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Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group

Advancing knowledge in employee performance, health and wellbeing
We are a multidisciplinary group with an aim to advance knowledge on how the human body, heart and mind interact in work settings.

Latest Announcements

How to cultivate a culture of care

Professors Anya Johnson and Helena Nguyen collaborate with the Black Dog Institute and Mindrama for this webinar on mental health in the workplace.

Understand your role in protecting mental health. Get to know your responsibilities, your limits and the simple, practical actions that can make a major difference to your team.

Join the webinar


BHM co-directors Helena Nguyen and Anya Johnson have been awarded a second major grant from iCare as part of a consortium of Universities: with Curtin and Monash.

The SMART design for care project is an exciting and innovative research project – investigating the effectiveness of work design interventions to improve mental health with industry partners in the health and social assistance industry, to address the increasing mental health compensation claims. This next project will investigate the efficacy of different interventions and how we can scale up the research once there is “proof of concept.”

For more information on the project see: https://www.transformativeworkdesign.com/smart-design-for-care and please follow the LinkedIn page for regular updates.


Karyn Wang has published a new article on the spillover effect from customer mistreatment https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10946705211049098

Anya Johnson and Helena Nguyen has published a new article on mindfulness and error hiding in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2022-60042-001.html

Stefan Volk and Kevin Lowe published a new article on circadian leadership in the Journal of Organizational Behavior:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2659?af=R


Check out our latest research on circadian rhythms, chronotypes and paradoxical leadership published in the Academy of Management Review by BHM co-director Stefan Volk:
https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amr.2020.0468


Shaping the workplace for wellbeing and productivity: Read the latest insights from our Research Partnerships website


Australian Journal of Management

Call for papers - Special issue: Managing with compassion in a complex, changing world: New research & application

Deadline Expression of Interest (5-page abstract submissions): March 2022
Deadline Full papers submission deadline: November 2022

More information (PDF, 215KB)


About us

Our work integrates research from the fields of management, psychology, biology and medical sciences, adopting methods and approaches to understand the effects that physiological and somatic factors have on how individuals and groups think, feel and behave at work. 

We aim to lead thinking around physiological functioning and employee performance, health, and wellbeing in organisations. Our work has been published in highly regarded journals including the:

  • Academy of Management Review
  • Academy of Management Journal
  • Journal of Applied Psychology
  • Journal of Management
  • Journal of International Business Studies
  • Organizational Research Methods. 

We have received funding through Australian Research Council discovery grants, ARC linkage grants and other competitive grants totalling more than $5 million.

Our work is regularly covered by national and international media including The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Huffington Post, Business Insider, ABC News and SBS News.


Research projects

We conduct many diverse projects
Explore current research projects and publications by the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group.

Our people

Workshops and events

Find out how our research can influence your workplace through workshops and seminars by the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group.

Videos

Inaugural Australian Compassion Research Forum

Biological rhythms and peak-time team performance

Foreign language processing in multinational companies

Intelligence testing

Managing emotional labour

Co-directors

Stefan Volk
Associate Professor Stefan Volk
Academic profile

Dr Helena Nguyen
Associate Professor Helena Nguyen
Academic profile

Dr Anya Johnson
Professor Anya Johnson
Academic profile

Deputy Director

Hannah Kunst
Academic profile

Podcasts

How can your 'body clock' boost your productivity? - Stefan Volk on Campus Review, Nov 2022

Wake me up in 2022: working through uncertainty fatigue

with Dr Shanta Dey on ABC Radio's This Working Life, July 2021

Research highlights