Dr Mario Fernando is Professor of Management in the School of Management, Operations and Marketing, University of Wollongong. His research interests are centred on exploring how responsible executive action leads to positive individual, organisational and societal outcomes. Currently, Mario is conducting research in leadership, business ethics and human resource management areas. He has published two books and numerous academic journal articles in high-impact journals. He serves on three journal editorial boards. Mario’s learning and teaching contributions over a sustained period have been recognised at national and institutional levels.
Proceedings of the 12th Malaysia-Indonesia International Economics, Management and Accounting Conference: Borderless Economy: Opportunities and Challenges for Businesses in Southeast Asia
<p>Regional hospitals are currently experiencing skills shortages in many health occupations while facing decreasing employee engagement, wellbeing and high employee turnover. In a research partnership with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD), the reasons for these are being identified by a team led by Associate Professor Fernando. The partnership started from a pilot project funded by the Faculty of Business and later supported by a Global Challenges grant. The aim of the project was to identify strategies to improve engagement, wellbeing and retention of healthcare professionals. </p>
<p>Impact 1: In the <a href="http://globalchallenges.uow.edu.au/transform/UOW202990" title="Caring for the Carer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Challenges</a> study, the researchers found employee engagement at three regional hospitals was influenced by individual attributes such as emotional health. These issues were more acute in ‘at-risk’ units: emergency, surgical, and intensive care departments. To apply their findings, the team identified specific strategies hospitals could implement to improve engagement and wellbeing. To test these strategies, the team developed a prototype of the simulation model to promote wellbeing in healthcare and three online wellbeing interventions. <br /><br />Impact 2: Prototype simulation model was presented at an invited presentation at Durham University Business School, UK (2016). <br /><br />Impact 3: The Global Challenges findings were presented at the Lunchtime Seminar Series of the Australian Health Services Research Institute (ASHRI) (2017). The seminar produced a lead to access a database of 5000 healthcare professionals to validate the simulation. <br /><br />Impact 4: In a competitive process, the Caring for the Carer research programme was selected to be featured in the <a href="https://issuu.com/uowresearch/docs/finalpartnersforreseach_book_intera" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UOW Research Impact booklet</a> (2017). <br /><br />Impact 5: The simulation was accepted to be further developed by a group of students at the Department of Engineering and Information Sciences (UOW). The simulation was featured in a Tradeposter at a public exhibition where attendees from industry and academia participated. </p>
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Quantification
Description
Evidence
Description
Responsible business in challenging times
Media reports of corporate scandals such as at Volkswagen highlight the need for acting responsibly when managing others' interests. This research programme examines leading responsibly in organisations. Impacts from this research stem from a book, journal articles, doctoral theses, media exposure and others.
Impact 1: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bestpractice/responsible-leadership/9011398" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>ABC Radio National interview</strong></a> on responsible leadership. The discussion focused on doing good beyond regulation. <br /><br />Impact 2: <em>The Stand </em>published an interview based article titled<em> "<a href="http://stand.uow.edu.au/trumping-distrust-in-the-corporate-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Trumping distrust in the corporate world</strong></a>"</em>.<em> </em>It focused on business leadership in crisis and the need to lead responsibly. My views expressed in this publication led to the ABC Radio National interview. <br /><br />Impact 3: Fernando, M. (2016). <em><a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319217888" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Leading responsibly in the Asian century</strong></a>.</em> New York: Springer. The book is one of the first to focus on responsible leadership in the contemporary Asian century context. It adopts a unique context driven social innovation based responsible leadership approach to explain how context can impact and shape the theory and practice of responsible leadership. The book appealed to a broad spectrum of researchers and scholars across disciplines with a particular interest in the interplay between leadership, responsibility and ethics. It focuses particularly on the Asian century opportunities and challenges as a strong contextual factor that shapes the ‘responsibility’ of responsible leadership. It fills an important gap in the literature on how Asian cultural factors might influence the predominantly Western developed responsible leadership theory and practice. <p><br />Impact 4: Featured book review by the <strong><a href="https://uowmailedu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/mariof_uow_edu_au/Documents/ILA%20Feature%20Review.pdf?csf=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Leadership Association</a> (2016)</strong>.<br /><br />Impact 5: Haque, A., Fernando M and Caputi P. (2017). <strong>The relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment and the mediating effect of employee turnover intentions: An empirical study with Australian employees.</strong> <em>Journal of Business Ethics</em>. DOI 10.1007/s10551-017-3575-6. This paper reports the findings of the relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment through the mediating role of employee turnover intentions. A web-based online survey was administered to collect data targeting a sample of 200 Australian employees working fultime. The results reveal that perceived responsible leadership significantly influences employees’ organisational commitment and their turnover intentions. <br /><br />Impact 6: Koh, C., Fernando, M. and Spedding, Trevor (2017). <strong>Exercising responsible leadership in a Singapore context. </strong><em>Leadership & Organization Development Journal.</em> DOI: 10.1108/LODJ-09-2015-0215. The purpose of this paper was to explore the western developed notion of responsible leadership from a Singapore context. Face-to-face interviews with 20 influential Singaporean leaders were developed into case studies. The findings reveal that the interviewed Singaporean leaders projected traits and values consistent with western definitions of responsible and effective leadership. Singaporean business leaders may need to consider the importance of retaining and developing the national culture and ethos of the nation, since these are the factors that have been identified in this study as key to influencing responsible leadership. </p><p> </p>
Beneficiary
Quantification
Description
Evidence
Description
Supervision
Available as Research Supervisor
Advisees
Graduate Advising Relationship
Degree
Research Title
Advisee
Doctor of Philosophy
The Privacy Paradox and Information Disclosure in Digital Marketplaces: The Moderating Role of Psychological Distance
Mario's passion for teaching is inspired by transformative learning (Mezirow, 1990). By challenging students to critically reflect on their assumptions, he aims to generate a conscious commitment in the student to engage in responsible executive action.
Mario has taught a range of subjects including strategic human resource management, cross-cultural management, operations and services management, organisational behaviour, organisation analysis, corporate governance and responsible leadership; all integrating content from the areas of international business, strategic management and change management. With his corporate experience in managing relationships and operations in multinational settings, Mario adds value to the teaching of these subjects across a range of different learner types.
Contact
Full Name
Professor
Mario
Fernando
Mailing Address
School of Management, Operations and Management, UOW
Proceedings of the 12th Malaysia-Indonesia International Economics, Management and Accounting Conference: Borderless Economy: Opportunities and Challenges for Businesses in Southeast Asia
<p>Regional hospitals are currently experiencing skills shortages in many health occupations while facing decreasing employee engagement, wellbeing and high employee turnover. In a research partnership with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD), the reasons for these are being identified by a team led by Associate Professor Fernando. The partnership started from a pilot project funded by the Faculty of Business and later supported by a Global Challenges grant. The aim of the project was to identify strategies to improve engagement, wellbeing and retention of healthcare professionals. </p>
<p>Impact 1: In the <a href="http://globalchallenges.uow.edu.au/transform/UOW202990" title="Caring for the Carer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Challenges</a> study, the researchers found employee engagement at three regional hospitals was influenced by individual attributes such as emotional health. These issues were more acute in ‘at-risk’ units: emergency, surgical, and intensive care departments. To apply their findings, the team identified specific strategies hospitals could implement to improve engagement and wellbeing. To test these strategies, the team developed a prototype of the simulation model to promote wellbeing in healthcare and three online wellbeing interventions. <br /><br />Impact 2: Prototype simulation model was presented at an invited presentation at Durham University Business School, UK (2016). <br /><br />Impact 3: The Global Challenges findings were presented at the Lunchtime Seminar Series of the Australian Health Services Research Institute (ASHRI) (2017). The seminar produced a lead to access a database of 5000 healthcare professionals to validate the simulation. <br /><br />Impact 4: In a competitive process, the Caring for the Carer research programme was selected to be featured in the <a href="https://issuu.com/uowresearch/docs/finalpartnersforreseach_book_intera" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UOW Research Impact booklet</a> (2017). <br /><br />Impact 5: The simulation was accepted to be further developed by a group of students at the Department of Engineering and Information Sciences (UOW). The simulation was featured in a Tradeposter at a public exhibition where attendees from industry and academia participated. </p>
Beneficiary
Quantification
Description
Evidence
Description
Responsible business in challenging times
Media reports of corporate scandals such as at Volkswagen highlight the need for acting responsibly when managing others' interests. This research programme examines leading responsibly in organisations. Impacts from this research stem from a book, journal articles, doctoral theses, media exposure and others.
Impact 1: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bestpractice/responsible-leadership/9011398" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>ABC Radio National interview</strong></a> on responsible leadership. The discussion focused on doing good beyond regulation. <br /><br />Impact 2: <em>The Stand </em>published an interview based article titled<em> "<a href="http://stand.uow.edu.au/trumping-distrust-in-the-corporate-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Trumping distrust in the corporate world</strong></a>"</em>.<em> </em>It focused on business leadership in crisis and the need to lead responsibly. My views expressed in this publication led to the ABC Radio National interview. <br /><br />Impact 3: Fernando, M. (2016). <em><a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319217888" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Leading responsibly in the Asian century</strong></a>.</em> New York: Springer. The book is one of the first to focus on responsible leadership in the contemporary Asian century context. It adopts a unique context driven social innovation based responsible leadership approach to explain how context can impact and shape the theory and practice of responsible leadership. The book appealed to a broad spectrum of researchers and scholars across disciplines with a particular interest in the interplay between leadership, responsibility and ethics. It focuses particularly on the Asian century opportunities and challenges as a strong contextual factor that shapes the ‘responsibility’ of responsible leadership. It fills an important gap in the literature on how Asian cultural factors might influence the predominantly Western developed responsible leadership theory and practice. <p><br />Impact 4: Featured book review by the <strong><a href="https://uowmailedu-my.sharepoint.com/personal/mariof_uow_edu_au/Documents/ILA%20Feature%20Review.pdf?csf=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Leadership Association</a> (2016)</strong>.<br /><br />Impact 5: Haque, A., Fernando M and Caputi P. (2017). <strong>The relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment and the mediating effect of employee turnover intentions: An empirical study with Australian employees.</strong> <em>Journal of Business Ethics</em>. DOI 10.1007/s10551-017-3575-6. This paper reports the findings of the relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment through the mediating role of employee turnover intentions. A web-based online survey was administered to collect data targeting a sample of 200 Australian employees working fultime. The results reveal that perceived responsible leadership significantly influences employees’ organisational commitment and their turnover intentions. <br /><br />Impact 6: Koh, C., Fernando, M. and Spedding, Trevor (2017). <strong>Exercising responsible leadership in a Singapore context. </strong><em>Leadership & Organization Development Journal.</em> DOI: 10.1108/LODJ-09-2015-0215. The purpose of this paper was to explore the western developed notion of responsible leadership from a Singapore context. Face-to-face interviews with 20 influential Singaporean leaders were developed into case studies. The findings reveal that the interviewed Singaporean leaders projected traits and values consistent with western definitions of responsible and effective leadership. Singaporean business leaders may need to consider the importance of retaining and developing the national culture and ethos of the nation, since these are the factors that have been identified in this study as key to influencing responsible leadership. </p><p> </p>
Beneficiary
Quantification
Description
Evidence
Description
Supervision
Advisees
Graduate Advising Relationship
Degree
Research Title
Advisee
Doctor of Philosophy
The Privacy Paradox and Information Disclosure in Digital Marketplaces: The Moderating Role of Psychological Distance
Mario's passion for teaching is inspired by transformative learning (Mezirow, 1990). By challenging students to critically reflect on their assumptions, he aims to generate a conscious commitment in the student to engage in responsible executive action.
Mario has taught a range of subjects including strategic human resource management, cross-cultural management, operations and services management, organisational behaviour, organisation analysis, corporate governance and responsible leadership; all integrating content from the areas of international business, strategic management and change management. With his corporate experience in managing relationships and operations in multinational settings, Mario adds value to the teaching of these subjects across a range of different learner types.
Contact
Full Name
Professor
Mario
Fernando
Mailing Address
School of Management, Operations and Management, UOW
