Dr Kevin Morrell, Consultancy in Human Resource Management (HRM) & Organisational Behaviour (OB)

Experience - a Brief Summary

My own research directly addresses some of the most influential debates in organisational behaviour and HRM.  This concerns topics of ever-present interest and also engages with the world's leading thinkers on the latest scientific thinking.  Being able to translate difficult concepts to different audiences means I am extremely well placed to act as a broker between the latest ideas and the organisations that could benefit from them.

The research I have carried out has been in very diverse topics: leadership, governance, ethics, employee turnover, empowerment, decision-making.  This is published in the leading business and management journals, and in equally prestigious journals in applied ethics, psychology, public administration and sociology.  I have also written for practitioner communities and can communicate complicated ideas in a simple and straightforward manner, with no loss of resolution or sophistication.  See where some of this is published.

My first role was as a business analyst at Xerox.  This was during the cascading of their renowned ‘Customer First’ and ‘Total Quality Leadership’ programmes and gave me valuable experience in how large private sector organisations apply Total Quality principles.  Other industry experience in small firms came before an MSc in Human Resources Development (HRD) at Sheffield Business School, where I graduated first in class.  The MSc gave a rich and practical understanding of how learning can be achieved in organisations.

This led to a scholarship to do a PhD in HRM / Organisational Behaviour at Loughborough.  As part of the PhD, I carried out research for a number of NHS organisations into employee turnover and retention.  During the PhD, I also did some on-site consultancy for a medium sized market research agency.  This involved applying contemporary ideas in HR Strategy, organisational learning & the 'resource based view' of the firm to their competitive context.

Towards the end of my PhD, I undertook commissioned report writing for Diageo on category management and consumer choice.  This related to my PhD interest in the phenomenon on decision making, but required taking high-blown academic theory and making it relevant for a particular organisational need.  I was also commissioned to design materials for learners and tutors by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 

Subsequently I have worked on projects with consultancy components at 3 different Universities across various public sector and public sector related organisations (the Department of Health, the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation, the Department of Central and Local Government, the Improvement and Development Agency).  Please feel free to ask for more about my experience of working with industry.

 This links to a recent academic CV  Also...