Dr Shibaab Rahman is a Lecturer in the School of Business at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra, where he serves as Undergraduate Coordinator and Lecturer in Project Management, teaching the course ZBUS3102. His academic background includes a Doctor of Philosophy, a Master of Public Policy and Management, and a Bachelor of Commerce, all from Monash University. Rahman's research interests center at the intersection of public administration and organisation theory. He examines the impact of social embeddedness on human behaviour as it relates to organisational stability and change, administrative decision making, policy implementation, and the general organisation of public management systems. He also delves into micro-foundations and micro-level practices underlying these areas, including the social embeddedness of individuals in administrative work, the shaping of individual identity, and the role of emotions in influencing human behaviour. Much of his work employs institutionalist approaches, particularly the institutional logics framework, to build and elaborate on theory.

In addition to his research in public administration, Shibaab Rahman has expertise in public sector leadership and leadership education. His leadership philosophy is guided by a practice-view that emphasizes the daily work leaders perform. This approach facilitates understanding leadership through the lens of those enacting it—the everyday public manager—empowering them to recognize their routine activities as leadership-in-action. Rahman asserts that leadership is independent of positional authority and accessible to everyone. He integrates organisation theory perspectives with contemporary leadership approaches to explore how leadership emerges in everyday practice. His major publications include the journal article "Slipstreaming for Public Sector Reform: How Enterprising Public Sector Leaders Navigate Institutional Inertia" in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (2023, co-authored with J. Teicher, J.W. Cox, Q. Alam); "Exercising bureaucratic discretion through selective bridging: A response to institutional complexity in Bangladesh" in Public Administration and Development (2024, with P. Burns, J. Wolfram Cox, Q. Alam); and book chapters such as "A historical analysis of the formation of the Bangladesh public administration as an institutionally complex system" (Routledge, 2023), "Retracing Accountability in the Bangladeshi Public Administration" (2022), and "Catalysing the entrepreneurial spirit in a developmental state" (Routledge, 2020).

Professional Email: shibaab.rahman@unsw.edu.au