9 June 2006

Close to 40 University of Queensland Business School research students will gather in the city today to unveil their research ideas and detail their results to date.

A smorgasbord of intriguing ideas, the conference will showcase research across the traditional business disciplines and beyond.

Several projects on branding and sponsorship by students including Monica Chien, Taryn Wishart, and Chanel Stoyle are likely to be of particular interest to professional marketers – and reflect UQ Business School’s growing reputation in the field.

PhD student Peter Zambelli challenges the conventional wisdom in relation to performance appraisals while honours student Eugene Tee investigates whether leaders can "catch" bad moods from their staff – and if so, what impact it has on their performance.

Marissa Edwards is exploring the phenomenon of employee silence – an alternative response to speaking up or "blowing the whistle" when employees discover their organisation is engaged in serious wrongdoing.

The ongoing debate about gender differences in leadership styles has led Terrance Fitzsimmons to extend his MBA to include some original research. His two studies offer some important insights about how leadership training and education should be delivered – as well as implications about the mix of genders in leadership teams.

PhD student Sandeep Salunke is investigating the important role managers play in service organisations in learning, safeguarding and innovating to build competitive advantage.

Sandy Ng chose the best topic of all when she decided to examine collective hedonic services – otherwise known as experiences like going to the footy or a rock concert.

The conference will also hear from PhD students like Jacquelyn Humphrey and Andreas Simon whose research investigates particular aspects of financial markets and investor and analyst behaviour. The finance field is one of UQ Business School’s widely-recognised strengths.

For more information about the conference, contact UQ Business School Downtown on (07) 3346 7111.

Media: Cathy Stacey on (07) 3365 6179 or 0434 074 372