University of Bradford School of Management wins national award praising the practical nature of its research

A study on The need to get more for less – authored by a mother and daughter team of academics from the University of Bradford School of Management and Real World Group, has won the first ever Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Management Articles of the Year competition, which aims to bridge the gap between academic management research and practising managers working in UK organisations. Read the winning article and the others in the top five on the MBS Portal now.

This article achieved the highest average rating from CMI members. It explores the importance of employee engagement, and what forms of leadership produce high levels of engagement, as well as proposing a model of engaging, transformational leadership based on research among over 4,500 public and private sector (FTSE100) staff. It finds that leadership is most engaging when it consists of genuine partnership, united around a shared vision, and creates an environment where empowerment, appreciation, curiosity, experimentation, questioning the status quo and learning are highly valued – and where these values are not just confined to leadership roles.

How the competition works
Academics submitted their articles, which were reviewed online and given a usefulness rating by CMI members. Articles with the best ratings were then scrutinised by the CMI Academic Advisory Council, a committee made up of leading academics from across the UK. The following articles were then selected to make up the top five, and an overall winner awarded the ‘Management Article of the Year’ title:

• The need to get more for less: a new model of engaging transformational leadership and evidence of its effect on team productivity, staff morale and wellbeing at work by Prof. Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe, University of Bradford School of Management, and Juliette Alban-Metcalfe, Real World Group (overall winner)
• Against the tyranny of PowerPoint: technology-in-use and technology abuse by Prof. Yiannis Gabriel, Bath School of Management
• Delivering practice based stories of small and medium enterprise by Dr Robert Smith and Dr Charles Juwah, Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University
• Leading through change: To what extent is a transformational approach appropriate during unprecedented restructuring of the police? by Ian Hesketh, Lancaster University Management School
• Rethinking change: downsizing businesses, changing behaviours and still managing to come out on top by Michael J.R. Butler of Aston Business School, David Crundwell, a communications and change management professional, and Mike Sweeney of Cranfield University

The CMI Management Articles of the Year initiative is supported by the British Academy of Management, the Advanced Institute of Management Research, the Association of Business Schools, and the British Library, and is sponsored by the publishers John Wiley and Sons Ltd.