Dr Chidozie Umeh
Lecturer in Human Resource Management

Profile

Biography

Chidozie Umeh is a lecturer in Human Resource Management and Programme Leader for MSc HRM in the School for Business and Society. He was previously a Teaching Fellow at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Research Methods (with distinction) from the University of Bradford, a Postgraduate Certificate in learning and teaching in higher education (with distinction) from Queen Mary University of London, an MSc in Human Resource Management from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and a PhD in Business and Management from QMUL. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (ACIPD). Before joining academia, Dr Umeh had over 14 years of industry experience, including over a decade in the banking sector.

Departmental roles

Programme Leader, MSc HRM

Research

Overview

Dr Umeh’s research interests span general management, international management, strategic HRM, and organisation studies. He is interested in management and managerial practices in developed and culturally diverse and developing contexts, new challenges and weakly understood meanings in management facing the Global North and Global South, innovative management practices in nation-states, formal and informal organisations, international companies, NGOs, and their impact on sustainable development and social inequalities. He continues to engage in high impact research collaboration with colleagues in the United Kingdom, North America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Dr Umeh uses multi-qualitative methods that span ethnography, narratives, phenomenology, and case study research approaches. He is particularly interested in elicitation methods within a qualitative approach and a broadly interpretivist lens, such as vignette-elicited interviewing and photo-elicitation. He also uses analytical methods such as thematic analysis, narrative analysis, discourse analysis and, specifically, a Foucauldian discourse analysis.

He has been involved in several funded research projects with grants from Business in the Community (BiTC), Enterprise Rent A Car Foundation, British Academy of Management (BAM), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), and Money and Pensions Service (Cabinet Office). He co-authored a report, Diversity in the management pipeline, which explores diversity management practices of FTSE 100 companies in the UK. The research was funded by the British Academy of Management (BAM) and Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and launched in the UK House of Commons in 2017. He is presently a co-investigator in two high-impact research studies. One on mental health and wellbeing in UK business schools funded by BAM and the other on Race at Work funded by the BiTC/Enterprise Rent A Car Foundation.

Dr Umeh continues to publish in leading international journals.

He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Personnel Review as Special Issues Editor. He previously served as Assistant Editor.

Research Interests:

• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Management practices in emerging and developed economies
• New challenges and weakly understood meanings in management
• Innovative management practices in nation-states, formal and informal organizations, international companies, NGOs,
• Impact of management practices on sustainable development and social inequalities
• Theoretical Pragmatism

Publications

Selected publications

Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals

• Umeh, C., Cornelius, N., Wallace, J. (2023) A Bourdieusian exploration of ethnic inequalities at work: the case of the Nigerian Banking Sector. Work Employment and Society https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170231173604 (CABS 4)
• Umeh, C., Cornelius, N., Wallace, J. (2022) Exploring equality, diversity, and Inclusion in multiethnic settings: A context-sensitive approach. Human Resource Management Journal, 33(1):148-169. http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12441 (CABS 4*)

Editorial

• Umeh, C., Murtada, D., Pezet, E., & Cornelius, N. (2020) Local engagement with global challenges: a geopolitics of HRM. Co-editorial - Virtual Special Issue. Personnel Review https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/pr/local-engagement-global-challenges-a-geopolitics-hrm-virtual-special-issue

Book chapter

• Umeh, C. and Cornelius, N. (2023) Financial Wellbeing and Ethnicity. In: Forson, C., Healy, G., Özturk, M., Tatli, A. (Eds.) Research handbook on inequality and work. London: Edward Elgar Publishing (In Press)
• Umeh, C. (2019) The Ethnicization of Identity. In: Mahadevan, J., Primecz, H. and Romani, L. (Eds.) Critical cross-cultural management – An intersectional approach to culture. New York/London: Routledge. Chapter 11 https://www.routledge.com/Cases-in-Critical-Cross-Cultural-Management-An-Intersectional-Approach/Mahadevan-Primecz-Romani/p/book/9780815359340#

Funded Reports

• Cornelius, N, Healy, G, Umeh, C. (2021): Financial Wellbeing and Ethnicity in the UK, A Report for Money and Pensions Service (Cabinet Office/Treasury).
• Beech, N., Cornelius, N., Gordon, L., Healy, G., Ogbonna, E., Sanghera, G., Umeh, C., Wallace, J., and Woodman, P. (2017) Delivering diversity: Race and ethnicity in the management pipeline. London: Chartered Management Institute & British Academy of Management. https://www.managers.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/CMI
  _BAM_Delivering_Diversity_2017_Full_Report_Website_Copy.pdf

Research projects

• British Academy of Management (BAM) - Mental health and wellbeing policies and practices: the lived experiences of academics in UK Business Schools: BAM Strategy Fund (£11,775) 2020–2023  https://www.bam.ac.uk/about-bam/strategy-2024/strategic-projects/mental-health-and-wellbeing.html
• Business in the Community (BiTC) - Race at Work Survey Panel Data Analysis (Qual), funded by HSS Collaboration & Strategic Impact Fund QMUL (£9,350) and Enterprise Rent a Car Foundation (£6, 877). In collaboration with the Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) Centre for Responsible Business (Quant – Funded by LBG), University of Birmingham 2022-2023.
• Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) (The Cabinet Office/ Treasury) - Financial Wellbeing and Ethnicity: Rapid Literature Review funded by MaPS, (£10,000) - 2020
• Chartered Management Institute/British Academy of Management – Delivering Diversity: Race and Ethnicity in the Management Pipeline Project: (£10,000) - 2017  https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-and-insights/research-thought-leadership/delivering-diversity/

Refereed Conferences Papers:

• Leadership and Identity at Work: A Study in Photo-Elicitation. Full paper, Academy of Management (AoM) Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Aug. 2023.
• Bridging the service-quality gap in international hospitality business in Emerging markets. Full paper, Academy of Management (AoM) Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Aug. 2023.
• Exploring women’s lived experiences of gender diversity management in a Middle Eastern Context – A Capabilities Approach. Full paper, European Group for Organisational Studies (EGOS), Cagliari, Italy. Jul. 2023.
• HRM in Crisis: Insights from Nigeria. Full Paper, European Academy of Management (EURAM), Dublin, Ireland. Jun. 2023.      
• Exploring HRM agendas and (un)fairness in post-colonial, global-south Contexts. Full paper, Academy of Management (AOM) Conference, Seattle, Washington USA. Aug. 2022.
• A Foucauldian exploration of human resource management practices in post-colonial, global-south contexts. Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Conference, Vienna, Austria. Jul. 2022.  
• Managing human resources in turbulence: Global South perspectives. Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Conference, Vienna, Austria. Jul. 2022.
• Triumph of theory or purpose? Contextualising intersectionality in under-researched contexts:   Insights from Nigeria. Developmental paper, Gender, Work and Organisation (GWO) Conference, Kent, United Kingdom. Jun. 2021.
• Researching gender inequality in under-researched contexts: An agenda. Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Jul. 2021.      
• Bourdieu meets McCall – Exploring relational and intersectional dynamics of difference in multiethnic contexts. Full paper, European Group for Organisational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Hamburg, Germany. Jul. 2020.
• Employee Engagement and Organisational Performance: Exploring the Evidence in Foreign-Owned Firm in an Emerging Market. Full paper: European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) Conference. Sep. 2020.
• An Intersectional Exploration of Ethnic Identity, Class and Inequality in a Multiethnic Context. Full paper: Academy of Management (AOM) Conference, Vancouver, Canada. Aug. 2020.
• Contextualising intersectionality in the Global South: insights from Nigeria. Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Jul. 2019.     
• Crying more than the bereaved? Researching gender in under-researched contexts: A gender research agenda (Co-author). Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Jul. 2019.     
• Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX) and the social (re)construction of leadership in Nigerian organisations (Co-author).  Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Jul. 2019
• The construction of ethnic Identity in Nigeria: Implications for diversity management.  Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Tallinn, Estonia. Jul. 2018
• Perspectives on the intersecting identities of female academics in Saudi Arabia. Full paper, European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Tallinn, Estonia. 2018.
• National cultures and employee commitment in a developing country context: Perspectives from Nigeria. Developmental paper, British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference. Awarded Best Paper–International Business and International Management Stream. Warwick, UK. Sep. 2017.

Professional Development Workshop (PWD):

• PDW Co-Chair, Mental Health and Wellbeing – Mental Health and Wellbeing: the lived experiences of Academics in UK Business Schools: Implication for Policy and Practice, with Professor N. Cornelius (Queen Mary University of London), Dr A. Gillon (University of the West of Scotland), Prof Emma Perry (Cranfield University).
  British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference, University of Sussex, UK, Sept. 2023

• PDW Co-Chair, Mental Health and Wellbeing – The lived Experiences of UK Academics, with Professor N. Cornelius (Queen Mary) and Dr A. Gillon (UWS), Aug 2022.
  British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference, University of Manchester, UK

• PDW Co-Chair, Mental Health and Wellbeing for Business School Academics, with Professor N. Cornelius (Queen Mary) and Dr A. Gillon (UWS).
  BAM Conference, University of Manchester, UK. Aug. 2021

External activities

Overview

Dr Chidozie Umeh is a Visiting Research Fellow at Université Paris Nanterre in Paris, France.

He is Special Issues Editor of Personnel Review.

Projects:

• Business in the Community (BiTC)/Enterprise Rent a Car Foundation
  Co-Investigator, Qualitative data analysis from three national surveys conducted by Business in the Community (BiTC) on Race, Equality, and Work.
  [Co-Investigating institutions: Queen Mary University of London and University of Birmingham]
  Sponsors: BiTC/Enterprise Rent a Car Foundation. 2022- 2023

• British Academy of Management (BAM)
  Co-Investigator, Mental health and wellbeing policies and practices: the lived experiences of academics in UK Business Schools.
  [Co-Investigating institutions: Queen Mary University of London and University of the West of Scotland]
  Sponsors: BAM - 2021- 2023

• Money and Pensions Service (The Cabinet Office/Treasury) (MaPS)
  Co-Investigator, Financial Wellbeing and Ethnicity in the UK
  [Co-Investigating institution: Queen Mary University of London]
  Sponsors: MaPS - 2020-2021

• Chartered Management Institute (CMI)/British Academy of Management (BAM)
  Co-Investigator, DELIVERING DIVERSITY: Race and ethnicity in the management pipeline.
  [Co-Investigating institutions: University of Dundee, Queen Mary University of London, University of St Andrews, University of Cardiff, University of Bradford
  Sponsors: CMI)/BAM - 2016-2017

Consultations

• Umeh, C and Cornelius, N. (2021) Ethnic disparities and inequality in the UK: call for evidence Ethnic Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ethnic-disparities-and-inequality-in-the-uk-call-for-evidence/ethnic-disparities-and-inequality-in-the-uk-call-for-evidence
• Cornelius, N, Healy, G, Umeh, C. (2021): Financial Wellbeing and Ethnicity in the UK, A Literature Review for Money and Pensions Service (Cabinet Office/Treasury)

Teaching

Other teaching

Dr Umeh is currently the Programme Leader for the MSc Human Resource Management programme at the School for Business and Society. He has been variously nominated for several teaching awards in previous roles, including the Assessment and Feedback Champion, Innovative Teaching Awards, Academic Support Award, and Teacher of the Year Awards.

Module Leader (Postgraduate):

• Human Resource Management in Context