News

Well done to Vickie who has raised awareness of endometriosis

Congratulations to Vickie Williams (pictured) who has recently completed her PhD with a thesis, ‘Experiences of working with endometriosis and the influence of menstrual policy’.

The panel for her viva was chaired by OU colleague Prof Lindsay O’Dell, the external examiner was Prof Kathleen Riach from the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, and the internal examiner was another OU colleague, Dr Carrie Purcell.

Vickie, who was supervised by Prof Jo Brewis and Prof Cinzia Priola, together with Prof Kate Sang from Heriot-Watt University, said: “I wish to offer a heartfelt thanks to my brilliant supervisors who supported me and my thesis from the beginning to beyond. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Faculty admin team who showed me so much kindness and offered guidance along the way.”

She was recently appointed as a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey on a project funded by the National Institute for Heath and Care Research (NIHR) and its Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) programme. This is on ‘Investigating the conditions in which women GPs thrive in General Practice: What works, for whom, how and in what circumstances’.

For Sonia’s a jolly good Fellow…

Sonia Bassey MBE (pictured surrounded by her family) is ‘ecstatic’ to have become an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements.

Our current PhD student received the accolade in a special ceremony at St George’s Hall in the city on Wednesday 30 October. This was attended by the university’s Chancellor Nisha Katona MBE and its Vice-Chancellor Prof Mark Power, Executive and leadership team, students, staff and other members of the Fellowship.

Sonia, who graduated in business and finance from the same university, said: “It was one of the most surreal, amazing days of my life. I always use the phrase ‘we stand on the shoulders of giants’, so to those giants, you paved the way so I could follow, so others can see who they can be.”

Before retiring in 2022, she was the Director of Public Sector Transformation for Cheshire and Warrington.

Having previously earned an MBE for community service in Liverpool in 2017, she was last year’s winner of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) Inspiration Award – Lifetime Achievement. This was for her more than 40 years in promoting race equality and social justice through the arts and neighbourhood and regeneration services.

The first Black Chair of Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services (LCVS), she is the current Chair and one of the founders of the Mandela8 charity. She was instrumental in the Nelson Mandela Memorial art installation in Prince’s Park, the city’s annual Mandela Day celebrations and bringing the Mandela family over from South Africa. She has also organised programmes in schools and for those youngsters at risk of exclusion.

Her PhD thesis is ‘Empowering Black leadership: A study of power and agency in developing Black community leadership in Liverpool’, supervised by Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo, Dr Alex Bristow and Dr Marco Distinto.

Welcome to our October 2024 cohort

Six new PhD starters (five in the Business School and one in Law) were welcomed into the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) fold on Wednesday 2 October. Our new doctoral colleagues are studying a range of fascinating, timely and societally impactful topics.

Three students are researching climate change and sustainability. In the Department for People and Organisations (DPO), Victoria Nightingale is focusing on ‘Addressing Environmental Justice and Sustainability: the Dilemmas of HR Professionals and Line Managers in an Organisational Context’ with supervisors Dr Olga Andrianova and Dr Oznur Yurt.

In the Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise (PuLSE), Claudiu Hales is ‘Mapping Sustainable Integration: A Study of Business Model Canvas and Sustainability Elements’, under the supervision of Dr Inge Hill and Dr Giacomo Carli.

Also in PuLSE, Joseph Rennaiye is investigating ‘Social Innovation Processes to Address Climate Change’, under the expert guidance of Dr Francesca Calo, Dr Aqueel Wahga and Prof Edoardo Ongaro.

The other three new student projects are equally well aligned with the OU social mission.

In DPO again, Fatemeh Barzegar is focusing on ‘Adaptive product development project planning to improve resilience’ with supervisors Dr Khadija Tahera, Dr Charles Mbalyohere and OU Emeritus Professor Christopher Earl.

In the Department for Accounting and Finance (DAF), Salman Sadeghi is exploring ‘Modern capitalism and rising inequalities’, supervised by Prof Dimitris Sotiropoulos and Dr Daniele Tori.

And in Law, Lee Robbins is undertaking ‘Critical Analysis of the Effect of Technology on Access to Legal Advice’ with supervisors Dr Andrew Gilbert, Dr Francine Ryan and Dr Kara Johnson.

Research Degrees Coordinators Alannah Brien and Briggitta Silva were on hand to welcome our new students and ensure everything ran smoothly. The induction was led by the Director of Research Degrees, Dr Alex Bristow, and her deputies, Prof Caroline Derry and Dr Richard Godfrey. Our Associate Dean for Research, Enterprise and Scholarship, Prof Dimitris Sotiropoulos, delivered an engaging talk about the Faculty’s research community.

Current students Melanie Philpott and Georgia Boyd offered tips and insights into the PhD experience, as did our student group facilitators Jessica Heddenhausen, Louis Dawuda and Pankaj Alexander, and student committee representatives Tim Stevenson, Melda Kelemcisoy, Pankaj, and Melanie, who also highlighted various ways to get involved.

The photo shows, standing, left to right: Prof Caroline Derry, Claudiu Hales, Salman Sadeghi, Dr Alex Bristow, Tim Stevenson, Victoria Nightingale, Jessica Heddenhausen, Louis Dawuda, Pankaj Alexander and Georgia Boyd. Sitting, left to right: Lee Robbins, Fatemeh Barzegar and Joseph Rennaiye.

Well done Dimitri (and his two new colleagues!)

Congratulations to Dimitri Kennedy (pictured) who has recently completed his PhD with a thesis, ‘Exploring the role of servicescape in value creation in a digital and post-COVID society’.

The panel for his viva was chaired by Dr Alex Bristow, the external examiner was Prof John Nicholson from the University of Huddersfield and the internal examiner was Dr Richard Godfrey.

Alex said: “Dimitri defended his thesis with confidence, thoughtfulness and reflexivity. It is clear that he feels passionately about his research, which has much to offer to society in these post-Covid times.”

Dimitri, who was supervised by Dr Xia Zhu and our recently retired colleague Prof Liz Daniel, said that many groups and individuals played key roles in his successful PhD completion.

He added: “I would like to thank my supervisors for their invaluable insights, tips and guidance from the onset of my PhD journey. I would also like to thank the FBL admin team for all their assistance and support. Last, but by no means least, I am immensely grateful for the entire postgraduate research student community. We share each other’s triumphs, trials and successes.”

Sonia set to be honoured by her alma mater

Congratulations to one of our current PhD students, Sonia Bassey MBE (pictured), who is joining Liverpool John Moores University as an Honorary Fellow later this month in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements.

A special ceremony at St George’s Hall in the city on Wednesday 30 October will be attended by the university’s Chancellor, Executive and leadership team, students, staff and other members of the Fellowship.

Sonia, who graduated in business and finance from the same university, is the former Director of Public Sector Transformation for Cheshire and Warrington until retiring in 2022. She earned an MBE for community service in Liverpool in 2017.

Supervised by Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo and our former Business School colleague Dr Owain Smolovic Jones, her PhD thesis is ‘Empowering Black leadership: A study of power and agency in developing Black community leadership in Liverpool’.

Sonia said: “While becoming an Honorary Fellow at my old university is a ‘pinch me’ moment, I am also truly looking forward to completing my PhD with The Open University in the near future.”

Publication success is a Shaw thing

Dr David Shaw (formerly a part-time PhD student in the Department for Strategy and Marketing) and his supervisors – Dr Fiona Harris and Dr Haider Ali – have had a paper published in the Journal of Macromarketing. Based on David’s doctoral research, the paper is ‘Partnerships as Strategy in Macro-Social Marketing’. He is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the Hertfordshire Business School at the University of Hertfordshire.

Well done to Simona for wearing heart on her sleeve

Congratulations to Simona Radu (pictured) who has completed her PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Value in the Lived Experience of Wearable Diabetes Technology for Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes and their Caregivers’.

The panel for her viva was chaired by Prof Jo Brewis and her examiners were Dr Carol Kelleher (University College Cork) and former Business School colleague Prof Andrew Lindridge (now at Newcastle University).

Simona, who was supervised by Dr Xia Zhu and recently retired Prof Liz Daniel, said: “I’m very grateful for the guidance, patience and encouragement received from my supervisors. I would also like to thank Lin (Foster was Nilsen), Michelle (Stevens) and Briggitta (Silva) for their continuous support during my PHD. I have been blessed to meet exceptional people during this journey and I thank them all for every text, chat, walk or coffee.

“Having been studying with the OU for the past 10 years (firstly a Psychology degree, followed by these postgraduate studies), its open approach to education reopened the doors to learning for me, for which I am deeply grateful.”

How you play is just as important as how well you play

It may not be an Olympic sport – yet – but third year doctoral student Divyansh Sachan displayed his skills and good spirit at two major Ultimate (frisbee) tournaments during the UK outdoor season.

He first played with the London based club ‘Zoo’ in the mixed division in the South Club Regionals at Surrey Sports Park. The team narrowly missed securing a spot in the national finals, ending as the sixth seeds, over the second weekend in June.

Then, a fortnight later, Divyansh was in Birmingham for the university nationals (mixed division) with a team comprising students from Cranfield University and The Open University. As co-captain, and with most of the team having little playing experience, he wanted them to gain valuable experience against some of the top university teams.

Being a self-officiated sport, Ultimate places a heavy emphasis on spirit of the game through the knowledge of rules, avoiding body contact, positive attitude, good communication and fair mindedness. The team were fifth in the country in spirit rankings with Divyansh (pictured no 13, dark shirt) also voted as the ‘Most Spirited Player (male)’ by his teammates.

Trio of postgraduate researchers win awards at academic conference

The diverse and impactful research being conducted by our postgraduate community was highlighted in a vibrant PhD Colloquium in the Michael Young Building on Thursday 20 June.

This platform for scholarly exchange and recognition saw around 20 postgraduate researchers showcase their work through presentations, posters and artwork, and also featured an inspiring keynote address by the renowned Natalie Bell.

Another highlight was the awards ceremony which celebrated outstanding contributions in various categories:

Theresa Parker received the Best Presentation Award for her innovative research, ‘Materialising Menopause: Sensory Work Needs Sensory Methods’.
Timothy Stevenson won the Best Poster Competition for his work on ‘Improving Virtual Communication During a Project Lifecycle’.
Melanie Philpott was honoured with the Best Art Award for her poignant piece on ‘The Employment Experiences of People with Fibromyalgia’.

The outgoing Research Degrees Programme Director, Dr Nicoleta Tipi, said: “I would like to thank the organisers from the FBL PhD Colloquium Committee, as well as our lovely FBL-PhD team of Briggitta (Silva) and Alannah (Brien) and to Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) colleagues who supported this event.”

Director Nicoleta is now a ‘Recognised Research Supervisor’!

The Director of our Research Degrees Programme, Dr Nicoleta Tipi (pictured), was awarded the ‘Recognised Research Supervisor’ accolade by the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) earlier this year. And since receiving this recognition, she has been trained by UKCGE as a reviewer for the scheme nationally.

The UKCGE, a national organisation providing leadership in postgraduate education and research, now has its Good Supervisory Practice Framework and an accompanying recognition scheme known as the Research Supervision Recognition programme.

The process, which is similar to the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) Fellowship scheme, comprises a written reflection on supervisory experience and pedagogy which is submitted to UKCGE for peer review.

‘Miracle worker’ Lin says goodbye

Research Degrees Co-ordinator Lin Foster (was Nilsen) is shown with some of our current PhD students at her leaving presentation on Thursday 21 March.

Lin, who is retiring to the Lincolnshire coast, received heartfelt thanks from colleagues in the Research, Enterprise and Scholarship (RES) team and from other parts of the Faculty and University. There was praise too from the previous and current directors of our research degrees programme, Prof Emma Bell and Dr Nicoleta Tipi.

Meet our February 2024 intake

Six PhD students who are studying with the Business School on a range of interesting research topics were welcomed at the beginning of February.

Research Degrees Co-ordinators Lin Nilsen and Briggitta Silva joined our new students during the OU’s induction activities, organised by the Graduate School, on Monday 5 February. This was followed a couple of days later with the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) PhD induction led by Research Degrees Director Dr Nicoleta Tipi and one of her deputies, Dr Richard Godfrey. Our student mentors (Jessica Heddenhausen, Divyansh Sachan and Ankith Kamalakshi-Ramesh) and two supervisors (Dr Carla Pereira and Dr Fran Myers) were also there to provide support and share their research experience.

Our new students, their topics and supervisors are:

Pankaj Alexander – ‘Sustainability Accounting and Accountability: How to drive accountability within corporate sustainability accounting to reach Sustainable Development Goals’ – supervised by Dr Cristiana Bernardi and Dr Anwar Halari.
Gerry Davis – ‘Sustainable Finance: How Green Bonds are aiding and developing the cause of sustainability’ – Dr Rodion Skovoroda and Dr Fatima Yusuf.
Lucy Davies – ‘Stress and decision making: The link between trauma, culture and misconduct in policing’ – Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie, OU colleague Prof Graham Pike and Dr Emma Williams.
Calyxtus Enweazu – ‘Customer Empathy in the Digital Era’ – Dr Xia Zhu and Dr Matthew Higgins.
Sue Parr – ‘Exploring the opportunities, tensions, and effectiveness of work-based learning as mechanisms for enhancing practitioner effectiveness in the workplace: How does(can) the form of work-based learning articulated in the Degree apprenticeship framework enhance practitioner effectiveness in the workplace for the benefit of all stakeholders’ – Dr Kristen Reid, Dr Sarah Bloomfield and Dr Fran Myers.
Liu Zhong – ‘Surplus Food Redistribution: A UK context’ – Dr Carla Pereira, Dr Francesca Calo and Dr Nicoleta Tipi.

The photo shows, back row, left to right: Dr Carla Pereira, Dr Nicoleta Tipi, Dr Richard Godfrey and Dr Fran Myers. Front: Lucy Davies, Liu Zhong, Gerry Davis, Sue Parr and Pankaj Alexander. Calyxtus Enweazu was unable to attend.

Fab Four join our ranks in October intake

Four new PhD students who are studying a range of interesting research topics were welcomed at the start of October.

Research Degrees Co-ordinators Lin Nilsen and Briggitta Silva were among those greeting our new students during the OU’s induction activities, organised by the Graduate School, on Monday 2 October. Dr Richard Godfrey, Dr Caroline Derry, Dr Nicoleta Tipi and Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos were all part of the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) PhD induction on Wednesday 4 October. Two student mentors, Gavin Myers and Divyansh Sachan, provided their support and shared their research experiences.

Our new students, their topics and supervisors, are:

Gulfam Tasnim – ‘Exploring the impact of childcare provision on the opportunities for women garment workers and their families in Bangladesh’ – supervised by Dr Nela Smolovic Jones and Prof Cinzia Priola.
Louis Dawuda – ‘Identifying service sourcing risk mitigation strategies for service supply chains in the aftermath of Covid-19: A multiple case study approach’ – supervised by Dr Oznur Yurt, Dr Carla Pereira and Dr Nicoleta Tipi.
Paul Dale – ‘A reimagination of John Austin’s ‘positivism’ – supervised by Dr Simon Lavis and Dr Caroline Derry.
John Donovan – ‘Environmental Authority and Space Law’ – supervised by Dr Marjan Ajevski and OU colleagues Dr Alessandra Marino and Dr Thomas Cheney.

Raising awareness of endometriosis workshop

Vickie Williams led a workshop, ‘Endometriosis: A whole-body, whole-life disease’, for the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) at the start of September. The charity delivers continuing professional development and industry insights for further education lecturers delivering T Levels across England, funded by the Department for Education.

With T Levels offering students practical and knowledge-based learning at a school or college and on-the-job experience through an industry placement (of at least 315 hours), Vickie delivered an hour-long workshop on Friday 1 September to more than 30 T level Health and Business & Administration staff.

It covered the current science behind endometriosis, the impact on health, work and social life, the lived experience of the disease and potential changes that the healthcare system and wider society could take to better support the condition, all followed by a Q&A.

This was the first pilot in a soft launch of ETF’s ‘Industry Insight’ programme, offering online masterclasses for staff to access on-demand throughout the year via the recording.

Vickie said: “It was a great opportunity as this is the first time endometriosis will be included in a level 3 qualification. It really evidences to me the recognition and respect women’s health is starting to receive.”

PhD Colloquium showcases the work of our researchers

PhD colloquium group

Our PhD students hosted the annual FBL PhD Colloquium which showcases their range of research projects. The hybrid event, hosted simultaneously in the OU Library (pictured) and online via MS Teams, attracted more than 60 online and in-person participants. The ‘Researching in the Open for Future Disruptions’ showcase on Thursday 6 July used traditional academic presentations as well as a more audience-involved art exhibition and an extempore debate (meaning no preparation).

After guest speaker Prof Emerita Lynne McAlpine presented on the topic of ‘Owning your PhD: What should you be doing now?’, Director of our Research Degrees Programme Dr Nicoleta Tipi pointed out the importance of engagement and peer learning and support to the graduate experience.

With more than 20 unique academic presentations ranging from short lightning talks to full-length ones, there was also an array of research-inspired artwork and posters with both online and in-person participants being able to offer feedback – ranging from sticky notes to suggestions for further reading – to our researchers.

The first of two development sessions in the afternoon saw an informal chat with the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) Executive Dean Prof Dev Kodwani followed by an academic discussion panel, comprising Prof Jo Brewis, Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo, Dr Caroline Derry and Dr Anna John, which centred on the Open academic of the future. Drawing on their personal experiences and research, they gave insights on some of the future and present challenges facing academics such as changes in the political, economic and social climates concerning academic research; incorporating technology and artificial intelligence in academia; and the practice / research dichotomy.

Then an engaging Early Career Researcher Circle shared the experiences of OU academics, researchers and alumni with discussions including the importance of building partnerships and supportive networks; the space for activism, advocacy, and social movements in academia; and the different career options open to PhD students.

The event organising team was Mia Li, Alina Kislova, Chinedu Nevo and Gavin Myers and the award-winning students were:

Best Lightning Talk: Bridget Tusiime.
Best Paper Presentation: Rosie Boparai.
Best Art / Photography: Theresa Parker.
Best Art / Photography: Melanie Philpott.
Best Poster: Jessica Heddenhausen.
Extempore Debate Winner: Gabriel Omachi.

The OU was definitely the right place for Lace

Lace Jackson

Congratulations to Lace Jackson (pictured) who recently completed her PhD with a thesis, ‘The Personal and Professional Challenges Encountered by ‘Global Majority’ Individuals Experiencing and Practicing Leadership in the UK’, supervised by Dr Owain Smolovic Jones and Prof Siv Vangen. Her viva panel was chaired by Dr Charles Mbalyohere, the external examiner was Prof Donna Ladkin (Professor of Inclusive Leadership, University of Birmingham) and the internal examiner was Dr Saoirse O Shea.

Lace is the Clinical Institute Director for the Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy, a children’s charity providing services for children who have been severely traumatised due to adverse childhood experiences.

She leads and manages the clinical training and development function overseeing therapeutic staff trainees’ qualification and applied clinical practice. In addition, Lace steers the research faculty, managing more than 20 student-led research projects and a growing organisation research and evaluation portfolio.

As a first-time student of the OU, Lace, along with her studies, was able to join the teaching scheme as the first part-time PhD student.

She said: “Opportunities to engage in tutor support, online tutorials, assignment marking and module development have been immense. Through the PhD, I have found my voice and given space to those who continue to be marginalised by hegemonic (‘dominant’) leadership theory and in organisational spaces. Yet, there is much more to do and to offer. With bravery and courage, the OU is tackling these issues and allowing students like me to explore and theorise.”

Lace now hopes to publish and disseminate her research through journal articles, publications and networks as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Raees wants to continue teaching and conducting research

Raees Aslam

And equally well done to Raees Aslam (pictured) who has recently completed his PhD with a thesis, ‘Role of Formal and Informal Institutions in Advancing Sustainable Environmental Practices in SMEs of Pakistan’s Textile Sector’, supervised by Prof Richard Blundel and Dr Aqueel Wahga. His viva panel was chaired by Prof Richard Holti, the external examiner was Prof Lynn Oxborrow (Nottingham Business School) and the internal examiner was now Prof Michael Ngoasong.

Raees is currently seeking a position where he will have the opportunity to continue teaching and conducting research. He is also looking forward to having the opportunity to provide consultations to small and medium-sized manufacturing companies about sustainable practices.

Tech companies can’t ignore their responsibilities

Olga Solovyeva

Olga Solovyeva (pictured) has contributed to the ‘Silicon Curtain’ podcast, delving into the intriguing subject of the political responsibilities of IT businesses operating within authoritarian regimes.

The discussion is on the complex interplay between business, technology and politics, illuminating the tools wielded by authoritarian leaders to harness technology for repressive purposes. And the podcast extends beyond the mere characterisation of ‘bad actors’ utilising technology, delving deep into the essence of technology itself, the actors involved, and the underlying motivations of IT businesses.

This is available on most platforms such as YouTube, Podtail and Apple Podcasts.

Can tech companies rise to the challenge?

An iPhone home screen with Responsible tech written in the search bar

Olga Solovyeva has continued her collaboration with an international community of digital activists known as Global Voices. The Department for People and Organisations (DPO)-based researcher’s opinion piece about the political responsibility of tech – ‘Why tech companies can no longer ignore their role in shaping politics and society’ – was recently published. This summarises some of her early PhD work about the complex problem of IT businesses developing innovative technology which can either be used positively or negatively, especially by authoritarian regimes.

Well done to Lindsay on her viva success

Lindsay Wilson-Jones

Congratulations to Lindsay Wilson-Jones (pictured) who has recently completed her PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Shared Leadership in Top Teams. A Study of Nonprofit Federated Board Leadership’. The viva panel was chaired by Dr Francesca Calo, the external examiner was Dr Angela Ellis-Paine (University of Birmingham) and the internal examiner was Dr Anja Schaefer.

Lindsay, reflecting on the PhD journey, said that it was an all-consuming experience that was both enriching, and sometimes exasperating.

She added: “Important influences were my supervisors (Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis and Prof Richard Holti) who created thinking space so I could develop my own ideas, without boundaries; probation examiners who proposed different perspectives to explore before firming up the design; and the viva examiners whose direction facilitated a stronger thesis to emerge.”

Delighted to have achieved a PhD for her research, she is keen to publish papers in different research streams related to her thesis and will continue volunteering as a director of a non-profit board.

Massive welcome to our nine new researchers

February intake of PhD students gathered together for a photo

Nine new PhD students who are all looking to study a range of interesting research topics joined in February 2023. They first took part in the OU induction activities organised by the Graduate School before continuing with Dr Richard Godfrey, Dr Caroline Derry, Dr Nicoleta Tipi and Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos for the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)-specific PhD induction. Three second year PhD students – Ankith Kamalakshi Ramesh, Lisa Monastyrova and Divyansh Sachan – also provided their support and shared their research experience so far.

Business School – students, topics and supervisors:

Rosie Boparai – ‘Researching the lived experience of organisational paradox through contradictions and tensions, and its impact on organisational life' – supervised by Dr Isidora Kourti, Dr Sarah Bloomfield and Prof Michael Ngoasong.
Enerelt Enkhbold (not pictured above) – ‘Asset management over the long run: UK investment trusts after the 1930s’ – supervised by Dr Dimitris Sotiropolous, Dr Daniele Tori and Emeritus Prof Janette Rutterford.
Issam Fawaz – ‘A study on the influence of a spokesperson on green advertising effectiveness’ – supervised by Dr Morteza Abolhosani and Prof Gordon Liu.
Melda Kelemcisoy – ‘How did we get here? The Organisation of Anthropocentrism’ – supervised by Prof Caroline Clarke and OU colleague Dr Matthew Cole.
Melanie Philpott – ‘Employment experiences of people with fibromyalgia’ – supervised by Prof Cinzia Priola and Dr Alex Bristow.
Tim Stevenson – ‘Improve project communication during a project lifecycle’ – supervised by Dr Khadija Tahera and Dr Bjorn Claes.

Law School – students, topics and supervisors:

Georgia Boyd – ‘Stories about the court: Legal consciousness, sex work, and criminal law’ – supervised by Dr Caroline Derry and Dr Sophie Doherty.
Fiona Naysmith – ‘Corporate Responsibility in New Space: Testing Joint Common Enterprise and Ecocide as a Framework for Securing the Effective Regulation of Private Actors in Outer Space’ – supervised by Dr Thomas Cheney and Prof Simon Gardiner.
Gabriel Omachi – ‘Gender and sexuality bias In Nigeria: A Colonial and Religious importation’ – supervised by Dr Sophie Doherty and Dr Caroline Derry.

Well done to Ronald

Congratulations to Ronald Macintyre for successfully completing his PhD with the thesis, ‘Partnership, Publicness and Participatory Design of free online learning materials across sectors’. His supervisors were Prof Jacqueline Baxter, Dr James Rees and Dr Alessandro Sancino. The panel chair was Dr Nik Winchester, the external examiners were Prof Laura Mariani (Associate Professor, University of Milan) and Prof Megan Lawton (University of Wolverhampton) and the internal examiner was Dr Kristen Reid.

Meet the terrific trio of Sampierre, Antonis and Maria!

Sampierre Mendy

Congratulations to Sampierre Mendy (pictured) who has recently completed his PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Examining the Influence and Relationship between the Weberian Model of Bureaucracy and Theories of Strategic Management on Decision-Making in the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education of The Gambia’. His supervisors were Prof Edoardo Ongaro and Dr Alessandro Sancino. The viva panel was chaired by Dr Anja Schaefer, the external examiner was Prof Paul Joyce (University of Birmingham) and the internal examiner was Dr Charles Mbalyohere.

Sampierre is currently one of the Business School’s Associate Lecturers, in strategic management, and plans to publish aspects of his PhD thesis in relevant journals.

He said: “I’m thankful for my fully-funded studentship and to all the OU staff, especially my supervisors, the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) Research Degrees Office, Graduate School, IT and Library Services for their professionalism and immense support in making my PhD journey a success. I’d also like to applaud the FBL PhD Student Group Facilitation Scheme (introduced in 2020), in which I was initially a facilitator and later a student group member, for significantly enhancing student well-being and general welfare. My experience in this initiative is helping to enhance my effectiveness as an Associate Lecturer.”

Well done to Antonis Kyparissis who has recently completed his PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Asset management strategies of British Investment Trusts Companies, 1920-1928’. His supervisors were Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos, Dr Daniele Tori and Emeritus Professor Janette Rutterford. The viva panel was chaired by OU colleague Dr Roberto Simonetti, the external examiner was Prof Barnardo Batiz-Lazo (Northumbria Business School) and internal examiner was OU colleague Prof Andrew Trigg.

Antonis, who is currently a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Northampton, said: “I would like to thank those who helped me in my work – my supervisory team, the research degree team, my colleagues – and special thanks to FBL’s PhD team, especially Lin (Nilsen), without whom my job would be much worse!”

And similar congratulations to Maria Gómez Benitez who has recently completed her PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Global value chains in the EU: An input-output approach’. Her supervisors were Prof Les Budd and OU colleague Prof Andrew Trigg. The viva panel was chaired by OU colleague Prof Maureen Mackintosh, the external examiner was Dr Nadia Garbellini (Lecturer in Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) and the internal examiner was OU colleague Prof Susan Newman. Maria is now working as a business analyst at Exponential-e.

Painting the town red (sustainably!) following viva success

Lindsey Elliott

Congratulations to Lindsey Elliott (pictured) who recently completed her PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Enabling collaboration in conservation: An exploration of change, diversity and funding’. Her supervisors were Prof Siv Vangen and OU colleague Dr Karen Potter. The panel was chaired by Dr Despoina Filiou, the external examiner was Dr David Murphy (Senior Lecturer, University of Cumbria) and the internal examiner was Prof Les Budd.

Lindsey is now self-employed as a freelance consultant and researcher specialising in social science approaches, interdisciplinarity, systems thinking, collaboration and engaging diverse perspectives. She has also recently set up a sustainable painting and decorating business and is spending more time with her children. Lindsey said: “I hope to keep in touch with everyone while I’ll publish elements of my research, and I’d like to thank the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) for being so welcoming and helpful during my time there.”

The Russian Google comes under the microscope

Olga Solovyeva's Leeds talk

Olga Solovyeva (pictured) was also invited to give a guest lecture at the University of Leeds’ Department of Russian and Slavonic studies. She talked about the role of IT businesses in digital authoritarianism, specifically Yandex, the multinational IT company sometimes referred to as a ‘Russian Google’ which is headquartered in that country.

José shows us the way

José Fevereiro

Congratulations to José Fevereiro (pictured) who has recently completed his PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Real Exchange Rates and Income Distribution’. His supervisors were Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos and OU colleagues Prof Andrew Trigg and Dr Constantinos Repapis. The panel was chaired by Prof Leslie Budd, the external examiners were Prof Ronald Smith (Department of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics at Birkbeck, University of London) and Prof Matias Vernengo (Department of Economics at Bucknell University, USA), while the internal examiner was Dr Michael Oliver.

José is now working as a Research Associate at the Management School at Sheffield University working within the JUST2CE project, a European Union Horizon 2020 project. This is investigating the socio-economic impacts of the implementation of different circular economy practices, to identify under which conditions a responsible, inclusive and socially just transition to a circular economy is possible and desirable.

And equally well done to Sally

Sally Vivyan

Congratulations to Sally Vivyan (pictured) who recently completed her PhD degree with a thesis, ‘Leadership practice in small asylum seeker and refugee charities’. Her supervisors were Dr Nik Winchester, Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis and former Business School colleague Dr James Rees. The panel was chaired by Dr Mathew Hinton, the external examiner was Dr Rob Macmillan (Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research – CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University) and the internal examiner was Dr Michael Ngoasong.

Sally said: “I thoroughly enjoyed my PhD experience and some of the best bits were working with a fantastic supervision team, being supported by brilliant colleagues and the great opportunity of the teaching experience scheme. I found being part of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) a stimulating environment, and this has inspired my ongoing choices to work in a way that helps to bridge the gap between research and practice in the voluntary sector.”

She is now managing grant making at a philanthropic foundation and has plans for academic papers drawing on both her PhD research and practice work.

Ankith and Khadija interact at inaugural London conference

Dr Khadija Tahera and Ankith Kamalakshi-Ramesh

Research student Ankith Kamalakshi-Ramesh and Dr Khadija Tahera (Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management) attended the inaugural InterAct Conference at the IET Savoy Place in London on Monday 3 October. This was focused on how digitalisation will shape the future of our economy, manufacturing ecosystem, and workplace in the next stage of the industrial revolution. Several world-leading speakers from industry, policy and academia looked at how digitalisation can contribute to net zero while the manufacturing sector is resilient and productive.

Reasons to be cheerful – number one

Adewale Adeyemi

Congratulations to Adewale Adeyemi (pictured) who completed his studies and was awarded his PhD with a thesis, ‘Determinants of Entrepreneurship: The Role of Entrepreneurship Development Initiatives’. His supervisors were Dr Michael Ngoasong and Prof Edoardo Ongaro. The panel was chaired by Prof Liz Daniel, the external examiner was Prof Jay Mitra (Professor of Business Enterprise and Innovation and Director of the Venture Academy at Essex Business School, University of Essex) and the internal examiner was Dr Aqueel Wahga.

Adewale is joining The University of Law (Business School) as a Senior Lecturer and continues to engage in management consultancy and executive education within the West African space.

He said: “Completing my PhD at The Open University was an exciting and pleasant experience. The support provided at every phase of the programme enabled me to achieve this career goal – from a well thought out induction programme to numerous skill development sessions, not only pre-probation but all the way to main viva preparation. The commitment of my supervisors was unparalleled, and the monthly supervision meetings meant I got much-needed guidance. The promptness of the admin and IT support teams was commendable, especially during the pandemic. I’m glad I chose the OU to pursue this career goal.”

Reasons to be cheerful – number two

Awele Achi

Well done to Awele Achi (pictured) who completed his studies and was awarded his PhD with a thesis, ‘Social Innovation: The Construct and Antecedents’. His supervisors were Prof Gordon Liu and Dr Fiona Harris. The panel was chaired by Prof Cinzia Priola, the external examiner was Prof Zubin Sethna (Professor of Entrepreneurial Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Regents University London) and the internal examiner was Dr Michael Ngoasong.

Over the years, Awele contributed to B328: Marketing in Action module production, as well as being a fantastic student mentor. He is now working as a Lecturer in Enterprise and Innovation at Coventry University London and is hoping to publish some journal articles from his PhD thesis.

Awele said: “I’d like to thank the OU and its staff for providing me with the best support and conducive environment to conduct my PhD study. This has helped the quality and diversity of my learning and research.”

Reasons to be cheerful – and number three

Kweku Arthur-Annobil

Congratulations to Kweku Arthur-Annobil (pictured) who completed his studies and was awarded his PhD with a thesis, ‘Perception of risk and uncertainty in innovation finance’. His supervisors were Dr Henry Lahr, Prof Mark Fenton-O’Creevy and OU colleague Dr Stuart Parris. The panel was chaired by Prof Richard Blundel, the external examiner was Prof Colin Mason (Professor of Entrepreneurship at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow) and the internal examiner was Dr Rodion Skovoroda.

Kweku currently works with Stanbic Bank Ghana as the lead strategist for the business and commercial client segment and will begin as a lecturer at one of Ghana’s leading business schools in January 2023. He said: “Overall, my experience at the Business School has been amazing and I have developed well as an early career researcher.”

Best wishes to all our new intake of PhD students

New PhD students

Joining the PhD research students group in October 2022 are:

Sonia Bassey with a thesis on ‘Empowering Black leadership: A study of power and agency in developing Black community leadership in Liverpool’, supervised by Dr Owain Smolovic Jones and Dr Fidele Mutwarasibo.
Bridget Tusiime with a thesis on ‘The role of private-public partnerships in bridging the health inequalities in Rwanda: A case of mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and financing community based health insurance (CBHI) in Rwanda’ (provisional title), supervised by Dr Michael Ngoasong and OU colleague Dr Dinar Kale.
Theresa Parker with a thesis on ‘How does the convergence of age and gender stereotypes play out for women at work in the fashion industry during menopause transition?’, supervised by Prof Jo Brewis and Dr Saoirse O’Shea.
John Gynn with a thesis on ‘Economic citizenship and governance in uncertain times’, supervised by Dr Chiara Berneri, Prof Simon Gardiner and former Law School colleague Dr Anne Wesemann.

The students (pictured) had a busy first week with a number of activities, including the FBL induction on Wednesday 5 October. This was supported by Dr Nicoleta Tipi, Dr Richard Godfrey, Dr Michael Ngoasong and PhD researchers Ankith Kamalakshi Ramesh, Alina Kislova and Divyansh Sachan.

Community of researchers have the Write stuff

PhD students at an FBL Writing Session

The ‘FBL Writing Sessions’ are back after a short summer 2022 break and proving just as popular as earlier in the year. The goal is to form a community of researchers who want to support each other in their writing, to learn about good writing habits, and celebrate writing success.

During these sessions, most of the time is spent simply writing but there are breaks and the opportunity to also chat about writing. These monthly sessions are organised for PhD students and facilitated by Dr Nicoleta Tipi – however, all researchers in the Faculty are welcome to attend.

Review of the 2021-22 academic year

Gavin Myers

Seventeen researchers joined the PhD programme, in both Business and Law, in the last academic year. Dr Nicoleta Tipi, Director of our Research Degrees Programme, said: “We’re very proud and send massive congratulations to 10 of our researchers who were awarded their PhD degrees in 2021-22, and another 12 who had their viva during the last year and are due to submit their corrections very soon.”

The FBL PhD Colloquium 2022 returned to a face-to-face event in May 2022 with researchers presenting their work both in-person as well as virtually, while some presented their work at the OU’s Graduate School Poster Competition 2022 this summer.

Research has also been presented at national (for example, Academy of Marketing at Huddersfield University; British Academy of Management – Alliance Manchester Business School; and ISBE ECA/ECR Symposium 2022, Nottingham Business School) and international (the Global Reggae Conference: ‘Reggae Films, Reggae Icons, Reggae Music’ in Jamaica – Gavin Myers pictured) conferences. Others have attended European seminars such as the Geopolitics and Changing States Summer School in Italy; and the International PhD Conference at Lund University in Sweden.

Sending massive congratulations to Ernest

Ernest Wong

Well done to Ernest Wong (pictured) who completed his viva with a thesis, ‘The Disposition Effect, Emotion and Mindful Emotion Regulation’. The panel was chaired by Prof Jo Brewis, the internal examiner was Prof Ali Ataullah and the external examiner was Dr Emma Soane (Assistant Professor of Management from the London School of Economics). His supervisors were Prof Mark Fenton-O’Creevy and Dr Henry Lahr.

Ernest is now looking for opportunities in research-related roles and he is particularly interested in cognitive psychology or behavioural finance.

Gavin is highly commended for his poster

Gavin Myers

There were half a dozen entries from the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) at the University’s annual Postgraduate Research Poster Competition on Wednesday 15 June, organised by the Graduate School this year.

Gavin Myers (pictured) received a Judges’ Choice highly commended award for his poster on ‘Finding Common Ground in a Strange Land – Collaboration in Caribbean Diaspora Voluntary and Community Organisation’.

Other poster submissions came from Sahil Mathur (‘Digital Vulnerability in the Financial Sector’); Simona Radu (‘The Lived Experiences of Wearable Diabetes Technology for Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes and Caregivers’); Divyansh Sachan (‘Business Strategy in Free-to-Play (F2P) Mobile Gaming Segment’) and Olga Solovyeva (‘The tragedy of Yandex’). Kornelia Korzac’s online submission was ‘How much thinking is sufficient for green demarketing to work?’

And it’s fun in the sun for our postgraduate researchers

Summer party

The summer party, featuring a barbecue, karaoke and outdoor games, followed the poster competition. One of the summer party organisers was Sahil Mathur, a first year student from the Law School. He said: “As PGR Community Organiser, I want to develop an inclusive and friendly community of postgraduate researchers by organising online and face-to-face events where students have opportunities to socialise and network which is very important for their well-being. I look forward to organising many more such events and building a strong cohort of researchers.”

Well done to Laura on her viva success

Laura Reeves

Congratulations to Laura Reeves (pictured) who recently completed her PhD with a thesis, ‘Belonging and Othering in times of uncertainty: A study of the impact of Brexit in UK restaurants’. Her supervisors were Prof Emma Bell and Dr Alex Bristow. The panel for her viva was chaired by Prof Richard Blundel, the external examiner was Prof Martyna Sliwa (Professor of Management and Organisation Studies, University of Essex) and the internal examiner was Dr Cinzia Priola.

Over the years, Laura contributed to the PhD students committee and to the PhD colloquiums, as well as being a fantastic student mentor. Now a Research Associate at the University of Suffolk, everyone wishes her all the best for the future!

Alumni return to support a fantastic FBL PhD Colloquium 2022

PhD Colloquium students

This year’s FBL PhD Colloquium was supported by two alumni, Drs Marco Distinto and Lidia Mischenko, during the afternoon session on Thursday 5 May. The day started with an engaging presentation from John Nicholson, Professor of Strategy at the University of Huddersfield, who received positive feedback from our researchers for ‘Clarifying contributions in business research: increments and revelations’.

The colloquium comprised seven parallel sessions, supported by six academics – Dr Francesca Calo, Dr Olga Jurasz, Dr Michael Ngoasong, Dr Cinzia Priola, Dr Anja Schaefer and Dr Niicoleta Tipi – as panel chairs. There were 22 researchers presenting their work, while three others captured their research in a poster.

Nicoleta Tipi, our Research Degrees Director, presented four awards:

Best Presentation – Business: Stephen Reid.
Best Presentation – Law: Conor Logue.
Best Fresh Starter: Lisa Monastyrova.
Best Poster Presentation: Amna Sarwer.

The event was supported by the 2022 FBL PhD Colloquium Organising Committee of Nishant Beniwal, Iyanuloluwa Kolawole, Lin Nilsen, Simona Radu, Stephen Reid, Olga Solovyeva and Michelle Stevens.

Nicoleta said: “A big thank you to all our researchers who presented their work, to our wonderful panel chairs, to our alumni and keynote speaker who visited us in Milton Keynes and to all who took part in this event, in person and online. Well done to our amazing 2022 FBL PhD Colloquium Organising Committee who did a superb job to ensure a successful event. It was fantastic and we look forward to repeating this in 2023!”

Viva success for Carlos

Carlos Azevedo

Congratulations to Carlos Azevedo (pictured) who passed his PhD viva with his thesis, ‘Students as (more than) consumers? A Bourdieusian exploration of English undergraduates’ discourses on and practices in higher education’. His supervisors were Dr Caroline Clarke and Dr Alexandra Bristow. The panel was chaired by Dr Nik Winchester, the external examiner was Professor Rosemary Deem (School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway, University of London) and the internal examiner was Professor Jo Brewis.

Carlos is an associate lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland and is co-curating a seminar series and a decolonial summer school for doctoral and early career researchers for the Decolonizing Alliance. Following his examiners’ suggestion, he is also working on converting his thesis into a monograph.

Congratulations to Tam on her viva success

Tam Nguyen-Cousins

Well done to Tam Nguyen-Cousins (pictured) who completed her PhD programme in March 2022. Her thesis was ‘Investigating The Form And Determinants Of Financial Wellbeing: Evidence From Online Education’ and her supervisors were Martin Upton, Will Brambley and Dr Helen Roby (Assistant Professor, at Coventry University). Her PhD exam was chaired by OU colleague Dr Sarah Sherlock with Dr Heather Kappes (London School of Economics and Political Science) as the external examiner and Professor Gordon Liu as the internal examiner. Tam, who is currently teaching financial services for undergraduate students, would ideally like to do a mix of teaching, research, and to have the opportunities to apply the theories to practice in personal finance and social marketing for social good. Also, she needs to start working on her publications and, more importantly, to spend more time with her family!

Endometriosis – and Victoria! – mentioned in Parliament

Victoria Williams

Victoria Williams (pictured) hosted a live seminar on ‘working with endometriosis’ as part of an interdisciplinary online conference on International Women’s Day (Tuesday 8 March 2022). This was chaired by fellow PhD student Amna Sarwar and explored the experiences of people working with endometriosis across several industries within the UK.

A Westminster Hall debate in February on endometriosis workplace support saw Alec Shelbrooke MP quote Victoria’s PhD thesis, ‘The experience of endometriosis in the workplace and the influence of menstrual policy: leaning to precarious work to manage a ‘precarious condition’’. He said: “With millions of sufferers and long-standing recognition of the disease, it is shocking that women suffer such enormous discrimination in the workplace for a common disease.”

The MP for Elmet and Rothwell then went on to quote Victoria, as follows: “Endometriosis often hinders the ability to work to the same capacity every hour on every day of a traditional working calendar, and as such participants talked of not being able to hold down full-time work, leading to multiple part-time roles or precarious work situations, drawn by the flexibility they offered. However, the supposed flexibility is often a double bind with lack of stable contracts, loss of state provisioning and the financial impact of having to take time off for surgery (often multiple surgeries). As such, precarious work may be appealing to people with endometriosis because of the promise of flexibility but they may equally feel and be even less protected.”

Reggae researcher Gavin has a joyful time in Jamaica

Gavin Myers

Gavin Myers (pictured) attended the 7th Global Reggae Conference in February 2022 at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. Using content analysis, his presentation on the ‘Themes and Connections in Bob Andy’s Songbook’ explored how the themes in a popular music form – reggae – resonated for, and represented, the Caribbean diaspora in the UK in the period (1970s). He said: “The themes in the music resonated and provided both medium for increasing social awareness and an outlet to share the message with a wider audience. The main themes – relationships and loss; identity; home and belonging; hope; and social belief – connected with the lived experience of the generation of West Indian and other African diaspora youth in the UK as they struggled to engage with these same issues.”

Well done to Jeanette on her viva success

Jeanette Hartley

Congratulations to Jeanette Hartley (pictured) who completed her PhD programme in February 2022. Her thesis was ‘Management Consultants Navigating Competing Systems of Engagement’ and her supervisors were Professor Richard Holti and Dr Giacomo Carli. Her exam was chaired by Dr Anja Schaefer with Professor Paul Hibbert (Professor of Management, University of St Andrews) as the external examiner and Dr Richard Godfrey as internal examiner. Jeanette is continuing her connection with the OU as an Associate Lecturer – on B207: Shaping Business Opportunities, and B206: Understanding Customers – while also pursuing interesting academic writing and research opportunities.

Eleven more students recruited in another successful call

FBL PhD Induction

Eleven new students – five in the Business School and six in the Law School – have started in February 2022 with 10 (five online) attending the induction.

Our new students are:

Olamide Ankintimehin, supervised by Dr Yue Meng-Lewis and Dr Richard Godfrey – ‘The Application of Games and Gamification within a Multi-National Corporation Training Context’.
Alessandra Fenu, supervised by Dr Stefanie Ruel and Prof Jo Brewis – ‘The enactment of gender identities in the Space Industry: A qualitative exploration of the European Space Agency’.
Jessica Heddenhausen, supervised by Dr Anja Schaefer and Dr Matthew Higgins – ‘Identity constructs in the contemporary consumer landscape’.
Ankith Kamalakshi Ramesh, supervised by Dr Nicoleta Tipi and Dr Khadija Tahera – ‘Designing Supply Chain Performance Measurement System Incorporating Sustainability and Resilience to Disruptions’.
Divyansh Sachan, supervised by Dr Yue Meng-Lewis and Dr Richard Godfrey – ‘Analysing the evolution of free-to-play mobile gaming in the Covid-19 pandemic through its sub-categories and associated user experiences’.
Alina Kislova, supervised by Dr Andrew Gilbert and Dr Kara Johnson – ‘Measuring the Impact of Clinical Legal Education on Graduate Career Trajectories’.
Tiffany Adams, supervised by Dr Miriam Mbah and Dr Andrew Gilbert – ‘Is the UNCITRAL Model Law of 2011 sufficient to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in Emergency Procurements in CARICOM Member States? The Case of Jamaica during the Covid 19 Pandemic’.
Conor Logue, supervised by Dr Marian Ajevski and Dr Kim Barker – ‘Is disinformation the death knell for freedom of expression? When a fundamental danger meets a fundamental right: a critical analysis’.
Sahil Mathur, supervised by Dr Clare Jones and Dr Kim Barker – ‘Digital Vulnerability in the Financial Sector’.
Lisa Monastyrova, supervised by Dr Olga Jurasz, Dr Avi Boukli and Prof Simon Lee – ‘Looking into domestic human trafficking: “pure” trafficking?’
Lewis Sibanda, supervised by Dr Olga Jurasz, Dr Avi Boukli and Prof Simon Lee – ‘Human trafficking and the law: critical & interdisciplinary perspectives’.

Well done to Pedro on his viva success

Pedro Siqueira-Machado

Congratulations to Pedro Siqueira-Machado for completing his PhD in January 2022 with his thesis, ‘The Theory of International Prices: A Classical Production-Based Approach’, supervised by Prof Les Budd and OU colleague Dr Andrew Trigg. The panel was chaired by OU colleague Dr Roberto Simoneti, with Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos as the internal examiner and Prof Enrico Bellino (Catholic University of The Sacred Heart) and Dr Jonathan Perraton (University of Sheffield) as external examiners. Pedro (pictured) said: “I’d like to thank the OU and its staff for all the support in developing my skills as a researcher. Now that the PhD is over, I’m looking forward to continuing my journey as Lecturer in International Political Economy at City, University of London.”

Simona’s son provides the inspiration for her research

Simona Radu

The research of PhD student Simona Radu is to understand and improve the lives of young people who rely on wearable technologies to manage their type one diabetes through blood glucose monitoring and insulin delivery. This is a personal topic for Simona, based in the Department for Strategy and Marketing (DSM), and very close to her heart as her son was diagnosed with type one diabetes four years ago. Watch Simona, who also completed an undergraduate degree in psychology at the OU, discuss her work here.

Jane is the pioneer for a new approach in FBL

Jane Roberts

Congratulations to Jane Roberts (pictured) who has gained her PhD in a first for the Business School. Jane took the newly-established route, which is open to all Business School staff, of ‘PhD by publications’. As Jane was employed by the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) and previously by the Citizenship and Governance Strategic Research Area (C&G SRA), she submitted a research monograph on losing political office, along with several academic publications in good quality journals about political leadership and place leadership.

Her PhD submission was ‘Political Leadership and the Need to Belong: An Extension of Theory and Practice of Political and Place Leadership through the Lens of Attachment Theory’. This was thematically bound together through an overarching paper which outlined the contribution to knowledge across the book and papers and the thematic links across the papers, showing how attachment theory applied to political leadership enriches our understanding of political leadership and place.

Jane recently left OU employment but remains a Visiting Fellow of FBL. She was supervised in her PhD by Prof Jean Hartley and Dr Paul Walley and it is hoped that other members of staff are encouraged to follow in her footsteps.

Campus induction for students recruited in another successful call

Image of new PhD students

Six new students – four in the Business School and two in the Law School – started this week (Monday 4 October 2021). They are enjoying the first induction to take place on campus since the pandemic started. All six attended the induction (including two online) and took part in a poster presentation. A warm welcome to our new PhD researchers and all the best with your studies.

Our new students are:

Struan Barr, supervised by Dr Nela Smolovic Jones and Dr Jamie Woodcock – ‘Resisting the development of precarity: An inventive workers’ inquiry of algorithmic management technology’s makers and users’.
Dominique Howard, supervised by Dr Isidora Kourti, Dr Gemma Lord and Prof Mark Fenton-O’Creevy – ‘Creation, application and communication of organizational knowledge in the medical and humanitarian sector’.
Benard Iyegudu, supervised by Dr Anna John and Dr Nicoleta Tipi – ‘Open Innovation in Supply Chains: The Role of Supply Chain Collaboration In Building Resilience and Innovation In SMEs’.
Mia Li, supervised by Dr Carmen Mal and Prof Gordon Liu – ‘Explore consumers' perceptions on CSR based advertising by introducing consumer citizenship concept’.
Sandisha Drepaul, supervised by Dr Kim Barker and Dr Olga Jurasz – ‘An analysis of the extent to which UK has been able to safeguard women’s rights from cyberstalking and cyber harassment during the COVID-19 pandemic’.
Fred Motson, supervised by Prof Simon Lee and Prof Simon Gardiner – ‘The Herculean referee in the age of technology’.

Visiting Rodrigo from Brazil

Image of visiting Brazilian PhD student Rodrigo Seefeld

Welcome to visiting Brazilian PhD student Rodrigo Seefeld, from the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, who has temporarily joined the Department for People and Organisations (DPO). His visit has been made possible by a competitive award from CAPES, a government-supported initiative that enables PhD student research exchanges at international universities. Rodrigo, who will be based at the OU until February 2022, is in his third year and is currently working on a case study analysis of how vaccine-producing organisations in Brazil manage legitimacy crises. During his visit, Rodrigo will be supervised by Prof Emma Bell. His research interests focus on organisations and the media, legitimacy and sensemaking and visual methodologies. He has published articles in Brazilian management journals related to media and organisational narratives and the role of non-human actants in the management of the Covid-19 crisis.

Welcome to Nicoleta and a packed schedule

Image of Nicoleta Tipi

Dr Nicoleta Tipi officially took over as Director of the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) Research Degrees Programme in August 2021. The Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain, who joined the OU in October 2020, said: “I’m really enjoying my new role and we’ve been very busy with applicants and their interviews for our advertised PhD studentships which start in February 2022. We’re also preparing to welcome our new PhD students with an induction session on Wednesday 6 October, followed by a session from the ‘Foundations and Practice of Management and Business Research’ module on Thursday 7 October".

Success for Sally in award named after OU’s former Chancellor

Image of Sally Vivyan

Sally Vivyan has won a research award from the Association of Open University Graduates (AOUG). The AOUG’s Chancellor Baroness Boothroyd Award for Citizenship, Identities and Governance is named in honour of Betty Boothroyd, the OU’s Chancellor from 1995-2006 who was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1992-2000 and now sits in the House of Lords.

The Association’s own charity, the AOUG Foundation for Education, offers an award every year in several OU curriculum areas to an outstanding research student who has previously gained their degree with the OU. Sally was chosen as one of the winners by the charity’s directors / trustees following her nomination by FBL’s then Director of Research Degrees, Prof Emma Bell.

Prior to starting her PhD in 2019, Sally worked in the third sector for 15 years as Director of an NGO, AfriKids, for 12 years and latterly in grant-making roles. She is looking at leadership practice in asylum seeker and refugee charities, and she is now also a trustee for two charities alongside her research. Sally holds a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2002-05, and an MSc in Development Management from the OU in 2007-10.

Nicola asks if companies ‘spend more to spill more’?

Nicola Croxton

PhD graduate Nicola Croxton has discussed her research looking at how firms use their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity as a means to improve their overall performance. You can watch Nicola talk about her research and why she chose OUBS here.

She successfully passed her PhD viva in October 2020 with her thesis, ‘The internationalisation of corporate social responsibility: Nonmarket strategy in a global context’. The chair was Professor Jean Hartley, the external examiner was Professor Nicholas O’Regan (Aston Business School) and the internal examiner was Dr Richard Godfrey. Her supervisors were Professor Liz Daniel, Professor Devendra Kodwani and former OU academics Professor Thomas Lawton and Dr Raquel Garcia-Garcia.

Well done to Caroline on her successful viva

Caroline Micklewright

Congratulations to Caroline Micklewright who passed her PhD viva on Thursday 17 June 2021 with her thesis, ‘No Longer High Fliers? An Exploration of Discipline, Identities and Gender Issues while Navigating out of the RAF’. The panel was chaired by Dr Alex Bristow, the external examiner was Dr Sandra Corlett from Newcastle University and the internal examiner was Dr Richard Godfrey. Caroline, supervised by Dr Caroline Clarke and Dr Cinzia Priola, is working full-time with the Royal Air Force but applying for positions within academia or related fields.

Simona is highly commended in OU’s poster competition

A stock photo of brightly coloured square window panes with plants behind them

Simona Radu was one of four to be ‘highly commended’ in the People’s Choice (Poster) award, voted for by students and staff across the OU, in the Postgraduate Research Poster Competition on Wednesday 23 June 2021. Now in its 16th year, the annual competition recognises PhD and Professional Doctorate students’ academic excellence and contribution to the University’s research community. Further details on all the competition winners here.

SoCool Chinedu and his team win a fistful of dollars

Chinedu Nevo

Chinedu Nevo was part of the five-strong winning team, SoCool, in the Pan-African University (PAU) Innovation Challenge for their solar-powered refrigeration and water filtration system design for rural African communities. Chinedu from Nigeria shared $5,000 with other team members from Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Uganda, who were all students of the PAU’s Institute for Water and Energy Sciences including climate change (PAUWES) in Algeria in 2019.

There were 69 teams drawn from all over Africa and the PAU’s five institutes for this inaugural challenge initiated by the African Union Commission, co-organised by PAU and PAUWES and supported by GIZ and the African Development Bank. Projects ranged from agriculture to manufacturing, renewable energy to trade and retail, platform and apps to other services. All participants were coached and trained online by experts of the German consultancy company Conoscope, in collaboration with GIZ and PAU.

Chinedu is a renewable energy, climate change and sustainability enthusiast with a background in economics and energy policy who sings and listens to classical music in his spare time. Supervised by Dr Charles Mbalyohere and Professor Devendra Kodwani, he said: “My research focuses on renewable energy start-ups in African emerging markets and how they efficiently explore their resources and dynamic capabilities in their configuration of their market entry and adaptation strategies, especially given the complex institutional and business environment that they operate within.”

Our PhD students shine at this year’s virtual Colloquium

The Faculty of Business and Law’s virtual PhD Colloquium was attended by around 60 doctoral students and academics on Thursday 10 June 2021. It began with a montage of videos and photographs illustrating the myriad ways PhD students have been trying to stay well and happy throughout the pandemic – ranging from spending time with family and in nature, to activities including skipping and wood chopping. This was followed by a thought-provoking keynote from Jamie Callahan (Professor of Leadership and Human Resource Development, Northumbria University) on rankings and publishing in the journal she co-edits, International Journal of Management Reviews.

Then 35 PhD students presented their research using a variety of formats including paper presentations, lightning talks, and posters. Later in the day, there was also a chance to hear from two recent graduates, Dr Daniel Haslam and Dr Akash Puranik.

New to their posts Professor Hakeem Yusuf (Head of the Law School) and Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos (Associate Dean for Research, Enterprise and Scholarship) judged the Best Presentation competition with Stephen Reid winning for ‘How to cook a thousand research articles in one pot’. Leona Samuda and Sally Vivyan were also highly commended.

The organising committee were Laura Reeves, Alex Murray, Nishant Beniwal, Olga Solovyeva, Nargis McCarthy, Professor Emma Bell and Dr Alex Bristow, with fantastic support from Research and Enterprise Coordinators Lin Nilsen and Michelle Stevens.

OUBS PhD graduate marks Refugee Week

Marco Distinto

Marco Distinto, an Open University Business School PhD graduate, marked the beginning of Refugee Week 2021 by discussing his PhD research, which looks at the human stories behind the 2015 refugee crisis in Italy.

As a migrant from the South of Italy, Marco wanted to challenge current ideological discourses around migration by sharing the real stories of migrants and the people who support them.

His thesis ‘Refugee reception centres and the integration of the migrant: an exploratory study of discourses and practices of not-for-profit organizations working to support refugees in Italy’, was supervised by Dr Cinzia Priola, Dr Alexandra Bristow and former OU academic Professor Peter Bloom. Marco passed his PhD viva with no corrections on 21 October 2020.

You can listen to Marco talking about his research in more detail here.

Well done to Cristina on her viva success

Cristina Mititelu

Congratulations to Cristina Mititelu who passed her PhD viva on 7 May 2021 with her thesis, ‘The commissioning for social value and voluntary sector organizations: tensions in implementation’. The panel was chaired by Prof Les Budd, the external examiner was Prof Joyce Liddle (Northumbria University) and the internal examiner was Dr Francesca Calo. Cristina’s supervisors are Dr Alessandro Sancino, Prof Edoardo Ongaro and Prof Siv Vangen. She plans to attend the International Society for Third-Sector Research conference in July to present a paper based on the findings of her PhD, and also intends to submit a paper for publication to a journal based on her thesis findings.

Academy of Management recognition for Jeanette

Image of Jeanette Hartley

Congratulations to Jeanette Hartley who has had a paper accepted for the virtual 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM) on 29 July – 4 August this year. Her paper, ‘Management Consultants Navigating Competing Systems of Engagement’, was judged by AOM’s reviewers to be one of the best accepted papers in the programme. This entitles the paper to be published in the Proceedings of the 2021 Academy of Management Meeting.

Jeanette is a full-time PhD student who is supervised by Professor Richard Holti and Dr Giacomo Carli and is also an Associate Lecturer (B207: Shaping Business Opportunities).

New Director of FBL’s Research Degrees Programme

Image of Nicoleta Tipi

The new Director of the FBL Research Degrees Programme is Dr Nicoleta Tipi who will work with incumbent Prof Emma Bell over the next few months before taking up her role on 1 August 2021. The Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain in the OU Business School was appointed following interviews at the end of February. Prior to joining the OU in October 2020, Nicoleta gained extensive experience with all aspects relevant to the role, working with students and colleagues across different discipline areas including management, leadership, law, accounting and marketing. She was Deputy Director of Graduate Education for the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Huddersfield for five years.

Viva success for Akash

Akash Puranik

Congratulations to Akash Puranik who passed his viva with very minor corrections on Wednesday 10 March 2021 with his thesis, ‘The Human Work of Collaboration: Towards an Understanding of Informal Unstructured Collaborative Projects’. The panel was chaired by Dr Anja Schaefer, the internal examiner was Dr Nik Winchester and the external examiner was Dr Christina Schwabenland (University of Bedfordshire). Akash’s supervisors are Prof Siv Vangen and Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis.

Online induction for students recruited in another successful call

Screenshot of the new PhD students on a zoom video call

Nine new PhD students started in the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) on Monday 1 February 2021. This is the second group of students to have received their induction online and started their studies remotely while the Milton Keynes campus remains closed due to Covid-19. Current PhD student Olga Solovyeva captured efforts to welcome them into the online PhD community during the induction! Many of the students recruited in this round had responded to the highly successful Faculty-themed call, ‘Responding to COVID-19 and the Climate Emergency’. This call featured PhD research projects that consider the organisational and legal challenges posed by the pandemic and/or the climate emergency – urgent, complex societal problems that management, business and legal researchers can help to address.

Suzzie Aidoo, supervised by Dr Michael Ngoasong and Dr Aqueel Wahga – ‘Entrepreneurial orientation, network resource acquisitions, firm performance: a study among female-owned SMEs’.
Ioana Bratu, supervised by Dr Robert Herian, Dr Charles Barthold and Dr Clare Jones – ‘Technological power as a new legal order’.
Dimitri Kennedy, supervised by Dr Xia Zhu and Prof Elizabeth Daniel – ‘Servicescape: The impact of environmental and social design on students’ exploration, behaviour and wellbeing pre and post Covid-19 (Exploring the reconfiguration of Eduscape Post Covid-19)’.
Gavin Myers, supervised by Prof Siv Vangen and Dr Daniel Haslam – ‘Migration, identity and community: Finding common ground in a foreign country: Diasporic identities as a basis for inter-organizational collaboration in Caribbean charities in London, United Kingdom as a response to the dislocations’.
Chinedu Nevo, supervised by Dr Charles Mbalyohere and Prof Dev Kodwani – ‘New Frontiers on the Rise: Dynamics and Trends in the Renewable Energy Entrepreneurship in Africa’.
Amna Sarwer, supervised by Dr Charles Barthold and Dr Cinzia Priola – ‘Financialization, Migrant Women Workers in Social Care and COVID-19: A Crisis Within Crisis’.
Kalie Weninger, supervised by Dr Nela Smolovic Jones and Dr Nik Winchester – ‘Democratic Practices to Address the Climate Crisis’.
Samantha Hawtin, supervised by Prof Mark Fenton-O’Creevy and Dr Caroline Clarke – ‘A gendered exploration of the uncertainty experienced by managers working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic’.
Clark McAllister, supervised by Dr Nela Smolovic Jones and Dr Jamie Woodcock – ‘A Workers’ Inquiry into Seasonal Agricultural Labour in the UK’.

Dave’s viva success is now a Shaw thing

Dave Shaw with Jessie the dog

Congratulations to Dave Shaw who passed his PhD viva on 9 December 2020 with his thesis, ‘How can the creation and maintenance of partnerships contribute to national social marketing campaigns in England?’ Supervised by Dr Fiona Harris and Dr Haider Ali, the external examiner was Dr Christine Domegan (JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics, National University of Ireland) and the internal examiner was Prof Edoardo Ongaro. Dave (pictured with his dog Jessie) is currently working full-time as a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Hertfordshire. He plans to ‘take a holiday’ before starting on the thesis edits and he is hoping to publish some journal articles from the PhD, something the examiners encouraged.

Viva success for Michela

Congratulations to Michela Pagani who passed her PhD viva on 6 November 2020 with her thesis, ‘City Leaders, Relationships and Urban Resilience. A Mixed Methods exploratory study of the City Leadership Network of Padua (Italy) and Peterborough (UK)’. The panel was chaired by Dr Owain Smolovic Jones, the external examiner was Prof Richard Bolden (University of the West of England) and the internal examiner was Prof Edoardo Ongaro. Michela’s supervisors are Prof Les Budd and Dr Alessandro Sancino and she is now looking for jobs, beyond academia, in Italy while finishing her academic projects and papers.

Well done to two aspiring academics – Nicola and Marco

Nicola Croxton

Congratulations to Nicola Croxton who passed her PhD viva on 13 October 2020 with her thesis, ‘The internationalisation of corporate social responsibility: Nonmarket strategy in a global context’. Her supervisors are Prof Liz Daniel, Prof Dev Kodwani and former OU academics Prof Thomas Lawton and Dr Raquel Garcia-Garcia. The chair was Prof Jean Hartley, the external examiner was Prof Nicholas O’Regan (Aston Business School) and the internal examiner was Dr Richard Godfrey. Nicola is looking for opportunities to begin her academic career and hoping to build on her research interests. She is currently preparing two articles, that are being developed from her doctoral thesis, to submit for publication.

Marco Distinto

Congratulations also to Marco Distinto who passed his PhD viva with no corrections on 21 October 2020. His thesis is ‘Refugee reception centres and the integration of the migrant: an exploratory study of discourses and practices of not-for-profit organizations working to support refugees in Italy’, supervised by Dr Cinzia Priola, Dr Alexandra Bristow and former OU academic Prof Peter Bloom. The chair was Dr Caroline Clarke, external examiner Dr Martyna Sliwa (University of Essex) and the internal examiner Prof Jo Brewis who each commended the significant theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions of his thesis, and recognised the sophisticated theoretical engagement of his work. Marco is currently working on the Italian version of the latest edition of Edgar and Peter Schein’s book, The corporate culture survival guide. He hopes to stay in academia and will be writing a series of papers to expand some of his research themes for this reason.

A perfect 10 join our two schools

New PhD students smiling during an online meeting

Ten new PhD students started their studies in FBL on 1 October 2020 with their induction to The Open University Graduate School and the Faculty delivered online.

Seven of these new students joined the Business School:

George Briley – ‘Community and Urban Resistance Leadership’. Supervisors are Dr Jamie Woodcock and Dr Owain Smolovic Jones. This project is enabled by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership on the ‘leadership and governance’ pathway.

Richard Crompton – ‘An exploration into the implications of changing models of governance within health and social care insofar as they relate to public trust’. Supervisors are Dr Jacqueline Baxter and Dr Matthew Hinton.

Kora Korzec – ‘Social marketing in combating climate change’. Supervisors are Prof Gordon Liu and Dr Carmen Mal.

Nargis McCarthy – ‘The impact of social norms, values and beliefs of pension trustees in relation to SRI decision-making’. Supervisors are Dr Anwar Halari and Dr Matthew Haigh.

Tim Pitts – ‘The older worker’. Supervisors are Dr Leah Tomkins and Dr Richard Godfrey.

Cameron Vanloo – ‘The sustainable growth of esports clubs and leagues’. Supervisors are Dr Yue Meng-Lewis and Prof Gordon Liu.

Christopher Houghton – ‘Defining a capitals approach to evaluating the socio-economic benefits of space exploration’. Supervisors are Prof Les Budd, together with OU colleagues Dr Victoria Pearson and Dr Manish Patel (both STEM). Christopher is a student on the Astrobiology Research Group project ‘Are we alone in the Universe?’ as part of the OU’s £6.7 million grant from Research England which aims to help address fundamental questions about life beyond the Earth.

Three new students have joined the Law School:

Nishant Beniwal – ‘Enforcing climate change domestically in South Asia, relying internationally’. Supervisors are Dr Robert Palmer, Dr Marjan Ajevski and Prof Dev Kodwani.

Iyan Kolawole – ‘A Critical Analysis of Italy’s Responsibility under International Human Rights Law: A case study of pull-back measures and the arbitrary detention of refugees in Libya’. Supervisors are Dr Neil Graffin and Dr Andrew Gilbert and OU colleague Dr Avi Boukli (FASS).

Cheryl Warden – ‘Digital rights management and regime-shifting: the implication of backdoor propertization of creative works in digital copyright law for digital distance learning’. Supervisors are Dr Kim Barker and Dr Olga Jurasz.

Lindsay joins the magnificent seven research award winners

Image of Lindsay Wilson-Jones

Lindsay Wilson-Jones has won a research award from the Association of Open University Graduates (AOUG). The AOUG Vice-Chancellor Brenda Gourley Award for Business Studies is named in honour of the OU’s Vice-Chancellor from 2002-09 who was previously in charge at one of South Africa’s largest universities, the University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).

The Association’s own charity, the AOUG Foundation for Education, offers an award every year in several OU curriculum areas to an outstanding research student who has previously gained their degree with the OU. Lindsay is one of seven winners chosen by the charity’s directors / trustees following her nomination by Prof Emma Bell, FBL’s Director of Research Degrees.

The full-time PhD student previously held senior management HR roles in both the corporate and public sectors in South Africa, and in professional legal services in the UK. She holds BSc and MSc degrees in Psychology, together with a Master of Research (MRes) in Business and Law (2017), from the OU. Lindsay’s empirical research is aiming to open the ‘black box’ of board leadership in one UK voluntary sector federation. She draws on her personal experience of top teams in different cultural settings to explore the everyday realities of federated board leadership and governance.

A current Business School academic, Dr Charles Mbalyohere, was a previous winner of this particular AOUG award in 2015 for his research in corporate political activity in Uganda’s electricity industry. This year’s presentations have been moved to February 2021 owing to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and should attract many OU dignitaries and AOUG members.

Funded PhD studentships available for February 2021 start date

Image of man making notes at a desk

The Business and Law Schools invite applications for a number of full-time funded PhD studentships on urgent, complex societal problems that management, business and legal researchers can help to address. A themed call of ‘Responding to COVID-19 and the Climate Emergency’ has a start date of 1 February 2021 – more here. Twelve PhD research proposals consider the organisational and legal challenges posed by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and/or the climate emergency. The closing date for applications is Monday 7 September – and should be based on one of the advertised projects.

Viva success for Davide

Davide Villani

Congratulations to Davide Villani who passed his PhD viva on Monday 15 June with his thesis, ‘The Rise of the Corporate Sector as Net Creditor: Financialisation and Functional Income Distribution in the G7 Countries’. His supervisors are Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos and OU colleague Dr Andrew Trigg. The panel was chaired by Dr Leslie Budd, with Prof Jan Toporowski (SOAS, University of London) as external examiner and OU colleague Dr Roberto Simonetti as the internal examiner. Davide is currently writing some papers with a longer-term goal of securing a permanent academic post.

Nela shortlisted for prestigious doctoral dissertation award

Nela Smolović Jones

Nela Smolović Jones, a former PhD student who is now a Lecturer in Organisation Studies at The Open University Business School, has been shortlisted for the Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award.

This is supported by the Journal of Management Studies, the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS) and the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS).

A 13-person shortlist will be published on the SAMS website with the final three presenting their work at this year’s online EGOS Colloquium before a panel determines the winner.

Katy contributes to a ground-breaking publication

Image of Katy Woodger

Katy Woodger is a contributing writer to a ground-breaking book for the field of therapy, in which therapists talk about their own lived experiences. ‘#MeToo – Counsellors and psychotherapists speak about sexual violence and abuse’ had a virtual launch on Thursday 14 May – more here.

She said: “This wasn’t the first time I had ‘gone public’ speaking about my experiences of childhood sexual violence and abuse. In 2015, I featured in a BBC One documentary, Abused: the untold story, in part following the process of taking my abuser to court. It might seem surprising to hear that I consider myself a private person but over the years, I’ve come to see the importance of the unique perspective I can offer as a therapist with lived experience of this difficult subject.

“Within the psychological therapies field, there is a culture that discourages therapists from speaking about their own emotional and psychological distress and this action places the profession at odds with the very principles it seeks to promote. Fortunately, this is changing and evident through the publication of this book.

“Counselling and psychotherapy are beginning to recognise #TherapistsToo are affected by sexual violence and abuse and indeed are not immune to the trauma, distress and suffering caused by it. This pivotal point is made by 28 contributors across the pages of this wonderful book – I’m extremely proud to say that I’m one of them.”

Katy joined in October 2019 as one of two researchers (together with Edward Rees) to have been awarded UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) studentships. She won hers from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership, to work on her ‘Experiences of mental health service users: from self-management and self-governance to user-led services’ project.

Congratulations to Daniel on his viva success

Daniel Haslam

Daniel Haslam passed his PhD viva on Thursday 7 May with his thesis, ‘The Role of the Voluntary Sector in Cross-Sector Collaboration: An NHS Multispecialty Community Provider’. His supervisors are Siv Vangen, Carol Jacklin-Jarvis and James Rees. The chair of the PhD viva was Jo Brewis, external examiner was Dr Irene Hardill (Northumbria University) and internal examiner was Michael Ngoasong.

Daniel is currently a part-time Research Associate in the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL). He is working with Director Carol Jacklin-Jarvis to investigate the response of the voluntary sector to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and also on CVSL’s activities for Small Charity Week (15-20 June).

Study seeking volunteers who are working with endometriosis

Image of Victoria Williams

Victoria Williams is appealing for volunteers over the next year to study the experiences of those working with endometriosis and the influence of menstrual policy.

This is a subject close to her own heart as someone who suffers with endometriosis, a chronic condition affecting one and a half million women in the UK, predominantly of working age. Last year, her work was referenced in a Parliamentary debate and she was also one of the speakers at TEDxOpenUniversity as well as a Business Network Breakfast Briefing.

Victoria said: “As part of this longitudinal study, I am looking for 15-20 people aged 18-49 with medically diagnosed endometriosis. I want the sample to be as diverse as possible to reflect the community and different working sectors across the UK.”

A first interview will take place in the coming months, followed by a diary study over the winter, and then a second interview in spring 2021. Please contact Victoria if you want more information and to note your interest. See the full details here.

Prof Jo Brewis, one of Vickie’s PhD supervisors, was due to chair a panel of experts and fellow endometriosis sufferers at an awareness event on campus in Milton Keynes in March. Unfortunately the ‘Managing Endometriosis at Work’ (#EndoWorkTaboo) work was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a new date yet to be set.

Carlos adds his views on the private versus state debate

Image of Carlos Azevedo

Carlos Azevedo was invited to write a blog post for Private School Policy Reform (PSPR) – available here. This is a volunteer-run organisation whose purpose is to further the public debate around private schools in the UK, as a platform for research, opinion and panel debates.

PSPR is pro-reform of the private school sector, on the grounds that poor and disadvantaged pupils should be able to access the same quality of education and level of resources as their wealthiest peers. Francis Green (Professor of Work and Education Economics at UCL Institute of Education), co-author of ‘Engines of Privilege: Britain’s Private School Problem’, is one of the founders of PSPR and its research lead.

Congratulations to Gauri on viva success

Gauri Misra

Gauri Misra passed her PhD viva on 1 April with her thesis, ‘Exploring the Role of Private Sector in Development – Multi-national Corporations and Product Innovations for the Bottom of the Pyramid Consumers’.

Her supervisors are Dr Morteza Abolhasani and OU colleagues Dr Dinar Kale, Prof Theo Papaioannou and Dr Andrew Lindridge. The panel was chaired by Dr Peter Robbins, external examiner was Prof Mark Tadajewski (Royal Holloway, University of London, and University of York) and the internal examiner was Prof Hazel Johnson. Gauri is actively looking for opportunities to engage with research and teaching in academia as well as planning on disseminating her research through publications.

Congratulations to Gemma on viva success

Image of Gemma Bend

Gemma Bend passed her PhD viva on 31 March with her thesis, ‘Under Pressure to Be ‘Normal’: An Exploration of the Material-Discursive Practices that Affect the Experience of ‘Gender’ and ‘Disability’ in Employment’.

Her supervisors are Dr Cinzia Priola, Dr Charles Barthold and Dr Peter Bloom. The panel was chaired by Prof Richard Holti, external examiner was Prof Kate Sang (Heriot-Watt University) and the internal examiner was Prof Emma Bell. Gemma will be working with some OU colleagues on a small research project before looking for a job while completing her corrections.

Viva success for Gidraph

Congratulations to Gidraph Michuki who passed his PhD viva on Wednesday 18 March for his thesis, ‘Consumer Tribes Versus Traditional Tribes that Consume: An Investigation into Tribesmen-constituted Collectives in Kenya’.

His supervisors were Dr Bjorn Claes and Dr Morteza Abolhasani, with external supervision from Dr Tim Butcher and Dr Andrew Lindridge. The external examiner was Prof Mark Tadajeweski (University of York) and the internal examiner was Dr Fiona Harris.

Half a dozen of the best – welcome to our new PhD students

2020 PhD students

Six new PhD students (shown with some of our current students) have been welcomed into the Faculty, having started their studies on 1 February 2020.

This includes three students who have joined as part of the ‘Organizational and legal responses to climate change’ research initiative:

Fulvio Scognamiglio – ‘Sustainable cities through the New Public Governance. Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in a wicked world’. Supervisors are Dr Alessandro Sancino and Dr Les Budd.

Princess Anifowose – ‘The Agency of Social Intrapreneurs within emergent sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: A study of firms in Lagos, Nigeria’. Supervisors are Dr Wenjin Dai and Prof Richard Blundel.

Zaineb Bouharda – ‘Investigating how governments use social marketing to reduce carbon footprint’. Supervisors are Dr Fiona Harris and Prof Gordon Liu.

These projects will bring a fresh perspective on the challenge of addressing the climate change and related environmental crises by exploring innovative organisational and socio-legal responses. They will also support interdisciplinary collaboration with other faculties and provide a focus for research, teaching and engagement activities in this area.

Other PhD research projects are:

Simona Radu – ‘E-health services: the intervention of digital technology on consumers’ health experience and wellbeing’. Supervisors are Dr Xia Zhu and Prof Liz Daniel.

Olga Solovyeva – ‘Populist leadership in organisational context; the case of Crimea annexation and its influence on Russian business culture’. Supervisors are Dr Alex Bristow, Dr Owain Smolovic Jones and Prof Emma Bell.

Also welcome to Scott Steele, an FBL student on the AstrobiologyOU research group project, Are we alone in the Universe? This is part of the recent £6.7 million grant from Research England which aims to help address fundamental questions about life beyond the Earth. Based in STEM’s School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Scott’s project is ‘The future of the COSPAR Planetary Protection Guidelines: Space Governance and Astrobiology’. His supervisors are Suzanne Schwenzer (STEM) and Prof Simon Lee.

Viva success for Linna

Congratulations to Linna Sai who passed her viva with minor corrections in November 2019 and has now been awarded her PhD. Her thesis title was ‘Understanding ambivalence as an emotional response to organisation change under New Public Management: A study of English housing associations’ and her supervisors were Emma Bell and Cristina Quinones. The external examiner was Professor John McCauley from Sheffield Hallam University, the internal examiner was Mark Fenton-O’Creevy and the viva was chaired by Jo Brewis. Linna has been appointed as a lecturer at Huddersfield Business School.

Well done to Ketty on viva success

Congratulations to Ketty Grishikashvili who, following her viva in the spring, was awarded her PhD in November 2019. Her thesis title was ‘Capabilities for Big Data: An Empirical Study in the Global Pharmaceutical Company’, with supervisors Professor Liz Daniel and Dr Giacomo Carli. The panel chair was Professor Richard Holti, the external examiner was Professor Ashley Braganza from Brunel University and the internal examiner was Professor Gordon Liu. Since May, Ketty has been working as a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at the University of Hertfordshire Business School.

Viva success for both Ariane and Richmond

Congratulations to Ariane Hillig who passed her PhD viva on 3 September 2019 with her thesis titled ‘Everyday Financialization: The case of UK Households’. The supervisors were Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos and OU colleague Andrew Trigg, the external examiner was Professor Gary Dymski from Leeds University Business School, chair was Dr Les Budd and the internal examiner was Dr Matthew Haigh. Ariane now works at Goldsmiths, University of London, as a Lecturer in Economics.

And congratulations to Richmond Lamptey who has been recommended for the award of a PhD following his successful viva on 15 October 2019. His thesis was titled ‘The Influences of Bank-Based and Capital Market-Based Impact Investments on SME Financing in Ghana: Governance, Strategy Change and Impacts’. His lead supervisor is Dr Michael Ngoasong and second supervisor is Professor Richard Blundel who took over from Dr Silvia Sachetti in 2017. The external examiner was Professor Paul Robson (Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Royal Holloway, University of London). Dr Carolin Decker-Lange was internal examiner and the viva was chaired by Professor Mark Fenton-O’Creevy.

Researcher is one of the TEDxOpenUniversity speakers

Vickie Williams

PhD student Victoria ‘Vickie’ Williams is one of the speakers for the prestigious TEDxOpenUniversity event on campus in Milton Keynes on Friday 8 November 2019. You can watch the talks remotely, or catch the recordings afterwards, if you were not successful in the ballot to secure a ticket. The full list of speakers is available here. Vickie is researching the experience of endometriosis in the workplace and the influence of menstrual policy, organising workshops and retreats to support people living with the condition. She previously spent seven years working in the digital industry while living with this invisible condition after completing a BSc at King’s College London.

Welcome to the October PhD student intake

2019 PhD Students

Nine new doctoral students – seven in the Business School and two in the Law School – joined in October 2019. This includes two students who are being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), respectively.

In DPO, Chaka Bachman is investigating global LGBT equality in multinational companies, supervised by Professor Jo Brewis and Dr Cinzia Priola. Serena Cavalera’s PhD project is on ‘Gender Performativity within Underground Heavy Metal’, supervised by Dr Caroline Clarke, Professor Jo Brewis and Dr Nela Smolovic Jones. Audrey Joseph’s PhD will be based on a qualitative analysis of black female entrepreneurs in the British childcare sector, supervised by Dr Cinzia Priola and Dr Charles Barthold.

Katy Woodger, funded by the ESRC, will be supervised by Dr Charles Barthold and OU colleague Dr David Jones in FASS, together with Professor Steve Brown (Nottingham Trent) as external supervisor, on a project to explore the ‘Experiences of mental health service users’.

Based in PuLSE, Stephen Reid will be studying ‘Strategic Management in Government Agencies’, supervised by Professor George Frynas, Professor Edoardo Ongaro and Dr Alessandro Sancino.

In DAF, Demetrios Pachnis is studying ‘The rise of ‘platform’ companies and their role in value creation, business concentration and investment’, supervised by Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos and Dr Daniele Tori. And Pradeep Debata will be studying the financing of infrastructure projects in the UK, supervised by Professor Ali Ataullah and Professor Dev Kodwani.

In the Law School, our student funded by the AHRC, Edward Rees, will be studying ‘The 1836 Prisoners’ Counsel Act’, supervised by Dr Caroline Derry and Hugh McFaul. Student Experience Manager Allison Wolfreys is investigating ‘The Child’s Voice in Mediated Child Abduction (Private Family Law)’, supervised by Professors Simon Lee and Eddie Abbott-Halpin, together with Professor Helen Stalford (Liverpool) as external supervisor.

Viva success for Olga

Olga Andrianova

Congratulations to Olga Andrianova who passed her PhD viva with a thesis entitled ‘Employee Engagement in Corporate Greening: A Study of Front-Line Managers in Belarusian Companies’ on 22 August. Olga’s supervisors were Dr Diane Preston, Dr Owain Smolovic Jones and Dr Anja Schaefer. The internal examiner was Dr Jacqueline Baxter and the external examiner was Dr Simon Brooks. Olga has joined the University of Exeter as an Industrial Impact Fellow.

Best paper presentation awards go to Jo and Akash

Jo Vincett and Akash Puranik won two of the four awards to doctoral students for best paper presentations at the 14th Annual Ethnography Symposium. Our doctoral students received £200 each, sponsored by Palgrave Macmillan and Routledge, at this year’s conference which had the theme of ‘Seeing, Sensing and Following’. In keeping with this theme, Jo (from the Department for People and Organisations, DPO), presented her research project, which uses novel means of dissemination of ethnographic data: capturing the emotive, tactile and often intangible aspects of immigration detainees’ lived experiences with the use of origami art and illustrative non-fiction comics.

Akash (from the Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise, PuLSE) also presented a paper that speaks of the disorder, mess and chaos within the ethnographic fieldwork, challenging the ‘a priori’ assumptions regarding the importance of order in research methods. The 2019 conference at the University of Portsmouth aimed to bring together ethnographers from different disciplines who engage in wide forms of ethnographic research, particularly focusing on the richness and diversity of methods used in research.

Say hello to Visiting PhD student Ida from Finland

Ida Okkonen

Welcome to Ida Okkonen, a Visiting PhD student from Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics in Finland, who will be spending the next six months in the Faculty. Ida, who will be based in the Department for People and Organisations (DPO) from September 2019 until the end of February 2020, looks forward to meeting everyone in the Faculty during her visit.

She graduated with a BSc in Kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 2011, and went on to Masters study (Kinesiology, and Business and Economics) at the University of Jyväskylä. Her PhD project is a qualitative study of the refugee crisis which focuses on the ethical dilemmas experienced by managers in reception centres for asylum seekers, and how they cope with them. Ida, who is doing a PhD by publication with her first article published in the journal Ethics and Social Welfare, is currently interested in moral emotions and agency.

Jo’s article is a gem in Emerald Literati Awards

Jo Vincett has won the Outstanding Paper in the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards for her article which was published in the Journal of Organizational Ethnography. These prestigious awards have celebrated and rewarded the outstanding contributions of authors and reviewers to scholarly research for more than 25 years. Her award-winning article, ‘Researcher self-care in organizational ethnography: lessons from overcoming compassion fatigue’, has now been made freely available for the next 12 months by Emerald Publishing.

New teaching scheme launches as part of fresh role

Dr Alexandra Bristow is leading on a new teaching scheme which will allow the Faculty’s PhD students to develop their teaching skills and experience and so improve their future employability. This exciting initiative starting in October 2019 aims to provide a structured approach to training PhD students in distance learning provision, giving them a distinct set of skills in the academic job market.

Dr Bristow has been appointed as Deputy Director of the Research Degrees Programme, as of 1 October. Professor Emma Bell is Director of the Research Degrees Programme.

Congratulations to Vickie on her poster competition success

Vickie Williams

Vickie Williams won the Best Poster and the People’s Choice of Poster at the OU Graduate School's Poster Competition on 11 June 2019.

This was for her poster and research work on – ‘RED AGENDA. The Invisible & Invasive Nature of Endometriosis at Work’.

Vickie is being supervised by Professor Jo Brewis and Dr Cinzia Priola as well as Professor Kate Sang from Heriot-Watt University.

Celebration time for both Andres and Graeme

Congratulations to Andres Morales-Pachon who passed his PhD viva on ‘Indigenous-Hybrid organisations in Columbia – a multi-level analysis within the ‘Buen Vivir’ model’. His supervisors are Dr Michael Ngoasong and OU colleague Roger Spear (Professor of Social Entrepreneurship). The external examiner was Professor Lars Halgard from Roskilde University in Denmark and the internal examiner was Professor Richard Blundel.

Also congratulations to Graeme Smith who passed his PhD viva on ‘Godley’s Macroeconomic Ratios: An Empirical Investigation into Stock-Flow Norms’. His supervisors are Dr Dimitris Sotiropoulos and OU colleague Andrew Trigg (Senior Lecturer in Economics, FASS). The external examiner was Professor Malcolm Sawyer from the University of Leeds and the internal examiner was OU colleague Roberto Simonetti (Senior Lecturer in Economics, FASS).

Richmond, Jose and Vickie shine at PhD Colloquium

The Faculty’s PhD Colloquium on 10 April 2019 saw an entertaining keynote from Professor Chris Grey of Royal Holloway University of London on his work on Brexit, plus 14 full paper presentations, 15 roundtable presentations and three posters!

Richmond Lamptey won the Best Full Paper Award; Jose Fevereiro won the Best Roundtable Presentation Award; and Vickie Williams won the Best Poster Award.

The organising committee (pictured) of Laura Reeves, Kweku Arthur-Annobil and Elena Tudosie put the event together, as well as presenting papers of their own, with fantastic support from Research and Enterprise Coordinator Lin Nilsen.

Edward and Katy awarded UK Research and Innovation studentships

The Faculty will be welcoming two PhD students in October 2019 who have been awarded UK Research and Innovation studentships.

Edward Rees won his studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership, which is accepting students for the first time this year. His PhD project is entitled ‘The 1836 Prisoners’ Counsel Act: the pursuit of truth?’ and he is due to be supervised by the Law School’s Dr Caroline Derry and Dr Anne Wesemann, as well as a colleague from History.

Katy Woodger, who won her studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership, will be working on a project entitled ‘Experiences of mental health service users: from self-management and self-governance to user-led services’. The pathway that Katy applied for is also new this year, and her supervisors are due to be Professor Steve Brown and Dr Charles Barthold from the Department for People and Organisations (DPO).

Viva success for Nela

Nela Smolović Jones

Congratulations to Nela Smolović Jones who has been recommended for the award of a PhD without errors, corrections or amendments following her viva in March 2019. The title of Nela’s thesis is ‘Performative democratic practice: an ethnographic study of the Women’s Rights Centre in Montenegro’. She was supervised by Dr Nik Winchester and Dr Caroline Clarke and her examiners were Professor Jo Brewis (internal) and Professor Torkild Thanem from Stockholm University, Sweden. Nela now holds a lectureship in organisation studies in the Faculty.

Hello to our new PhD research students – The Magnificent Seven!

Seven new PhD students have been encouraged to play an active role in the Faculty, such as attending departmental seminars and meetings, after beginning their studies on Friday 1 February 2019.

The Department for People and Organisations (DPO) has three new students. Seth Hunter will be focusing on service user engagement with grassroots spaces of recovery (supervisors Professor Steve Brown and Dr Tim Butcher, and Professor Paula Reavey from London South Bank University). Rachel Waddingham, better known as Rai, will be focusing on leadership and strategy in alternative organising for mental health (supervisors Professor Steve Brown and Dr Charles Barthold, and Professor Paula Reavey). Vickie Williams will be focusing on the influence of organisational menstrual policies on women with endometriosis (supervisors Professor Jo Brewis and Dr Cinzia Priola, and Professor Kate Sang from Heriot-Watt University).

PuLSE’s Gizem Kutlu (supervised by Dr Aqueel Wahga and Professor Michael Ngoasong) will be studying the influence of gender on environmental entrepreneurship. Sally Vivyan (supervised by Dr Carol Jacklin-Jarvis, Dr Nik Winchester and Dr James Rees) will be exploring voluntary sector leadership in small and medium-sized UK charities.

In the Law School, Simon Pratt will be supervised by Dr Robert Herian and Dr Caroline Derry and his focus will be on legal history. Leona Samuda is exploring women and ethnic minorities in modern law (supervisors are Dr Emma Jones and Dr Caroline Derry).

Tam wins Best Student Paper accolade in Antwerp

Tam Nguyen

Tam Nguyen (pictured, centre) won the Best Student Paper award at the 2018 European Social Marketing Conference in Antwerp, Belgium. Her paper, ‘One Financial Education Intervention, Two Performances, What Happened?’, discussed True Potential PUFin’s short course, ‘Managing My Money’ to explain why one financial education intervention does not always offer repeated performance through the lens of social marketing.

Hello to our new PhD research students – they’re gr-eight!

PhD research students

Eight new PhD students have been encouraged to play an active role in the Faculty, such as attending departmental seminars and meetings, after beginning their studies on Monday 1 October 2018.

In the Business School, Awele Achi is investigating the construct and antecedents of social innovation with his research supervised by Professor Gordon Liu and Dr Fiona Harris (Strategy and Marketing). Located in the Department for People and Organisations, Kay Logan will be focusing on authentic leadership coaching for NHS leaders (supervisors Professor Richard Holti and Dr Owain Smolovic Jones). PuLSE’s Sampierre Mendy (supervised by Professor Edoardo Ongaro and Dr Alessandro Sancino) will be studying context in the strategic management of public organisations.

The Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) has recruited two part-time doctoral students. David Penney’s PhD title is ‘Tackling serious and organised crime: Processes, Challenges and Consequences of Prioritisation’ (supervised by Mark Roycroft, Lara Frumkin and Paul Mulholland). Nicole Woodhall’s area of interest is in ‘Incidence rate of indecent images of children in the UK and policing’s capacity to respond to the increasing threat’ (supervisors Heather Montgomery and Paul Walley).

In the Law School, Adedamola Gbolahan will be supervised by Dr Marjan Ajevski, Professor Simon Lee and Dr Olga Jurasz; her focus will be on measuring the quality of the international judiciary. Michael Lewis is exploring consent as a legitimising factor in processing personal data and ‘big data’ (supervisors are Professor Simon Lee and Dr Caroline Derry). Finally, Alex Murray’s PhD research builds on the themes of belonging and community and focuses on legal frameworks for dealing with chronic illness; this study will be supervised by Dr Caroline Derry and Dr Matthew Howard.

Seven of the eight (Michael Lewis was unable to attend) are shown with Emma Bell, Director of Research Degrees.

Carlos is big in Japan (..... and Estonia)!

Carlos Azevedo in the Department for People and Organisations (DPO) was awarded a full scholarship by the Australasian Caucus (ACSCOS) and Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism (SCOS) to present a paper based on his research. This was at the SCOS/ACSCOS Conference at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan, from 17-20 August 2018. The award was based on the abstract quality and alignment with the ‘Wabi-sabi (侘寂): Imperfection, incompleteness and impermanence in organizational life’ theme. Carlos is supervised by Dr Caroline Clarke and Dr Peter Bloom (DPO) and Dr Jacqueline Baxter (PuLSE).

Carlos and Marco Distinto also presented papers based on their respective ongoing doctoral research at the 34th EGOS Colloquium in Estonia’s capital Tallinn from 5-7 July 2018. Marco’s paper was entitled ‘Where do you go from here: Exploring meanings and practices of integration within an Italian refugee reception centre’, and Carlos’ paper was ‘Students as consumers: A surprisingly mundane metaphor for understanding complex realities?’ Both papers were well received by the academic community attending, Carlos’ paper nominated by the three convenors of his sub-theme for consideration for the ‘Best Student Paper EGOS 2018’ award.

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