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Nicole Gillespie

Professor of Management; KPMG Chair in Organizational Trust, The University of Queensland

Nicole is a leading international authority on trust in organisations, and an International Research Fellow at the Centre for Corporate Reputation at the University of Oxford.

Trained as an organizational psychologist, Nicole’s research over the past 20 years has focused on developing and repairing trust in organisations. A feature of her research is examining trust in contexts where it is challenged, such as after a trust failure, in complex stakeholder environments, in telemedicine, and during organizational change. She also research how leaders build trust and trust in team contexts. A focus of her current research is trust in emerging technologies, with projects examining trust in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the design of trustworthy AI. She recently conducted a National Survey to understand Australian's trust in AI.

Nicole has written commissioned reports and case studies on building and repairing stakeholder trust for the UK Institute of Business Ethics and a policy note for the UK Parliament on restoring trust in the financial sector after the global financial crisis. Her most recent reports with KPMG are Trustworthy by Design: A practical guide to organisational trust; and Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Australian Insights.

Her research appears in leading international journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organization Studies, Accounting Organization and Society, Business Ethics Quarterly, Human Resource Management, Sloan Management Review, Work and Stress, and Behavioral Science and Policy, as well as in books and book chapters. Her work has been extensively presented in Europe, the USA, the UK and Australia. Current research projects focus on understanding stakeholder trust in organizations and industries, the repair of trust, and stakeholder trust and uptake of virtual and AI-enabled healthcare. She is on the Editorial Boards of Leadership Quarterly and Deputy Editor of the Journal of Trust Research.

Nicole has over twenty years experience leading MBA, Executive MBA, specialist masters and undergraduate courses. She has consulted and researched on organisational trust, leadership and wellbeing in a range of public and private sector organisations.In 2019, Nicole was made an Academic Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government for outstanding contribution to public management.

Nicole joined the University of Queensland in 2010. Prior to this she held faculty and research positions at Melbourne Business School, Warwick Business School (UK), The Australian & New Zealand School of Government, The University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, and Swinburne University of Technology.

Experience

  • 2010–present
    Professor of Management, The University of Queensland