Professor Peter O'Connor

Biography

Summary of Experience: Peter O’Connor is a Professor in the School of Management at the QUT Business School. Since receiving his PhD in 2008, Peter has been active researcher and teacher in the areas of personality and organizational psychology. He has 67 academic outputs and has been awarded more than 1 million dollars in research grants. He has published his research findings in such journals as Psychological Bulletin, the Journal of Business and Psychology, Personality and Individual Differences, and the Journal of Personality. He is a frequent contributor to The Conversation and his research has been covered in several international media outlets including Scientific American, The Washington Post, and The International Business Times. Peter’s research achievements were recognised in 2017 when he received a QUT Vice Chancellors Award for Research Excellence. In addition to research, Peter regularly consults with industry partners on various topics including emotional intelligence, tolerance of ambiguity and leadership development. Research Focus: Peter’s personal research agenda seeks to combine contemporary theory on personality, emotions and cognition with applied behavioral outcomes. He conducts research to determine which personality, emotional, and contextual factors relate to important outcomes (e.g. tolerance of ambiguity, leadership, social media use), and which variables might intervene in these relationships. He utilises a combination of experimental, cross-sectional and longitudinal methods to address applied research questions and analyses rich datasets with powerful statistical techniques. His research has not only enhanced theory on such topics as personality processes, tolerance of ambiguity and leadership, but has direct implications for the development of professional competencies in workers and consequently has had an impact on how employees do their jobs.