Dr Tago Mharapara is a Pūkenga Matua (Senior Lecturer) in the Department of Management within Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makaurau (AUT), Mātauranga Aronui (Business School – Management). Dr Mharapara is an educator who integrates manaakitanga (an ethic of care) with radical candour to prepare students for life beyond university.

As an applied Industrial, Work and Organisational Psychology scholar, Dr Mharapara’s research examines work design and wellbeing across professional contexts. He is the Principal Investigator on large international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary projects that have attracted more than $1.3 million in external funding. Using predominantly qualitative methods, Tago’s research seeks to understand how and why professionals experience their working conditions and the institutional logics shaping their work. His research with the midwifery, primary care, and paramedicine professions has been published in highly ranked outlets, including Organization Studies, Health Care Management Review, Journal of Management Inquiry, and Journal of Professions and Organization

Dr Mharapara’s teaching excellence has been recognised through a fellowship at Ako Aronui—New Zealand’s contextually grounded fellowship aligned with the Higher Education Academy under the United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework—and through University and Faculty Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Beyond the university, Dr Mharapara works with NZ Risk, a not-for-profit association that brings together people and organisations engaged in risk management, guided by a vision that New Zealand prospers when risk is well managed. He also serves as a Young Enterprise Scheme Business Judge, evaluating business pitches presented by secondary school students.

Blanca Luz Aguiñiga Casillas is a Mexican psychologist and occupational health professional currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Sexual Therapy and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology.
Her professional experience encompasses human resources management, organizational development, occupational health, and workplace well-being. Throughout her career, she has coordinated recruitment and personnel management processes, organizational interventions, employee training programs, and occupational risk prevention initiatives in both educational institutions and private organizations.
Her academic interests focus on psychosocial risk factors, burnout syndrome, occupational stress, executive functioning, organizational resilience, and the promotion of healthy work environments. She has participated in the implementation and evaluation of psychosocial risk management strategies in accordance with the Mexican Standard NOM-035-STPS-2018, which regulates the identification, assessment, and prevention of psychosocial risks in workplaces.
Her current master’s thesis examines the relationship between burnout syndrome and executive functions among workers, contributing to a better understanding of how chronic occupational stress may affect cognitive performance, decision-making, and workplace functioning. Her work seeks to integrate perspectives from occupational health, organizational psychology, and workplace well-being to support preventive approaches in organizational settings.
During her research stay at the University of Bordeaux and COMPTRASEC, under the supervision of Professor Loïc Lerouge, she will conduct a comparative study of French and Mexican occupational health policies, with particular attention to the French occupational health reform of 2 August 2021 and its implications for psychosocial risk prevention, workplace health promotion, and organizational resilience. The project aims to identify transferable good practices that may contribute to strengthening preventive occupational health policies within Mexican
higher education institutions and foster academic cooperation between France and Mexico.
Research interests: Occupational Health; Psychosocial Risks; Burnout Syndrome; Occupational Stress; Executive Functions; Organizational Resilience; Workplace Well-being; Occupational Health Policy; Prevention and Health Promotion; Organizational Psychology.
ORCID: 0009-0001-2216-4685

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