About the lecture
Despite decades of leadership research, organisations around the world continue to struggle with the same question: “Why do we often end up with the wrong leaders, while those with the greatest potential hesitate to lead?”
Professor Aycan’s inaugural lecture explores the complex dynamics of leadership emergence by moving beyond traditional models that reward confidence over competence, dominance over collaboration and visibility over depth.
Drawing on more than two decades of research, she will examine the agentic processes that shape leader emergence, the psychological and cultural roots of leadership worry and reluctance, and the hidden costs of power-driven systems.
She will argue for a fundamental shift from power to empowerment at the cultural level of organisations to create space for more diverse, values-driven and ‘atypical’ leaders to step forward.
In addition, she will introduce research-based and AI empowered simulations designed to increase the preparedness and confidence of those who might otherwise opt out of leadership roles.
Her lecture invites a timely rethinking of who we consider leadership material, how we support their emergence and how we can build cultures that empower – not just select – the next generation of leaders.
About the lecturer
In addition to her research, Professor Zeynep Aycan is the University’s Director of Global External Engagement and serves as the President of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) where she leads global initiatives on culturally informed and inclusive leadership.
Before joining the University, Zeynep was a long-serving faculty member at Koç University in Istanbul. She holds a PhD from Queen’s University (Canada) and completed postdoctoral research at McGill University.
She is internationally recognised for her research on leadership, culture and organisational behaviour. She has a particular interest in the psychological and cultural factors that shape leader emergence and effectiveness.
Her work has been published in leading journals including Nature Reviews Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior.
She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Management and Leadership Textbook of the Year Award from the Chartered Management Institute and the Ursula Gielen Global Psychology Book Award from the APA for her book Management and Organizations in Cross-Cultural Context".
She enjoys serving as a consultant and executive trainer for numerous multinational corporations, public institutions and NGOs – helping them to build empowering, inclusive and high-impact leadership cultures.
For further information on this lecture, please contact the Events team.
