Industrial Relations Research Centre Staff

Professor Alan Geare

Dr. Alan Geare has been Professor of Management since 1987 and is currently Head of Department. Prior to that he was Senior Lecturer focusing on Industrial Relations and Industrial Law. During his time at Otago he introduced the first undergraduate unit in industrial relations offered in New Zealand and later, the industrial relations component in the country's first MBA degree.

Professor Geare's research focuses on industrial/employment relations and human resource management. He has published a number of books and over 50 articles in academic journals, including Academy of Management Review, International Labour Review, Personnel review, Employee Relations, Comparative Labour Law & Policy Journal and Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources.

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Dr Ian McAndrew

Dr Ian McAndrew is currently a Senior Lecturer in Industrial Relations in the Department of Management, University of Otago. Ian practiced in the labour relations field in the United States for 15 years, and now teaches in the areas of international and comparative labour relations, and labour relations bargaining and advocacy skills. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr McAndrew was a member of the Employment Tribunal, the statutory body charged with the primary resolution of employment disputes, from 1993 to 2001, most recently as chief of the Tribunal. He has also applied his mediation skills in resolving foreign labour conflicts on a number of occasions.

Dr McAndrew's research interests lie in the area of labour relations, especially bargaining structures, processes and outcomes, and the mediation and adjudication of rights disputes.

He is currently the Director of New Zealand Mediators Ltd, a private agency delivering mediation, adjudication, and training services. He is a member of the Legal Aid Review Panel, a statutory body charged with reviewing decisions of the Legal Services Agency, regarding applications for legal aid.

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Dr Fiona Edgar

Fiona currently works as a Lecturer in the Department of Management, at the University of Otago. She has a PhD in Human Resource Management/Industrial Relations, having spent around eleven years working in industry prior to entering tertiary education. Fiona completed her PhD on a prestigious Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Fellowship, and her teaching areas include Human Resource Management, Employment Relations and General Management Theory both at the undergraduate and post-graduate level.

Fiona is an active researcher and has published a number of articles in the area of HRM, comparative HRM and Employment Relations. As well as this she also has made contributions to the development of published case studies for teaching and learning in tertiary education. Her current research interests include examining the relationship between employment relations ideologies and HRM best practice, along with the impact of HRM on employees. Fiona has a number of professional affiliations and is currently an advisory board member for the International Human Resource Institute representing the New Zealand perspective on best practice HRM. This professional organisation aims to foster HR professionalism through cross-cultural communications, comparative studies, and rigorous certification, and to develop best practices in HRM. She is also a member of the Editorial Board for the Otago Management Graduate Review. She also regularly reviews articles for conferences and journals in both the areas of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations.

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Associate Staff

The Centre also has a strong association with other industrial relations professionals, many of whom work in conjunction with its staff on collaborative efforts. The principal researchers also employ a number of additional staff, including research assistants, to assist them with their ongoing project work.