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Dr Amal Ahmadi

Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour

Business and Management Programme Director
Fellow, UK HEA

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Specialisms

  • Leadership, 
  • Leadership Development, 
  • Organisational Behaviour, 
  • Workplace Emotions, 
  • Entrepreneurship

Location

Edith Morley building room 265, Whiteknights campus

Dr Amal Ahmadi is a Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Henley Business School. She is a member of the Henley Centre for Leadership and the Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship and is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).

Amal worked in the banking and financial services industry prior to pursuing her doctoral research at Henley Business School. Her PhD research explored the leadership knowing-doing gap, focusing on the role of leader fear and the leadership context in influencing the transfer of leadership knowledge into leadership action. It drew on cognitive, affective and behavioural mechanisms to explore the phenomena in study and has the potential to be extended into several interdisciplinary avenues for future research.

Amal has presented her research at a number of conferences, such as the British Academy of Management (BAM), the Academy of Management (AOM) and the Developing Leadership Capacity Conference (DLCC) among others. She has won the Best Doctoral Paper Award for a paper presented at the 9th Conference on Emotions and Organisational Life (Emonet IX) in 2014.

Amal’s research interests include leadership and leadership development, as well as emotions in the workplace. Her teaching experience covers undergraduate and postgraduate modules in a number of areas including leadership, organisational behaviour, management and entrepreneurship.

Reference: Ahmadi, A. and Vogel, B. (2023) Knowing, but not enacting leadership: navigating the leadership knowing-doing gap in leveraging leadership development. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 22 (3). pp. 507-530. ISSN 1537-260X doi: https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2020.0534
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi - Professor Bernd Vogel
Reference: Ahmadi, A. and Soga, L. R. (2022) To be or not to be: latent entrepreneurship, the networked agent and the fear factor. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174. 121281. ISSN 0040-1625 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121281
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi
Reference: Ahmadi, A. and Vogel, B. (2019) The leadership knowing-doing gap: a phenomenological exploration. In: 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM), 10-14 Aug 2019, Boston, USA. doi: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.13612abstract
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi - Professor Bernd Vogel
Reference: Ahmadi, A. and Vogel, B. (2017) Ella’s Kitchen: strategic positive leadership with purpose and value-driven collective energy. In: Koonce, R., Robinson, P. and Vogel, B. (eds.) Developing Leaders for Positive Organizing. Emerald, pp. 307-320. ISBN 9781787142411
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi - Professor Bernd Vogel
Reference: Vogel, B. , Graça, A. M. , Ahmadi, A. and Vlachou, M. , (2018) The impact of the Fulbright programme on participants’ leadership capacity. Technical Report. Fulbright
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Bernd Vogel - Dr Ana Graça - Dr Amal Ahmadi
Reference: Ahmadi, A. (2014) The knowing-doing gap of leadership: an exploration of leader fear and leader courage and the gap between knowing leadership and engaging in leadership. In: 74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM) 2014, 1-5 August, 2014, Philadelphia, US..
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi
Reference: Ahmadi, A. (2015) An exploration of the role of leader fear in the knowing-doing gap of leadership. In: British Academy of Management (BAM) 2015 Conference, 7-10 September, 2015, University of Portsmouth.
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi
Reference: Ahmadi, A. (2015) A phenomenological exploration of the leadership knowing-doing gap, focusing on the role of leader fear and the leadership context. PhD thesis, University of Reading.
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi
Reference: Ahmadi, A. , Vogel, B. and Collins, C. (2016) An initial framework for the role of leader fear in the knowing-doing gap of leadership. In: Ashkanasy, N. M., Zerbe, W. J. and Härtel, C. E. J. (eds.) Emotions and Organizational Governance. Research on Emotion in Organizations, 12. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 313-340. ISBN 9781785609985 doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1746-979120160000012011
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Amal Ahmadi - Professor Bernd Vogel - Professor Claire Collins

Developing and Advancing Effective Leadership

This is an interactive and practical module aiming to offer students a comprehensive overview of leadership. The module introduces key concepts, theories, and frameworks of leadership, and explores their practical...

Module code: MMM166

Leading in the 21st Century - Leadership Challenges and Practices

The module explores the role of leadership in leading organisations in the 21st century. It provides students with an introduction to key theories of leadership and understanding their practical application...

Module code: MM387

Leading personal transformation

The module covers a range of topics relating to personal leadership transformation and is designed to meet the learning outcomes of the Apprenticeship Standard, specifically leading people development, and coaching...

Module code: MQM1LPT

Entrepreneurial Management Venture Project

In rapidly changing times, entrepreneurship is a vital ingredient of business sustainability and profitable growth....

Module code: MM392

Social Enterprise

This is an interactive and practical module aiming to give students a comprehensive introduction to the social enterprise sector. ...

Module code: MM379

Ahmadi, A. and Vogel, B. 2019. The leadership knowing-doing gap: A phenomenological exploration. Paper Presentation, 79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM). Boston, USA.

Ahmadi, A. 2019. The leadership knowing-doing gap. Roundtable Discussion, Academy of Management Learning and Education Paper Development Workshop. Bath, UK.

Vogel, B., Ahmadi, A. and Graça, A. M. 2017. A temporal exploration of the impact of experience-based learning episodes on leadership development over time. Paper Presentation, 2nd Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium. Mykonos, Greece.

Ahmadi, A. 2015. An exploration of the role of leader fear in the knowing-doing gap of leadership. (Doctoral Symposium Paper Presentation), 29th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (BAM). Portsmouth, UK.

Ahmadi, A. 2015. Leadership translational issues: The gap between knowing leadership and enacting leadership. (Professional Development Workshop: Leadership translation issues: Blending scholarly and practice lenses in leadership development. Invited Panel Presentation, presented by Bernd Vogel), 75th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM). Vancouver, Canada.

Ahmadi, A. 2015. Towards an understanding of the role of leader courage in the knowing-doing gap of leadership. (Developmental Paper Presentation), 7th Developing Leadership Capacity Conference (DLCC). Henley-on-Thames, UK.

Ahmadi, A., Batistic, S., Graca, A. M., Kenda, R. and Vogel, B. 2015. Beware of the dark side: The impact of destructive collective leadership on affective team climate and creativity-innovation. (Symposium: Shaping team processes agenda: Antecedents and outcomes through a temporal lens. Paper Presentation, presented by Sasa Batistic and Ana Margarida Graca), 17th congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP). Oslo, Norway.

Ahmadi, A. 2014. The knowing-doing gap of leadership: An exploration of leader fear and leader courage and the gap between knowing leadership and engaging in leadership. (Professional Development Workshop: Some Words of Advice: A Mentoring Session to Promote High Quality Leadership Research. Roundtable Discussion), 74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM). Philadelphia, US.

Ahmadi, A. 2014. The knowing-doing gap of leadership: An exploration of leader fear and leader courage and the gap between knowing leadership and engaging in leadership. (Organizational Behavior Doctoral Consortium. Roundtable Discussion), 74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM). Philadelphia, US.

Ahmadi, A., Vogel, B. and Collins, C. 2014. A theory on the role of leader fear in the knowing-doing gap of leadership. (Paper Presentation), 9th Conference on Emotions and Organizational Life (Emonet IX). Philadelphia, US.

Ahmadi, A. 2012. The gap between knowing leadership and engaging in leadership. (Doctoral Symposium. Research Conversations), 26th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (BAM). Cardiff, UK.

Ahmadi, A. and Vogel, B. 2012. The gap between knowing leadership and engaging in leadership: Leader, follower and organisational building blocks. (Poster Presentation), 4th Annual Developing Leadership Capacity Conference (DLCC). Exeter, UK.