Dr Anna Topakas

Over thousands of years, leadership has been the dominant way for people to organise and coordinate their efforts in pursuing shared objectives, and to nourish and protect themselves and each other. It persists as a mode of organising because it works, mostly. What makes leadership structures and processes effective has been a burning question in the management domain for over six decades. In my work I explore questions around the role of leadership in facilitating individual and collective thriving, and how organisations can support virtuous interactions and relationships to build both collective and individual resilience and productivity.

My recent research projects focus on the role of relationships in facilitating manager and employee wellbeing and good mental health, as well as performance. I am also looking at inter- and intra-organisational collaboration and how it can facilitate improvements in service delivery and achieve performance gains.

My research has received funding from BA/Leverhulme and the Wellcome trust.

I am a reviewer for a number of journals, including the British Journal of Management, Work and Stress, Frontiers in Communication, Applied Psychology:  An International Review, and the Institute for Work Psychology International Conference.

Selected Research Projects

I have conducted research with large public-sector organisations as well as international charities.

In healthcare, I worked as a Research Fellow (2009-2013) on a series of large-scale projects focused on using longitudinal survey data to identify the factors contributing to employee engagement, satisfaction and wellbeing, as well as organisational performance (e.g. trust mortality rate, patient satisfaction, infection rates, financial performance). This work resulted in a series of reports:

• Staff satisfaction and organisational performance: evidence from a longitudinal secondary analysis of the NHS staff survey and outcome data
• NHS staff management and health service quality

In policing, I have been working with South Yorkshire Police and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council since 2013 on a series of projects exploring the factors that affect the organisational change process, in the context of restructuring initiatives. Access some of the findings from this work.

As part of a larger team, I have worked with the Wellcome Trust, a charitable organisation, to explore the effect of diversity and inclusion on the healthcare research industry, with a focus on workforce diversity. Read a report summarising this work.

My more recent projects involve the evaluation of manager training in mental health awareness, the role of workplace leadership in tackling loneliness, and leader and follower identity dynamics, among others.

Research to Practice

I work closely with private and public sector organisations to support leaders with their daily challenges and help them foster positive work environments. Below are some resources for managers interested in employee wellbeing:  

National Leadership Centre Thinkpieces: Leading to Wellbeing by Dr Anna Topakas

Centre for Loneliness Studies Blog: Managers Responding to Loneliness in the Workplace by Dr Anna Topakas