Academic Staff

Manuela is the institutional representative and liaison across departments for the UN Global Compact initiative, endorsed at university-level to promote sustainability and ethical principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption (www.unglobalcompact.org); and for the PRME programme on Principles of Responsible Management Education at Essex Business School.

She is a Senior Lecturer in Organisation and Sustainability, and teaches modules on Business Ethics as well as Organisation, Learning, and Collaboration in a Globalised World. She is an editor of the Journal of Organizational Ethnography: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=JOE

Manuela has been a Senate member at this university and is member of public boards in South Tyrol/Italy at institutions in the areas of education, research and innovation. She has worked as careers adviser, trainer and management consultant prior to becoming an academic at EBS in 2006 (Southend Campus).

PhD in Organisational Psychology (The London School of Economics and Political Science)
BSc in Work and Organisational Psychology (University of Padua/ Italy);

• Critical approaches to project work, particularly project teams
• Organisational ethnography
• The narrative and poetic approaches in organisational analysis
• Identity construction and the management of identity
• Ethics, social responsibility and sustainability
• Knowing and learning
• Strategy-as-practice
• Organisational innovation

Postgraduate module (AU Term):

• BE955 Research Methods

Undergraduate modules:

• BE442 Business Ethics (module leader)
• BE417 Organisational Behaviour and Management (module leader)
• BE427 Organisation, Learning and Collaboration in a Globalised World (module leader)

Journal publications:

Abbas, S., Zeeshan Zaib, K. and Nocker, M. (2014). Trading loyalties: exploring the nature of organisational commitment among male and female employees in the Pakistani banking sector. Gomal University Journal of Research, Vol 30 (2), 33-41. Downloadable: http://www.gu.edu.pk/New/GUJR/PDF/PDF%20DEC_2014/5-Trading%20Loyalties-%20Sammar%20Abbas.pdf

Nocker M. and M. Junaid (2011) “Poetics of Identity: On entrepreneurial selves of Afghan Migrants in Pakistan” Special Issue on The Opportunity of Poetry. Pursuing the Liberty of Poetics and Poetry in Organizing, Leading and Managing. Tamara Journal for Critical Organizational Inquiry, 9(1-2), 39-49.

Nocker M. (2009) “Struggling to ‘fit in’: On belonging and the ethics of sharing in project teams.” Special Issue on Critical Project Studies, Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organisation, 9(2), 149-167 (http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/9-2/9-2nocker.pdf)

Nocker, M.O. (2004) Tempo e Cambiamento nei Modelli di Team. FOR, Rivista per la Formazione. Tendenze, Pratiche, Strumenti, Vol. 60

Nocker, M.O. and L. Garcia-Lorenzo (2003) Teaming In Action: Stories of Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Project Teams. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, Vol.3.

Book chapter:

Nocker, M.O. (2006) The contested object: on projects as emergent space. In Hodgson D. and Cicmil S. (eds.) Making Projects Critical, Palgrave McMillan: Basingstoke , UK and New York , USA .

2016 Bristol (24-26 August) The 11th Annual University of Liverpool Management School Ethnography Symposium. Key theme: “Engaging with the challenge: Impacts on Ethnography and of Ethnography”. Paper presented: “A view from the top: an autoethnographic account of board dynamics”, University of the West of England, Bristol Business School.

2016 Mykonos (19-21 May) 11th Organization Studies Summer Workshop & Special Issue on Spirituality, Symbolism, and Storytelling. Paper Presented: ‘All too human’: on hope and utopia in projects. Mykonos, Greece.

2016 Albuquerque, USA, (22-24 March) Qualitative Research in Management and Organization Conference (QRM). Key theme: Dialogue, Disruption and Inclusion. Paper presented: “Identities and the ethno-narrative approach: Exploring the voices of Afghan migrants in Pakistan", with M. Junaid. University of New Mexico.

2014 Keele (24-26 June) 8th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender, Work and Organization. General Stream. Paper presented: "All Males Are The Same: Exploring Female Employees' Lived Experience of Workplace Harassment in The Pakistani Banking Sector”, with S. Abbas. Keele University, UK.

2013 Amsterdam (28-30 August) The 8th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “The Politics of Meaning-making/Meaning-breaking”. Paper presented “Letting go is hard to do: ethnographic selves in the face of endings” with M. Rowe and G. Pearson. VU Amsterdam.

2013 Mykonos (23-25 May) 8th Organization Studies Summer Workshop on "Organization Studies and the Day-to-Day Life of Cultures and Communities.‛ Paper presented: ‘Responsibilities and sensibilities: Project teams and the ethical imagination of ‘being professional’.

2012 Barcelona (11-14 July) 30th SCOS – Standing Conference on Organisational Symbolism. “Organizing Through Displacement, Travel and Movement:Transience, Transitions and Transformations.”Paper presented: “Travelling, trading, and storytelling: Entrepreneurial life history narratives of Afghan migrants in Pakistan” with M. Junaid.

2011 Cardiff (5-7 Sep) The 6th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Theory, Form, and Practice”. Paper to be presented: “Organizational Innovation as a Process of Professional Knowledge Creation and Sharing in the NHS: A Case Study in an Audiology Department”, with L. Grimmett.

2011 Cardiff (5-7 Sep) The 6th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Theory, Form, and Practice”. Paper to be presented: “The emergence of a new organisational identity within integrated public service delivery: a case study of the identity construction of ‘The Children’s Workforce’ within a Local Authority”, with J. Ladner.

2011 Gothenburg (6-9 July) 27th EGOS Colloquium “Reassembling Organizations” Sub-theme 21: Constellations of Past, Present, and Future. Paper presented: “Recovering Utopia: on hope and human longings in projects.

London (2010) The 5th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Paper presented: “Emotions in the Boardroom: The Case of a NHS Foundation Trust, with H. Manzoor. Queen Mary College, University of London, 1-3 September.

Montreal (2010) Critical Management Studies Organization Workshop on "Redemption". Paper presented: ‘All too human’: on hope and utopia in visions of the future. Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 4-5 August.

Lille (2010) 28th SCOS – Standing Conference on Organisational Symbolism. Key Theme: "Vision". Paper presented: ‘Worlds to come’: On projects and utopia. IAE Business School/ Institut d'Aministration des Enterprises de Lille, 7-10 July. 

London (2010) 14th Annual European Business Ethics Network (UK) Conference. Ethics in Crisis: A Call for Alternatives. Paper to be presented: Responsibility as sensibility: The ethical imagination of ‘being professional’. Queen Mary, University of London, April 7-9. 

Bristol (2010) 5th Making Projects Critical Workshop. Paper presented: The Projects of Utopia: Engaging with imagination and the ‘un-workable’.

Copenhagen (2009). Aesthetics & Organization Workshop Series: Looking. Paper presented: On worlds to come: re-viewing the role of utopia in project work.

Bristol (2009) Poetics and Poetry in Organisations, Emotions, Management and Enterprise (POEME). Paper presented: "Poetics of Identity", with M. Junaid, 25-26 September, Bristol Centre of Leadership and Organisational Ethics (BCLOE), Bristol Business School, University of the West of England.

Liverpool (2009) 4th Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Practice, Politics, and Ethics in Ethnographic Research. Paper presented “Travelling, trading, and storytelling: narratives of entrepreneurial selves of Afghan migrants in Pakistan”, with M. Junaid, 24- 25 August, Liverpool Management School.

Copenhagen/Malmo (2009) 27th SCOS – Standing Conference on Organisational Symbolism. Paper presented “Being professional: On responsibility and the struggles to belong”, July, 8-11.

Liverpool (2009) EURAM. Renaissance and Renewal in Management Studies. Track 11: Gender, equality and diversity in management. Paper presented: “Running to standstill: On social space and difference as a practice of belonging”, May 11-14.

Banff, Alberta, Canada 2008 (September, 9-12) Art of Management Conference. Paper presented: “Senses of place: On belonging as situated imagination.” September, 9-12.

Liverpool (2008) 3rd Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences: The Value of Ethnography in Social and Management Science Teaching and Research. Paper presented: “Responsibilities and Sensibilities: On the ethical imagination of ‘being professional’”. September, 3-5.

Amsterdam (2008) 24th EGOS Colloquium. Upsetting Organizations. Standing Working Group 6: Practice-based studies of knowledge and innovation in workplaces. Paper presented: “On ‘being professional’: Responsibility, identity, and the work of imagination.”

Stockholm (2008) EIASM Workshop Making Projects Critical. Paper presented: “Project strategy revisited: On facing risks as enacted team improvisation.” 31st March-1st April.

Keele (2007) 2nd Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Ethnographic Futures: Voice, Politics and Representation. Paper presented: “Senses of place: Belonging as a situated imagination in project teams.” 6-7th September, Keele University.

Manchester (2006, December) EIASM Workshop “Making Project Critical: Beyond Project Rationality.” Paper presented: A situated imagination: The performance of belonging and ethics in project work. Manchester Business School.

Bergen (2006, July) 22nd EGOS Colloquium (The European Group for Organisational Studies). Overall theme: The Organizing society. Sub-theme: Organised Selves, Organising Others: Philosophy and Identity in a Just Society. Paper presented: “Struggling to fit in: Situated imagination and the construction of belonging.”

Essex University (2006, April) Essex Management Centre. Conference: Polyphony and dialogism as ways of organizing. Paper presented: “Senses of place: The performance of belonging as situated imagination.

Berlin (2005, June) 21th EGOS Colloquium. Overall theme: “Unlocking Organizations”. Sub-theme: Unlocking Strategizing: A practice perspective. Paper presented: “Impromptu”: Project strategy as enacted team narrative of improvisation”.

Varese (2005, July) XVIIth CONVEGNO NAZIONALE AIF (National Conference of AIF, the Italian Association of Trainers). Overall theme: The generation of value. How to develop values for the knowledge society. Sub-theme: Individual and Group. Workshop presentation on an organisational climate survey research the city council of Bolzano/Bozen.

Istanbul (2005, May) XII EAWOP- European Congress of Work & Organisational Psychology. General theme: “Convenience in Organizations and Society”. Paper presented: “Participating in knowledge practices: The enacted narrative of an inter-organisational ICT project team.” In the symposia (proposal submitted) on “Knowledge-as-participation”, jointly with L. Garcia.

Bristol (2004, December) 2ndWorkshop on Making Projects Critical: ‘Projectification’ and its Discontents. St. Matthias Campus, University of West England. Paper presented: “Projects as emergent space: shifting boundaries of a multiple horizon:”

Ljubljana, Slovenia (2004, July) 20 EGOS Colloquium (European Group for Organisational Studies). Overall theme: “The Organisation as a Set of Relationships”. Sub-theme: The importance of the object in the workplace. Paper presented: “The contested object: projects as emergent space”.

Greenwich University, London (2004, August) Fourth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change. Overall theme: “Knowledge and the value of intangibles ”. Paper presented: “Good Relationships, No Sense of Belonging: Organisational Climate and Cultural Change in the City Council”, jointly with L. Bergamo.

Copenhagen (2003, July) 19th EGOS Colloquium. Overall theme: “Organisational Analysis Informing Social and Global Development”. Session on practice-based theorising, knowing and change in organisations. Paper presented: “Teaming-in-action: knowledge creation and sharing in project teams”, jointly with L. Garcia-Lorenzo.

Penang (2003, August) The Management Conference, 2003. Third International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations. Overall theme: “Knowledge Management”. Paper presented: “Teaming-In-Action: Stories of Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Project Teams”, jointly with L. Garcia-Lorenzo.

Conference organisation

2016 Co-Chair, The 11th Annual University of Liverpool Management School Ethnography Symposium. Key theme: “Engaging with the challenge: Impacts on Ethnography and of Ethnography”. Hosted at the University of the West of England, Bristol Business School, 24-26 August.

Co-Chair, The 10th Anniversary University of Liverpool Management School Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Reflection in Action". Liverpool, 25-28 August 2015. University of Liverpool Management School.

Co-Chair, The 9th Annual University of Liverpool Management School Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Ethnography and Liminality". Ipswich, 27-29 August 2014. University Campus Suffolk.

Co-Chair, The 7th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Ethnographic Horizons in Times of Turbulence”. Liverpool, 29-31 August 2012. University of Liverpool Management School.

Member of the Organising Committee for the The 6th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Theory, Form, and Practice”. Cardiff, 5-7 September 2011. Cardiff Business School.

Ideator and organiser of the Essex Futures conference supported by the Vice-Chancellor “Convivium – Global Citizenship and Collaboration”, 5 May 2011, Southend Campus.

Conference stream convenor: “Identity and Ethnography: dimensions, transitions, expressions.” The 5th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences. Key theme: “Work, Organisations and Ethnography”. Queen Mary College, University of London (1-3 September, 2010).

Co-convener of the stream “The Power of Place” for the Art of Management Conference. Banff, Canada (September, 2008).

 PhD Supervision

• Six completed PhD supervisions (as first supervisor):
• Dr Muhammad Junaid (on entrepreneurial identity of Afghan migrants in Pakistan);
• Dr Humera Manzoor (on boards and public governance in UK-NHS Foundation Trusts);
• Dr Sammar Abbas (on organisational commitment as a gendered practice in banks in Pakistan);
• Dr Linda Grimmett (on organisational innovation in the NHS);
• Dr Kay Maddox-Danes (on female managers' professional identity in higher education);
• Dr Jane Ladner (on organisational identity in a local authority institution).
• Current PhD Supervision (as first supervisor): Hiva Raifei (on the study of emotions in project teams).

Invited presentations

• Panel speaker for the local initiative within Britain’s “Climate Week” to curb carbon footprint, jointly organised by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and the University of Essex Business School for supporting small businesses regarding sustainability and knowledge sharing for innovation. Southend-on-Sea, 4th March 2014.
• Invited panel speaker for the event "Organisations shape people; people shape organisations" of the regional Association of Supervision and Coaching Professionals South Tyrol/ Italy: "New challenges for coaching and supervision professionals in the current economic environment", Bozen-Bolzano, Sparkasse Academy (January, 2012).
• Invited presentation in the Research Workshop “Constructing the Organisation: Identity, Narrative, Imagination and Structure.” Paper presented: ‘Being professional’: on belonging as a situated imagination in the management of projects. Essex Business School, Management Group, Colchester Campus (11 June 2010).
• Invited research seminar presentation “Project Strategy Revisited: On facing risks as enacted narrative of team improvisation” Bristol Business School, University of the West of England. Bristol (December, 2009)
• Invited speaker, "Future-proofing Your Business: Retaining Knowledge and Promoting Innovation during the Economic Downturn", University College Suffolk, Ipswich. Topic presented: "Changing times, changing cultures: creating cultural practices for organisational innovation and knowledge creation" (7th May, 2009).

Projects

• 2014-17 Co-investigator for the British Council Knowledge Economy Partnership Programme UK- Pakistan “Introducing Entrepreneurship education in Pakistan: an interdisciplinary perspective on value creation”, together with M. Junaid (University of Peshawar).
• UK Coordinator of the British Council Researcher Links Workshop on entrepreneurship research, with Dr Muhammad Junaid. Islamabad/ Pakistan, March 2014. For further details: http://epentrepreneurship.com/
• Chair of Quadrangle for module design and curriculum development of ‘Strategies and Organisation’ for the ESF-Project “SMEs in a Multi-cultural Milieu” E&I Group, EBS, in partnership with Budapest Business School (2007-2009).
• Academic coordinator of the ESF-funded postgraduate certificate programme “Women in the Creative Industries”. E&I Group, EBS (Summer 2008).

Editorial roles

• Editor of the Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) by Emerald Publishing.

Honours

• 2014-17 British Council award winner for the Knowledge Economy Partnership Programme UK- Pakistan “Introducing Entrepreneurship education in Pakistan: an interdisciplinary perspective on value creation”, with M. Junaid.
• Elected member of Senate (Oct. 2011-15), University of Essex.
• Member of the university council at the trilingual Free University of Bozen-Bolzano/ Italy (2010-14; 2014-18), appointed by the Government of South Tyrol.
• British Council award winner with Dr Muhammad Junaid - Researcher Links Workshop (2013 - March 2014).
• The LSE annual research scholarship awards (1999-2003).