Professor Deborah Blackman is the Head of School, and a member of the Public Service Research Group, in the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra.

The common theme of Deborah’s work is developing effective knowledge acquisition and transfer in order to improve organisational effectiveness. Her primary interest is using philosophical and systems explanations to understand why things do not work when theory implies that they should. From those enhanced understandings, new theories and applications can be developed to support the implementation of change or reform.

In 2021 Deborah coedited the Handbook on Performance Management in the Public Sector and she has published internationally in journals including Public Administration Review, Management Learning, Management Decision, Journal of Knowledge Management and the Human Resources Development Quarterly.