Research Symposium: Consulting and Leading in Organisations

Students from our Professional Doctorate in Consulting and Leading in Organisations presented their research at our annual symposium.

On Thursday 11 June 2026, our Professional Doctorate in Consulting and Leading in Organisations (D10D) held its annual research symposium.

Bringing together staff, students and alumni, the event provided an opportunity for students to present their research in progress for discussion and feedback.

This year’s presentations demonstrated the depth and range of research being undertaken by students, each applying our distinctive “systems-psychodynamic” approach to exploring organisational challenges across different sectors and topics:

• Fiona Kennedy is researching experiences and expressions of aggression in women senior leaders in the technology industry. Often associated with hostility or conflict, psychodynamic perspectives suggest aggression is also linked to agency, ambition, differentiation and survival. Analysis suggests experiences of aggression are shaped not only by individual psychology but also cultural history, family relationships and gendered expectations.
• Eitan Moran presented on leaders who have encountered unexpected, traumatic disruptions in their organisations, which radically impair functioning and may threaten survival. The emerging findings suggest that leaders’ responses to organisational trauma are profoundly shaped by earlier relational experiences and enduring psychic configurations.
• Midge Seymour Roots discussed her research into senior female leaders’ experiences of misogyny in the workplace, which seeks to understand the psychological and systemic mechanisms at play that undermine women’s leadership. The study examines whether misogynistic behaviours persist at both conscious and unconscious levels within workplace structures.
• John Griffiths is looking into beliefs held by leaders of organisational change and the purposes they serve. His research to date suggests that leaders of transformation hold strong beliefs about their own capacities and capabilities, the meaning of their roles, the characteristics of a ‘good’ organisation, their diagnostic ability and the process of making change.
• Kate Burnett, who is a surgeon in the NHS, is researching the stress, challenges and dilemmas of hospital doctors working in England. She led an exercise with attendees during the symposium using drawings she had produced following interviews with research participants which reflected some of their difficult and troubling experiences. Kate discussed the emotional challenges of undertaking this type of research, something that was shared by all the presenters.

The symposium was organised by Professor Mark Stein and chaired by course lead Dr Nick Waggett, with support from Dr Louisa Brunner, Dr Simon Tucker and Dr Stephanie Davies.