STAFF PROFILE
Dr. Melissa Wheeler
Melissa has a PhD in social psychology from the University of Melbourne, which explored how people persuade others to agree with their moral beliefs. She has an ongoing interest in the field of moral psychology and applied ethics, including workplace flexibility, gender roles in work and care, ethical climates, and responsible leadership. Melissa's research has been published in top tier journals, including Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Cities, European Review of Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Primarily teaching in the areas of leadership, applied ethics, and change management, Melissa has previously served as Major Discipline Coordinator for the Management Major. She has experience in co-creating and delivering units with industry partners, such as Siemens Australia and New Zealand, CPA Australia, and Financial Services Learning. She holds a Deans' Teaching Excellence Award and a Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence for Educational Programs.
In service to the academic community, she has held roles as Leader in the Career Development Program within the Swinburne Women's Academic Network, Early Career Researcher Training Coordinator, Theme Lead of the Social Psychology of Innovation Group (Ethics of Innovation), and Co-creator of the Australian Leadership Index.
Current Research Interests:
- Women and work/leadership (also fathers and care/work)
- Examining work and organisations using a social psychology lens (particularly in terms of morality: unethical behaviour, moral gossip, hypocrisy)
- Responsible leadership and board decision-making
- PhD, BA (Hons) Psychology
- Oldmeadow, J.,Elphinstone, B.,Sivasubramaniam, D.,Wheeler M, et al, . (2023). Classifying Australian citizens' responses to COVID-19 preventative behaviour directives: A latent class approach In: Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 33, 1018 - 1036
- Elphinstone, B.,Wheeler, M.,Oldmeadow, J.,Sivasubramaniam D, et al, . (2023). Compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures during the onset of the pandemic in Australia: investigating the role of trust in federal and state governments and scientists In: Australian Journal of Psychology, 75, 1 - 11
- Pless, N.,Sengupt, A.,Wheeler, M.,Maak, T. (2022). Responsible Leadership and the Reflective CEO: Resolving Stakeholder Conflict by Imagining What Could be done In: Journal of Business Ethics, 180, 313 - 337
- Govindasamy, L.,Terziovski, M.,Wheeler, M.,Rixon, A.,Wilson, S. (2022). Gender equity in emergency medicine: Five years on, where are we headed? In: EMA - Emergency Medicine Australasia, 34, 288 - 290
- Wheeler, M.,Bednall, T.,Demsar, V.,Wilson, S. (2022). Falling Apart and Coming Together: How Public Perceptions of Leadership Change in Response to Natural Disasters vs. Health Crises In: Sustainability (Switzerland), 14, 1 - 19
- Gunasekara, A.,Wheeler, M.,Bardoel, A. (2022). The Impact of Working from Home during COVID-19 on Time Allocation across Competing Demands In: Sustainability (Switzerland), 14, 1 - 16
- Ordonez, C.,Wheeler, M.,Raynor, K.,Panza, L.,Seely, H.,Adamovic, M. (2022). Advancing research on urban greenspace experiences and perceptions in disadvantaged communities: A social housing perspective In: Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 77, 1 - 5
- Kaufmann, L.,Wheeler, M.,Sojo, V. (2021). Employment Precarity Strengthens the Relationships Between the Dark Triad and Professional Commitment In: Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1 - 14
- Wheeler, M.,Vylomova, E.,McGrath, M.,Haslam, N. (2021). More confident, less formal: stylistic changes in academic psychology writing from 1970 to 2016 In: Scientometrics, 126, 9603 - 9612
- Haslam, N.,Dakin, B.,Fabiano, F.,McGrath, M.,Rhee, J.,Vylomova, E.,Weaving, M.,Wheeler, M. (2020). Harm inflation: Making sense of concept creep In: European Review of Social Psychology, 31, 254 - 286