Dr Raffaella Valsecchi
Reader

Summary

Dr Raffaella Valsecchi is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Organisational Behaviour at Brunel Business School. Prior to joining Brunel University, she held posts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Leicester. She completed her PhD in the Sociology of Work at the University of Leicester, fully funded by the ESRC and the College of Social Sciences, University of Leicester.

Raffaella’s research focuses on health and well-being at work, community well-being, the role of social enterprises in social change, the impact of technology in health organisations, and flexible working. She has worked on multidisciplinary research projects funded by the ESRC, the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the Brunel University London Knowledge Transfer Grant, and the Research Catalyst Fund. Her work has been published in renowned international journals, such as Work, Employment and Society, New Technology, Work and Employment, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, European Management Review, Economic and Industrial Democracy, and Employee Relations.

She delivered a policy-making presentation related to her research on health and well-being at work for the Cabinet Office (2018), and in 2024, she was invited to present a policy talk on "Creating a National Standard for Health in the Workplace" at the Westminster Employment Forum & Westminster Health Forum policy conference, Health and Well-being in the Workplace.

She served on the Editorial Board of the journal European Management Review (2017–2022) and has acted as a reviewer for the European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference. She is a member of the European Group for Organisational Studies (EGOS) and regularly presents papers at the EGOS Colloquium. She has organised several conference streams for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion conference. Raffaella also acts as a reviewer for academic journals including New Technology, Work and Employment, Gender, Work and Organization, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

Raffaella has held numerous successful academic leadership roles, including Director of Postgraduate Programmes, Director of Student Experience, Director of Employability, Programme Leader for the MSc HRM, and Director of Undergraduate Programmes—making a substantial positive impact on academic programmes and students’ experiences. She recently served as REF Impact Champion, supporting the development of 30 early-stage impact case studies, and in 2024–25, she developed the new postgraduate programme MSc in Global Healthcare Management, due to launch in September 2025. She has played an important role in key successful accreditations, such as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Raffaella is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). She is passionate about research- and practice-based teaching, and in the past three years has developed company-based dissertations in collaboration with social enterprises and charity organisations, including the British Red Cross.

She currently serves as an external examiner at Bayes Business School and Henley Business School. She has been nominated for several awards, including ‘Best Final Year Project Tutor’ (UG students’ nomination, 2014), the ‘Ken Darby-Dowman Memorial Prize’ (2020–21), and ‘Collaborative & Collegiate Working’ (College nomination, 2021–22).

Qualifications

• PhD at The University of Leicester (UK), Department of Sociology: ‘Managing Teleworkers: Exploring the Methods of Control in Three Italian Case Studies’. (Awarded Faculty of Social Sciences -Scholarship of Excellence-The University of Leicester & ‘ESRC’ Economic Social Research Council 2000-2004).

• MA in Social & Cultural Theory, (full-time) at The University of Leicester (UK), Department of Sociology. (Awarded Department of Sociology -Bursary of Excellence -1998-1999)

• Laurea in Scienze Politiche e Sociali-(BSc in Social Sciences and Politics) (part-time) at University of Pavia, (Italy). 110/110 (1st Class Honours) 1992-1999.

• Post-Dipolma in International Marketing at ‘Chamber of Commerce of Pavia’ Awarded EU Scholarship of Excellence, Pavia ( Italy).30/30 (1st Class Honours, with 3 months interships- 1991-1992)