Xingyu Chen

Profile

I am a PhD researcher in the People, Work and Employment Department at Leeds University Business School. My research focuses on subjective age, seniority and age-related workplace inequalities in China. I am supervised by Professor Christopher Forde, Dr Liz Oliver and Dr Mia Ruijie Zhong.

• Professional experience: Before starting my PhD, I gained experience in human resource management and postgraduate academic administration through work with Shokz, DJI, McKinsey Greater China and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
• Teaching experience and interests: I have supported undergraduate and postgraduate students with research methods and academic writing, and have completed the University of Leeds Foundations in Teaching programme. My teaching interests include organisational behaviour, human resource management and qualitative research methods.
• Conference presentations: I have presented my research at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2025), the British Academy of Management Conference (2026) and the Work, Employment and Society Conference (2026).

I welcome opportunities for research collaboration and academic exchange on age, work and employment.

Research interests

My doctoral research examines how age and seniority are understood and experienced in Chinese public-sector work teams. I explore how employees judge their own age at work, how they assess seniority, and how these understandings relate to team relationships and age-related treatment. This includes distinguishing chronological age, life-course age and subjective age, and examining how seniority relates to tenure, work experience and hierarchical rank.

I use a qualitative approach informed by constructivist grounded theory. My analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with 41 participants across nine work units in Chinese public-sector organisations. My wider research interests include age-related human resource practices, leadership, age discrimination and workplace inclusion.

My research interests include:

• Subjective age and the life course
• Seniority, tenure and workplace hierarchies
• Team relationships and subgroup formation
• Age discrimination and workplace inclusion
• Age-related human resource practices and leadership
• Qualitative research and constructivist grounded theory

Qualifications

• PhD in Management – University of Leeds, UK (2024–present)
• MSc in Management – University of Leeds, UK (2018-2019)
• BSc in Auditing – Sichuan Normal University, China (2014-2018)