Meet the new Director of Faculty - Steve Brammer

After studying economics for seven years at the University of East Anglia, I worked my way through the career ladder from teaching fellow, via lecturer and senior lecturer, to Professor at the University of Bath, before becoming Professor of Strategy and Associate Dean for Research at Warwick Business School. I hold, or have held, visiting positions in the US at George Washington University, in Lund in Sweden, and also in Italy and Greece, and have served as a Section Editor at the Journal of Business Ethics, and as a member of the editorial boards of Journal of Management Studies, Business Ethics Quarterly, and Business & Society. I am past president of the International Association for Business and Society (IABS), and hosted the annual conference in Bath in 2011.

My research lies principally in the areas of business ethics and corporate social responsibility and the inter- and multi-disciplinary nature of these phenomena has meant that I have published in outlets across the range of business and management disciplines. Much of my research explores firm-stakeholder relationships, the strategic management of these, and the impacts of these upon company performance and reputation. Most recently, I have completed two large scale international comparative projects concerned with how public bodies and private companies embed so-cial responsibility within their supply chains, and a HEFCE funded project concerned with embed-ding principles of social responsibility in management education.

I have recently been appointed as the new Director of Faculty in the Business School. This is a new role on the school’s senior management team and involves primary responsibility for managing and developing the academic human resource base of the School, including focusing on the development of the faculty through the support of mentoring, capability-development, promotions, performance appraisal and incentives, as well as the recruitment of new faculty. I have personally benefited from excellent mentoring throughout my career and a key part of my motivation in accepting this important role is an intention to “pay it forward” by working closely with the Heads of the school’s departments to support and mentor staff in a very hands-on and practical way. I believe that even senior and experienced staff can gain significantly from a challenging yet supportive mentoring process. Other key aspects of the role are improving recognition for the diverse contributions colleagues make to the school’s success, helping to ensure fairness and equity in the way the school’s human resources are allocated, and enhancing opportunities for staff development in support of the school’s strategy. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible, and I’m always open to a coffee and a conversation, so feel free to drop me a line.