Faculty staff profile
Isabel Metz
PhD (Monash), MBA (Melb), BSc (Uni of Witwatersrand South Africa)
Associate Professor - Organisational Behaviour
Isabel Metz is Associate Professor 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.
Recent publications and working papers
- A focus on gender similarities in work experiences at senior management levels: A study of an Australian bank builds the case
- Women in banking
- Women in banking:You’ve a long way to go baby
- Gender discrimination in Australian banks
- Women in banking: A progress report
- Workplace gender discrimination: Do women over-attribute gender discrimination to slow advancement in management?
- Gender and geographical diversity in the editorial board of the Journal of International Business Studies
- A retrospective analysis of Australian women’s representation in management in large and small banks
- An explanation from junior manager to executive of women’s advancement in Australian banks
- Mentors and Networking: Do they help women’s managerial advancement in banking?
- Women’s lack of managerial advancement: An unlikely case of victim mentality.
- Exploring mediator and moderator influences of personality traits on women's career success in banking
- Gender, work and discrimination
- Work, Family and Careers: A Research Incubator for Actionable Knowledge
- Leadership and change in Police culture
- Future research agenda based on an integrated innovation capability model (IICM)
- Cultural transformation: A vision for increasing women's representation at executive level
- A multivariate analysis of women’s under-representation in school leadership positions in Australia
- Women in editorial boards of Management journals.
- Strategy versus caring in Human Resource Management: Views from the front line.
- View all Isabel's working papers & publications

