Dr Christian Harrison
Chair, BAM Leadership and Leadership Development SIG
Dr Christian Harrison joined the School of Business and Enterprise in 2013 and is a Reader in Leadership in the School of Business and Creative Industries. He is also the programme leader of the MSc Leadership and Management and MSc International Management. He graduated with a First-class degree in Pharmacy and practised as a pharmacist, assuming managerial positions before moving into the field of Management in Higher Education where he has been teaching for over eight years. Dr Christian Harrison has an MBA and was the valedictorian of the University of Aberdeen Business school MBA class with a Distinction. In addition, he also possesses a PhD in Leadership and other postgraduate research and teaching qualifications in his repertoire.
Christian is a well-known and recognised scholar in the field of Entrepreneurial Leadership and works across the globe on research projects. He is very active in teaching and is the programme leader of MSc Leadership and Management and MSc International Management. He is also the leader of a range of modules namely; Entrepreneurial Leadership, Leading Change, Leadership, Leadership and Professional Development, Leadership Theory and Research and Business Organisation and Ethics. He is involved in delivering these modules to undergraduates and postgraduates including MSc, MBA and DBA students. He is also the author of numerous published research papers on Entrepreneurial Leadership which is his major research interest and serves as the Director of Studies/First Supervisor of several PhD and DBA students. He has successfully supervised several doctoral students to completion and his current students are working on projects on Entrepreneurial leadership, Servant leadership, Transformational leadership, Ethical leadership, Distributed leadership etc.
Furthermore, he is an active member of several learned organisations. He is the Chair of the Leadership and Leadership Development Special Interest Group of the British Academy of Management. As Chair, Christian fosters more dialogue in the domain of leadership and develops alongside this, uplift in activity and research with the aim of bringing together the academic and practitioner experiences and viewpoints. He is also an active member of the Protracted Crisis Research Centre (PCRC), Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), International Council for Small Business (ICSB), Centre for African Research on Enterprise and Economic Development (CAREED), Higher Education Academy (HEA), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), National Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST) and serves on several review panels and committees. He is an external examiner to other UK universities such as Manchester Metropolitan University and Heriot Watt University. He is also the associate editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM) and an associate editor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (HSS).
Additionally, he has a good track record of securing grants and research funding and has a very strong external research network and collaborative partnership with organisations. He mentors and develop colleagues on contemporary teaching practice in Higher Education. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and a Certified Management and Business Educator of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CMBE). He was also instrumental in developing the British Academy of Management (BAM) Education Practice Award which recognises inspiring and impactful management education practice. He is the founder and Chair of the African Studies Track in the British Academy of Management. The track is committed to fostering dialogue on contemporary African research which directly impacts BAM members and the wellbeing of the broader academic research community.
Christian works extensively as a consultant, speaker and trainer on entrepreneurial leadership skills development within organisations. He is the founder of the NGO; The Leadership Mould Initiative International. The NGO supports students and moulds future leaders. He is the author of the bestselling book entitled ‘Leadership Theory and Research: A Critical Approach to New and Existing Paradigms’, which is published by the globally renowned publishing company; Palgrave MacMillan. The book was written to enable students (undergraduate and postgraduate), scholars, practitioners, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to learn more about the concept of leadership. It provides a critical insight into leadership research. Emerging paradigms and theories of new approaches to leadership are identified and addressed.
Christian has also authored several video publications on leadership namely; Traditional Paradigms of Leadership: A Critical Insight into Established Theories and Concepts; Modern Paradigms of Leadership: A Critical Insight into Contemporary Theories and Concepts; Emerging Paradigms of Leadership: A Critical Insight into Developing Theories; Making Sense of Leadership: A Critical Insight into Leadership and Management Research. These videos cover established leadership theories providing a nuance conceptualisation of the field and are published by Palgrave Macmillan.