The Open University

Professional biography

Wenjin is a Lecturer in the Department of Public Leadership & Social Enterprise at The Open University Business School. She joined OU in July 2018, before that she lectured in University of Portsmouth. Her research background is in the areas of Diversity, Leadership and Organisation Studies. Building on her cross-cultural experience, her research contributes to non-Anglophone understanding of ethics, leadership, and sustainability. She graduated with a PhD from the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter, and an MSc in Marketing from the University of Birmingham. Before moving to the UK, she worked as a managing consultant in Shanghai, China.

Research interests

Wenjin's research contributes to the diversity of knowledge in leadership and organisation studies by offering non-Anglophone understandings. She also approaches diversity as a research field through examining workplace experiences and intersectional influences such as gender, ethnicity, race and motherhood. She is particularly interested in using ethnographic and arts-based methods exploring context-grounded meanings and lived experiences.

Teaching interests

Since joining the OU in 2018 Wenjin has contributed to the development and delivery of five modules across the BSc and MBA programmes. Currently she is chairing BBXY876 'Leadership in Practice', a 45 credits module for the Senior Leader Appreticeship Qualification (Level 7). She is also interested in advocating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion to enhance pedagogy practices.

Publications

Journal articles

Aesthetic labour and diversity on the shopfloor: The experiences of women workers in fashion retail (2022-12-19)
Oluyadi, Lydia and Dai, Wenjin
Equality, diversity and inclusion: An international journal ((Early Access))

The Inclusiveness and Emptiness of Gong Qi: A Non-Anglophone Perspective on Ethics from a Sino-Japanese Corporation (2020-08)
Dai, Wenjin; Gosling, Jonathan and Pye, Annie
Journal of Business Ethics, 165(2) (pp. 277-293)

A discursive analysis of the in situ construction of (Japanese) leadership and leader identity in a research interview. Implications for leadership research (2020-04-01)
Clifton, Jonathan and Dai, Wenjin
Leadership, 16(2) (pp. 180-199)

Responding to Complex Global Challenges: A simple matter of education? (2012-01)
Dai, Wenjin; Gilani, Parisa; Rook, Caroline and Oyon, Eva
Business Leadership Review, 9(1)

Book chapters

A Daoist epistemology for understanding an alternative origin of organizing (2018-06-29)
Dai, Wenjin
In: Peltonen, Tuomo; Gaggiotti, Hugo and Case, Peter eds. Origins of Organizing (pp. 114-128)
ISBN : 9781785368745 | Publisher : Edward Elgar | Published : Cheltenham, UK

Leadership and Leader Development (2016-04-15)
Dai, Wenjin and Tymon, Alex
In: Rees, Gary and French, Ray eds. Leading, managing and developing people (pp. 77-99)
ISBN : 9781843984122 | Publisher : CIPD - Kogan Page | Published : London

Conference items

The Aesthetics of Virtue: Exploring Chinese Thinking through Traditional Chinese Paintings (2018)
Dai, Wenjin and Hennig, Alicia
In : Philosophy of Management Conference (27 Jun 2018, University of Greenwich)

Understanding leadership from HuangLao Daoism: the action of non-action way of leading (2017)
Dai, Wenjin
In : 33rd EGOS Colloquium (Jul 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark)

When the East meet the West: the eclipse or convergence in organization theory (2016)
Dai, Wenjin
In : 32nd EGOS Colloquium (7 Jul 2016, Naples, Italy)

Translating corporate sustainability: the inclusive but empty vessel (2015)
Dai, Wenjin
In : 75th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (Aug 2015, Vancouver, Canada)

A story about translating: home and indigenous research (2015)
Dai, Wenjin; Gosling, Jonathon and Pye, Annie
In : SCOS 2015: 33rd Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism (Jul 2015, Nottingham Trent University)