Staff profile

Dr Bret W Slade

Associate Professor, Director - Master of International Business Program

Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

La Trobe Business School
Department of Management

Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA, Dip Ed, MEd, PhD (La Trobe)

Area of study

Management

Brief Profile

Bret has significant experience in the corporate headquarters and strategic management consulting roles. His areas of expertise are leadership, strategy, decision making, emergency management and security. He has worked extensively in management with Australian national and state government organisations, including the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, and the Victoria Country Fire Authority.   Bret also has experience working in Asia, including China, Vietnam and Malaysia.  

In addition to corporate trouble-shooting roles, Bret has developed a specialisation in teaching strategy through the use of computer-based group and first person simulation environments. Organisations that have utilised this specific method for improving senior management teams, and organisational responsiveness to crisis, have included the Australian Army and the Victorian Country Fire Authority.  

Bret has a PhD, a Master's Degree in Education, and a Bachelor of Arts from La Trobe University. His doctorate focussed on national defence within a diagnostic framework designed to identify organisational effectiveness in high-tempo, mission critical environments.

During 2011, Bret was at the at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, Australian Defence College, Canberra as a Visiting Fellow. At this institution, Australian senior military and Government officers engage with a broad range of national and international security issues. Along with overseas participants, these officers are provided with the knowledge and skills required to operate at the strategic level in the complex, high tempo, international security environment.  

Bret's work with the Centre focussed on the impact of terrorism and insurgency on civilian populations and civil infrastructure. Much of this research was in specific relation to the psychology of combatants and non-combatants, and the effect of crisis and crisis response within civil populations.   

Bret currently directs the Master of International Business in the Department of Management, at the La Trobe University Business School.

Research interests

High performance work systems

- Business analysis and modelling

Managerial psychology and decision science

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Organisational, psychological and cultural change

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Strategic Management

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Teaching Units

The Leadership Challenge (BUA5LDC)

Corporate Strategy (BUA5CST)

Management Fundamentals (BUA4MGT)

Management Fundamentals (BUA5MGT)

Consulting

Organisational Restructure, Intervention and Project Management, Military, Police, Emergency Services, Security, Business Analysis and Modelling.

Recent Publications

Books

Slade, B., Pech R., Ho B., Durden, G., and Oh, K.B., (2011) Crisis Decision Making. 2nd Edition. Nova Science. New York.  

Slade, B., Pech R., Ho B., Durden, G., and Oh, K.B., (2010) Crisis Decision Making. 1st Edition. Nova Science. New York.  

Book Chapters

Slade, B., in Pech, R. J. (Ed) (2009) Entrepreneurial Courage, Audacity and Genius. Chapters 5 and 6. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson Education Australia.  

Refereed journal articles

  • Pech, R., and Slade, B. (2007) Organisational Sociopaths: Rarely Challenged, Often Promoted, Why? Society and Business Review, 2(3), pp254-269.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2006), “Religious fundamentalism and terrorism: Why do they do it and what do they want?” Foresight: Journal of Future Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 8, 1, pp. 8-20.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2005), "Employee disengagement: Is there evidence of a growing problem?", 2006 Handbook of Business Strategy, 7, 1, pp. 21-25.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2005) Imitative terrorism: A diagnostic framework for identifying catalysts and designing interventions, Foresight: Journal of Future Studies, Strategic Thinking and Policy, 7, 2, pp. 47-60.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Business maneuver: Exploiting speed and surprise as key elements for defense and attack, Handbook of Business Strategy 2005, 6(1), 35-42.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Memetic engineering: A framework for organisational diagnosis and development, The Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 25(5), 452-465.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2004) Manoeuvre theory: Business mission analysis process for high intensity conflict, Management Decision, 42(8), 987-1000.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2003), "Asymmetric competition: Decision processes shaping the future", Management Decision, 41, 9, pp. 883-892.

Conference proceedings

  • Slade, B., Muir, S. & Pech, R. (2006) When Policy and practice collide: A structuration approach to examining the failure to unify an organisation, Proceedings of the 20 th ANZAM conference , 6 December 2006, Yeppoon , Australia.
  • Thomas, K. and Slade, B. (2004) Revisiting the dark side of leadership in the light of management theory: A leadership concept paper, 18th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, 8-11 December, Dunedin, New Zealand.
  • Pech, R.J. and Slade, B.W. (2003) Detecting and Managing Trends and Behaviours that Compromise the Organisational Mission: A memetic concept paper. 17th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management, 2-5 December, Perth, Australia.

C3 Articles

  • Slade, B. (2005) Fraud, Theft and Shrinkage: Vulnerabilities in the Organisational Supply Chain, Royal Australian Corps of Signals Signalman Magazine, Autumn 2005
  • Slade, B. and Muir, S. (2003) Military Operations and Lessons for Strategists. Royal Australian Corps of Signals Signalman Magazine, Spring 2003 (p. 63-64).
  • Slade, B. (2003) SIGNALMAN - MANAGING THE COMPLEXITY Royal Australian Corps of Signals Signalman Magazine, Autumn 2003 (p. 63-64).

 

Research projects

PhD Completions

Dr Michael Turner (2011). An investigation into entrepreneurship in the transitioning economies of Mongolia and Vietnam:  A diagnostic framework for business activity. (Passed with Distinction).

 

Current PhD Candidates:

 John Murray.  Aircraft pilot critical decision making: A diagnostic framework for critical incident mitigation. - In progress.

Helen Russell. Talent management in multinational enterprises: Representative survey evidence from Australia. - In progress.