I’m kicking off a part time PhD at Leeds Business School next year to explore how public relations can drive innovation in organisations.

COVID-19 has had an awful human cost to society but it has also been a period of incredible innovation for organisational communication and public relations.

At Wadds Inc. we’ve recorded many of these stories through work for the Government Communication Service, NHS, and with agency and in-house clients.

In October 2020 GCS published an industry report that I led describing the impact on COVID-19 on the marketing and public relations professions.

In May 2021 Wadds Inc. published a report about the huge number of public relations agencies that were launched during successive lockdowns.

Brunswick, Edelman, the European Communication Monitor, and the Institute for Public Relations have all published contemporary studies of the impact of COVID-19 on professional communications.

In February I’ll kick off a PhD research project at Leeds Business School to explore how our profession can capitalise on this new found status and sense of optimism but also address future issues.

UK society faces huge challenges such as the environment, misinformation, polarisation and industrial growth following Brexit. I want to explore the opportunity for public relations to contribute to solutions. The project will contribute to my own work, Wadds Inc. clients, and the broader public relations community.

The six-year research project is inspired by work such as James Grunig’s Excellence Project and Jim Collins’ Good to Great, that have sought to bridge the gap between theory, science, and practical research.

I’ve long bemoaned the lack of community between theory and practice in the U.K. I’m now keen to build a community of practice as part of the project to address this issue. If you’ve an interest in this area please drop me an email.

Leeds Beckett is a special place for learning and development in public relations. Communication sits in the business school, rather than arts or social sciences. The team of teachers and scholars have built a thriving centre of excellence in the North of England over the past 20 years. I’ll be joining an inspiring team of scholars at Leeds including Prof Dr Ralph Tench, Dr Martina Topic and Teela Clayton.

This PhD is the conclusion of a conversation that started with Dr Jon White almost 10 years ago. He helped with redrafts of the research paper and I hope will join the project in a supervisory capacity.

It’s good to be making a significant investment in my own professional development. I make a great deal about the importance of professional development and have worked in public relations for more than 20 years but my formal education and training is in electronic engineering.

I can’t wait to get started.