People, Work and Organizational Psychology (PWOP) Summer Seminar 2024
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
Birkbeck Business School’s People, Work, and Organizational Psychology Subject Group delighted to host a range of speakers for this year's Summer Seminar which will be taking place on Monday 22nd July from 13:00 – 19.30.
This event is open to current and prospective students, alumni, staff, and anyone with an interest in the topic areas.
Doing Things Differently
This year's theme of Doing Things Differently draws on Birkbeck’s history and position as an institution that challenges the norm. Within Higher Education, this has included the radical idea of educating working people, creating the first computer academic department, being the only university to stay open during the Blitz, and being one of the first colleges to admit women as students.
As the home of organizational psychology in the UK, the first department of organizational psychology was founded here, and the first MSc distance learning programme to be delivered online was started here in 1981. These perspectives of “doing things differently” permeates the teaching and practice of colleagues across the subject group, who question how and why we work, how knowledge is created and disseminated, and the role of structure and power across research and practice.
Looking to the landscape where education, work and society continues to change at rapid speed, the to be critical and to be ready to do things differently is paramount. Through this Summer Seminar, we showcase the work of both staff, students, and alumni in this space.
ITINERARY
13:00 Registration
13:30 Welcome Address
Mark Stringer - Subject Lead for People, Work, and Organizational Psychology
13:40 Doing Things Differently - With "Purpose"
Professor Sue Konzelmann
14:20 So Many Things... So Little Time...
Mark Stringer
15:00 Break
15:15 Student Showcase
Signalling a Diversity Climate: Neurodivergent Experiences and Decision-Making During Selection and Assessment
Holly Miller
Doing it Differently - Corporate Governance and Me
Martin Woodford
15:55 Break
16:25 The Central Saint Martins and Birkbeck MBA
Dr Harah Chon
17:10 Student Showcase
Is Class the Unspoken Discriminator? A Qualitative Study Exploring the Mobility Trajectories of Professional Services Consultants from Working-Class Backgrounds
Stephanie Bright
17:30 Break
18:00 Keynote Presentation:
Resisting the Glamour of Change: Doing Things Differently, Not Doing Different Things”
Kate Mackenzie Davey - University Fellow, Former Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology
19:20 Closing Remarks
19:30 Drinks and Discussion
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Keynote Presentation
Kate Mackenzie Davey
Kate joined Birkbeck as the Career Research Forum Research Fellow, straddling commercial and academic sectors, retired as Dean of College and Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology and became a Birkbeck Fellow. After a Psychology BSc she took various non-academic diversions including ten years teaching liberal studies to apprentices before returning to academic learning with an MSc and PhD in Occupational Psychology from Manchester.
Before joining Birkbeck Kate worked in consultancy, on health and quality of life, and in senior management assessment and selection. Her research interest in careers across boundaries began quantitatively and developed to qualitative studies with women, refugee doctors, multi-national teams, taxi drivers and museums. This fragmented background of teaching working people, commercial consultancy, academic research and returning to study in mid-career made Birkbeck’s Organizational Psychology Department an obvious fit. Students (and colleagues) kept her here for 25 years. Since retiring during lockdown, she has rejoiced in being a student at CityLit. After trying bookbinding Kate just completed year 1 in Fine Arts where her interest in identity, change and aesthetic labour has proved surprisingly relevant.
Summer Seminar Speakers
Professor Sue Konzelmann
Sue Konzelmann is Professor of Economics at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research interests include the political economics of austerity, corporate purpose, and the “variety” within liberal capitalism that became apparent in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Recent work in this area explores the alternatives to austerity, including industrial strategy, social policy and financial reform, with the aim of informing theory and practice as well as policy.
Most recently, she has been investigating the dynamic inter-relationship between liberal capitalism, austerity and fascism between the wars, and the lessons this might have for today. Sue is co-executive editor of the Cambridge Journal of Economics and Contributions to Political Economy, Research Associate of the Cambridge University Centre for Business Research, and a Council Member of the Progressive Economy Forum.
Mark Stringer
Mark Stringer has spent forty years working within organisations in several areas. This has included roles as varied as accountancy, product management, marketing, Head of OD and management of L&D functions and latterly as a Director of both HR and Operations. Along the way, he has won several internal and external facing People related awards, including being recognised in HR Magazine’s Most Influential Thinkers in 2023 and 2024.
Working academically within the People, Work and Organizational Psychology Subject Group at Birkbeck Business School since 2014, Mark currently undertakes the role of Subject Lead and both convenes and teaches on several modules, including Organizations and Change Perspectives, HRM Professional Development & Learning, and Work and Well Being, and continues to supervise numerous Research Projects. His PhD research looked at interpreting Employee Engagement via a Lacanian psychoanalytic lens. He is also currently undertaking clinical training as a psychoanalyst.
Holly Miller
Holly Miller works for a large HR Consultancy, specialising in Selection & Assessment and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working largely with global technology organisations.
She has just finished her Masters in Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck, winning the prize for best research project. Her dissertation focused on neurodivergent experiences of selection and assessment, and specifically, how neurodivergent candidates form perceptions of an organisation’s diversity climate and make employment choices.
Martin Woodford
Martin Woodford is a PhD student in Birkbeck’s Business School, where he is researching the responsible allocation of profit. He returned to studying after a 35-year career in corporate finance (PwC), strategy (Vodafone), and governance (Motorola).
Just prior to his current research, he graduated from Birkbeck’s MSc in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics with prizes for best student and best dissertation.
Dr Harah Chon
Harah Chon is the Course Leader for the Central Saint Martins Birkbeck MBA, and a designer, researcher and educator. She began her professional career as a fashion designer at Ralph Lauren and has experience working in New York City, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.
As a researcher, Harah has held research posts at the School of Design at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China and the Department of Science of Design at Musashino Art Univeristy in Tokyo, Japan. Throughout her academic career, she has developed and led the MA Design programme at LASALLE College of the Arts and designed masterclasses for the Lien Centre for Social Innovation at Singapore Management University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Nina Hospitality (Chinachem).
Harah’s research activities focus on design theory and philosophy across the themes of collaborative design frameworks, disruptive approaches to interdisciplinary design, and knowledge transference. She advocates the furthering of discourses on design and cultural sustainability, social design and design knowledge. Many of Harah’s frameworks and design methodologies have been applied across the fields of intangible culture and heritage, tourism and hospitality, and social innovation.
Stephanie Bright
Steph Bright is a recent MSc graduate in Organizational Psychology. Her career had mostly been focused on Learning and Development until she stumbled upon the field of Organizational Psychology, curious and inspired by working in large, complex organisations facing high levels of change, and keen to explore her interest in human behaviour. Steph currently works as a Senior Consultant for Capita, where she works with customers on people challenges around culture, DEI and capability development.
Contact name:
Events Team
-
Holly Miller
-
Holly Miller works for a large HR Consultancy, specialising in Selection & Assessment and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, working largely with global technology organisations. She has just finished her Masters in Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck, winning the prize for best research project. Her dissertation focused on neurodivergent experiences of selection and assessment, and specifically, how neurodivergent candidates form perceptions of an organisation’s diversity climate and make employment choices.
-
Kate Mackenzie Davey
-
Kate joined Birkbeck as the Career Research Forum Research Fellow, straddling commercial and academic sectors, retired as Dean of College and Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology and became a Birkbeck Fellow. After a Psychology BSc she took various non-academic diversions including ten years teaching liberal studies to apprentices before returning to academic learning with an MSc and PhD in Occupational Psychology from Manchester. Before joining Birkbeck Kate worked in consultancy, on health and quality of life, and in senior management assessment and selection. Her research interest in careers across boundaries began quantitatively and developed to qualitative studies with women, refugee doctors, multi-national teams, taxi drivers and museums. This fragmented background of teaching working people, commercial consultancy, academic research and returning to study in mid-career made Birkbeck’s Organizational Psychology Department an obvious fit. Students (and colleagues) kept her here for 25 years. Since retiring during lockdown, she has rejoiced in being a student at CityLit. After trying bookbinding Kate just completed year 1 in Fine Arts where her interest in identity, change and aesthetic labour has proved surprisingly relevant.
-
Martin Woodford
-
Martin Woodford is a PhD student in Birkbeck’s Business School, where he is researching the responsible allocation of profit. He returned to studying after a 35-year career in corporate finance (PwC), strategy (Vodafone), and governance (Motorola). Just prior to his current research, he graduated from Birkbeck’s MSc in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics with prizes for best student and best dissertation
-
Mr Mark Stringer
-
Mark Stringer has spent forty years working within organisations in several areas. This has included roles as varied as accountancy, product management, marketing, Head of OD and management of L&D functions and latterly as a Director of both HR and Operations. Along the way, he has won several internal and external facing People related awards, most recently being placed within HR Magazine's 2023 Most Influential Thinkers listing. Working academically within the People, Work and Organizational Psychology Subject Group at Birkbeck Business School since 2014. Mark currently undertakes the role of Subject Lead and both convenes and teaches on several modules, including Organizations and Change Perspectives, HRM Professional Development & Learning and Work and Well Being and continues to supervise numerous Research Projects. Through teaching, supervision and research, his consistent aim, hope, and focus is to promote the use of interdisciplinary and critical tools to provide new readings and thus, in a small way, support those aiming to change organizational issues for the better. His PhD research looked at interpreting Employee Engagement via a Lacanian psychoanalytic lens. He is also currently undertaking clinical training as a psychoanalyst.
-
Stephanie Bright
-
Steph Bright is a recent MSc graduate in Organizational Psychology. Her career had mostly been focused on Learning and Development until she stumbled upon the field of Organizational Psychology, curious and inspired by working in large, complex organisations facing high levels of change, and keen to explore her interest in human behaviour. Steph currently works as a Senior Consultant for Capita, where she works with customers on people challenges around culture, DEI and capability development.