About
I'm Professor of Management Learning and interested in all forms of management and leadership learning wherever and however it happens. I love my job and I enjoy working with leaders at every level, encouraging a thoughtful and relational approach that focuses on building community and developing trust and dialogue. My teaching approach is based on the belief that managers can benefit from an engagement with scholarship in all its forms to ask questions that challenge assumptions and change the status quo, especially in terms of responsible and ethical practice.
I've held several leadership roles; early on in my career, I worked as an HRD manager in both the private public sector and, following a move to academia, I've held a number of roles including Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate Dean Postgraduate and Director of Online Programmes in the Management School. At the university's 2024 Staff Awards, I was voted "Inspirational Leader of the Year". Even though I don't hold a formal leadership role now, I engage in leadership all the time, in my capacity as a professor. I'm also a Fellow, Trustee and Council Member of the Academy of Social Sciences and a former Vice Chair of the British Academy of Management where I launched a programme to support the development of Teaching and Scholarship academics - Becoming an Education-Focused Professor and co-authored a BAM white paper on Teaching & Scholarship careers, proposing a model for career development and progression that has been adopted by a number of HEIs. I'm also doing my bit to fix the leaky career pipeline for women professors by coaching and mentoring colleagues. Look out too for the GirlProfs podcast that explores the careers and achievements of some amazing women professors, launching on 28th March and available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
I have a wide range of teaching experience covering all levels and modes and have designed and launched a number of new on-campus and online programmes.
My research focuses on how managers learn in a range of contexts, from on-campus and online management classrooms through to formal and informal learning in the workplace. I have a particular interest in action learning and I have written about it in the context of the experiences of owner-managers in SMEs and senior managers studying for a professional doctorate. I still regularly work with small businesses on leadership development projects. My most recent research papers examine the impact of management education on the practice of senior managers after completing a DBA and the need for pedagogical research to support responsible management education. I'm part of and editorial team of a book on Inclusive Management Pedagogy and a writing team of a book on the Impact of Executive Management Education, both due to be published in 2025. My work has been published in journals including Academy of Management Learning and Education, British Journal of Management, Management Learning and Human Resource Development International.