Research Assistant and PhD student in Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour
Biography
Alex is a management and leadership scholar, specialising in organisational behaviour. As an undergraduate he studied Computing, and graduated with honours in 2004. In 2005 he joined the Department of Management at the University of Bath, where he earned an MSc in Management, and published his dissertation.
In 2006 he joined the IBM graduate development programme, and was employed as a Business Developer working in sales and marketing. Whilst managing a multi-million dollar contract he developed insights into multinational business systems, which built the conviction that management practice needs closer integration with management theory, so as to develop reflective practitioners. It was with IBM that he developed a passion for the study of leadership, which influenced his decision to undertake advanced study in a related field. He returned to academia in 2009 to undertake an MSc in Human Resources Management, and followed that with a PhD in Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour with a focus on leadership, which he started at the beginning of 2011.
Alex's passions are scuba diving, fitness training and long distance running. He is a qualified PADI Diving Instructor, and recently completed his first Ultra Marathon. He aspires to better this achievement by completing the Marathon des Sables |in 2014.
Research interests
Subject areas: Leadership Development, Intrapersonal Development & Social Psychology.
Within the discipline of organisational behaviour, Alex's research is concentrated on leadership development. He is examining leaders' psychologies, and how organisations develop leaders. The foci of his research into leaders' psychologies are self-awareness, self-regulation and self-motivation. He is interested in how these competencies affect leaders' performances. He is also researching leadership development systems and methods that organisations deploy to develop these competencies.
Consultancy / Engagement with Industry
Alex is a member of the Leverhulme Trust team|, which focusses on the study of innovation in organisations. Its objective is to generate new insights into the social psychological factors which effect innovation. The team offers advice to organisations concerning how their systems and leadership affect their production of innovative services and products.
Alex is also a member of the Executive Summer School |team, which is designed to improve participants' ability to conduct negotiations, not only by sharing current knowledge and research on negotiation but also by providing opportunities to practice and reflect on negotiating skills.
Supervisors
Recent publications
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Nairn, A. & Dew, A. (2006). 'Pop-ups, pop-unders, banners and buttons: The ethics of online advertising to primary school children.' Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice. Vol.9, No.1. pp. 30–46.