Who we are and what we do
QUT CFE Paradox team draw from deep real world experience and combine this with insights from the paradox literature and associated business and management theories and frameworks to deliver a range of customised solutions for organisations experiencing paradoxical tensions. Our approach is to work closely with an organisation and its leaders to understand the full context for the paradoxes they are experiencing, and combine practical and academic expertise in development of the approach most likely to be effective to navigate them.
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Associate Professor Anna Wiewiora
Chief Investigator | Associate Professor Anna Wiewiora is using applied research to solve practical problems with the focus on navigating competing priorities within complex and time - limited work environments, such as projects. Anna’s research on paradoxes focuses on managing paradoxical tensions in complex environments, with a particular interest in the tensions affecting organisational learning and innovation. She is also interested in helping leaders develop paradoxical think ing. Anna has successful ly led a number of externally funded projects that have produced practical outputs for organisations including a process model for innovation adoption in mining, training manual to help project managers’ manage ambiguities in their projects, a catalogue of learning mechanisms to enhance project learning. Anna has published over 50 articles in journals and conference proceedings across a range of disciplines including organisational learning, paradox management, knowledge management, project management, and innovation adoption
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Professor Kevin Desouza
Chief Investigator | Professor Kevin C. Desouza helps organisations develop strategies that consider competing priorities by adopting and/both approaches, and in applying computational modelling to support decision makers in navigating paradoxical tensions. Desouza has authored, co - authored, and/or edi ted nine books. He has published more than 130 articles in journals across a range of disciplines including information systems, information science, public administration, political science, technology management, and urban affairs. Desouza has advised, b riefed, and/or consulted for major international corporations, non - governmental organizations, and public agencies on strategic management issues ranging from management of information systems, to knowledge management, innovation programs, crisis managemen t, and leadership development. Desouza is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the China Institute for Urban Governance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has held tenured faculty appointments at the University of Washington, Virginia Tech, and Arizona State University. In addition, he holds or has held visiting appointments at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Università Bocconi, University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Ljubljana
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Dr Anne Marie Halton
Post Doctoral Research Fellow | Dr Anne Marie Halton is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Future Enterprise within QUT Business School. Anne Marie is a Leadership & Organisational Development Consultant and has 25 years experience working with leaders in diverse organisations. Anne Marie is helping individuals , teams and organisations develop paradoxical thinking to help navigate paradoxical tensions . Her research examines dimensions of pa radoxical thinking and how it unfolds as a cognitive ability and behaviour. Her PhD entitled ‘Multi - dimensional framework of paradoxical thinking: a qualitative exploratory study in an Australian financial services organisation’, is driven by pain points observed from her decades working in industry. The thesis offered a framework for organisations to more effectively navigate complexity
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Dr Erwin Fielt
Chief Investigator
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Associate Professor Sandeep Salunke
Associate Professor Sandeep Salunke conducts research in the area of innovation and competitive strategy and covers several contexts including service innovation, product/process innovation, business model innovation, etc. His work mainly uses the knowledge - based and dynamic capabilities view to explore how firms create an d sustain new value. His research findings, based on insights gathered from senior managers of several Australian (and international) firms, follow a rigorous methodology involving qualitative and quantitative techniques and are published in several high q uality journals. Sandeep’s research interest in paradoxes lies at the intersection of resource management and strategy - his latest work uses the paradox lens to explore how downstream customer - based resources can be usefully integrated within the value cr eating strategy of the firm
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Associate Professor Gavin Nicholson
Associate Professor Gavin Nicholson uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the real world problems facing boards, directors and senior managers . Gavin's research has primarily focused on decision making in the boardroom, often attempting to understand the c omplex phenomena that seems to require paradoxical behaviours and thinking - for instance the need for directors to simultaneously trust but verify. Gavin has successfully led a number of externally funded projects that have resulted in practical insights into board leadership, processes and dynamics. He has published extensively in the field of corporate governance with a scope of work from normative books on implementing effective governance to journal articles in the leading management and corporate gove rnance journals