Paul Spee

Paul is a Professor of Strategic Management. His research and teaching focus on how organisations plan for the future and make strategic decisions, helping us to understand how individual behaviour can create meaningful change to the organisation and the people connected to it. Paul’s work cuts across sectors, including high-growth startups, emergency services, health care providers, reinsurance, telecommunication and the petrochemical industry.

Research interests

Paul’s research is grounded in industry and professional practice. He pursues multiple research programs.

Transitioning the energy sector: Paul’s research investigates how organisations plan and coordinate the shift to cleaner energy, examining how the coordination across an industry value chain can make the energy transition more effective for industries, communities and society.

Coordinating responses in the face of extreme weather events: Paul’s work examines enablers and barriers to effective governance needed to coordinate organisational responses to tackle extreme weather events and improve community disaster resilience.

Mechanisms to support creating and scaling startups: Paul’s research explores mechanisms that support creating and scaling high-impact startups.

Effective strategizing: Paul’s research places a particular emphasis on exploring the influence of communication on formulation and execution on the effective delivery of strategy and its impact on the organization and its stakeholders.

Research expertise

Paul is an award-winning, internationally recognised scholar, pioneering new research programs on strategy-as-practice, practice-based institutionalism and routine dynamics; advancing the fields of Strategic Management and Organization Theory.

His research featured in world-leading outlets, including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization Science and Organization Studies, and prestigious handbooks.

Paul's work received several prestigious awards from leading national and international learned professional associations, including the Academy of Management, European Group for Organizational Studies and Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Excellence.

The practical relevance of Paul’s work is demonstrated by industry publications and media.

Fostering strategic management competence

Paul is a leading educator in Strategic Management. He integrates a broad portfolio of cross‑sector research into the design and delivery of evidence‑based strategic management courses, contributing to prestigious programs including the MBA and the Bachelor of Advanced Business (hons). Previously, he designed and delivered the strategic management curriculum to the Master of Business and the Bachelor of Business Management (hons).

To foster strategic management competence to professionals interested in short form credentials, Paul offers a short course ‘Think and Act Strategically’ through UQ’s Executive Education and contributes to the UQ-Oxford Executive Leadership Program; having equipped up-and-coming medical professionals graduating from UQ’s Medical Leadership Program.

Leadership

Paul fosters a thoughtful, inclusive, and collaborative culture within UQ and the academic community, creating environments in which diverse perspectives and constructive intellectual engagement can thrive.

Roles at UQ include

• Establish and lead the Practice and Process Studies research hub
• Department head, Strategy & Entrepreneurship discipline
• Member of the Tenure and Promotions Committee for the Faculty of Business, Economics & Law
• Member of the Business School’s Research Committee

Roles in the academic profession included

• Senior Editor, Organization Studies (2014-2025)
• Editorial board memberships for leading international journals in strategic management, Long Range Planning, Organization Research Methods, Organization Studies, Research in the Sociology of Organizations
• Executive Leadership Track, leading the Strategizing, Activities & Practices interest group at the Academy of Management, including Program Chair
• Award Committees, such as Chair of the Career Achievement Award, Academy of Management