Mara Olekalns

Mara Olekalns is a Professor of Management (Negotiations). She has held a number of roles at Melbourne Business School since 1999, including Deputy Dean, Associate Dean (Research) and Associate Dean (Faculty).

After completing her PhD at the University of Adelaide, Mara worked at the University of Melbourne’s Department of Management and Industrial Relations and the University of Otago’s Department of Psychology. She has also held management and research positions at the Department of Employment, Education and Training, the Office of the Public Service Board and the National Police Research Unit in the Department of Special Minister of State.

Mara’s research focuses on relational resilience and adversity in negotiation, and covers topics such as adversity and relational resilience, micro-ethical judgements, trust violations and trust repair, subjective value in negotiation, gender differences . Her research has been published in leading international journals, including in the Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Academy of Management Journal, and the Annals of the Academy of Management

She is Past President of the International Association for Conflict Management, and a Past Chair of the Academy of Management's Conflict Management Division. She is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia,  and a Fellow of the International Association for Conflict Management. She was the 2025 recipient of the International Association for Conflict Management's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Books

Handbook of Research on Gender and Negotiation. Olekalns, M., & Kennedy, J. (Eds) (July, 2020). London: Edward Elgar.

Handbook of Research on Negotiation, Olekalns, M & Adair, W (eds), 2013, Edward Elgar, London.

Most Notable Research

Olekalns, M., & Caza, B.B. (2024). Resetting Relationship Trajectories: A Reconceptualization of the Relationship Repair Process, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 45, 313-332.

Friedman, R., & Olekalns. M. (2021). From shared climate to personal ecosystem: Why some people create unique environments, Organizational Psychology Review, 11, 365-389.

Olekalns M., Caza, B.B., & Vogus, T. (2020). Gradual Drifts, Abrupt Shocks: From Relationship Fractures to Relational Resilience, Academy of Management Annals, 14, 1-27.

Barry, B., Olekalns, M., & Rees, L. (2019). An ethical analysis of emotional labor, Journal of Business Ethics, 160, 17-34.

‘Negotiating the gender divide: Lessons from the negotiation and organizational behavior literatures’, Kulik, C, & Olekalns, M, July 2012, Journal of Management (review issue), vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 1387–1415.

‘Mutually dependent: Power, trust, affect and the use of deception in negotiation’, Olekalns, M & Smith, P, March 2009, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 85, no. 3, pp. 347–365.

‘Sticks and stones: Language, structure and on-line dispute resolution’, Brett, J, Olekalns, M, Friedman, R, Goates, N, Anderson, C & Lisco, C, February 2007, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 85–99.

‘Understanding optimal outcomes: The role of strategic sequences in competitive negotiations’, Olekalns, M & Smith, PL, October 2000, Human Communication Research, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 527–557.