Rate My Professor Jeff Foote

Associate Professor Jeff Foote is an Associate Professor in Operations Management in the Department of Management at the University of Otago's Otago Business School. He holds a BTech(Hons) and MTech(Hons) from Massey University, a Doctor of Public Health (Distinction) and Postgraduate Certificate in Public Health from the University of Otago, and a PhD from Massey University. Foote teaches courses focused on operations management, social responsibility, and systems thinking, including BSNS 411 Business Principles for the 21st Century, MANT 251 Managing Organisations, MANT 450 Governance and Social Responsibility, MANT 447 Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Business, and BDBA 912 Strategy and Growth.

Foote's research specializes in applying systemic and participative methods to address wicked problems in healthcare quality improvement, sexual violence prevention, and freshwater management. He is an applied researcher involved in interdisciplinary and bicultural projects, undertaking research and consulting for central and local government, non-government organisations, businesses, and hāpu. An active member of Te Maea: Māori Economy and Enterprise Network, Foote supervises PhD and DBA students on topics such as sustainability of quality improvement in healthcare, neoliberal ideology in sustainability practices, power dynamics in supply chains, business model innovation in aged care, culturally responsive performance measurement in the addiction sector, and tikanga in social procurement. His supervision interests encompass systems thinking methodologies like Boundary Critique, Soft Systems Methodology, Interactive Planning, Viable System Model, Critical Systems Heuristics, and Strategic Choice, alongside healthcare quality improvement, service dominant logic, corporate social responsibility, and Theory of Constraints. Key recent publications include Foote, J., Nicholas, G., & Midgley, G. (2025). Design for structural, social and political viability in national-scale systemic interventions (chapter in Systemic service design); Paine, S., Foote, J., & Gauld, R. (2025). Principles for embedding learning and adaptation into New Zealand health system functioning: The example of the Viable System Model (New Zealand Medical Journal); Norris, D., Foote, J., & Greatbanks, R. (2025). Mode 2 critical systems practice for complex safety decisions: Reflections from New Zealand's dairy industry (Systems Research & Behavioral Science); and Paine, S., & Foote, J. (2025). Utilising VSM insights to address health system disconnects: Introducing three novel organisational pathologies (Kybernetes). In 2024, Foote won the Otago University Students’ Association Overall Supervisor of the Year Award for his empowering support and fostering of student growth.