Professor Paul Joyce
Director of Liverpool Business School
Paul’s main professional interest is in the development of modern business education which makes the career prospects, the capability, and the employability of its graduates and postgraduates the top priorities. He thinks these priorities benefit from Liverpool Business School having very close contact with the business community and with professional bodies. Increasingly, these priorities are also delivered through the School’s international outlook and its range of international activity.
Paul strongly values Liverpool Business School’s tradition of creating a great learning environment through the approachability of its staff; this is reflected in students’ feeling that staff are friendly and personally care about supporting their individual learning. He is a keen supporter of the School’s sandwich courses, guest speakers, and work-based learning that underpin the practical relevance of courses, which is important alongside the long-standing interest in the academic credibility of the School’s research and consultancy.
Paul’s own personal expertise in research and consultancy is in public management, especially the management of reform and modernisation of the public sector, including developments in strategic management, leadership and change management.
He has written a number of widely used and well received texts covering these aspects of his research and consultancy, of which his more recent contributions are: Lessons in Leadership: Meeting the Challenges of Public Services Management (2005) with Eileen Milner, Strategy in the Public Sector: A guide to Effective Change Management (2000) and Strategic Management for the Public Services (1999).
Paul has also advised the UK Cabinet Office on the application of performance management to regulatory activities and worked as a consultant on projects for national and local governments.
Paul is a member of the Public Sector Management Development Steering Committee of European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). He is also Vice-Chair Teaching and Learning, Public Administration Committee (PAC) (part of Joint University Council).
Before joining LJMU, Paul had worked as an underwriter in the insurance industry and as a manager in the engineering sector before pursuing an academic career in higher education in London, Nottingham and now Liverpool. He interrupted his academic career to work as a senior manager in London local government, when he introduced management development programmes in partnership with HE and FE providers. In recent years he has worked on a number of consultancy projects for local and national governments in the areas of strategic management, performance management and professionalisation of HR.
