Leadership, Education and Development

Enhancing local, national and international connections to co-create and capture the impact of leadership, education and development interventions within organisation contexts.

Our mission is to create, develop and inform leading–edge theories and practices by engaging in co-operative research initiatives and consultancy interventions. We seek to promote wide discussion and debate about leadership, education and development from a range of perspectives: individual, group and organisational.

Our expertise

We are a group of highly skilled and experienced staff with a broad range of knowledge, who not only have an established academic reputation but are also closely linked to industry and professional bodies. We are an inclusive group and benefit from the contribution of our: early career researchers, doctoral students, visiting research fellows and alumni.

We have a range of interests taking place within the following key areas:  

• Human resource development and leadership
• Leadership development
• Fair work
• Professional practice and education

Find out more about our areas of expertise, including our publications and research grants, by following the links below:

Our people

Visiting professors/research fellows

John Edmonstone is Director of MTDS, a leadership, management and organisation development consultancy with extensive experience within the public sector across the UK and internationally. He has undertaken successful work in the human resource management and organisation development fields in healthcare, local government and higher and further education, in such areas as clinical leadership, systems leadership, action learning, coaching and mentoring and evaluation. Author of nine books and over one hundred journal articles, he is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Action Learning: Research and Practice, Leadership in Health Services and the International Journal of Healthcare.

Mike Pedler is Emeritus Professor at Henley Business School, University of Reading. He is founding editor of the journal: Action Learning: Research and Practice and co-founder of the Centre for Action Learning Facilitation. He works and writes on action learning, self-development, leadership development and the learning organisation.

Kathryn Winterburn is founder and director of Winterburn Works Ltd., an organisation and leadership development consultancy based in Leeds. She is an advocate of experiential learning and reflexive practice and has successfully established communities of practice and learning networks that provide places of learning, inquiry, peer support, reflection and supervision. Kathryn is a member of a number of professional bodies including: the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, ODN Europe and EMCC. She is also a co-associate editor of the international Journal of Action Learning Research and Practice.

Our internal connections:

We have established links to other areas of the University involved in leadership, education and development research:

• Centre for Educational Research 
• Teaching and Learning Academy
• Innovations In Practice, journal

We also have established links to our external communities; co-creating and capturing the impact of leadership, education and development interventions within a business context. 

• University Forum for Human Resource Development
• British Academy of Management: Management Knowledge and Education (MKE) Initiative
• Action Learning: Research and Practice journal

Monthly research forums

We organise regular LEAD research forums creating a ‘safe’ space for dialogue, learning and fun. The forums are usually held on the last Wednesday of each month from 12.00pm – 2.00pm. They are open to all LEAD members and others who would welcome contributing to our research community.

To receive invitations to our forums please join our mailing by contacting Bernie Hobbs.

Future doctors

PhD students:

• Jason Bogh: Good game, well played: Exploring the lived experiences of professional eSports players in their careers
• Favour Evwerhamre: Work-life balance of female employees: a multi-factor analysis
• Maryam Kawser: To what extent is performance management enabling a better educational experience in the Pakistani secondary school sector?
• Bernadette McDonald: Reflective practice within clinical legal education (CLE)
• Bo Wen: A case study of enablers and barriers to knowledge sharing in a Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME)
• Omar AlKetbi: The impact of leadership on employees knowledge sharing in the General Secretariat of the Executive Council
• Wen Li: Perceptions of effective leadership development in a Chinese hotel

Doctorate in Business Administration students:

• Amna Al Hammadi: Shifting Mind Sets: Instils the new Abu Dhabi Government Framework Values
• Afra Alrashdi: A Comparative Study on the Achievement of Happiness Policy Implementation within Abu Dhabi Global Market and The Knowledge and Human Development Authority
• Catherine Bonser: Higher level apprenticeships in higher education: bridging the divide between education and work-based learning
• Jack O’ Farrell: The Dynamics Between Policy Creation and Policy Operationalization in Universities
• Supapada Phureepong: A critical analysis of the perceptions held by the fashion/designer community on the use of sex appeal in advertising luxury international brands in Thailand
• Gautam Rajkhowa: Internationalisation of Higher Education
• Amna Al Hammadi: Shifting Mind Sets: Instils the new Abu Dhabi Government Framework Values
• Afra Alrashdi: A Comparative Study on the Achievement of Happiness Policy Implementation within Abu Dhabi Global Market and The Knowledge and Human Development Authority

Contact us:

If you have any enquiries related to doctoral applications, research collaborations, consultancy projects or any related activities please contact Professor Jim Stewart or Dr Aileen Lawless.