Commander Roz Connor
PhD, OAM, Royal Australian Navy
Presentation Title: It’s not what you do: it’s how you do it. The role of the psychosocial dimension on people, teams and performance
Commander Roz Connor originally joined Navy in 1989 and has a varied career. She commenced in the Directorate of Navy Culture (DNC) in 2010, where she established, and continues to lead the research team.
The DNC Research team uses evidence-based research to evaluate and evolve Navy’s leadership development and cultural change programs and inform organisational strategy and initiatives. They have determined both the impact of and the mechanisms by which leader development workshops, 360-degree reporting and executive coaching are contributing to culture change in Navy, and how to develop the required capabilities of Navy strategic leaders. The team also analyses and reports on Navy’s culture measures. This contextualised analysis guides strategic decisions in support of Navy’s cultural reform agenda.
Since 2015, Commander Connor has had a research interest in understanding how Navy might predict instances of workplace deviance. A multi-year mixed-methods research project led to the identification of information that supports leaders at all levels in monitoring and guiding group behaviour and culture. She is the co-author of a three volume report—Predictive Factors of Organisational Deviance and has developed additional tools for leaders based on this research. This work has been highly commended by internal Defence SME and eminent international researchers. The results were used as a framework by the Afghanistan Response Task Force and have recently been recommended by Defence senior leadership for use in developing command-level leaders.
In collaboration with Macquarie University, CMDR Connor co-designed, managed and facilitated a longitudinal study of the impacts of maritime deployment on Navy people personnel that examined the key outcomes of emotional resilience, biomarkers of chronic stress, cognitive functioning, job performance, and intention to leave. The research isolated the common demands and resources that predicted these outcomes. This research is novel and makes an important contribution to the psychosocial military deployment literature.
Prior to her position in DNC, Commander Connor was employed in other research functions to develop strategic workforce initiatives and strategies. This included the employment experience of women in Navy, future workforce driving forces and suitable constructs, the future of training and education and alternative crewing constructs.
As a testament to the value of her research to date for Navy, Commander Connor has been awarded an OAM, two Navy commendations, an external research prize and has presented at national professional conferences. She holds a PhD and BSc (Physio)(Hons) from Curtin University, a Grad. Dip. Ed. from the University of New South Wales and a BSc (Chemistry) from the University of Queensland and is an accredited practitioner in a variety of leader, team and organisational development tools.
