Contact Dr Deirdre Anderson

Background

Deirdre is an experienced occupational psychologist, having spent over 20 years working within organizations and then as an independent consultant and trainer in the private sector, before obtaining her PhD and taking up academic research and teaching at Cranfield University. Earlier degrees include a BSc (Hons) in Business Studies from the University of Bradford, an MSc in Occupational and Organizational Psychology from the University of East London, and a Masters in Research from Cranfield.

Deirdre is a Chartered Organizational Psychologist, an Academic Fellow of the CIPD and a Senior Fellow of the Foundation for Management Education. She joined Cranfield in 2008 as a Teaching Fellow, progressing to Lecturer in 2010, and Senior Lecturer in 2013, when she also became Director of the Executive MBA from until 2015. From 2017 to 2019 she was Head of Department, People and Organizations at University of Lincoln before returning to Cranfield.

Deirdre has expertise in flexible working, work-life balance, the gendered nature of careers, and inclusion and diversity.

Research opportunities

I am currently interested in supervising doctoral research students in the areas of the changing nature of work including precarious working, the work-family interface, and inclusion within organizations. Please contact me if you are interested in pursuing a doctorate in this area.

Current activities

Deirdre is currently a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour and Occupational Psychology based in the Organizational Behaviour and Applied Psychology Group.

Her current research project explores individual experiences of enforced remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other research interests include flexible and precarious working, work and family (especially in different cultures), and gendered careers. She is a member of the British Psychological Society's Work-Life Balance Working Group, a voluntary group of academics and practitioners committed to promoting sustainable strategies for organizations to support the management of the work/non-work interface.

She teaches on graduate and executive programmes in the areas of Organizational Behaviour and Research Methods. In all of her work she seeks to increase awareness of inclusion and diversity, challenging the often unconscious processes which can limit individual actions and organizational practices. Deirdre frequently presents her research at academic and practitioner conferences within the UK and internationally, and she has twice been an invited speaker at the United Nations in New York. She publishes in journals of recognized international excellence, and has written several book chapters on flexible working and work-life balance, women's career choices and women-only leadership development. She has recently edited a book "Work-life balance in times of recession, austerity and beyond".

Deirdre is also a member of the British Academy of Management and of the Work and Families Researchers Network.

Clients

  • Centrica PLC
  • Citi
  • KPMG International Limited
  • Microsoft Corporation
  • Pfizer Inc
  • Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC

Publications

Articles In Journals

Conference Papers

Books