The conference theme, Navigating Complexity: Adaptive Strategies for People, Planet, and Performance, concerns how organisations and individuals respond to diverging economic, social, and environmental pressures. The plenary programme is designed as an integrated set of perspectives rather than a series of independent presentations. Each speaker examines a dimension of the theme.
In Memoriam: Professor Peter Fleming
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Organisation Studies, Future of Work
It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Professor Peter Fleming, who was to deliver a plenary address at ANZAM 2026. Peter was one of the important and influential critical voices in organisation studies, and his loss is felt deeply across our community. We have chosen to keep his place in the programme as a mark of respect, and his plenary session will now be dedicated to his work, his ideas, and his legacy.
Peter Fleming was a Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School. He previously held positions at Cambridge University, Queen Mary University of London, and Cass Business School. Peter Fleming is an internationally recognised researcher focusing on the future of work, advanced digital technologies and the serious ethical implications they raise. He investigates the forces that shape the new economy, particularly its dark dysfunctions, and seeks to provide innovative theories to help us better understand business and society today. During Peter’s tenure as Professor of Business and Society at City University of London, he chaired the London Living Wage Symposium at the House of Commons. He was awarded the Dean’s Prize for Teaching and Learning Excellence at Cass Business School (now Bayes Business School). Peter has also been a guest speaker at the European Commission and Goethe-Institut New York. Peter is the author of 12 books, including Capitalism and Nothingness, Dark Academia, The Worst is Yet to Come (named book of the month by the Tate Modern, London) and The Death of Homo Economicus. His research has been published in leading journals in organisation studies, sociology and social theory.
A Tribute to Peter Fleming: Professor André Spicer
Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London, UK
We are honoured that Professor André Spicer will join us in Newcastle to deliver a plenary tribute to Peter Fleming, reflecting on his intellectual legacy and its enduring significance for how we understand work, organisations, and the economy. André and Peter were friends and collaborators for more than three decades and few people are better placed to speak to Peter’s work, or to the person behind it.
André Spicer is the Executive Dean of Bayes Business School.
He is also Professor of Organisational Behaviour. He is an expert in the areas of Organisational Behaviour, Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility. Professor Spicer is originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand. He began his studies at the University of Otago and holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne in Australia. Prior to joining City St George’s, he was a Professor of Organization Studies at the University of Warwick. Professor Spicer is known for his research on wellbeing, organizational politics, organisational culture, employee identity, new organizational forms, work space and leadership. His work looks at a wide range of settings including knowledge intensive firms, financial institutions, government departments, seaports, universities, libraries, media organizations, and social movements. His research is published extensively in the field’s leading journals, and his books, including The Stupidity Paradox, Business Bullshit, The Wellness Syndrome, and Desperately Seeking Self-Improvement, have reached audiences well beyond academia. He is a frequent commentator in international media on work, organisations, and business education.
Professor Rashed Chowdhury
Essex Business School, UK
Strategy, Operations and Entrepreneurship
Rashedur Chowdhury is Professor of Business and Management at Essex Business School, University of Essex. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and an MSc from the University of Warwick. An internationally recognised researcher on marginalised stakeholders, corporate accountability, and the relationship between firms and the world’s most vulnerable populations, he investigates how corporations, institutions, and markets systematically exclude marginalised groups. He is the originator of Marginalized Stakeholder Theory, a new frame for understanding power, exclusion, and rights. Rashedur builds his work from deep immersion in the places where marginalised people live, suffer, and resist. His fieldwork includes rare, unrestricted access to the Rohingya refugee camps, and long-term work with survivors of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, which yielded one of the largest datasets of victims’ testimonies assembled since the Second World War. His awards include the British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for 2024/2025, five Academy of Management best article awards, the Society for Business Ethics Best Dissertation Award, and the Human Relations Paper of the Year. He serves on the editorial boards of Human Relations, Organization, Business and Society, and the Journal of Business Ethics, and has been a visiting scholar at institutions including INSEAD, the University of California, Berkeley, and Peking University.
Professor Helen De Cieri
Professor Helen De Cieri is a Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor at Monash University. She is the Director of Research in the Department of Management at Monash Business School. She holds qualifications in psychology and management. Her research spans HRM, diversity and inclusion, and employee health, safety and wellbeing, including the design of effective interventions to support health and safety. Helen’s publications include articles in academic journals such as Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Leadership Quarterly, and Safety Science. Helen is an Associate Editor for Human Resource Management Review and serves on several editorial boards. Helen currently serves as the 2027 Division Chair Elect for the HR Division of the Academy of Management.
Professor Anya Johnson
Anya Johnson is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour, interim Head of School of Work and Organisational Studies and Co-Director of the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group at the University of Sydney Business School. In her research, Anya investigates how employees regulate their emotions in the workplace, and the relationship between the design of work and teams and well-being, mental health and performance. Anya focuses on the healthcare and social assistance industry and the sustainability of careers in health and care.
Professor Grant Michelson
Grant Michelson began his working life in the meat export industry in New Zealand (clerical, audit and procurement functions) before shifting to local government and then into higher education employment (since 1996). Currently, he is Professor of Management at Macquarie Business School. He has previously served in a range of institutional leadership positions including Head of Department, and for previous business schools in Perth and Nantes, France, as Associate Dean for Research. He has degrees from the Universities of Canterbury and Otago, and completed his PhD at the University of Sydney. His research includes understanding how people make sense of their work, workplaces and careers, along with the intersection of important ethical / moral questions. This extends to examining modern slavery, suffering, and incompetence, among other topics, in organisational settings. He is the author or editor of books including Just Work: Narratives of Employment in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan), New Employment Actors: Developments from Australia (Peter Lang), and Rethinking Work: Time, Space and Discourse (Cambridge University Press).
Professor Carl Rhodes
Carl Rhodes is Professor of Business and Society at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Director of the Ultimo Institute for Business, Democracy and Economic Justice. He previously served as Dean of UTS Business School (2021–2025), following leadership roles as Deputy Dean and Head of the Management Department. An internationally recognised scholar, Rhodes has published extensively on business ethics, corporate power, leadership, democracy, inequality and the social role of business. He is the author of acclaimed books including Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire (2025), Woke Capitalism (2022), CEO Society (2018) and Disturbing Business Ethics (2020). His most recent book The Good Business School: The Political Imperative of Management Education (2026, with Alison Pullen) argues for business schools to be reimagined as public and democratic institutions committed to equality, freedom, solidarity and shared prosperity. Rhodes has authored more than 100 scholarly journal articles, edited numerous books and journal special issues, secured major Australian Research Council funding, and supervised many doctoral students. A frequent public commentator, his writing has appeared in outlets including The Guardian, The Conversation, Times Higher Education and The Australian Financial Review. He serves on the editorial boards of Human Relations, Organization Studies, Organization Theory, Organization and the Journal of Business Ethics.
A/Professor Mai Vu
Mai Vu is an Associate Professor at Monash Business School. Her research examines how moral traditions and cultural practices shape how people understand work, responsibility, and what it means to live and work well. A central strand of her work draws on Buddhist ethics and practices, including mindfulness, non-attachment, and compassion, to explore alternative ways of thinking about management and organizing beyond dominant Western assumptions. She is particularly interested in meaningful work, social responsibility, and the organizational conditions that shape how people experience purpose, obligation, and fulfillment. Her work has been published in journals including Human Relations, Organization Studies, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, and the Journal of Business Ethics.
More information soon
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