Prof Vincenza Priola

Professional biography

I am a Professor of Work and Organization Studies, the Head of the Department of People and Organisations at the Open University Business School, Faculty of Business and Law, and the chair of the faculty's Athena Swan Charter accreditation (Athena Swan Charter | Advance HE). I joined the Open University in 2014 from Aston University and worked at Keele University before then. I was educated in Italy where I was awarded the degree of Doctor of Psychology in 1995-96, specialising in Work and Organisational Psychology. Subsequently, I moved to the UK to complete a PhD in the early 2000s. 

I am an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  Although my earlier interests lay in work psychology, my development as a scholar has also been influenced by sociology, critical theory and philosophy and I view myself as a social scientist who works across disciplinary boundaries.

As a management scholar, I am interested in studying the intersections between people, work and society in relation to inclusion.  I have a wide experience of teaching and researching in the UK and overseas. I regularly present my work at academic conferences and I am frequently invited as a guest speaker at academic and professional seminars and events. I have organised several conferences, conference streams and symposia. I held visiting professorships at the University of Cagliari, the University of Aosta Valley, the Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Napoli (all based in Italy), and taught in Libya and France.

Research interests

My research focuses on people's experiences of work and the links between work/organisational/management practices and social processes. I have researched and written on work and social inclusion, gender and sexuality in organisations, identities in the workplace, diversity, gender and entrepreneurship, employee branding, management practices, higher education management and group-work. Lately, I have published on research methodologies in the social sciences, disabilities in the workplace and Islamic Feminism. I have supervised several PhD students to successful completion and I am currently supervising two students: Melanie Philpott and Gulfam Tasnim.

Books: ​

Interrogare la ricerca qualitativa - Angelo Benozzo, Vincenza "Cinzia" Priola - Raffaello Cortina Editore - Libro Raffaello Cortina Editore

Branded Lives. The Production and Consumption of Meaning at Work.

*[Reviewed in: Administrative Science Quarterly (2012), 57(3), 535-536; Journal of Organizational Ethnography (2013), 2(1), 118; Organization (2013), 20(4), 635-641; Journal of Marketing Management (2014), 30(3-4), 431-432; Ephemera (2014), 14(1), 143-150]

Latest Publications

Chaudhry, S.A. and Priola, V. (2024) Spatial modesty: The everyday production of gendered space in segregated and assimilative organisations. Journal of Management Studies, early view online.

Benozzo, A., Distinto, M. and Priola, V. (2024) Matter and Method: The Quest for a New-Materialist Methodology in Management Studies. British Journal of Management , 35(1), pp. 86-98.

Bend, G. and Priola, V. (2023) ‘There is nothing wrong with me’: The Materialisation of Disability in Sheltered Employment. Work, Employment and Society, 37(3), 645-664.

TO VIEW:

The Open University Inaugural Lecture - Professor Cinzia Priola

Unveiling Modest Femininities: Sexuality, Gender (In)equality and Gender Justice | Faculti

Getting it wrong, right and wrong again(?) Journeying between ideology and praxis - YouTube

BHM 2021 - Decolonising scholarship as a commitment to the racial inclusion of students and staff - YouTube

Grabbing the Opportunity with Both Hands: Calling universities to action against racism - YouTube

Dr Cinzia Priola video abstract - YouTube

Women in Research: Making a difference to the wider world - YouTube

The Future of Empowerment Today - YouTube

Video Abstract: The Sound of Silence - YouTube

Recent OpenLearn and media articles:

HR Magazine - Inequalities, discrimination and the pay gap

Day 86, Year of #Mygration: Diversity, migrant entrepreneurship and socio-economic inclusion | The Open University

Diversity, migrant entrepreneurship and socio-economic inclusion - OpenLearn - Open University

Teaching interests

My teaching interests and expertise is in the area of Organisational Behaviour, Leadership, HRM and Research Methods, at PhD, PG and UG levels.  I  also teach courses on Inclusion and Diversity at work. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, I hold a PGCT&L in HE and I am a SEDA accredited teacher in HE.

At the OU I chaired the productions of: Learning and Development at Work (B814); the Microcredential 'People Management and Leadership' (BZFM303) in collaboration with Future Learn; the Dissertation (B804) and the ‘Work-based Project’ (B865) modules part of the MSc HRM. I held the role of Qualification Lead for the MSc HRM and chaired the presentation of the Dissertation, Workplace Project. and People Management and Leadership modules. I also contributed to the production of several other modules and written various units in HRM-related modules on ‘The HR professional’, ‘Workplace Learning, Coaching and Mentoring’ (on the MSC HRM) and ‘The practices of HRM’ (Y2 of the Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA)). Between 2014 and 2016 I was a module team member in the UG module ‘Leadership and Change’ (B204).

External collaborations

I collaborate with colleagues across the UK, Europe, Asia and the US on several research projects.