Rate My Professor Nikola Balnave

Nikola Balnave is an Associate Professor in Public Sector and Not-for-Profit Employment and Management in the Department of Management, Macquarie Business School at Macquarie University, and a member of the Centre for Workforce Futures. She earned a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) and a PhD from the University of Sydney. Her research interests encompass the history, growth, decline, revival, and strategic renewal of co-operatives, particularly business and worker co-operatives in Australia, as well as unions and social media, employee voice, teleworking during COVID-19, visual analytics in multidisciplinary teams, and networks of knowledge through interlocking directorships in Australian corporations. Balnave has led projects including 'Co-operatives in Australia - Explaining Growth, Decline and Revival' and 'COVID-19 crisis triggers teleworking: A global cure or a short-term solution?', both as Primary Chief Investigator.

Throughout her career at Macquarie University, Balnave advanced from Senior Lecturer to Associate Professor and has made significant contributions to labour and business history. Key publications include the book 'A History of Australian Co-operatives 1827–2023' (Routledge, 2024, co-authored with Greg Patmore and Olivera Marjanovic), 'A Global History of Co-operative Business' (Routledge, 2018), 'Worker co-operatives in Australia 1833–2024' (Journal of Industrial Relations, 2025), 'Business co-operatives in Australia: "Unlikely soil for a co-operative movement"' (Enterprise & Society, 2023), and 'Resistance Is Not Futile: Co-operatives, Demutualization, Agriculture, and Neoliberalism in Australia' (Business and Politics, 2021). She participated in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant (DP170100573) on co-operatives. Balnave has presented on co-operative history and visual atlases at various events, such as 'Death, Taxes and Demutualisation' (2019) and 'The Inclusive Organisation – Co-operatives' (2019). She serves as a member of the Macquarie Business School Faculty Board.