Dr Andromachi Athanasopoulou

Profile

Biography:

Andromachi Athanasopoulou is Reader (Associate Professor) in Organisational Behaviour and previously, the Head of the People & Organisations Department at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. She is also an Associate Scholar and previously Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford. She has previously held academic appointments as Visiting Associate Professor at the London Business School, as Residential Research Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University (Harvard Law School) and as a Junior Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. 

Athanasopoulou has expertise in leadership and leadership development (particularly on issues relating to gender and the C-suite level), executive coaching as well as business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Specifically, in her research, Andromachi explores how leaders’ behaviour affects and is affected by the social context within which they operate, with emphasis on: (a) personal leadership development, with a focus on top management/C-suite career trajectories, executive coaching, gender, and leadership; (b) ethical/responsible leadership, particularly corporate social responsibility and ethical dilemmas in work contexts. 

Athanasopoulou has published several articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and a book on executive coaching and leadership development with the Oxford University Press. She sits on the editorial review board of the Academy of Management Learning & Education, the leading management education journal. Athanasopoulou has received several scholarships, grants and awards, including awards from the Academy of Management and the British Academy of Management. Her research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, The Leadership Quarterly, Human Resource Management, Business & Society and the Harvard Business Review. Athanasopoulou’s work has been presented at the World Economic Forum and cited by global media such as CNN, BBC World, the Financial Times and Forbes. She has extensive experience teaching in various areas of organisational behaviour and management at undergraduate, postgraduate and executive education levels.  

Athanasopoulou holds an MBA, an MSc in Management Research, and a Doctorate (DPhil) in Management Studies, all from the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford. Prior to her academic career, she worked in banking. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK. 

LinkedIn Profile

Teaching

Undergraduate (Module Organiser)

BUS141 Fundamentals of Management Studies and Skills

MSc

MSc supervision

PhD

• Leadership / leadership development
• Gender and leadership
• C-suite careers
• Corporate social responsibility / business ethics

Research

Research Interests:

I am a qualitative researcher typically working with large samples of interview data. My areas of interest are in (a) personal leadership development, with a focus on top management/C-suite career trajectories, executive coaching, gender, and leadership; (b) ethical/responsible leadership, particularly corporate social responsibility and ethical dilemmas in work contexts. 

Centre and Group Membership

Member of CRED (Center for Research in Equality and Diversity)

Member of the Organisation Studies Research Group

Publications

Book

• Athanasopoulou, A. & Dopson, S. 2015. Developing Leaders by Executive Coaching: Practice and Evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(This book is a monograph on the executive coaching field and its links to leadership theory, leadership development and management education - not an edited book)

 

Journal Articles

• Athanasopoulou, A., Mosonyi, S., Kirton, G., & Dopson, S., 2025. Beyond Fixing Women: In Pursuit of Women Leaders for Responsible Leadership, Business & Society.
• Marti, E., Risi, D. & Schlindwein, E. & Athanasopoulou. A., 2024. Creating a Corporate Social Responsibility Program with Real Impact. Harvard Business Review. [hbr.org] https://hbr.org/2024/03/creating-a-corporate-social-responsibility-program-with-real-impact
• Athanasopoulou, A.*, Marti*, E., Risi, D.* & Schlindwein, E.* 2024. How companies restrain means–ends decoupling: A comparative case study of CSR implementation. Journal of Management Studies, 62(1), 214-245. (*all authors contributed equally)

• Bhatti, Y., Ramirez, R. & Athanasopoulou, A. The value produced in lending strategic problems as live cases in futures education. Futures, vol. 148.

• Yang, L., Manika, M. & Athanasopoulou, A. 2019. A multi-level perspective on symbolic pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Business Research.
• Athanasopoulou, A., Moss Cowan, A., Smets, M. & Morris, T. 2018. In interviews, female CEOs say they don’t expect much support — at home or at work. Harvard Business Review [hbr.org]
• Athanasopoulou. A. & Dopson, S. 2018. A systematic review of executive coaching outcomes: Is it the journey or the destination that matters the most? Leadership Quarterly, 29(1): 70-88.

• Athanasopoulou, A., Moss Cowan, A., Smets, M. & Morris, T. 2018. Claiming the corner office: female CEO careers and implications for leadership development, Human Resource Management, 57(2): 617-639.
• Athanasopoulou, A. & Selsky, J. 2015. The social context of corporate social responsibility: Assessing competing perspectives to enrich research and practice, Business & Society, 54(3) 322–364.
• Athanasopoulou, A. Managers’ Corporate Social Responsibility perceptions and attitudes across different organizational contexts within the non-profit – for-profit organizational continuum. Journal of Change Management, 12(4): 467-494.

Other Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Smets, M., Moss Cowan, A., Athanasopoulou, A., Moos, C. & Morris, T. 2019. From taking to making paradox: A multi-level perspective on how CEOs balance nested paradoxes. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Best Paper Proceedings. (2019 Academy of Management Best Paper Award Finalist, Organization and Management Theory Division.)
• Passarelli, A. M., Van Oosten, E. B., Good, D., Jules, C., Athanasopoulou, A., Boyatzis, R. E., Dopson, S. & Taylor, S. N. 2016. New frontiers in coaching research. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2016(1), 1. (Submission to AOM symposium; received the 2016 Management Education and Development Division’s Best Symposium in Management Education and Development Award)

Book Chapters

• Mitra, M., Athanasopoulou, A., Dopson, S., Smets, M. 2022. Responsible Leadership Development: Gender, Diversity and the Route to the Top. In Saks, M. (ed.) Responsible Leadership: Essential to the Attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Routledge.
• Athanasopoulou, A. & Selsky, J. 2016. The role of social context in Corporate Social Responsibility research. In Örtenblad, A.. Research Handbook on Corporate Social Responsibility in Context. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
• Athanasopoulou, A. 2008. Turbulence and Corporate Social Responsibility: Is there a role for scenarios?” ­ In Ramirez, R., Selsky, J. and van der Heijden, K. (eds.), pp. 243-258, Business Planning for Turbulent Environments: New Methods for Applying Scenarios (1^st ed.), London: Earthscan (2^nd ed. in 2010) (chapter selection based on peer-review)

 

Reports & Other Publications

• Saïd Business School and Heidrick & Struggles - The CEO Report: Embracing the Paradoxes of Leadership and the Power of Doubt (World Economic Forum, Davos, January 2015) [T. Morris, A. White, M. Smets, A. Moss Cowan, A. Athanasopoulou, T. Malloch, V. Germain, K. West, D. Tullett]
• Athanasopoulou, A. 2008. Introducing Corporate Social Responsibility. Templeton College Review 2006-2008, p. 12.
• Athanasopoulou, A. 2007. CSR: Is doing good by doing well enough?. Templeton Views, Vol. Summer 2007, pp. 8-9.

Supervision

PhD Supervision

Current PhD students: Luyao Bao (Understanding CSR through employee sensemaking: a case study of a Western MNC operating in China) (passed viva in 2025) (with N. Cornelius)

PhD Completions

• Aparna Pasumarthy (Striving to thrive? Gender, careers and navigation strategies of Indian professional women); QMUL (2024) (with G. Kirton)
• Sarah Marks (Women’s entrepreneurship careers and associated rewards); QMUL (2023) (with N. Cornelius)
• Zhihui Bi (The rigor and relevance debate in Chinese business schools); QMUL (2021) (with M. Perrotta and M. Rowlinson)
• Lei Yang (Pro-environmental behavior in academic institutions); QMUL (2018) (with D. Manika and F. Bowen)

Public Engagement

I engage in public engagement via media interviews, keynotes and my external advisory board role at the Leadership Institute of a leading healthcare organisation in the US and globally.

I am also an accredited executive coach and an expert on executive coaching. Due to my expertise, I have been selected by the International Coaching Federation as one of their Wisdom Weavers on the Future of Coaching.

 

Academic Leadership Service

• Editorial Review Board Member, Academy of Management Learning & Education