Dr Helen Williams

HW HighRes_Helen Williams

Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour

Worcester Business School

Department of Management and Finance

Contact Details

email: helen.williams2@worc.ac.uk

Helen studies how work shapes all aspects of our lives, with a special interest in inequalities and marginalised identities at work. She is passionate about help organisations become fairer, and advises senior leaders across the UK.

Before becoming an academic, she worked as a chartered psychologist, advising different industries on inclusion, leadership development, and high-potential selection design.

 

Qualifications

  • BScEcon
  • MSc
  • PhD
  • CPsychol
  • AFfBPsS
  • MCIPD
  • FHEA

Teaching interests

  • Research methods
  • Organisational behaviour
  • HRM
  • Leadership and governance.

Research interests

Marginalised identities at work; inclusion; advanced qualitative research methodology; phenomenology; organisational equity, inequalities and performance.

Recent publications

Marks, S., Williams, H. C., & Pritchard, K. (ND). Money talks? Narrative demonetisation as symbolic violence in women’s entrepreneurship. Work, Employment and Society.

Williams, H. C., & Pritchard, K. (ND). Self-Made Men: entrepreneurial men’s experiences of masculinity. Organization.

Williams, H. C., McNarry, M., Miller, M. C., Mares, B., Pritchard, K., & Mackintosh, K. (2026). Transgender Inclusion in Sport: A Rapid Evidence Review.

Williams, H. C., Pritchard, K., Elworthy, A., & Mares, B. (2026). Hidden from view? Examining policy support with minority gender entrepreneurs. Qualitative Research in Organisations and Management.

Reed, C., Williams, H. C., & Pritchard, K. (2025). Young is fun: examining the inter-relations of play and age at work. Work, Employment and Society, 39(5), 1225-1246.

Pritchard, K., Williams, H. C., & Miller, M. C. (2025). Methodological reflections on tracing networked images. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 20(1), 28-43.

Pritchard, K., Williams, H. C., & Miller, M. C. (2025). One rule, three tips, five reasons: Gendered entrepreneurial learning and the construction of online advice. Management Learning, 56(2), 184-205.

Williams, H. C., Pritchard, K., Miller, M. C., & Doran, A. (2024). Mapping embodiment across the nexus of gender, tourism, and entrepreneurship. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 32(3), 617-636.

Pritchard, K., Williams, H. C., & Elworthy, A. (2023). Mapping policy understandings of gender & sexuality: thematic analysis. https://doi.org/10.23889/SUreport.64441

Pritchard, K., Williams, H. C., & Elworthy, A. (2023). Mapping policy understandings of gender & sexuality: preliminary review. https://doi.org/10.23889/sureport.63677

Pritchard, K., & Williams, H. C. (2023). Pretty in plastic: aesthetic authenticity and Barbie Land.

Williams, H. C., & Pritchard, K. (2023). Brickstorming: using materials to elicit meanings in research interviews. In P. Jones, C. Brentnall & P. McGowan (Eds.), Nurturing Modalities of Inquiry in Entrepreneurship Research: Seeing the world through the eyes of those who research (pp. 91–107). Emerald Publishing Ltd.

Pritchard, K., Williams, H. C., & Miller, M. C. (2022). Tracing networked images of gendered entrepreneurship online. Gender, Work and Organisation, 29(6), 1779–1795.

Williams, H. C., Pritchard, K., Miller, M. C., & Reed, C. (2021). Climbing to freedom on an impossible staircase: exploring the emancipatory potential of becoming an entrepreneur-employer. International Small Business Journal, 39(5), 424–449.

Membership of professional bodies

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD); Chartered Members (MCIPD)

British Psychological Society (BPS); Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol); Associate Fellow (AFfBPSs)

Institute of Directors (IoD), Member

Higher Education Academy; Fellow (FHEA)

Non-Excutive Leadership Roles

Welsh Dragons Ltd: Non-Executive Director

The Wallich: Vice Chair / Trustee (HR & business transformation).

Wales Netball: Chair of the Board

Sport England: Member, Talent Inclusion Advisory Group (TIAG)

Football Association Wales: Vice Chair, EDI Advisory Group

External University Roles:

External Examiner at two UK institutions