Emeritus Professor
Caroline Hatcher

Biography

Dr Caroline Hatcher holds an appointment as Professor in the Graduate School of Business and School of Management in the QUT Business School. Professor Hatcher specialises in communication in business. In her role as Director, Innovation and Executive Award Programs, she is responsible for curriculum leadership for the Executive Master of Business programs in the Graduate School of Business. She is a former MBA Director (2002-2005). She also teaches GSN505 Communicating Effectively and GSN509 Workplace Projects in the Executive Master of Business units that have been developed to give students the opportunity to study communication issues in megaprojects and organisations. Dr Hatcher also has a special interest in intercultural business communication.  Caroline has 20 years experience in tertiary education, in both teaching and curriculum development leadership. Dr Hatcher's work in speech communication has international recognition. She is also widely published in the area of organisational communication and regularly presents at international conferences. As a former President of the World Communication Association and former President of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association, she is actively involved in many aspects of communication research and practice. Dr Hatcher is a Fellow and a former Director of the Society of Business Communicators, an association that provides professional education opportunities to communication specialists as well as to HR and technology specialists in the public and private sectors. She consults to organisations in the private and public sector, providing advice on effective presentation skills and communication for change management. She serves on the Board of both the World Communication Association and the English Speaking Union (Qld). Dr Hatcher has worked internationally, most recently  as Professor of English in Japan. There, she furthered her research interest in the communication management of diversity. She is currently supervising research students in the areas of project leadership, intercultural communication, professional identity, gender, transfer of knowledge, consultancy, and the use of various interventions in bringing about successful change. Research interests

• Communication in organisations
• Speech communication and leadership communication
• Intercultural business communication and the impact of Western attitudes and values on communication practice
• Communication and change
• Identity and organisations
• Gender

Communication in organisations
Dr Hatcher has researched and published on issues around leadership communication, change strategy, communication and project management, communication about diversity, technology, gender, bullying, and the role of emotion in organisations. She has supervised postgraduate students in communicating about technology, technology and rural women, financial communication, change intervention, corporate social rersponsibility, and corporate identity amongst others. Speech communication and leadership communication She has researched and published in various areas - leadership communication, including that of Carly Fiorina of HP, Rupert Murdoch of Newscorp, and the Sydney Olympic 2000 Bid team. She has experience in postgraduate supervision in the area. Intercultural business communication and the impact of Western attitudes and values on communication practice She has researched and published in various areas: speaking across cultures; persuasive communication, the structural, cultural barriers and communicative barriers that limit the success of Japanese and Korean women in management and Australian/Korean communication practices. She has supervised a Japanese national who researched communication in the Japanese public sector. Undertaking this research direction was facilitated by a twelve month residence in Japan during 2000-2001 where Dr Hatcher researched business communication practice and published a chapter on Speaking Across Cultures in Giving Presentations: An Essential Guide (McCarthy and Hatcher, 2002: Sage).