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Biography

I am a Lecturer in Management at SETU, where I teach modules in Management and Leadership across various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes within the School of Business. Additionally, I supervise research projects for both undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in taught business programmes.

Currently, I hold the role of Programme Leader for Postgraduate Research in the School of Business. In this capacity, I offer support to Masters and PhD students throughout their research journey at the University.

My academic background comprises a Bachelor of Business Degree from DCU, a Master of Business Degree from UCD, and a PhD from the University of Southampton.

I am a Chartered Member of the CIPD.

I currently lecture on the following programmes:

  • MBS:                          Managing Change
  • BBS (Hons) Year 1:    Introduction to Management
  • BBS (Hons) Year 3:    Leadership and Problem-Solving
  • BBS (Hons) Year 4:    Developing Leadership Skills
  • BSc Retail Year 3:      Leadership Skills for Managers

I believe that when learners are engaged, they are more likely to achieve their potential and have seen students’ attendance and performance improve when they are positively engaged in the learning process.  To this end, I am particularly interested in experiential teaching and learning methodologies and I have attended training courses to develop my understanding of both Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and blended learning approaches.  I have delivered modules using these methodologies to both full-time and part-time students on our programmes here at SETU. 

Based on my experience of teaching a leadership module using PBL, I published the following article:

  • LIN Newsletter Sept.-Oct. 2011, ‘Changing the way we do things in the classroom – innovative approaches to teaching and learning (Using PBL in a module on Leadership in Organisations). 

My PhD research explored recent conceptions of leadership as a shared reciprocal influence process, providing a fine-grained view of the interactions of organisational team members, as they shared in the leadership of their team. 

I have a keen interest in research, and have authored the following conference papers and publications:

Conference Papers:

  1. April 2005: Paper presented at Irish Academy of Management/UCC Doctoral Colloquium: ‘Managing Knowledge Workers’. 
  2. Sept. 2005: Paper presented at the IAM Conference in GMIT: ‘Managing The Knowledge Worker: A Study of Effective HR Strategies In Knowledge Intensive Firms in The South East Of Ireland’.
  3. May 2007: Paper presented at the VI International Workshop on HRM, University of Cadiz, Spain: ‘An Analysis of People Management Practices in Irish Knowledge-Intensive Firms’.
  4. Sept. 2014: IAM Conference, Managing in a Changing Climate: Leading to New Realities, UL.  Paper presented in Leadership & OB track: 'Facilitators and Inhibitors of Distributed Leadership in the Workplace - A Literature Review'.
  5. Mar. 2016: University of Southampton Business School PhD Conference: Paper presented in Relational Leadership and Change Track: 'Exploring Shared Leadership from a Social Exchange Theory Perspective'.
  6. Sept. 2016: IAM Conference, Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, UCD.  Paper presented in Leadership & Culture track: 'Developing a Framework for Understanding Shared Leadership: An Analysis of Antecedents, Moderators, Mediators and Outcomes'.
  7. Sept. 2017: IAM Conference, Queens University Belfast, UCD.  Paper presented: 'A Qualitative Analysis of Shared Leadership in Organisational Teams'.  Recipient of award for best paper in OB & Change track.

Publications:

Sweeney, A., Clarke, N. and Higgs, M. (2018). 'Shared Leadership in Commercial Organizations: A Systematic Review of Definitions, Theoretical Frameworks and Organizational Outcomes'.  International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 21, pp. 115-126.

Sweeney, A., (2022). Looking within: a longitudinal qualitative analysis of shared leadership behaviours in organisational teams. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, Vol. 28, No. 7/8, pp.441-460.

Sweeney, A. (2024). Sharing the Leadership Space: Toward a Contextual Understanding of Shared Leadership Patterns in Organizational Teams. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 31, 2, pp. 166-191.

Sweeney, A. (2024). 'Evolving workplaces put shared leadership into practice' London School of Economics Business Review, 21st August.  Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2024/08/21/evolving-workplaces-put-shared-leadership-into-practice/

I am a Chartered Member of the CIPD since 1995.

Prior to my current role at SETU, I worked in various positions in industry including as a Business Analyst, HR Consultant and Operations Manager, in a variety of organisations. 

From this experience, I developed a keen interest in the factors influencing individual behaviour in organisational settings.