (Principal Supervisor) louise.thornthwaite@mq.edu.au 

Macquarie University Human Ethics Approval Number: 520221134439949 

Teams across the University have implemented the Flexible Work Framework in their own way, and one team has turned to basic economic principles to find the best way to Flex and optimise their work.  

Guided by their Flex Champion, Associate Professor Jordi McKenzie, the team in the Department of Economics has found that flexible work is not a one-size-fits-all prospect.  

McKenzie explains: “We know each individual looks at the costs and benefits of their own working arrangement to arrive at their optimal choice. And we also know that there are externalities to consider when working as part of a team. Externalities are the spillover benefits or costs that extend to a third party not directly involved in a transaction or decision. In the workplace, this could be the impromptu ‘water cooler’ conversations that result in a research collaboration or innovative teaching idea.”  

Pictured: Members of the Department of Economics meeting in person for a Christmas lunch late last year 

By using the University’s ‘Flex in Five Steps’ guidelines, the team “shifted to a new steady equilibrium” of flexible work. They started with steps 1 and 2, finding time in their department meetings to establish a shared understanding of flexibility concepts and discuss the needs of the team. Moving to step 3 (agree new ways of working ) the team decided that in order to enhance externalities, it was beneficial to designate preferred days on campus and they agreed the best days for them were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Thursdays being their seminar day and the one day that most of the team will likely be working on campus. In line with step 4 (use enabling tools) and step 5 (review and adapt) the team is evolving with new technologies, but McKenzie admits they are “still not at the point where all Zoom meetings run smoothly without someone being told, ‘You’re on mute!’”. 

Pictured: Members of the Macquarie Business School’s Department of Economics flexing their Flex muscles over Zoom

The Flexible Work Framework has allowed team members to enjoy the things that matter most while still performing at work. Economics lecturer Dr Danielle Kent said: “My little girl started school this week and being flexible at work has really allowed me to be present for key milestones and enjoy this precious time.”  

Flexible work has also improved productivity within the team, as Dr Rohan Best, Senior Lecturer, explained: “Flexible working opens opportunities for overcoming logistical challenges. One example is the opportunity to attend overseas conferences while still joining Macquarie meetings via Zoom. Flex work styles fit well with the academic context of looking for new ways to get the most productive outcomes”.  

Share your Team’s flexible working story in the comments below.