Overview

Isbahna has joined the University of Exeter in October 2022 as a lecturer in the OB/HRM department. Prior to this she was working part time at various higher education institutions in the UK. She has also completed her PhD in Management from the University of Birmingham in January 2023. 

She is enthusiastic about imparting her knowledge, which she has gathered on contemporary organisations, leadership, HRM practices, crisis and change management. She aims to contribute to new research involving change and sustainable leadership, gender inequality issues in organisations and in crisis management. 

Qualifications

• PhD in Management- University of Birmingham 
• Associate Fellowship in the Higher Education of UK (AFHEA)
• MSC in Management- University of Birmingham 
• MBA Finance and Organisational Behaviour- Bangladesh 
• BA Hons Business Studies- University of Wales, Institute Cardiff

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Research

Research interests

• Gender inequality in leadership positions of contemporary organizations in Western and non-western countries
• Barriers to urban women’s career advancement in non-western countries like Bangladesh
• Relational factors of macro (social), meso (organisational) and micro (individual) level barriers towards an individual’s career advancement

Research projects

I completed my PhD thesis on the barriers to women’s career advancement in the banking sector of Bangladesh. My study provided a much-needed detailed empirical analysis of women’s experiences and challenges they face in the banking sector of Bangladesh, addressing the neglect of research in this area in non-western countries. This research has been approached with a relational perspective which identified that the prominent barriers that hinders women’s progression in the sector derive from the macro-social, meso-institutional, and micro- individual levels. The issues that raised in this study from the macro-social level included women’s undervaluing within the Bangladeshi society, where men are determined to be more suited to take up leadership positions, but women are not commended for taking up similar ranks to men. What has limited women’s representation is that the barriers are intertwined and cannot be individually separated from as they collectively contribute to women’s stalled progression within the Bangladeshi banking sector. One of the main implications of this research is that it shifted the focus from condemning organisations for being solely responsible for the dearth of women representations at senior managerial positions in the sector.

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Teaching

Responsible for design, development & production of teaching & learning material across a range of modules.

Modules

2023/24

• BEMM267 - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work

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