Studying with us
Creating positive change through education
We use our research and expert knowledge to provide specialist inputs, modules and programmes that help to train the next generation of scholars, managers, practitioners and consultants.
Studying for a PhD with WBRC
Research is at the heart of what we do and we are passionate about sharing this enthusiasm with others. We have an active and growing PhD community within WBRC and our PhD students are part of the wider Business School doctoral programme, providing a supportive environment and access to structured training programmes.
We have high expectations of our PhD students and encourage them to stretch themselves during their time with us. We value research that pushes the boundaries of current knowledge, builds new theories, develops new methodologies or deals with novel practical problems. We help our students to:
- Consider how they can structure their research so that they can write their work up as papers throughout their PhD
- Provide opportunities and encouragement to network with key academics at other leading institutions and to attend conferences, helping them to establish their academic careers
- Work with other faculties and disciplines. We have a diverse set of research interests across WBRC, as well as experience of using a wide range of methodologies and of working with various public and private sector organisations. We recognise that not all challenges facing organisations are solvable by just one discipline and are happy to consider supervision with colleagues in other faculties and disciplines
Get in touch
If you have a strong academic track record, a keen interest in behaviour at work, care about making a difference and want to develop your research skills, then please get in touch. You can read through the research profiles of our faculty members below to get a feel for our different interests and for inspiration as to the type of research that you could undertake with us. When you’re ready, please contact the Business School’s Graduate School who will be able to walk you through the application process and advise on opportunities for funding.
PhD supervisors in Organizational Behaviour
Individual differences and behaviour for assessment, selection and development
Socio-Technical Systems; Ergonomics; Corporate Social Responsibility; Office Design; Pro-Environmental Behaviour
Workplace relationships; job and work design; team and group behaviours; complex socio-technical systems; applied research methods; social networks; computer modelling and simulation
Organizational justice; mergers and acquisitions; workplace attitudes; qualitative research methods
Job design, work design, empowerment; Job crafting, collaborative job crafting; Human-computer interaction; Creativity and innovation; Employee resilience; Physical work environment
High-commitment HRM; Leadership; Employee wellbeing and performance
Personal and organizational resilience; motivation and juggling multiple demands; social entrepreneurship; wellbeing; productivity; research methods
Human performance; safety and emergency management; quantitative research methods
Leadership; human resource management
Work motivation; leadership; juggling goals; creativity; pro-environmental behaviour; corporate social responsibility; well-being; diversity and inclusion
Job design; job crafting; proactive behaviours; prosocial behaviours; employee performance; green behaviours; diversity
HR Analytics; AI and algorithmic management in HR; job quality and subjective wellbeing at work; healthcare workforce.
Employee creativity; Leadership, Organizational resilience; wellbeing; HRM systems
Work and stress; economic stressors; organisational socialisation and newcomer research; employee reaction and recruitment research; longitudinal and daily diary research designs
Find all WBRC members and associated research areas.
Masters programmes
WBRC together with the Socio-Technical Centre help to deliver the specialist MSc Organizational Psychology and MSc Business Psychology.
MSc Organizational Psychology
The programme consists of professionally-recognised courses that will provide you with the skills and commercial awareness to apply psychological principles to the challenges faced by organisations. Find out more about MSc Organizational Psychology.
MSc Business Psychology
The programme gives you a solid grounding in the business psychology science relevant to consulting and management. You’ll apply modern psychological principles to contemporary organisations and organisational problems, working alongside psychologists to develop your skills in research, problem-solving and consultancy. Find out more about MSc Business Psychology.
Other educational programmes
MBA and Executive Education
WBRC contributes to the delivery of the Business School’s Executive and Professional Education portfolio. We are also happy to deliver in house learning packages for individual companies or to work with them to develop materials that meet their individual needs.
Masters modules
WBRC also contribute to other specialist Masters courses including:
Browse our student and alumni profiles to find out where the programmes could take you in your careers and hear from past and current students' experiences of Leeds.
Undergraduate modules
We also lead a number of modules across our undergraduate management programmes that help students learn about organisational behaviour, leadership, corporate social responsibility and research methods.
We think these topics are vital if managers are to understand how to not only get the most out of their teams, but also to understand how to support and encourage them to realise their potential. We also supervise undergraduate dissertations, helping our students to take their interests further and to research a topic of their choice.
Find out more about our Undergraduate courses