Dr Wenjin Dai

Professional biography

Wenjin is a Senior Lecturer in Leadership in the Department of Public Leadership & Social Enterprise at The Open University Business School. She joined OU in July 2018, before that she worked in University of Portsmouth and University of Exeter. Her academic background is in the areas of Diversity, Leadership and Organisation Studies. She graduated with a PhD from the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter, and an MSc in Marketing from the University of Birmingham. Before moving to the UK, she worked as a managing consultant in Shanghai, China.

Research interests

Building on her cross-cultural experiences, Wenjin's research contributes to the diversity of knowledge in leadership and organisation studies by offering non-Anglophone understandings. She also approaches diversity as a research field through examining workplace experiences and intersectional influences such as gender, ethnicity, and motherhood. She is particularly interested in using ethnographic and arts-based methods exploring context-grounded meanings and lived experiences. She is currently leading an Open Societal Challenge project titled 'Supporting Diverse New Motherhoods for Work Inclusion'.Through working with voluntary and community organisations, the project aims to improve the understanding and practices of supporting diverse motherhoods for work inclusion. Based on the findings of the research project and collaboration with other colleagues in FBL, Wenjin co-created the Return-to-Work Toolkit for parents and employers as part of the Mumentum campaign. 

Teaching interests

Since joining the OU in 2018 Wenjin has contributed to the development and delivery of a number of modules across the BSc and MBA programmes. Currently she is part of the module production team for B211 a leadership module for undergraduates. She is also chairing BBXY876 'Leadership in Practice', a 45 credits module for the Senior Leader Appreticeship Qualification (Level 7) and members of other undergraduate modules. She is interested in advocating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion to enhance pedagogy practices.