Professor Sue Dopson

Professor Sue Dopson is a Governing Body Fellow of Green Templeton College and a member of the Fellowship Committee and Remuneration Committee. She is Deputy Dean for People and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Saїd Business School, University of Oxford.

Sue’s research lies in the area of leadership, innovation and change. She has led a number of research projects in public and private sector organisations. These include the evaluation of work aimed at improving clinical effectiveness, exploring evidence-based medicine, developing the skills of healthcare managers, and investigating the changing role of healthcare assistants within the NHS workforce. Most recently she has led a project exploring women’s leadership and the experiences of minorities who pursue academic careers.

Sue’s research on organisational strategy and knowledge transfer within the healthcare sector informs government policy and practice. Her studies of the barriers and facilitators to the dissemination of research evidence to healthcare professionals have influenced the way the Department of Health seeks to inform clinicians of changes in practice.

Sue’s research into the increasing responsibility of Healthcare Assistants (HCAs) has highlighted the need for appropriate training programmes and informed the debate on HCA registration. Sue is an Adviser to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and is a Non-Executive Director of the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Sue is committed to executive education and she is heavily engaged in teaching, tutoring and coaching at all levels. Her teaching includes undergraduate and postgraduate courses as well as the MBA and EMBA courses and the Oxford Diploma in Organisational Leadership.

Coaching and its impact on leadership performance is a particular interest and Sue, who chairs the coaching committee at Saїd Business School, is working with colleagues to evolve an Oxford style of coaching. She is a strong advocate of the benefits of providing executives with the space to examine the leadership challenges of their jobs.

She has a BSc in sociology, MSc in sociology with special reference to medicine, MA (Oxon) and a PhD studying the introduction of general management into the NHS. She is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Contact: sue.dopson@sbs.ox.ac.uk