Trust, Ethics and Governance Alliance

Building trust through effective management and policy reform

The importance of and challenges to trust, ethics and effective governance is high on the global agenda. Against the backdrop of national inquiries into institutional trust failures, geo-political uncertainties stemming from the invasion of Ukraine, the climate crisis, digital disruption, volatility and uncertainty places unprecedented challenges on managing trust, ethics and governance issues.

UQ Business School’s Trust, Ethics and Governance Alliance (TEGA) brings together academic experts and industry leaders to help address these complex and rapidly evolving challenges. By adopting an interdisciplinary research approach, robust insights are developed to inform public debate and promote effective evidence-based management practices and policy reform.

Thought leadership

Our researchers are internationally recognised for their thought leadership in the areas of:

  • building, preserving and restoring trust
  • reputation and image management
  • ethical leadership and decision making
  • corporate regulation, governance and corruption control 
  • Responsible and trusted intelligent technologies and data

Our thought leadership brings new perspectives that advance understanding of trust building and challenge traditional governance approaches whilst encouraging a research-informed debate.
 

Read TEGA insights and news

Trust building and repair 

Trust is a fundamental building block of any relationship, whether that be with customers, employees, investors, suppliers and partners, regulators or broader communities and society. Despite its central importance, it is a concept that is often misunderstood. Researchers investigate this multifaceted concept across a broad range of contexts.

Key areas of research expertise:

  • Building, preserving and restoring trust and reputation
  • Responding to and recovering from trust breaches and scandal
  • Cultivating resilience to trust breaches and designing trustworthy organisations
  • Understanding and measuring stakeholder trust.

Ethics, corporate regulation and culture

Ethical misconduct and corruption are as true today as it has ever been and combating these deviant behaviours require taking steps to ensure corporations have effective governance and regulation, as well as cultures that support ethical conduct. Researchers confront these hard issues from a diversity of perspectives.

Key areas of research expertise:

  • Examining decision-making near the ethical edge, where hard regulations meet soft cultural controls 
  • Understanding conceptions of corruption, integrity and ethical risk in organisations and societies
  • Assessing the effectiveness of corporate regulation, governance and corruption control from diverse disciplinary, legal and ethical perspectives.

Responsible stewardship of technology in the digital era

Advances in technology and artificial intelligence, combined with the unprecedented creation and capture of personal data, raises a number of ethical, trust and governance issues and challenges. Researchers tackle these complex and rapidly evolving issues around the collection, use and governance of data, trust in emerging technologies, and responsible technology use and transformation in society.

Key areas of research expertise:

  • Responsible stewardship and trust of intelligent technologies and data into society
  • Using personal data for business analysis, including HR data analytics
  • Accountable use of intelligent algorithms 
  • Explainability of machine learning algorithms.

Leads

Professor Nicole Gillespie

 Professor Nicole Gillespie 
 Professor in Management & KPMG Chair in Trust

 

 

Professor Thomas Maak Professor Thomas Maak
 Professorial Chair in Ethics

 

 

Meet the Business School TEGA team 

 

 

 

Jump to:

Trust building and repair

  • A.I. bias undermines trust in leaders
    Revealing bias against A.I.; A.I. may be “intelligent” but it cannot be wise — leaders who rely on A.I. suffer decrement in perceived trustworthiness via undermined perceptions of their ability to be wise. 
    Researchers: Justin P. Brienza and Bernard McKenna
  • After the fall: Understanding the role of identification in organisational trust failure and repair in member organisations 
    Following a trust breach in a member’s organisation, this project explores organisational identification and its influence on trust repair effects and trust trajectories.
    Researchers: Nicole Gillespie, Shannon Colville, Alex McDade and Niamh Daly
  • Behind the moral shield: Responses to trust breaches and trust restoration among mission-based groups. 
    This program of research examines the causes and responses to trust breaches within non-profit organisations, and the effectiveness of various strategies for restoring trust. It examines how the dynamics of trust breakdown and repair differ for non-profit and commercial entities.
    Researchers: Matthew HornseyNicole Gillespie and Cassandra Chapman
    Funding: Australian Research Council Discovery Grant
  • Charitable triad: How donors, beneficiaries, & fundraisers influence giving. 
    This project aims to test a new model of charitable giving to examine how donors, beneficiaries, and fundraisers together influence donor decisions.
    Researchers: Cassandra Chapman
  • Community expectations and trust of the environmental performance of Australian livestock industries 
    In 2017, the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework (ABSF) was developed to meet changing community and consumer expectations. This project evaluates the successes, challenges and trust building potential of the ABSF by drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with key industry and external stakeholders, including recommendations for future adaptation and improvement of the ABSF.
    Researcher: Nicole Gillespie
    Funding: Industry Grant
  • Dynamics of Forgiveness and Self Forgiveness. (Australian Research Council Discovery Grant)
    This project aims to study the dynamics between forgiveness and self-forgiveness following hurt and wrongdoing in interpersonal relationships. This project seeks to break new ground, studying dyadic-level dynamics between both parties: interdependencies between forgiveness and self-forgiveness in a dialogical process of moral repair. 
    Researcher: Tyler Okimoto
  • From luxury escape to mandatory quarantine: an examination of hotel brand stigma
    The project seeks to understand how re-deployment of travel brands such as hotels into quarantine and medical treatment purposes as part of the COVID-19 response impacts upon the brands, in terms of brand equity and trust.
    Researchers: Monica Chien and Sarah Kelly
  • Getting tourists back on board: How Covid 19 is likely to influence consumer choice when considering a Cruise style holiday
    This project aims to determine how and why Covid 19 has influenced consumers’ preferences for and trade-offs between specific aspects of the cruise experience. Such insight will be highly valuable for Cruise organisations seeking to better understand the evaluative criteria by which their consumer segments are now using to guide their decisions.
    Researchers: Gabby Walters and Sarah Kelly
  • Identifying and resolving challenges to the effectiveness of collective apologies. (ARC Discovery Project administered by Flinders University)
    In systematically focusing on the distinct features of intergroup contexts, this project offers a novel analysis of the challenges to the effectiveness of collective apologies and ways to overcome them. Using creative experimental and survey approaches, the research will aid societies in harnessing the potential of collective apologies towards forgiveness and reconciliation.
    Researchers: Matthew Hornsey and Tyler Okimoto
  • Impact of Perceptions of Leader Wisdom Buffer Trust Breeches
    Investigating the role of perceptions of leaders’ wisdom in followership (e.g., loyalty; willingness to trust and buffering effect of trust breaches; voting; commitment to organisations). 
    Researchers: Justin P. Brienza and Bernard McKenna
  • Mindful leadership and team functioning (BEL Connect Grant)
    Researchers: Adam Kay
    This project aims to develop a conception of and measure for a new construct termed mindful leadership. This measure will be validated and the implications of mindful leadership will be tested for leader, employee and team functioning in a large randomized controlled trial of online mindfulness training delivered to employees at a Canadian healthcare organisation.
  • Perceptions of Low Self-Control Reduce Trust and Cooperation
    Investigating how team-mates’ perceptions of other members’ self-control (health; task persistence; etc) can affect cooperation in team projects, through damaged trust.
    Researcher: Justin P. Brienza
  • Predictors of virtual healthcare adoption in the home for the aging population. (NHMRC Project Grant)
    This project examines the perceptions, needs and behaviours of aged Australians with respect to in-home virtual healthcare services. The project is developing and testing a model of the key factors which influence aged Australian healthcare consumers’ intention to adopt home telehealth services, across key market segments.
    Researcher: Nicole Gillespie
  • Public Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Global Insights. (KPMG)
    This program of research seeks to develop an international understanding of public trust in AI across 5 countries: Australia, UK, Canada, USA and Germany. Two industry research reports have been published, funding received to extend to a broader global study in 2022, and scholarly publications are in progress.
    Researcher: Nicole GillespieSteve Lockey and Caitlin Curtis
  • Stakeholder trust in the coal seam gas industry. (Industry Grant)
    This 5 year programme of research, based on in-depth interviews with 145 stakeholders followed by two large-scale surveys, identified the key drivers of trust in the CSG firms and industry from the perspective of four key stakeholder groups: landholders, community, regulators and CSG employees and contractors. 
    Researchers: Nicole Gillespie and Steve Lockey
  • The bright side of organisational stigma for socially deviant firms
    Whether and to what extent operating in a stigmatized industry protects firms from the adverse market consequences of greenwashing, in terms of consumer trust and downstream sales. Results to date suggest that stigmatized firms are protected from the adverse consequences of greenwashing.
    Researcher: Adam Kay
  • The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on small and medium tourism businesses in Japan
    Researcher: Monica Chien
    The project seeks to understand the extent of voluntary and involuntary changes made in small and medium tourism and hospitality businesses in Japan, as well as their impact on front-line employees. Specifically, it evaluates the relationship among leadership, trust, and employee wellbeing in the context of ryokans, or traditional Japanese inns.  
  • The impact of attentional resource depletion and negative emotions on ethical leadership and trust
    An experimental study examining how attentional resource depletion and negative emotions leads to unethical leadership and low trust during a team problem-solving task.
    Researcher: Michael Collins
  • The impact of anger, impulsivity and work on trust and ethical leadership
    A quantitative study of Australian leaders examining how anger and impulsivity leads to unethical leadership, low trust and unsatisfying work.
    Researcher: Michael Collins
  • Trust and Compliance During the Covid-19 Pandemic 
    This project strives to investigate the antecedents of trust, risk, and personal values on an individual’s willingness to adopt recommended behaviours during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also aims to explore the effectiveness of government communication strategies to predict optimal marketing/communication strategies for changing behaviours.
    Researchers: Shannon ColvilleSarah KellyNicole GillespieSteve LockeyMartin Edwards
  • Trust insights: Understanding Practices Supporting Trustworthy Organisations
    This project examines the organisational practices that support and facilitate trustworthy organisational conduct and examines their influence on stakeholder trust.
    Researchers: Nicole Gillespie and Steve Lockey
  • Understanding and overcoming public rejection of scientific innovation.
    This project examines a new psychological construct that explains why some people resist scientific innovation, while others embrace it. The project will be the first to measure this new worldview dimension (Up-Down orientation), and the first to test whether scores on this dimension uniquely predict attitudes toward emerging technologies that promise to shape life in the 21st century (e.g., life extension technologies, artificial intelligence).
    Researcher: Matthew Hornsey

Ethics, Corporate Regulation and Culture

  • Anti-Doping Governance and Ethics: an investigation into WADA code procedural fairness and natural justice in India.
    Researcher: Sarah Jane Kelly
  • An investigation into Loot boxes and microtransactions in online gaming: the new gambling frontier.
    Researchers: Sarah Jane Kelly and Shaun Star
  • An investigation of personality and whistle-blowing accounting fraud. (Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA))
    The project investigates the role of personality in relation to accountants' propensity to whistle-blow accounting fraud.
    Researcher: Michael Turner
  • Blowing the whistle: The impact of formal channels, anti-retaliation protection and financial rewards. (Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ))
    The project focuses on whistle-blowing, which has seen considerable recent activity on the part of regulators internationally to provide incentives and protections for whistle-blowers as corporate fraud social enforcement have become a key feature of regulatory policy.
    Researcher: Micheal Turner
  • Building Global Sports Integrity through Transnational Education: A Sports Law Immersive Course and Practicum.
    The role of governance, risk and regulation in sports and esports.
    Researcher: Sarah Jane Kelly
  • 'Corporate culture' is the 'new black' - Its possibilities and limits as a regulatory tool for corporations and financial institutions 
    The role of ‘culture’ in corporations and the extent to which corporate culture can be used as a regulatory tool.
    Researcher: Vicky Comino  
  • The Dark Side of Mindfulness
    The potential negative effects of mindfulness training given to individuals with dark personality traits like psychopathy, narcissism, and machiavellianism. Research is ongoing, but results to date suggest that organisations should be careful about offering mindfulness training to employees with such personality traits.
    Researcher: Adam Kay
  • Ethical intelligence: helping good people avoid bad decisions
    How disinhibition leads to ethical blind spots and unethical behaviour.
    Researcher: Michael Collins
  • Ethics and professionalism podcast, Conexus Financial
    Expert commentary on the implications for financial planners of the introduction of the new.
    Researcher: Michael Collins
  • Impact of ubiquitous information on youth decisions: wisdom training for the internet.
    This study will help us to better understand i) when and how youths decide to go online rather than seek advice from parents or others better able and motivated to help; ii) what makes youths more susceptible in discerning false and unwise online information. Then (iii) use these findings to develop and validate a critical training program that can make youths more resistant to misinformation by improving their ability to select genuine and wise advice to make wiser decisions.
    Researchers: Justin Brienza and Bernard McKenna
  • Leading to Serve: A Community-Centred Approach to Leadership in the Queensland Police Service. (Industry Funding QPS)
    A review of the Queensland Police Service leadership capabilities from recruit to senior executive levels using qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings from this review will inform the development of ethical and pro-social leadership at the individual and organisational level. 
    Researchers: Michael Collins and Bernard McKenna
  • Mindfulness and third-party reactions to injustice
    The role of mindfulness in third-party reactions to witnessing injustice in the world. In contrast to voluminous research showing that mindfulness tempers emotional reactions to self-relevant mistreatment, this research demonstrates that mindfulness amplifies moral outrage in third-party witnesses of injustice, making mindful individuals more likely to punish those who perpetrate injustice against others.
    Researcher: Adam Kay
  • Policy and Regulation of harmful product advertising on competitive online gaming and esports.
    Esports and gaming ecosystem, consumer behaviour within it and the implications for alcohol advertising and exposure to participants. Project outcomes were used to inform health policy and potential regulation and governance of the esports industry and digital platforms regulation in Australia.
    Researcher: Sarah Jane Kelly
  • Promoting woman in leadership: Diversity on boards in Australia and India 
    This project is supported by the Australian Alumni Grant Scheme, Awarded by the Australian Consulate, Chennai, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Partners include University of Queensland, O.P. Jindal Global University, Australia India Business Council, Institute for Australia India Engagement.
    Researcher: Shaun Star
  • Supportive workplace programme
    The projects involve UniSA and University of Queensland researchers working together with staff from industry partners to identify where and how to change work systems and practices. The ultimate goal is to create a more supportive and respectful workplace for everyone at Woolworths.
    Researcher: Yigiong Li 
  • The effectiveness of governance mechanisms in sporting clubs: Perceptions of the stakeholders. (Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand)
    The project focuses on actual events surrounding the 2011-2012 scandals relating to the use of performance enhancing drugs in two high profile sporting clubs in Australia: the Cronulla Sharks Rugby League Club; and the Essendon Football Club. Issues relating to the commercialisation of sport and short-comings in governance are key.
    Researcher: Michael Turner
  • The true colour of "omotenashi": Impact of COVID-19 on immigrant workers in Japan's tourism and hospitality sectors
    Japan's immigrant workers in tourism and hospitality are facing increasing discrimination and hateful remarks due to COVID-19. This project investigates how the pandemic induced prejudice against non-Japanese workers impact on these individuals' quality of life and job satisfaction.
    Researcher: Monica Chien
  • To what extent are conspiracy theorists concerned for self versus others? 
    The project drew on the COVID- 19 context as a test case to examine competing notions of the extent to which conspir-acy theorising is associated with beliefs and behaviours that suggest concern for others versus concern for the self.
    Researcher: Matthew HornseyCassandra Chapman 
  • Tourism induced intergroup conflict and its impact on residents of the host destination
    This research examines residents' construal and evaluations of conflicts between fellow residents and tourists, as well as the downstream consequences of these evaluations such as retaliation and other unethical behaviours.
    Researchers: Monica Chien and Matthew Hornsey
  • Whistle-blowing regulation: A uniform or tailored approach? (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (The German Research Foundation)
    The project examines whether United States (U.S.)-style regulatory intervention to encourage whistle-blowing can be immediately effective if transplanted into another country with a distinctly different historical cultural background and institutional system.
    Researcher: Michael Turner

Responsible Stewardship of Technology in the Digital Era

  • Access to Justice: Technology, Innovation and Sustainability. (Conducted in collaboration with legal centre, Law Right, and UQ Business School)
    Researcher: Francesca Bartlett
  • Achieving Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector (KPMG, Bel Connect and UQ) 
    Revealing bias against A.I.; A.I. may be “intelligent” but it cannot be wise—leaders who rely on A.I. suffer decrement in perceived trustworthiness via undermined perceptions of their ability to be wise.
    Researchers: Nicole GillespieSteve LockeyCaitlin Curtis and Tapani Rinta-Kahila
  • Artificial intelligence: An approach to organizational deployment of inscrutable artificial intelligence systems
    An approach for implementing inscrutable (i.e., nonexplainable) artificial intelligence (AI) such as neural networks in an accountable and safe manner in organizational settings.
    Researchers: Tapani Rinta-Kahila 
  • Community attitude to law enforcement data
    In collaboration with the Queensland Police Service, this project explores how to increase trust that people place in the use of their data. The research will investigate how people view the use of their personal data and how organisations can gain social licence to expand their use of data and technology.
    TEGA Researchers: Marta Indulska 
  • Developing Data-Driven Organisations: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach
    Researcher: Ida Asadi Someh
  • Empowering users to protect their personal privacy on social media 
    A bold approach to finally overcome the paradoxical inertia of people who care about their privacy but do not protect it.
    Researchers:  Marten Risius 
  • Enhancing Fairness in Algorithmic Decision-Making through Perspective Taking
    How AI explanations and evaluation metrics can be framed and presented to prompt decision-makers to adopt different stakeholder perspectives and ultimately help achieve fairness. 
    TEGA Researchers:  Ida Someh
  • Explanations: A New Enterprise Capability for Artificial Intelligence   
    The challenges that opaque algorithms pose to organizations and aims to introduce AI explainability as a new enterprise capability for organizations that are investing in AI. AI explanations are explored from multiple stakeholder perspectives. 
    Researcher:  Ida Someh
  • Public Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Global Insights. (KPMG)
    Developing an international understanding of public trust in AI across 5 countries: Australia, UK, Canada, USA and Germany. The report from the Australian survey is forthcoming in October 2020.
    Researchers: Nicole GillespieSteve Lockey and Caitlin Curtis
  • Succeeding with AI in the Public Sector (Industry engagement fund – SAP)
    Public-sector organizations face mounting challenges in adopting and creating value from AI. This project focuses on how governments can build and deploy trustworthy AI applications and in doing maximize benefits for a broad set of stakeholders including citizens.
    Researchers: Ida SomehNicole GillespieTapani Rinta-Kahila
  • The Effect of Algorithm Explanations on Managerial Decision-Making. (National Australia Bank (NAB))
    Researcher: Ida Asadi Someh
  • Trust in artificial intelligence. (KPMG and Australian Institute of Business and Economics (AIBE))
    Understanding stakeholder trust and perceptions of Artificial Intelligence and its applications in society and organisations.
    Researchers: Nicole GillespieSteve Lockey & Ida Someh
  • Understanding and trusting algorithms in data-driven governments. (Systems, Applications & Products (SAP))
    Researchers: Ida Asadi Someh and Nicole Gillespie
  • Understanding trust in artificial intelligence. (KPMG and Australian Institute of Business and Economics (AIBE))
    Consumer and public trust and perceptions of Artificial Intelligence and its applications in society and organisations. 
    Researchers: Nicole GillespieSteve LockeyIda SomehMatthew Hornsey and Caitlin Curtis
  • Unintended Consequences of Algorithmic Decision-Making
    The recent failure cases on algorithmic decision-making such as Robodebt and aims to understand and explain how organizations can anticipate and avoid unintended consequences of algorithmic decision making.
    Researchers: Ida SomehNicole GillespieTapani Rinta-Kahila

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