Professor Kevin Morrell

Contribution

I work with senior leaders, boards, and public institutions navigating complex strategic change, governance challenges, and high-stakes decision environments. My focus is on judgment, legitimacy, and responsibility in situations where evidence is contested, values are in tension, and long-term consequences matter.

My work bridges strategy, ethics, and organisational change, drawing on classical philosophy, particularly Aristotelian practical wisdom, to support leaders facing ambiguity, power, and accountability in contemporary institutions.

I have contributed directly to policy and public debate, including providing written evidence to the UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee on climate change and security. My research on governance, policing, and public trust has informed national and international discussions on legitimacy, confidence, and institutional reform.

I publish in leading international journals including Journal of Management Studies, Public Administration Review, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Work, Employment and Society, the Anthropocene Review, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Human Relations.

Alongside academic work, I engage actively with practice through advisory work, executive education, media commentary, and public speaking. I have provided expert analysis for organisations including the BBC, Sky News, and the Financial Times, translating rigorous thinking into practical insight for real-world leadership and governance challenges.

Areas of expertise

• Strategic leadership and transformation
• Governance, ethics, and board decision-making
• AI, risk, and responsible adoption
• Institutional resilience and long-term value
• Executive decision-making and scenario design

Recognition and advisory roles

British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship

National recognition for sustained excellence and leadership in research and public value.

Board-level advisory and evaluation roles

Trusted adviser and evaluator for national research councils and senior decision-making bodies.

Senior reviewer for strategic investment decisions

Assessment of high-value, high-risk proposals involving public funding, innovation, and institutional impact.

Ethics, governance and accountability advisory

Contributor to national frameworks on ethics, governance, and accountability in public institutions.

Adviser on responsible AI and decision systems

Advisory work on AI, automation, and decision systems where judgment, legitimacy, and responsibility are critical.

The research behind this book

Rethinking Leadership draws on two decades of research across rhetoric, critical theory, philosophy, sociology, literary theory, discourse analysis and applied ethics, conducted in a range of empirical settings: public order policing in England, organisational change in the NHS, tax governance, post-conflict governance in Nicaragua, cultural attitudes to climate change in defence, and the critical analysis of leadership language.

Formation

The Introduction describes the route that led to the book, and is candid that this particular route shaped the account. A different researcher with different commitments would have written a different book, which is a claim the argument itself requires.

From the Introduction

My own journey toward leadership-as-narrative began not on a mountain top but in what many people would call an ivory tower. As a philosophy student, trained in classical rhetoric and Aristotelian ethics, I perhaps initially thought about leadership (at least in part) as a kind of puzzle in accomplishing persuasive discourse.

From the Introduction

By writing from an identifiable perspective, acknowledging my particular scholarly journey: from Nairobi to Cheshire, from Cambridge to Cranfield, from Aristotle to the boardroom; and using narrative techniques to engage readers, I aim to enact the very principles I advocate.

Selected publications

As listed in the book’s appendix.

• Aroles, J. and Morrell, K. (2025). Marketisation and the Public Good: A Typology of Responses among Museum Professionals. Work, Employment and Society, 39(1).
• Aroles, J., Morrell, K., Granter, E. and Liang, Y. (2024). Representing, Re-presenting, or Producing the Past? Memory Work amongst Museum Employees. Journal of Management Studies, 63(4).
• Learmonth, M. and Morrell, K. (2019). Critical Perspectives on Leadership: The Language of Corporate Power. London: Routledge.
• Morrell, K. (2006). Policy as narrative: New Labour's reform of the National Health Service. Public Administration, 84(2), 367–385.
• Morrell, K. (2008). The narrative of “evidence based” management: A polemic. Journal of Management Studies, 45(3), 613–635.
• Morrell, K. (2012). Organisation, Society and Politics: An Aristotelian Perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Morrell, K. (2022). Is successful change a fairy tale? Management Today, 29 June.
• Morrell, K. (2026). Is AI Telling You The Truth? Board Agenda, 26 January.
• Morrell, K. and Brammer, S. (2016). Governance and Virtue: The Case of Public Order Policing. Journal of Business Ethics.
• Morrell, K. and Currie, G. (2015). Impossible Jobs or Impossible Tasks? Client Volatility and Frontline Policing Practice in Urban Riots. Public Administration Review, 75(2), 264–275.
• Morrell, K. and Harrington-Buhay, N. (2012). Governance, Public Interest, and Property Rights: The Case of the 1995 Property Forum in Post-Conflict Nicaragua. Public Administration.
• Morrell, K. and Hartley, J. (2006). A model of political leadership. Human Relations, 59(4), 483–504.
• Morrell, K. and Tuck, P. (2014). Governance, tax and folk tales. Accounting, Organisations and Society, 39(2), 134–147.
• Morrell, K., Hewison, A. and Heracleous, L. (2020). From Events to Personal Histories: Narrating Change in Health-Care Organisations. Public Management Review, 22(6), 908–926.
• Morrell, K. et al. (2021). How Does the State Restore Order During Crisis? Lessons from the UK. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.

Elsewhere

• Google Scholar
• LinkedIn
• kevinmorrell.org.uk — research, speaking and advisory work

Enquiries

Speaking, teaching, media and research enquiries: see contact.

Status: biography, expertise, recognition and links from kevinmorrell.org.uk, the author’s own site · passages from the Introduction quoted directly · publications from the book’s appendix · author review required