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

I earned my Bachelor's in secondary education, my Master’s, and Doctoral degrees all with highest distinction (summa cum laude) in Organisational Leadership and Leadership Studies.

Recent publications, like "Beating the virus" in Human Resource Development International, which ranks in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric, boast 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 leadership, organisational behaviour and other subjects in HRD/HRM in Saudi Arabia, worked three years in the United States as an adjunct professor for intercultural leadership communication and academic skills development, and two years in Germany teaching ESOL and EAP 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. I have also delivered online teaching 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.

I have been a Fellow of the HEA since 2015. Before entering the academy, I led small- and large-scale Internet-based projects in business consultancy, online marketing, and communication for international corporations in Berlin in the automotive (VW/gedas), telecommunications (T-Systems, Gauss Interprise, Activ-Consult), publishing (Holzbrinck, Quintessenz), and public sector (German Libraries Institute, Humboldt University).

My research expertise and interests 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, distributed 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 approached 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, grounded theory, case study, survey, group differences, narrative inquiry, hermeneutics, factor analysis, development of survey instruments to measure constructs

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:

• The reflexive construction of leader ethical identity through the medium of poetry,
• Communicative and socially embedded construction of gendered leader identity (gendered discourse analysis of business leaders' radio 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

Current PhD/DBA Supervision

PGR supervision

• Main PhD supervisor: “An examination of the gender leadership gap in UK call centres.” Safia Kahlid (expected completion December 2022)
• PhD Co-supervisor: “Exploring the impact of organizational culture, employee engagement, and organisational performance.” Godswill U. Chilaka (expected completion January 2024)

I have supervised, advised, and examined PGR theses on gender and leadership, servant leadership, work ethics, OCB, and performance appraisals 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

I have four PhD completions:

• 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

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:

• • 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,
  • 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, distributed 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, (gendered discourse analysis of business leaders' communication)
  • Followership: anything to do with follower-focused approached 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, organisational care, emotions in organisations, moral capitalism, the common good, the good life, narcissism, toxic leadership, bullying, gossip, and egoism and their impact on leadership/organisational processes/outcomes
  • 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, grounded theory, case study, survey, group differences, narrative inquiry, hermeneutics, factor analysis, development of survey instruments to measure constructs

I have experience in course/programme leadership for PGT and UG, as well as the development of PGT/PGR curriculum and course design. 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 ethical leadership have seen these developed further and expanded into the new PGT portfolio at the University of Huddersfield. I was actively involved and contributed to the PGT curriculum review and development of the new PGT portfolio at Huddersfield Business School having developed the new 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 Huddersfield I 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.

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

• Exploring Leadership and Management
• Organisational Ethical 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