Gemma Irving

Dr. Gemma Irving is a Senior Lecturer in the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland, within the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland, completing her PhD in 2016 on collaboration in open-plan offices. Irving's research specializations encompass hybrid work environments, where she examines tensions between flexibility and collaboration post-pandemic; organisational space and collaboration, investigating why collaborative designs like open-plan offices sometimes hinder interactions; professional work, including responses to regulatory changes; and teaching evidence-based management to first-year undergraduates. She teaches large introductory management courses enrolling up to 1000 students per semester, employing tools such as the Harvard Business School Everest Team and Leadership Simulation and linking concepts to events like the 2020 Bushfire Crisis. As a founding member of the Next Generation Workspace Research Network, she partners with industry and academia to deliver evidence-based workspace solutions.

Irving has earned the UQ Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning, the UQ Business School Award for enhancing the first-year student experience, and inclusion on the UQ Above and Beyond in 2020 Honour Roll. Her key publications include 'The role of space and place in organisational and institutional change: a systematic review of the literature' (2023), 'An instructional innovation that embeds group learning in case teaching: the table case method' (2024), 'Collaboration, physical proximity and serendipitous encounters: avoiding collaboration in a collaborative building' (2019), 'Threshold concept learning: emotions and liminal space transitions' (2019), and 'Student understandings of evidence-based management: Ways of doing and being' (2018). Her research informs workspace strategies for organizations such as BHP, Suncorp, the Queensland Government, and the University of Queensland, contributing to a $50m Construction Innovation Hub business case. It has appeared in media including The Conversation, ABC Radio, RadioNZ, and In The Black. Irving supervises PhD candidates, including principal advisor for a study on Indigenous institutional change through tiny homes.

Professional Email: g.irving@business.uq.edu.au