Faculty profiles
Thought leadership and teaching excellence
Melbourne Business School attracts world-class faculty who bring their knowledge and expertise directly into our postgraduate business education programs, research activity and our key centres for excellence in executive education, and business and public policy.
Their worldwide networks keep them at the forefront of business education, management thought and practice and in executive learning and contemporary leadership development. Their consulting and boardroom experience keeps them in touch with current business issues.
View our full list of faculty.
PhD (Adel), BA (Hons) (Adel),
Professor of Management - Negotiations
Mara Olekalns’ expertise lies in the fields of negotiation and conflict resolution.
Mara’s research focuses on communication processes in negotiation. She is interested in how the timing and sequencing of negotiation strategies affects negotiators’ outcomes, particularly their ability to create value in the negotiation; and also in identifying the contextual, cognitive and dispositional factors that shape strategy choice and sequencing. More recently, she has investigated the impact of first impressions and turning points on trust in negotiation.
In addition to her role at MBS, Mara has been a Visiting Research Scholar at Kellogg Graduate School of Management’s Dispute Resolution Research Centre. She has held lecturing positions at the University of Melbourne and University of Otago, as well as a range of management positions in the Australian Public Service. She also has considerable experience as a presenter on executive development programs.
Mara has published in leading international management, psychology and communication journals, and has presented her work extensively at international conferences. She was a board member of the International Association of Conflict Management and is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Conflict Management.
Jody Evans
PhD (Monash), BBus (Marketing) (Hons) (Monash), BA (Monash)
Senior Lecturer - Marketing
Dr Jody Evans specialises in international marketing, branding, marketing strategy and retailing.
Jody’s professional expertise and research interests include international marketing and retailing, marketing strategy, consumer behaviour, services marketing and research methods. Her current projects examine a range of issues including the internal determinants of international retail involvement, entry strategy and performance, and branding as a source of competitive advantage.
Jody’s work has been widely published in both journal articles and book chapters, and she has acted as a referee for a number of leading journals. She has presented her work extensively in Australia as well as overseas.
Before joining MBS, Jody was Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Retailing and Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. She has also worked as a Research Assistant at the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, where she project-managed ‘Retail Meter Asia’ in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Isabel Metz
PhD (Monash), MBA (Melb), BSc (Uni of Witwatersrand South Africa)
Senior Lecturer - Organisational Behaviour
Isabel Metz is a Senior Lecturer of Organisational Behaviour at the Melbourne Business School.
Isabel's research interests are in the areas of gender and careers, work and family, new employment relationships, and group work in the classroom. Current research projects focus on the influence of individual, organisational and social factors on women's advancement in academia and industry, toxin handling by HR professionals, and the development of psychological contracts. She has published in leading academic journals such as Human Resource Management, Group & Organization Management, and International Journal of Human Resource Management.
In 2007, Isabel was awarded the best paper prize by the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management's Gender and Diversity Stream for her research examining the role of family responsibilities in women's decisions to leave the current ‘family friendly' organisations. In 2005, Isabel also received a Best Paper Award at the 3rd Global Conference on Business & Economics
for her research assessing the links between women's personality traits (of ambition, masculinity, and adaptability) and their advancement in management.
Isabel's teaching interests span HRM and Organisational Behaviour, with particular emphasis on topics associated with diversity, change and leadership, and organisational teams. Before joining Melbourne Business School, Isabel was on the faculty of the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne, where in 2005 she received a Dean's Teaching Award. In 2006, Isabel was nominated by the University of Melbourne for the National Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.
Prior to becoming an academic, Isabel worked in Banking and Finance for over a decade in various management positions.
Isabel is currently serving on committees for the Careers, Gender & Diversity in Organizations, and Organizational Behavior Divisions of the Academy of Management. She is also a member of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management, the Australian Human Resources Institute, and a Senior Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. Isabel has worked on projects with local business organisations including AHRI, the Victoria Police Force, and the Australian banking industry.
