I am a senior academic in the fields of Leadership, Ethical Leadership and Organisational Ethics within the School of Business and Creative Industries. In my role as Senior Lecturer, I am Postgraduate Research Coordinator for the Division Management, Organisation and People; I serve on the School Academic Integrity & Ethics Committee, the School Board, and as a member of Social Impact Leadership and Management (SILM), Transformative Enterprise (TERG), and the Social, Health and Environmental Inequalities Research (SHEIR) research groups. On the Leadership Pathway within the new MBA suite, I run the module Ethical Leadership for Responsible Organisations as well as the modules Ethical Organisation Management and Exploring Management and Leadership on the Graduate Diploma in Business Management (GDBM) Programme. I completed the Advance HE Research Leadership Development Programme in 2023 and was approved for a School funded membership as Chartered Management Business Educator (CMBE). 

I have over 15 years of experience conducting research in leadership and teaching leadership subjects in higher education in Europe, the Middle East, the US, and seven in UKHE as a senior academic. I also have over 15 years of leadership experience in the private and public sectors leading and managing complex international information technology and organisational communication projects, processes, and systems. 

I earned all my postgraduate university qualifications with highest distinction (4.0 GPA), PhD (no revisions) and Leadership and Master's in  Organizational Leadership respectively, and was a valedictorian of my Bachelor's degree programme at the University of Iowa where I graduated summa cum laude with honours in Russian and Secondary Education for Modern Languages.

Recent publications include "Beating the virus" an analysis of Jacina Ardern's crisis leadership communication in Human Resource Development International and ranks in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric; and "Reshaping HRD...And ethic of care approach" which boasts over 16000-30000 downloads.

I joined UWS from my role as Senior Lecturer in Leadership at the University of Huddersfield, where I supervised multiple PhD research projects in Leadership and HRD/HRM in various contexts from 2014-2019. Prior to joining the Huddersfield Business School, I lectured in leadership development and organisational behaviour in Saudi Arabia, intercultural leadership communication and academic skills development in the United States, and in ESOL and EAP in Germany in higher and further education. During my PhD studies I supervised master's theses and portfolio projects in Leadership as an outstanding graduate teaching assistant. Two of those capstone papers were later published in academic journals. I delivered courses in Entrepreneurial Leadership as a volunteer professor for Jesuit Worldwide Learning Higher Education at the Margins for students living in Kakuma and Dzaleka Refugee Camps in Western Africa.

My research expertise and interests in Leadership encompass:

• Ethics and organisational leadership, ethical leadership i.e. anything related to philosophy or ethics in the context of leadership: e.g. virtue ethics (eudomonism), capacities ethics, feminist ethics, care ethics, ethic of care, Nussbaum's ethics, moral reasoning orientation, justice and care,
• Leadership, organisational leadership, self-leadership, i.e. anything related to leadership studies and leadership in societies, cultures, communities, organisations, businesses, groups, teams etc. various leadership theories i.e. servant leadership, authentic leadership, responsible leadership, self-leadership, critical leadership etc.
• Gender in leadership i.e. anything related to the gendering, gender performativity, gender role theory, gender congruity theory, women’s leadership, the agency myth in leadership etc.
• Critical/Feminist ethics/theory in leadership and organisational studies: i.e. feminist ethic of care, feminist research methods, feminist epistemology
• Followership: anything to do with follower-focused approaches to organisational studies and in relation to ‘leadership’, follower-influence, influence without power, intelligent disobedience
• Leadership development, leader learning, i.e. anything related to improving individuals' leadership: e.g. education, mentoring, coaching, development of leadership capacities, capabilities, competencies, skills, identities, voices, practice
• Ethical leadership/follower development: i.e. anything related to improving ethical competencies in individuals both leaders and followers in organisations, cultures, society and communities; e.g. construction of leader/follower ethical identity, dual system processing in ethics (emotions versus rationality), moral judgment, moral action, moral sensitivity etc.
• Ethics in organisations: as above, anything related to philosophy or ethics in the context of organisations, employee wellbeing, bullying and harassment, organisational care, emotions in organisations, moral capitalism, the common good, the good life, crisis in care
• Motivation to lead, motivation to serve (servant leadership), (Womens’) motivation to lead
• Discourse, dialogue, debate, communicative manifestations of leadership / followership, process philosophy, process psychology in leadership, communication ethics, leader/follower communication, Appreciative Inquiry, supportive communication
• Innovative, arts-based research: e.g. aesthetic engagement, content analysis of cultural artefacts, rhetoric, film, literature, poetry, epideictic rhetoric, interviews, image management
• Reflexivity, reflective practice in research
• Critical Leadership Studies / Critical Management Studies i.e. Marxism, ethical aspects of power, empowerment vs. gaslighting and manipulation, destructive leadership/followership,
• Quantitative and qualitative approaches to research: especially content analysis but also thematic analysis, theoretical review, systematic literature review, grounded theory, case study, survey, group differences, narrative inquiry, hermeneutics, factor analysis, development of survey instruments to measure new constructs and relationships. 

PhD Applicants

I am looking to supervise academically excellent PhD candidates from all areas of the world and various backgrounds (e.g. Master's degrees in psychology, philosophy, sociology, political science, education etc.) with interests in the following or closely related topics:

UN SDG3 Good Health and Well-Being; SDG16 Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions: Ethics and organisational leadership, ethical leadership i.e. anything related to philosophy or ethics in the context of leadership: e.g. virtue ethics (eudemonism), capacities ethics, feminist ethics, care ethics, ethic of care, Nussbaum's ethics, moral reasoning orientation, justice and care.

UN SDG8 Decent Work and Economic Growth: Leadership, organisational leadership, self-leadership, i.e. anything related to leadership studies and leadership in societies, cultures, communities, organisations, businesses, groups, teams etc. various leadership theories i.e. servant leadership, authentic leadership, responsible leadership, substitutes for leadership, critical leadership studies etc.

UN SDG5 Gender Equality: Gender in leadership i.e. anything related to the gendering, gender performativity, gender role theory, gender congruity theory, women’s leadership, the agency myth in leadership etc.

I conduct research projects on leadership and ethics both in niche and interdisciplinary areas applying post-positivist, pragmatic, interpretivist, feminist and critical perspectives. I am interested primarily in innovative approaches to research using arts-based inquiry and content analysis, including rhetorical and discourse analysis, but also expanding into further approaches such as critical realism, process psychology/philosophy, the analysis and interpretations of communication and cultural artefacts as they embody and perpetuate meaning.

My current projects explore: Leadership, Ethics, Ethical Leadership, Followership, Ethical Followership

• Spiritual Leadership and its impact on employee outcomes e.g. resilience, well-being, coping
• Green HRM
• Global trends in gender equality research in the field of HRM
• Ethical decision making of migrants
• Decarbonization strategies and energy economics
• Employee recognition and leader-member-exchange
• Workplace incivility and leadership
• Emotional organisational culture, leadership influence, and pro-environmental behaviours
• Research leadership on the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 - Gender Equality: Mapping the research landscape of the Global North and the Global South
• Moral reasoning and heroism
• Leadership competencies for project managers in non-government organisations 
• The reflexive construction of leader ethical identity through the medium of poetry
• Followers' influence on unethical leadership
• Communicative and socially embedded construction of gendered leader identity (discourse analysis of business leaders' public interviews)
• Arts-based inquiry of relational and socially embedded aspects of ethical and unethical leadership and followership
• Content analysis of women and men's constructions of leadership and moral reasoning in epideictic rhetoric.
• Self-leadership in personal growth
• Women’s leadership in non-profit organisations
• Women’s motivation to lead
• Motivation to serve, measuring moral reasoning orientation in servant leadership
• gender leadership gap in new Scottish industries and Scottish national sports

Current PhD Supervision

• BME entrepreneurial leadership in the UK: A critical race exploration
• Leadership and eudemonism - the Stoics contribution to self-leadership and relational leadership processes
• How does authentic leadership contribute to gender diversity in leadership roles
• Exploring the impact of organisational culture, employee engagement, and organisational performance
• Muslim women's performativity of identity through fashion leadership

Past PGR supervision

• Role Conflict in Middle Managers in the Banking Industry - Evidence from a Developing Country, Josephine Appiah-Agyekum

• Cultural dimensions of gender egalitarianism and power distance impact on gender diversity and performance. Mandy Jollie Bako

I have supervised, advised, and examined PGR theses on gender and leadership, servant leadership, work ethics, moral reasoning, justice, ethic of care, OCB, and leader-employee relations in various occupational (higher education, HRM, retail, finance, hospitality) and cultural settings (Caribbean, West Africa, Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, East Asia, UK). 

I have supervised postgraduate research students with projects focused on, for example:

• Developing and validating new measures of leadership constructs of moral reasoning orientation in servant leadership
• Cultural dimensions of gender egalitarianism and power distance and extra-role behaviour
• Work-life balance policies, practices, and impacts in industry specific culture
• Gender discrimination and inequality regimes in Scottish call-centres

PhD completions:

• Safia Khalid (2024), Exploring Gender Inequality Regimes in the Call Centre Industry: A Study of Women in Management in Scottish Call Centres
• Ijeoma Ukeni (2021), Servant leadership and moral reasoning orientation: A quantitative examination of the antecedent and dimensions of servant leadership in contemporary organisations
• Tamer Koburtay (2017), The congruity in female-leader role stereotypes in the Jordanian hotel sector
• Abdulrazaq K. Nuri (2017), The influence of performance and appraisal fairness on employee attitudes and behavior in Iraqi Kurdistan
• Fatma Hussein M. Kolatshi (2017), Factors affecting the acceptance and impact of human resource information systems (HRIS): Evidence from HR professionals in Libyan companies

Teaching interests (classes taught at UWS and Huddersfield): (bold=module lead, italics=curriculum development)

• The Common Good
• Ethical Leadership for Responsable Organisations
• Exploring Leadership and Management
• Ethical Organisation Management 
• Postgraduate Dissertation Proposal/Research Methods
• Leadership: Power and Ethics
• Ethical Leadership
• Leadership: Process & Organisation

Other classes taught/led since 2019 at UWS:

• Influencing Organisational Culture and Change (MBA) 
• Preparing an Honours Project
• Change Management
• Contemporary Strategy Development
• Organizational Behaviour
• Professional Development Experience
• People in Business
• Understanding Organizational Design 
• Intercultural Awareness 
• Critical Employee Relations
• Performance Management and Reward
• Facilitation Skills
• HRM in Business Contexts
• HR Service Delivery

Other classes taught between 2014 and 2019 at Huddersfield:

• Leading & Managing Change
• Managing Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
• Real World Business Issues

Having served as the programme director of the PG courses MSc Business, MSc Business with HRM as well as UG courses BA Business Administration and Management and BA Human Resource Management for top-up students I have managed all aspects of course administration. The ongoing success and strategic importance of modules I have taught in leadership and ethical leadership have seen these developed further and expanded into the newly validated MBA programme with Pathways i.e. Leadership Pathway at UWS, and the new PGT portfolio at the University of Huddersfield. I was actively involved and contributed to the MBA and PGT curriculum reviews and development of the new PGT portfolios at SBCI and Huddersfield Business School having developed the new MBA core pathway modules, Theories of Leadership, Ethical Leadership for Responsible Organisations, and cross-course core PGT module: Leadership, Power and Ethics for a range of new programmes. I also contributed to the development of a new suite of courses for Strategic Communication and Leadership. I developed a concept for PGR community development for the Associate Dean of Teaching & Learning and Director of Postgraduate Studies. During my time at UWS and Huddersfield I have also actively contributed to course validation processes for UG and PG courses specifically the MBA. I was also involved in the AACSB accreditation process for Huddersfield such as completing module mapping for AACSB accreditation and received AACSB traning.

Before entering the academy, I had leadership responsibility for small- and large-scale Internet-based projects in business consultancy, online marketing, corporate identity and brand management, and manaing internal and external online communication for international corporations in Berlin in the automotive (VW/gedas), telecommunications and Web Business consulting (T-Systems, Gauss Interprise, Activ-Consult), academic publishing (Holzbrinck, Quintessenz [dentistry and oral medicine]), and public sector (German Libraries Institute, Humboldt University [language learning, translation and interpretation]).