The University of Western Australia

Asst/Prof Barb Wood

Assistant Professor
Management and Organisations

Contact details

Address

Management and Organisations
The University of Western Australia (M261)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

6488 3820

Fax

6488 1072

Email

barb.wood@uwa.edu.au

Qualifications

BA BEc Qu., MA Alta.

Biography

Barb Wood currently lectures on three MBA units in the Business School. For two MBA advanced units (Leadership Coaching and Leading and Facilitating Teams), Barb created the curriculum and continues to act as the lecturer in charge. Barb also regularly delivers the compulsory core MBA unit, Organisational Behavior (a unit that she has been involved in since 2002). For these teaching contributions, Barb has twice been nominated for excellence in teaching awards in addition to two Faculty teaching awards and a UWA University Award of Excellence.

For six years from 2003 until 2008, Barb was the UWA MBA Program Director and was responsible for managing: student recruitment, program development (scheduling and teaching allocation), adherence of academic regulations, and ongoing communication with teaching staff and students. As the Director, Barb set up regular links with the Graduate Management Association, assisted in the development of the MBA brochure, facilitated MBA information nights (the prime method for attracting students) and expanded the new student orientation process into a week long series of activities supported by ongoing workshops throughout the teaching term.

Barb has had various consulting roles for different organizations ranging from small not-for-profits to large state government departments. The majority of these assignments drew upon Barb’s expertise in organisational behavior and in her facilitation skills in Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry. These workshops and meetings have often involved more than 250 delegates. Barb is frequently invited by the Australian Institute of Management UWA Business School Alliance to present on coaching, leadership, teams and facilitation.

Barb has published academic papers in international journals and presented at international conferences, on topics such as organizational spontaneity, trends in international management education and team development. Barb has frequently been invited to present at organizational workshops, conferences and within the UWA teaching and learning foundations program. Barb is presently completing her PhD on Organisational Spontaneity in Universities and anticipates completion of her thesis in 2009.

Key research

Research interests in leadership coaching, leading and facilitating teams and organisational behavior.

Publications

Career 10 best

Wood, B and S. Gordon (2009) Design Linking MBA Learning and Leadership Coaching, International Coaching Psychology Review, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 87-104.

Kiffin-Petersen, S and B. Wood (2008) Challenges and Benefits of managing MBA Student Project Teams Refereed Conference Proceedings, Australia-New Zealand Academy of Management Conference in Auckland, New Zealand.

Wood, B. and G. Soutar (2006) Organisational Spontaneity: A Model to Assess the Antecedents and Outcomes in an Australian University Setting Refereed Conference Proceedings, Hawaii International Conference on Business, Honolulu.

Wood, B, Tapsall, S. and G Soutar (2005) Borderless Education: Some Implications for Management, International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 19, Issue 5, 428-436.

Wood, B. and Buck, C. (ed) (2000) Improving Quality of Life in Australian Residential Facilities, Conference Proceedings, Positive Ageing Foundation, Perth, WA, 70 pages.

Wood, B. (1999) Regional Lessons from Canada, BOS Magazine, Vol 4 no 1, Perth, WA, 2 pages.

Recent Publications

Journal Articles (Schol Refereed Journal)

Wood, B. and S. Gordon (2009) Linking MBA Learning and Leadership Coaching, International Coaching Psychology Review, Vol 4, Issue 1.

Wood, B, Tapsall, S. and G Soutar (2005) Borderless Education: Some Implications for Management, International Journal of Educational Management, Vol 19, Issue 5, 428-436.

Full Refereed Conference Publications

Kiffin-Petersen, S. and B. Wood (2008) Challenges and Benefits of Managing MBA Student Project Teams Australian-New Zealand Academy of Management Conference Proceedings Auckland, December.

Wood, B. and Soutar, G. (2006) Organisational Spontaneity: A Model to Assess the Antecedents and Outcomes in a University Setting, 6th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Business, Hawaii, CDROM/Online, pp. CDROM.

Funding received

2008: Funds received from the UWA Teaching and Learning Committee for use in ongoing research on teaching, $2,500.
2003: Economics and Commerce Early Career Research Grant - $3,600.
2001: Organisational Spontaneity in a University Setting, UWA Faculty of Economics, Commerce, Education and Law, Individual Research Grant, $2,800.
2001: Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) student scholarship for attendance at doctoral forum, $3,600.

Memberships

North American Society for Sport Management
Canadian Parks and Recreation Association
Active Living Canada
Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand
Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management

Honours and awards

GSM Excellence in Teaching Award – Improvement in Teaching – 2005
Business School Excellence in Teaching Award (Early Career) – 2007
UWA Award for Excellence in Teaching (Early Career) – 2008
Nominated to the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Award, Excellence in Teaching – 2008
Nominated to the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, Excellence in Teaching Award - final nomination will be submitted in Sept 2009

Previous positions

2003-2008, MBA Program Director, UWA Business School
2000-2002, Marketing Coordinator, Division of Social Science, Humanities and Education
2000-2002, Director, Communities Relations, Positive Ageing Foundation
1991-1999, Manager, Community Development, Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture, British Columbian Government, Canada

Teaching

Organisational Behaviour for both the Graduate Diploma of Business Administration (GDBA) and the Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Advanced Topics in Management: Leadership Coaching in the MBA
Leading and Facilitating Teams in the MBA

Current external positions

Consultancy

Premier and Cabinet (Western Australia)
Public Service Commission
Main Roads (Western Australia)
Health Department of Western Australia
Australian Institute of Management
Corruption and Crime Commission of WA
Fremantle Football Club

Current projects

Industrial Relevance

2007: In developing the curriculum for a leadership coaching class, I used a pre and post class questionnaire to identify the perceived changes in behaviour as defined by students taking the MBA Coaching unit. This data was sought out by staff at the International Coaching Psychology Review.

2006: As the chief investigator, I lead a student taskforce to study student perceptions of group work within the MBA. The results have lead to various teaching and learning workshops and resulted in a refereed paper (Challenges and Benefits of Managing MBA Student Project Teams) presented at the 2008 Australia-New Zealand Academy of Management.

Links with Industry

Acted as the academic advisor to the following six month, intensive leadership programs offered by the UWA Business School -AIM Alliance:
Pathways to Leadership
Foundations of Leadership
Senior Executive Development Program - Main Roads WA

Participated as a panel member and presenter for the Advanced Management Program (AIM-UWA Business School Alliance), The Pathways to leadership Program and the Foundations of Leadership program.

Facilitated Open Space meetings for the following organisations:
Sustainability Practitioners Association
Mental Health Rehabilitation Network
National Reporting Diversity Project
Government Advisory Group (AIM)
Corruption and Crime Commission
Australian Institute of Management Executive

As a content expert I’m often asked to contribute to various organisations on designated topics. These have included:
Department of Industry and Resources on “communication skills”.
Woodside “Young Professionals group” on the topic of “Working through the Generations”.
Sustainability Practitioners Association on “sustainability practices within Australian tertiary institutions”.

Research profile

Research profile and publications