Lisette obtained her PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands in January 2004 for her research focused on near misses and minor incidents, investigating the recovery steps taken in these events that kept them from developing into more severe accidents. She also holds an MSc in Industrial Safety Management from the University of Central Missouri (1995) and an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management Science from Eindhoven University of Technology (1994).
Lisette’s main area of expertise is human performance management, specialising in human and organisational factors that influence people’s work practices and performance in regard to productivity, reliability, safety, and health. She has worked in research, training and consultancy in a variety of industrial settings across Europe and Australia, including chemical industry, oil and gas, mining, rail transport, and hospital settings.
Currently, as a senior lecturer at UWA, Lisette teaches into the Master of Industrial and Organisational Psychology program and the Master of  (and Graduate Certificate in) Business Psychology programs in the School of Psychological Science. She is also the course coordinator for the Master of Business Psychology and online Graduate Certificate in Business Psychology programs. As part of her role at UWA, Lisette continues her research on various aspects of human performance at work, through collaborations with industry partners and not for profit organisations, and supervision of students in such collaborations.

PSYC5830 Human and organisational factors in managing work health and safety

PSYC5515 Organisational development and change

PSYC5556 Work Design

individual and team work design

human factors

work health and safety (including safety climate and behaviours, error orientation, procedure and competency management, near miss reporting)

Lisette is keen to supervise a PhD project investigating the role of storytelling in changing workplace attitudes and behaviours.

Mostly qualitative evidence has shown that storytelling is a particularly effective approach to communications aimed at influencing workers. Further empirical studies are needed to identify the factors that determine the effectiveness of storytelling in workplace settings, and to find ways to improve the storytelling skills of workplace leaders.

In particular, the role of storytelling for safety communications, aimed at changing safety attitudes and behaviours, has not yet gained a lot of research attention. Incident investigations as well as anecdotal evidence show that poor safety communication is still highly prevalent in many workplaces and increases the likelihood of accidents. This highlights the importance of the contribution this project could make.