Melbourne to host Power, Status and Influence Network Conference 2020

Melbourne Business School will host one of the world's most influential conferences on power next month – and it will open to the public for the first time.

The biennial Power, Status and Influence (PSI) Network Conference was founded in 2008 and has previously been hosted by the likes of Stanford University, London Business School and NYU.

This year it will be held in Australia for the first time at Melbourne Business School on 21-23 March. The initial two days of the conference will be dedicated to academic discussion, while the third will be open to industry guests as well.

Topics addressed during the public sessions on Monday, 23 March will include gender biases in performance evaluations, how to navigate the post-#metoo movement, methods for reducing inequality and curbing corruption, and whether it's necessary to make a trade-off between diversity and effectiveness.

Melbourne Business School Associate Professor Jen Overbeck said the event would be a rare chance for business professionals to ask questions of the world's top experts in the field.

"I've been organising the conference with Katie Greenaway, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Melbourne. We designed the Monday program for industry practitioners to join us, so there can be dialogue around the problems that are relevant to business," she said.

"Most people don't have the opportunity to sit down and discuss the ways in which these PSI domains affect their organisations. It creates a great opportunity for people looking to understand these facets of human behaviour."

Professor Overbeck is the coordinator for the Melbourne conference, as well as a regular at the event thanks to her area of specialty.

"I study all three of these topics – power, status and influence – so I'm excited to meet with these people, whose research I admire as well," she said.

"For Melbourne Business School, this will be about expanding our international engagement while also addressing the problems that organisations face in Australia – from big business to the police force.

"The topics that we're talking about are already out there in the media, in podcasts – and people in business are asking for clear answers.

"The conference speakers have gathered real evidence on these topics and can talk in a substantive and meaningful way about them."

You can register to attend the public sessions of the PSI Network Conference 2020 here.

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