Rachael Thompson

Assistant Professor

Department: Newcastle Business School

Rachael Thompson is a Lecturer within the Corporate and Executive Development department, Faculty of Business and Law- Newcastle Business School.

Rachael Thompson is a Lecturer within the Corporate and Executive Development department, Faculty of Business and Law- Newcastle Business School. Rachael is Programme Leader for Year One of the BA (Hons) Business Leadership and Corporate Management programme, holds several Module Tutor roles, and delivers teaching across a range of areas including leadership, personal development, reflective practice and research methods. As part of this role, she also supervises final year students during their research projects, including dissertations, work based research reports and professional projects.

Rachael obtained her PG HEP qualification and HEA fellowship in 2014, which has provided professional development within the areas of teaching and research.
Rachael was successfully awarded her doctorate in 2016, with her research focused on Followership within Public Sector contexts, utilising qualitative and visual research methodologies within this.

Campus Address

Northumbria University
City Campus East 1
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

Email Rachael

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Rachael Thompson is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader within the Leadership and Human Resource Management department, Faculty of Business and Law at Northumbria University. She is currently Programme Leader at Postgraduate level for MSc Strategic Leadership and for MSc Strategic Leadership for Public Services (Degree Apprenticeships). Rachael develops, leads, and teaches on various leadership, personal development, reflective practice, and research methods‐based modules. She also supervises research students at Undergraduate and Doctoral levels.

Rachael holds a doctorate centred on followership within public sector contexts, and has published her research in various journals and books including Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Leadership Education, Journal of Leadership Studies, and New Directions for Student Leadership. She has held Guest Editorial positions for journals including Industrial and Commercial Training, and New Directions for Student Leadership. Rachael has presented her research at multiple international conferences, participated in panel discussions, and more recently undertook a co‐chair position for the 1st Global Followership Conference (Canada, 2019). Rachael is an active member of the International Leadership Association's Followership Learning Community and held the role of chair 2018–2019.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
The power of we in followership: Strategies for followership development, Thompson, R., Gresh, S., Hurwitz, M. 28 May 2021, In: Industrial and Commercial Training
Editor's Notes, Thompson, R., Hurwitz, M. 1 Sep 2020, In: New directions for student leadership
Followership Identity Work, Thompson, R. 1 Sep 2020, In: New directions for student leadership
Disrupting the leadership focus by facilitating the social construction of followership in the classroom: student responses to a visual method pedagogy, Morris, R., Corlett, S. 19 Jan 2017, In: The Journal of Leadership Studies
Followership, Hierarchies and Communication: Achieving or Negotiating Buy-in within the Public Sector?, Morris, R., Corlett, S. 3 Feb 2016, Followership in Action: Cases and Commentaries, Emerald
Exploring employee engagement with (corporate) social responsibility: A Social Exchange perspective on organisational participation, Slack, R., Corlett, S., Morris, R. Mar 2015, In: Journal of Business Ethics
Organizational influences upon following: capturing the context through the use of visual research diaries, Morris, R. Oct 2015, International Leadership Association Annual Conference - Leading Across Borders and Generations
Constructions of following from a relational perspective, Morris, R. 2014, Followership Symposium, International Leadership Association Conference 2014
Constructions of Following from a Relational Perspective: A Follower-Focused Study, Morris, R. Dec 2014, In: Journal of Leadership Education
Experiences and constructions of following: Advancing understandings through visual research methods, Morris, R. 2014, International Leadership Association Conference 2014

PGR Supervision

Jeffrey Tibbett Behind The Mask: A Qualitative study to unmask the Social Construction of Leadership amongst Officer Cadets of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Start Date: 23/04/2021
Merrel Knox Working in dangerous contexts: Conceptualising leadership in Emergency Response Teams Start Date: 15/06/2018 End Date: 15/07/2020