Academy Fellow

Prof Gillespie is an internationally recognised scholar on trust. She holds the Chair in Trust and is Professor of Management at the University of Melbourne. She is also an International Research Fellow at the Centre for Corporate Reputation at the University of Oxford and Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland.

Trained as an organizational psychologist, Prof Gillespie’s research over the past 25 years has focused on trust development and repair in organisational contexts, particularly in contexts where trust is challenged, such as after a trust failure, in complex stakeholder environments, during organizational transformation and disruption, in AI and virtual healthcare, and in cross-cultural relations. She served on the National AI Centre thinktank of Responsible AI.

In addition to publishing in leading scholarly journals (e.g. Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, Accounting Organizations and Society, Organization Studies, Journal of Services Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Sloan Management Review, Lancet Digital Health; Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems), Prof Gillespie has written commissioned reports and policy notes for the Institute of Business Ethics (UK), the World Economic Forum, and the UK House of Lords. Her most recent reports with KPMG provide a global understanding of trust and attitudes towards Artificial Intelligence and public expectations of the management and governance of AI.

Nicole has a strong track record of leading collaborative, industry engaged research, attracting competitive government (ARC, NHMRC) and industry funding of over $12 million with collaborators). She currently holds two ARC Discovery grants.

Her research insights have been translated into practical, implementable strategies for building and repairing trust, and have led to positive changes in industry, government and policy across a range of sectors, including Health, Resources, Finance and Banking, Higher Education, and the Not-for-Profit industry. Specific examples include ARC, NHMRC and industry funded research on 1) what influences stakeholder trust in organizations and how to design trustworthy organizations; 2) how to recover trust after a breach or violation; and 3) understanding trust in Artificial Intelligence and technology-enable services, and the trustworthy deployment of emerging technology.

•         Stakeholder trust and designing trustworthy organisations: Although well accepted that trust is critical for effective organizational functioning, trust is often assumed to be an intangible concept that cannot be managed, resulting in piecemeal approaches to building and sustaining trust. Debunking this myth, Prof Gillespie’s research has identified the organizational and leadership practices and mechanisms that commonly influence stakeholder trust in organizations.

•         Repairing and preserving trust: How can organisations repair trust after a major breach? Recognising the limited research to inform practice, Prof Gillespie was the first to develop a model and set of processes for restoring stakeholder trust, which she subsequently extended through a series of high profile case studies of organizational trust failure and repair, an analysis of trust breakdown and repair in the financial sector post the Global Financial Crisis, and comprehensive reviews of the mechanisms for repairing trust.

•         Trustworthy AI and trust in technology-enable services: Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in our everyday lives yet poses significant trust challenges for organisations and society. In collaboration with KPMG, Prof Gillespie is leading a global programme of research examining public trust in AI and how organisations can deploy AI in a trustworthy way that engenders stakeholder trust. This work has been cited influential reports including Australia’s AI Action Plan. Previously, as a Chief Investigator of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Telehealth, Prof Gillespie led major projects identifying the key practices facilitating stakeholder trust and adoption of virtual health services, enhancing equity of access to health services in remote and rural Australia.

Prof Gillespie is regularly sought out as an advisor, speaker and consultant to industry, government and the media and has presented at influential forums such as the World Economic Forum and the OECD. She has designed and delivered Masterclasses, workshops and presentations on building and repairing trust, leading with trust, designing trustworthy organizations, preserving trust during disruption, and achieving trusted and trustworthy AI, and developed and validated measures of trust which have subsequently been widely used, including by the U.S. Army and the National Canadian Trust Survey.

Chair in Trust and Professor of Management, Melbourne Business School and Department of Management, The University of Melbourne; Honorary Professor at The University of Queensland (2024-current).

Chair in Organizational Trust and Professor of Management, School of Business, U. of Queensland (2010-2024)

Associate Professor, Warwick Business School, U. of Warwick (2004-2008)

Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, Melbourne Business School, U. of Melbourne (2002-2004; 2008-2009)

Fellowships:

• Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
• Academic Fellow of the Australian & New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)
• International Research Fellow, Centre for Corporate Reputation, University of Oxford
• Visiting Research Fellow, Singapore Management University
• Visiting Research Fellow, Durham Business School, Durham University

Awards

• Carolyn Dexter Best International Paper Award, Academy of Management
• Best International Paper Award, Critical Management Studies Division, Academy of Management
• Amartya Sen Essay Prize, Global Justice Conference, Yale University
• Research Excellence Award, UQ Business School, University of Queensland
• Teaching Excellence Award (Postgraduate), UQ Business School, University of Queensland
• Outstanding MBA Teacher Award, Warwick Business School
• Teaching Excellence Award, Swinburne University of Technology

Memberships

• Academy of Management
• European Group of Organizational Studies
• First International Network of Trust Researchers
• Society of Organizational Behaviour Australia
• Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology

1. Gillespie, N., Lockey, S., Ward, T., Macdade, A., & Hassed, G. (2025). Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence: A global study 2025. The University of Melbourne and KPMG. DOI 10.26188/28822919. 
2. Bitektine, A., Gillespie, N., & Lange, D. (2025). From the Evaluator’s Perspective: A Functional Approach to Social Evaluations. Academy of Management Review. doi.org/10.5465/amr.2020.0405
3. Kong, D., Gillespie, N., & Dirks, K. (2025). Trust and Human Resource Practices: A Systematic Review and a Guiding Framework. Journal of Management. doi.org/10.1177/0149206325132450
4. Smith, N., Gillespie, N., Rinta-Kahlia, T. Lockey, S., Pool, J., & Curtis, C. (forthcoming). How can government demonstrate trustworthy use of AI in public services? A case study. Information Systems Journal. 
5. Gillespie, N., Anesa, M., Lizzio-Wilson, M, Chapman, C., Healy, K., & Hornsey, M. (2024) How do sector level factors influence trust violations in not-for-profit organizations: A multilevel model. Journal of Business Ethics, 191, 373-398. 10.1007/s10551-023-05429-6
6. Rinta-Kahlia, T., Someh, I., Gillespie, N., Gregor, S., & Indulska, M. (2023). Managing Unintended Consequences of Algorithmic Decision-Making: The Case of Robodebt. Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases. 10.1177/20438869231165538
7. Gustafsson, S., Gillespie, N., Searle, R., Hope-Hailey, V. & Dietz, G. (2021). Preserving Organizational Trust During Disruption. Organization Studies, 42 (9), 1409-1433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840620912705
8. Chapman, C. M., Hornsey, M. J. & Gillespie, N. (2021). To what extent is trust a prerequisite for charitable giving? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 50 (6), 1274-1303. doi.org/10.1177/08997640211003250
9. Anesa, M., Gillespie, N., Spee, P. & Sadiq, K. (2019). The legitimization of corporate tax minimization. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 75, 17-39. 
10. De Jong, B., Dirks, K., & Gillespie, N. (2016). Trust and Team Performance: A Meta-Analysis of Main Effects, Moderators and Covariates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101 (8), 1134-1150.
11. Green, T., Hartley, N. & Gillespie, N. (2016). Service Provider’s Experiences of Service Separation: The Case of Telehealth. Journal of Service Research, 19, 477-494. 
12. Weibel, A., Den Hartog, D., Gillespie, N., Searle, R., Six, F. & Skinner, D. (2016). How do Controls Impact Employee Trust in the Employer? Human Resource Management, 55 (3), 437-462.  
13. Gillespie, N., Dietz, G. & Lockey, S. (2014) Organizational Reintegration and Trust Repair after an Integrity Violation: A Case Study. Business Ethics Quarterly, 24 (3), 371-410.
14. Gillespie, N. & Dietz, G. (2009). Trust repair after an organization-level failure. Academy of Management Review, 34 (1), 127-145.