In recognition for her outstanding work in developing the Strategy-as-Practice field of research, Natural Hazards Research Australia (the Centre) researcher from the University of Queensland Prof Paula Jarzabkowski was recently awarded the Academy of Management’s Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award.
Honoured alongside fellow international experts Prof Julia Balogun, Prof David Seidl and Prof Richard Whittington, Paula was recognised for her outstanding work in the field of organisation and management theory.
The bi-annual Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award recognises experts who advance insights, expand theory and build community to develop a practice-theory based approach to strategy and organisation.
Centre CEO Andrew Gissing congratulated Paula on behalf of the Centre’s Board and staff and stated that not only is the award well deserved, it highlights the benefit of innovative, intersectional approaches disaster risk reduction and recovery.
“Paula is a trailblazer whose significant skills, experience and knowledge are helping Australian communities stay safer, more resilient and sustainable. Paula’s application of Strategy-as-Practice to disaster resilience and risk reduction is deserving of this international recognition,” Andrew said.
Paula’s research with the Centre highlights the way new and often unconventional thinking can be applied to disaster risk reduction and resilience activities, including in the current Evaluating the Resilient Homes Fund project.
“In 2000, as we were finishing our PhDs in the nascent theoretical area of Strategy-as-Practice, my colleagues and I didn’t know that our efforts to publish papers, establish research streams, write books, edit journals, and develop conference tracks would lead to such a flourishing and vibrant field of research,” Paula said.
“I am delighted to bring my deep experience in this field to the research I am leading on how Australia can become more resilient to weather disasters, with the aim to generate better outcomes for all Australians, particularly those most vulnerable to extreme weather.”
Paula’s broader research activities include leading practice-based research into key societal and organisational challenges, in particular, how to develop communities to cope with effects of climate change and natural hazards such as flooding and bushfire. She was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Management in 2020.
In 2023 Paula co-wrote Disaster Insurance Reimagined, highlighting the growing challenges many vulnerable people face in accessing the necessary insurance cover in the face of an increasingly unpredictable world. As a result of her work in this area, Paula has also worked closely with advisory bodies such as the OECD High-Level Advisory Board for the Financial Management of Catastrophic Risk.