Webinar Description
Chronic illness affects a substantial proportion of the workforce, yet most conditions remain invisible in work settings. From diabetes and fibromyalgia to MS and autoimmune diseases, invisible conditions create complex disclosure dilemmas for academics who must calculate whether revealing their health status will secure necessary support or damage their career prospects.
This webinar brings together lived academic experience and occupational health expertise to examine how universities can better support scholars with chronic conditions. Our panel explores the calculations academics face when deciding whether to disclose, why good intentions often fail to translate into effective practice, and what systematic institutional responses actually work.
The session addresses a number of questions for the academic community: Why do employees delay disclosing chronic conditions? How do universities balance accommodation with teaching schedules and research demands? What distinguishes supportive academic cultures from those that effectively push chronically ill scholars out? How can managers respond effectively when they lack training and systematic institutional support?
Whether you research chronic illness and employment, lead academic units, support colleagues with health conditions, or navigate chronic illness in academia, this webinar offers evidence-based insights alongside practical guidance for creating workplaces where disclosure feels career-sustaining rather than career-limiting.
Join us to explore how we can design systematic institutional frameworks that support the academics managing chronic conditions while maintaining research excellence and teaching quality.
Please note: Due to the interactive and sensitive nature of these wellbeing webinars, these sessions will not be recorded.
As part of our strategic objective to promote wellbeing and positive mental health in business and management academics and doctoral researchers, we are excited to launch our series of webinars which will run monthly on Fridays 12:00 - 13:30 throughout the Academic year 25/26.
These webinars will be facilitated by Professor Sarah Robinson.
Provider Information
British Academy of Management
Who Should Attend?
The event speaks to all Sections, as detailed in the BAM Framework
Guest Speakers
Prof Ronan Carbery
Ronan Carbery is Professor of Human Resource Management at Cork University Business School, University College Cork, where he is Director of the Executive MBA programme. His research has been published in outlets such as Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management (US), Journal of Managerial Psychology, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, New Political Economy, and International Small Business Journal.
Ronan has personal experience navigating chronic illness in academia, and has written publicly about chronic illness disclosure and academic life for RTÉ Brainstorm and Voices of Academia. He is currently co-editing a Journal of Organizational Behavior special issue on Chronic Illness at Work.
Dr Karen Maher, CPsychol, FHEA
Dr Karen Maher is a Chartered Psychologist and Lecturer at Aston Business School whose work specialises in Occupational Health and Work Wellbeing. She completed her PhD in Work Psychology at Loughborough University in 2018, which focused on employee wellbeing and shift working in the Fire and Rescue Service.
Prior to moving to Academia, Karen was a Health, Fitness, and Wellbeing practitioner with expertise in GP Exercise Referral, exercise rehabilitation, and weight management. Previous roles included Health and Wellbeing Advisor within the Fire and Rescue Service where she was responsible for behaviour change programmes in fitness, stress, and weight/disease management for operational and support staff using one-to-one coaching and group programmes.
Her research is currently centred on behaviour change within the workplace to improve safety and health of workers with projects exploring maladaptive coping behaviours in the workplace (substance use, counterproductive work behaviours), and adherence to safety policies and procedures.
Dr Russ Glennon
Dr Russ Glennon is an academic with primary interests in public service management, public policy, service-dominant logic, performance management, lean, service improvement tools, and change. He has over a decade's experience as a local government senior manager, and had a wide range of responsibilities. Russ is a passionate advocate for local government and democracy.
Chaired by
Prof Sarah Robinson
Sarah Robinson is a Co- Vice chair for the British Academy of Management with a responsibility for Academic Career Development (ACD). She is also leading on the academic wellbeing initiative, which is one of BAM’s current strategic priorities, and will be designing and facilitating this webinar series.
Sarah is currently Professor in People and Organisations at IÉSEG School of Management (Paris). She has research interests in professional careers, professional learning and development and has conducted several projects on academic careers including studies of: early career academics; academic wellbeing; academic doubt and failure; and doing academic careers differently.
Benefits of attending
- allow you to engage with the concept of workplace place wellbeing in business and management academia;
- give you the space to reflect on your wellbeing challenges and how to tackle them;
- offer you the opportunity to think about your own personal boundaries and to receive tips on how to set and maintain them.
Contact
Please contact the BAM Office at [email protected] with any queries.
Event Fee
This event is free for all to attend.
If you are booking multiple paid events as a Non-Member, it may be cheaper for you to purchase a BAM Membership as nearly all BAM Events are free or at a discounted rate for Members.
For more information, please visit BAM Membership
Registration closes on 6th March 2026 at 23:59 GMT.
Payment and Cancellation Policy
Payment for the event must be received before the start date of the event concerned. Access will not be permitted to the event if full payment has not been received.
Cancellations
-
Cancellations received within 14 days of booking your place on the event will receive a full refund.
-
Cancellations received after the 14-day cancellation period and later than 14 days before the start date of the event will not be eligible for a refund.
-
Although we endeavour to run all events as advertised, BAM reserves the right to cancel any event if, for example, there are not enough people to justify running the event or if other significant unforeseen circumstances arise.
To cancel a booking a cancellation request must be submitted via your BAM Account, to do this:
- Go to your BAM Account
- Click 'My Events'
- Under 'Upcoming Events' will be the booking, please click Cancel Booking
- Follow the steps and complete the request