Dr Kathryn Thory
Senior Teaching Fellow
M B A Unit
Personal statement
I joined the University in 2009 as a Teaching Fellow and am currently a Lecturer in Management in the Department of Strategy and Organisation at Strathclyde Business School. I have a background in both work psychology and sociology.
My research interests include management training and development, management education and gender and organisation studies. I am particularly interested in experiential learning and reflective practice using deeper processes to explore growth and development from the' inside out'. I am also interested in socio-cultural influence on managers, leaders and organisations in relation to gender.
Prior to joining Strathclyde University I was a Lecturer in HRM and Business Strategy and before that a Research Associate in HRM at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. Before I worked in higher education I was an occupational psychologist, consulting with firms in the private and public sectors in the UK. During this period my work focused on management and executive development, psychological testing and assessment/development centre design.
Area of Expertise
- Management and leadership tranining and development
- Gender and management/leadership
- Management education and personal development
I have published in various Management and Human Resource Development journals and am a reviewer for a number of international journals. I have received an Emerald Literati Citation of Excellence award for a best paper published in management in 2008 and my research was shortlisted for the Alan Moon Memorial Prize at the Academy of Human Resource Development European Conference in 2013. I have been the recipient of a number of research grants from the ESRC, The Carnegie Trust and internal university grants. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and have a Post-graduate Certificate in Academic Practice for which I was highly commended.
Prize And Awards
Publications
- Women leaders in rail : a postfeminist aesthetic femininity
- Thory Kathryn
- Women, Work and Transport (2022) (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-994120220000016008
- Female professionals' experiences whilst accessing and undergoing fertility treatment : voice and (in)visibility in the workplace
- Buchanan L, Thory K
- International Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender Studies and the Status of Women (2017)
- Women in Middle-Eastern organisations : career experiences, opportunities and work-life balance
- Kamenou-Aigbekaen Nicolina, Thory Kathryn
- International Conference on Organization and Management (2016)
- Developing meaningfulness at work through emotional intelligence training
- Thory Kathryn
- International Journal of Training and Development Vol 20, pp. 58-77 (2016)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12069
- To reveal or conceal? Managers' disclosures of private information during emotional intelligence training
- Thory Kathryn
- Human Resource Development Quarterly Vol 27, pp. 41-66 (2016)
- https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21222
- Understanding emotional intelligence
- Thory Kathryn
- Occupational Health and Wellbeing Vol 67, pp. 16-17 (2015)
Teaching
I teach across the areas of management and professional skills development. I currently teach Professional Management Practice on a number of Business and Management PG programmes. Other subjects taught include Organisational Analysis, Organisational Behaviour, Women in Management, Leadership and Research Methods. I have been nominated for the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards four times (2011, 2012,2013,2015). I am experienced in supervising Post-graduate and PhD students.
Research Interests
My interests bridge the areas of management, adult development, experiential and reflective learning. My research examines how people cultivate and sustain the personal fundamentals and professional skills to exercise management and leadership thoughtfully, conscientiously and successfully. I am particularly concerned with management development in an era where organisations create new demands on individuals to manage their career as portfolios, to constantly change skill sets in response to new organisational demands, to be entrepreneurial and to manage the inevitable stresses of working in unstable internal and external job markets. In this context, globalised work life in the third millennium generates contextual discontinuities for workers which require an on-going refurbishment of skills. Given this, a narrow skill set becomes undesirable and unsustainable to handle complex situations of self-leadership, conflict and co-operation, chaos and creative collaboration. My research is sensitive to the psychological, social and cultural aspects of professional development.
I also research gender in organisational studies. Drawing on a range of theoretical concepts I am particularly interested in: how gender is constructed and negotiated through management and leadership activities and practices; how managers and leaders are included, excluded, made (in)visible, silenced, marginalised or given voice through gendered norms. Key topics of interest include 'practicing gender' in different organisational contexts, mobilising masculinities/femininities for career progression and female managers and leaders' work experiences in different cultural contexts.
Please also see the Department of Strategy and Organisation's Leadership research: http://www.strath.ac.uk/research/subjects/strategyorganisation/leadership/
Professional Activities
- British Academy of Management Conference 2005
- Participant
- 10/9/2013
- University Forum for Human Resource Development
- Participant
- 6/2013
- Human Relations (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 1/2012
Contact
Dr
Kathryn
Thory
Senior Teaching Fellow
M B A Unit
Email: kathryn.thory@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted