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At the Department of Leadership and Management, we believe that research excellence depends on the economic, psychological, social, political, and practical relevance of our research questions.
Recent projects:
Joel Montgomery
BA /Leverhulme Grant: Developing employability of refugees in the South East of England: Can local councils provide more assistance? £9,824.56.
Samantha Evans
BA /Leverhulme Grant: Addressing The Class Bias In Research On The Menopause – Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Menopausal Women In The Workplace. £8,624.81
The project aims to support women through menopause and organisations can benefit from increased engagement and loyalty, as well as lower sickness absence and employee turnover. With increased recognition that employee well-being is critical to improving employee engagement and performance, employers can only benefit if they support their employees through all stages of their working lives, including the menopause. It will also help remove barriers to progression for women, thus improving an organisation’s talent pipeline and helping to close the gender pay gap.
The project aims to raise awareness and providing information for all staff about the menopause is a good starting point. Conducting a review of existing policies and ensuring staff understand any legal implications, such as identifying reasonable adjustments. Enabling and supporting line managers to support their teams is critical as they are primarily responsible for the health and wellbeing of their team at work. Essentially, creating a culture where everyone can talk openly about health issues, such as the menopause, will go a long way to ‘breaking the bias’ and addressing gender inequality in the workplace.’
Maria Elisavet Balta
ESRC Building Resilience: How Conservation Agriculture Can Help Smallholder Women Farmers Adapt to Climate Change 2024-2027
Dr Maria Balta has been awarded as CI a research grant to explore how conservation agriculture can support smallholder women farmers to adapt to climate change. This collaborative project, involving the King’s College London, University of Kent, Surrey University and partners from Canada, Brazil, and Nigeria, is funded by the UKRI-ESRC (UK), NFRF (Canada), and FAPESP (Brazil) with a total budget of approximately $1.3 million.
Climate change poses serious risks to individuals and communities globally particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Nigeria and Brazil, where extreme weather events disrupt food systems and agricultural production. Smallholder women farmers in these regions are disproportionately affected due to their limited access to resources, making them particularly vulnerable. Conservation agriculture, a cost-effective and sustainable approach, has been recognized as a crucial strategy to build resilience against the adverse effects of climate change, helping these farmers adapt and thrive despite the challenges. The project uses a participatory action research approach to investigate how conservation agriculture can empower smallholder women farmers and mitigate climate-related risks to their (a) living standards, (b) food security, and (c) health. This approach involves the active participation of researchers, smallholder women farmers, policymakers, NGOs, practitioners, and business leaders throughout the research process. The goal is to co-create new evidence that addresses the specific needs of smallholder women farmers in LMICs. The project commenced in late 2024 and will run for 36 months, aiming to produce actionable insights and policies that strengthen climate adaptation efforts for vulnerable farming communities.
External Engagement
Together with our diverse portfolio of funded research projects, our collegial academic community fosters a vibrant and innovative atmosphere wherein impactful research can flourish. Members of the Department collaborate with a wide range of national and international partners and stakeholders, including business executives, industry leaders, government agencies, civil society, third-sector organisations, and the wider public. These collaborations have not only pushed the frontiers of business and management studies, but also helped in developing practical solutions for complex global challenges. Our researchers regularly engage with professional bodies such as the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and the CIPD, as well as a variety of trade unions, practitioners, and policymakers to co-produce and extend high-quality work beyond academia.
Publications
Members of the department regularly publish their work in a wide array of highly ranked journals, including British Journal of Management, Human Relations, Sociology, Management Learning, Journal of Management Studies, Work, Employment and Society, Academy of Management Learning & Education, The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Gender, Work & Organisation, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, European Management Review, Industrial Marketing Management, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship, Journal of International Management, Business Strategy and the Environment, Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
In September 2025, Kent Business School will host the BAM Conference 2025 British Academy of Management 2025 Conference
Editorships
Several members of the Department sit on the editorial and associate boards of leading academic journals in the field (i.e. European Management Review, International Small Business Journal, Harvard Business Review, Organisation, International Journal of Information Management, Journal of the International Council for Small Business, Industrial and Commercial Training Journal).