Personal statement

Victoria is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour within Bath Business School. She is also the general track chair for the European Academy of Management's (EURAM) Gender Race and Diversity in Organisations SIG Leadership Team, and a Research Affiliate at the University of Liverpool.

Victoria's work considers the study of professional identity dynamics, within senior and leadership roles. Among other topics she examines how identity regulation informs well-being implications in professions.

As a collaborator and consultant, Victoria works with organisations to identify prominent enablers and barriers to creating healthy, diverse and equitable work environments.

Victoria is currently accepting PhD candidates in the area of professional identity, leadership and well-being, please email her directly to inquire.

Academic qualifications

  • Loughborough University - BSc Sports Science with Management
  • Manchester Metropolitan University –  MSc International Business Management
  • University of Bath - MRes Health and Wellbeing 
  • University of Exeter - PhD Organisational Psychology.

Professional memberships

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
  • Member of the British Academy of Management
  • Member of the European Academy of Management.

Additional roles

  • PhD External Examiner for  Shirleena Celestine, University of Lincoln
  • PhD Examiner for Manish Tayal, 黑料正能量
  • General Track Chair for the European Academy of Management's (EURAM) Gender Race and Diversity in Organisations SIG Leadership Team
  • Editorial Board Member of Social Sciences
  • Ad hoc reviewer for journals such as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Frontiers in Sociology, Frontiers in Psychology, Work, Employment and Society, European Journal of Social Psychology, Gender, Work and Organization, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Springer, Sage, Bloomsbury, the International Review of Social Psychology, the Academy of Management Journal.

Areas of expertise

  • Organisational psychology
  • Organisational behaviour
  • Intersectional Identity work
  • Gender equality
  • Leadership
  • Racio-ethnic equality
  • Social identity theory
  • Workplace well-being.

Consultancies, business and enterprise work

  • Victoria Opara, alongside Professor Ruth Sealy, Dr Aaron Page, and Louise Tilbury collaborated on a Benchmarking Diversity and Inclusion report, commissioned by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) from the University of Exeter Business School. 

External engagement and impact

  • Keynote speaker and Chairperson: Invited to chair the conference, organised by the Government Events Network.

  • Chairperson: Invited to chair the Institute of Government & Public Policy's (IGPP) in June 2023.

  • Subject Expert Panel Member for the Westminster Employment Forum policy conference: in May 2023.

  • Keynote speaker and Chairperson: Invited to chair , organised by the Government Events Network

Funding and awards

Research outputs

book_section

Opara, V (2025) 'Women, management, and globalization: leadership, barriers, and opportunities.' In: Akande, A, ed. Organizational behavior: current science, models, and applications. Springer, Cham, pp. 385-413. ISBN 9783031858024

book_section

Opara, V (2024) 'Women鈥檚 leadership experiences: examining the intersectionality of race and gender.' In: Akande, A, ed. Leadership and politics: new perspectives in business, government and society. Springer, Cham, pp. 297-328. ISBN 9783031564147

article

Opara, V and Ofori, D.W (2026) 'Leadership and diversity blind spots in organizations: are leaders walking the walk?' Strategy & Leadership. ISSN 1087-8572

article

Opara, V, Sealy, R, Ryan, M.K and Begeny, C.T (2026) 'Resistance modification vacillation: revealing intersectional responses to identity imposition in professional work settings.' Frontiers in Organizational Psychology, 4. ISSN 1664-1078

article

Palmer, A.K, Riley, M, Clement, S, Evans, K.L, Brockett, B.F.T and Opara, V (2025) 'In and out of place: diverse experiences and perceived exclusion in UK greenspace settings.' Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 8 (2). pp. 742-769. ISSN 2514-8486

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Akin, I, Akin, M, Ozturk, Z, Hameed, A, Opara, V and Satiroglu, H (2024) 'Exploring fluctuations and interconnected movements in stock, commodity, and cryptocurrency markets.' British Actuarial Journal, 29. e13. ISSN 2044-0456

article

Wallrich, L, Opara, V, Weso艂owska, M, Barnoth, D and Yousefi, S (2024) 'The relationship between team diversity and team performance: reconciling promise and reality through a comprehensive meta-analysis registered report.' Journal of Business and Psychology, 39. pp. 1303-1354. ISSN 1573-353X

article

Li, L, Liu, L, Walker, A, Wang, J, Pomorina, I and Opara, V (2024) 'The agential causes of business management students in the implementation of the full virtual teaching.' Journal of Modern Educational Research, 3 (1). ISSN 2790-3192

article

Opara, V, Spangsdorf, S and Ryan, M.K (2023) 'Reflecting on the use of Google Docs for online interviews: innovation in qualitative data collection.' Qualitative Research, 23 (3). pp. 561-578. ISSN 1741-3109

article

Opara, V, Ryan, M.K, Sealy, R and Begeny, C.T (2023) '鈥淔itting in whilst standing out鈥�: identity flexing strategies of professional British women of African, Asian, and Caribbean ethnicities.' Frontiers in Sociology, 8. e820975. ISSN 2297-7775

article

Opara, V, Sealy, R and Ryan, M.K (2020) 'The workplace experiences of BAME professional women: understanding experiences at the intersection.' Gender, Work & Organization, 27 (6). pp. 1192-1213. ISSN 0968-6673

conference_item

Liu, L, Opara, V, Pomorina, I and Walker, A (2021) What do business students value in the emerging virtualisation of learning and teaching that is accelerated by COVID-19? A pilot. In: Developments in Economics Education Conference, 2 - 3 September 2021, online.

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Cruz, M, Opara, V, Hwang, S, Haq, R and Davi, W (2017) Building strategies, bridging differences: an intersectional dialogue about individual and institutional strategies to advance (all) women at work. In: 2017 Bentley Research Colloquium - The Future of Work: The Changing Workplace, Workforce, and Nature of Work, 3 November 2017, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, USA.

conference_item

Opara, V (2017) Recognising the particular intersectional role of ethnicity, nationality and gender within UK white-collar professions when considering and understanding how multiple identities are experienced at the intersection. In: Borders: 10th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference, 28 - 30 June,2017, Brunel University London, UK.

conference_item

Opara, V (2017) The Intersectional role of ethnicity, nationality and gender: understanding how British BAME professionals experience their multiple identities at the intersection. In: 10th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference: Education Beyond Borders, 28 - 30 June 2017, Brunel University, London, UK.

thesis

Opara, V (2022) The workplace experiences of African, Asian and Caribbean (AAC), British, professional women: understanding women鈥檚 workplace experiences and well-being implications. PhD thesis, University of Exeter.

commissioned_report

Sealy, R, Page, A, Tilbury, L and Opara, V (2018) Board diversity reporting. Financial Reporting Council.