Personal details
- Name
- Associate Professor Kim Johnston
- Position(s)
- Associate Professor
QUT Business School,
Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations - Discipline *
- Business and Management, Communication and Media Studies, Marketing
- Phone
- +61 7 3138 4089
- Fax
- +61 7 3138 1811
- kim.johnston@qut.edu.au
- Location
- View location details (QUT staff and student access only)
- Identifiers and profiles
-
- Qualifications
-
PhD (Queensland University of Technology), MBus(Comm) (Queensland University of Technology), BNur (Northern Territory University)
- Professional memberships
and associations - Non-executive Director – Metro North Hospital and Health Service Board (Queensland Health)
- MAICD – Member Australian Institute of Company Directors
- FHEA – Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- AFAMI CPM – Associate Fellow – Australian Marketing Institute and Certified Practising Marketer
- MICA – Member of the International Communication Association
- Keywords
-
Communication engagement, Employee engagement, Community engagement, Internal communication, Public relations, Qualitative, Strategic communication, Organizational culture, Ethnography
Biography
Dr Kim Johnston (PhD; MBus; GradCertAcadPrac; BNursing; GenCertNursing) researches social impact, strategic communication and engagement, particularly focusing on how organisations influence stakeholders in a range of community, corporate and government settings. Dr Johnston leads the Stakeholder Engagement Research Group. Her current funded research projects focus on community engagement for preparedness in disasters (BNHCRC), the environment (Healthy Land and Water Ltd), and social impact (Australian Meat Processors), with extended research interests in workplace communication and eldercom. Dr Johnston teaches postgraduate and undergraduate public relations courses in community engagement, issues management, and corporate media strategy. She is on the Metro North Hospital and Health Services Board (Queensland Health), and is on editorial boards of leading discipline journals including Public Relations Review, the International Journal of Corporate Communication, and the US Institute of Public Relations PR Journal. She is also editor of the Handbook of Communication Engagement (July 2018 – Wiley) with Prof. Maureen Taylor.
Dr Johnston’s research interests include:
- Engagement – community and employee
- Internal or workplace communication
- Strategic and brand related communication
- Organisational culture and knowledge structures (as they relate to internal communication)
- Public relations theory
- Ethnography and qualitative methods.
SUPERVISION: Dr Johnston welcomes supervision requests for PhD and Masters (research) students in these areas or topics (under consumers, markets and stakeholders):
- Communication and engagement
- Internal communication
- Ethnography
AWARDS: Dr Johnston has received a number of academic, team and industry awards:
- 2020: International Champion of Change Award (Community – Group) – Highly Commended – Inspector General Emergency Management Queensland
- 2018: USA National Communication Award (PR Division) PRIDE Book Award (Innovation, development and education) – awarded for the Handbook of Communication Engagement
- 2015: QUT Vice-Chancellor Performance Award – contribution to research culture
- 2012: QUT Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award (2011)
- 2010: Vice-Chancellor Award for Excellence Nominee – Faculty Research Ethics Advisors Team
- 2006: QUT – Team Teaching Award – Faculty of Business
- 2004: QUT – Team Teaching Award – Commendation, Faculty of Business
- 2002: PRIA – State Awards for Excellence – Highly Commended – Issues / Crisis Management
- 2002: PRIA Golden Target Awards: Highly Commended – Issues/ Crisis Management
Teaching
Teaching interests
- Corporate media strategy and techniques
- Community engagement and consultation
- Issues management and public opinion
- Internal communication and change management
- Public relations campaigns
- Qualitative research methods.
Experience
Research Projects – Funded
- 2018 – 2019 – Community Engagement for Preparedness Study – Bushfire Natural Hazards CRC Tactical Research Fund
- 2016 – 2019 – Annual SEQ Waterways Community Engagement Study – (Annual Report Card Social Data) Healthy Land and Water
- 2017-2018 – Public Sentiment Study Queensland Government
- 2016 – 2017 – Social Impact Study – Australian Meat Processor Corporation
- 2015 – Social Values and Use Study – Healthy Waterways Ltd
- 2015 – Reader engagement study – Gold Cross Pty Ltd
- 2013 – Employee engagement and internal communication – RACQ
Publications
- Taylor M, Ryan B, Johnston K, (2020) The missing link in emergency management: evaluating community engagement, Australian Journal of Emergency Management p45-52
- Johnston K, Lane A, (2019) An authenticity matrix for community engagement, Public Relations Review p1-13
- Johnston K, Ryan B, Taylor M, (2019) Mapping approaches to community engagement for preparedness in Australia (Report No. 515)
- Johnston K, Taylor M, (2018) The Handbook of Communication Engagement, Wiley-Blackwell
- Johnston K, Lane A, (2018) Building relational capital: The contribution of episodic and relational community engagement, Public Relations Review p633-644
- Dootson P, Johnston K, Lings I, Beatson A, (2018) Tactics to deter deviant consumer behavior: A research agenda, Journal of Consumer Marketing p577-587
- Johnston K, Lane A, (2018) The role of time and social churn in impact assessment: An engagement-based model, Environmental Impact Assessment Review p102-109
For more publications by this staff member, visit QUT ePrints, the University's research repository.
Awards
Awards and recognition
- Type
- Appointment to Prestigious Positions
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- Board Member - Appointed to Metro North Hospital and Health Service Board
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- Appointed to the editorial board of Public Relations Review
- Type
- Editor/Contributor of a Prestigious Work of Reference
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Editor - Handbook of Communication Engagement (Wiley) - 2018
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- Editorial Board Member - Corporate Communications: An International Journal
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2015
- Details
- QUT Vice Chancellor's Performance Award for Research
- Type
- Editorial Role for an Academic Journal
- Reference year
- 2015
- Details
- Editorial Board Member Journal of Public Relations Research: 2012-2015
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Brand signals as determinants of employee brand consistent behaviour
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Ryan McAndrew - The strategic employee: an outcome of internal communication and employee engagement
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Amanda Beatson, Dr Anne Lane - Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Amanda Beatson, Dr Anne Lane - The future of consumer - GP engagement: improving health care outcomes
MPhil, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Bree Hurst - Engaging older workers in the brand promise: An internal brand perspective.
MPhil, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Amanda Beatson, Dr Bree Hurst