Dr Penelope Bergen

I am a lecturer and researcher at the UNSW Canberra School of Business.
I am an applied sociologist specialising in workplace cultures and leadership in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments. 
My research examines how values, governance, and social dynamics shape behaviour in high-risk settings. 
I have a broad and varied background, including extensive experience in broadcast and classical music, print media, health policy, rural and remote, government advisory roles, and lecturing in strategy, leadership, and management. 
I have contributed to interdisciplinary projects on elite sport, classical music, non-clinical respite care, consumers in healthcare, and applying sociological insights to complex operational challenges. 
I am currently part of a cross-disciplinary team using multimodal data analysis to enhance decision-making in aviation, exploring the importance of the intersection of science and sociology in rapidly changing environments.

I’m also interested in how modern systems of human resource governance and leadership knowledge serve teamwork and outcomes for other isolated communities or sectors, including classical music, Family Day Care, the military, the international development and aid sector, the Arctic and Antarctic, rural and remote health care, the space sector or a small team culture in the public service. How well will modern systems of human resource governance and leadership knowledge serve teamwork in far flung settings such as remote workers in Central Australia or communities isolated by climate-change-driven natural disasters? And if we have not solved the challenges around isolated living in small, dispersed settlements on earth, what can we expect to find when we send a small group to the Moon or to Mars?

I also have extensive experience as an academic journal editor and peer reviewer, having been a full-time research publications officer overseeing the management and publications for a multi-disciplinary academic journal.

I am a third culture kid who became a third culture adult. I am a member of the Public Service Research Group (PSRG), the Australian Sociological Association (TASA) and the International Sociological Association (ISA).

My PhD was on the development of the culture of non-Indigenous workers in remote Aboriginal communities in Central Australia. My research relates to how government policy affects workplace cultures and how those cultures then affect outcomes for communities.