Dr Vindhya Weeratunga

Dr Vindhya Weeratunga is a Lecturer in the UNSW Canberra School of Business. She is a mixed-methods researcher whose expertise spans human resource management, systems thinking applied to complex problems, and adaptive leadership. Before entering academia, she worked as an HR practitioner and CEO. That real-world experience shapes the relevance and rigour of her research and teaching.

Her research aims to improve employee outcomes. It examines employee engagement, wellbeing, the future of work, and how HR practices affect different demographic groups. She has contributed to major projects on flexible working in the ACT Public Service and contracted research on the productivity of hybrid knowledge workers. Her current work includes a project on the careers of women truck drivers, which aims to identify effective HR practices and support systems for women in the industry. Her research was recognised with the 2024 O'Leary Prize for Excellence in Scholarship in Gender and Public Administration for her work "Working from home during COVID-19: What does this mean for the ideal worker norm?", published in Gender, Work and Organization.

Vindhya is committed to turning research into practical improvements for organisations. She facilitates workshops on Adaptive Leadership and delivers the short course High Performance through Systems Thinking. Learn more about these here: https://www.unsw.edu.au/business/our-schools/agsm/learn-with-us/academy-of-adaptive-leadership

She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Public Sector Management and a member of UNSW Canberra's Public Service Research Group (PSRG) and Future of Work and Society (FWS) Research Group.

Vindhya is currently seconded to UNSW Bengaluru, India, where she teaches in the Bachelor of Business.