Keele Management School News
Professor Mihaela
Kelemen delivers a
highly interactive
session on the Practice
of Professional
Management Module
This module focuses students on the
issues surrounding career planning and
development and is delivered by Keele
Career’s advisors, KMS lecturers and
business people through a diverse range
of activities. KMS Professor Mihaela
Kelemen drew on her CASIC research
to deliver a lecture on wicked problems
and leadership. This was followed by
experiential exercises developed by
Sue Moffatt from New Vic Borderlines
designed to get students to think about
ethical leadership through sorting,
categorising, labelling, structuring and
resourcing (or removing) buttons.
Sue developed the buttons exercise
as part of her Imperial War Museum
fellowship to demonstrate the seven
stages of the genocide and how easy it is
to post-rationalise the effects of various
decisions that led to genocide. Mihaela
adapted the exercise so it could be
used in all sorts of ways to cover many
management and leadership topics. The
students also completed the ‘paper not
floor’ exercise which encouraged them to
work collaboratively using not just their
brains but their entire beings. They were
brilliant at it.
Mihaela says:
I think the
students enjoyed the
interactive exercises
more than the actual
delivery of theory.
So did I.
02
Another fantastic
first for trailblazing
KMS alumna
Becci Bryant!
Congratulations to KMS
alumna Becci Bryant on
becoming the UK’s first
female Chief Fire Officer.
She was appointed to the
role for Staffordshire Fire
and Rescue Service (SFRS)
in January this year.
Becci completed the KMS
Certificate in Industrial
Relations in 2012.
Since then nine of her
colleagues have also
successfully completed
the Certificate, three of
whom have gone on to
study for the part-time
MA Industrial Relations.
Becci is no stranger to
being ‘a first’ in the world
of fire fighters. When she
joined the fire brigade in
1992, she was one of the
first three female fire
fighters to enrol at
Bedfordshire and Luton
Fire and Rescue Service.
KMS Lecturer in HRM,
Kim Mather has remained
in close contact with Becci,
working with her on an
industrial relations/change
management research
project for SFRS. The
resulting critical analysis
and review of the service’s
industrial relations has been
disseminated to the Senior
Management and Extended
Management teams, and has
been reported in the SFRS
publication, ‘Burning Issues’.
Kim is about to embark on
a follow-on research project
focussing on non-operational
staff and middle/first line
fire service managers. As a
result of Kim’s involvement
with the Fire Service, she has
been asked to contribute
a ‘guest lecture’ input on
the Fire Service Executive
Leadership Programme
taking place in May.