Role
Mel started her role as Assistant Head of Postgraduate and Executive Education on 1st September 2021. Her focus is to review and develop the NBS executive education offer to business ensuring we are bringing research informed development opportunities regionally, nationally, and internationally. She is currently engaged with teaching on the Women in Leadership programme, the online MBA programme and supporting learners on the business research projects across the SLMDA/EMBA programme.
A further aspect of Mel’s role is to work with corporate clients in a consultancy capacity. Mel is an accredited Coach and qualified in a range of leadership psychometrics, including MBTI personality profiling, and DiSC. Mel has worked with organisations across the public and private sectors.
Career overview
Mel’s early career was within the newspaper and magazine industry. She later moved into a role of managing a Government Network (Countryside Recreation Network) which drew together all the relevant agencies and quangos across the UK and Ireland that had a responsibility for outdoor recreation, such as Natural England, Countryside Council for Wales, the Forestry Commission and Sport Scotland, along with the tourist boards from each country. Through the role she developed and delivered educational seminars across the 5 countries and edited and delivered a journal to the wider community.
In 2007 Mel moved to a lecturing position delivering on the Executive MBA programme at Sheffield Hallam University and latterly becoming the Course Leader of the Executive MBA (Facilities Management). In 2016 she took over the MBA Director role and developed several new routes to the EMBA and also the apprenticeship offer, along with delivering bespoke programmes and consultancy for business including the European Space Agency, NHS Trusts, and Astra Zeneca. She has also worked closely with professional bodies, such as the Chartered management Institute and the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management to deliver dual accredited programmes.
Mel’s last position before joining NBS was as the Director for Executive Education at the University of Sheffield, strategic lead for executive education provision including the EMBA, MBA and apprenticeship programmes.
Mel’s teaching experience spans 14 years, and she has predominantly been involved with teaching reflective practice, personal and professional development, leadership, organisational behaviour, coaching and mentoring and communication; teaching across the MBA and EMBA provision.
Mel has a MA Communication Studies in 2006, a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) which focused on the use of reflective practice in business and a MSc in Coaching and Mentoring in 2019 which also gave Mel the European Mentoring and Coaching Council practitioner status; her dissertation was entitled “Coaching and Mentoring: Narratives of women in leadership. Mel’s professional accreditations include being a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI), Certified member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (CIWFM) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).
Research areas
My research interests are focused predominantly around the areas of organisational behaviour including:
- coaching and mentoring,
- imposter phenomenon,
- communication,
- storytelling in business,
- change management,
- leadership,
- women in leadership,
- workplace and facilities management,
- narrative analysis.
External activity
Mel delivers coaching to external clients and has recently worked with an NHS Trust’s Estates and Facilities Management Department to deliver a programme focused on their leadership development and how to improve the communication across the department. She has also delivered behavioural profiling and coaching to the leadership team in a Council in the East Midlands region. Mel is always interested to speak to industry to understand how she can share her experience and research to enhance their practice.
Mel is currently the external examiner for the University of Exeter’s Senior Leader Masters Degree Apprenticeship/EMBA programme and has previously been the external examiner for the College of Estate Management.
Publications
Bull, M. (2021) Temperament Theory: Understanding people in a workplace context. In Danivska, V. and Appel-Meuilenbroek, R (Eds) “A Transdisciplinary Overview of Workplace Theories: Workplace Design Management.
Bull, M. and Aderiye, Y.O. (2020) Gender and Leadership in FM: A view from the top. The proceedings of the 19th EUROFM Research Symposium 2020, European Facility Management Network. 3-5 June 2020, online conference.
Bull, M. and Stokes, P. (2020) Creating a coaching culture through reflective practice to reduce organisational blame culture. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching, Volume XII, Article 1, February 2020, pp 1-17
Bull, M (2016) People Matter: A Hermeneutic Exploration of reflective practice and facilities management. Botswana Accountancy College Research Symposium, 22March 2016, Gaborone, Botswana
Bull, M. (2015) Improving Facilities Managers through reflective practice education. The proceedings of the 14th EuroFM Research Symposium 2015, European Facility Management Network, 1-3 June 2015, Glasgow
Bull, M. & Taylor, C. (2014) Teaching Reflective Practice; can Human Resource Management (HRM) learn from research in other disciplines. The proceedings of the 25th SPACE Network Conference, 23–25 April 2014, Barcelona.
Bull, M. & Kortens, J. (2012) Strategies for Communication within Facilities Management. In Alexander, K. and Price. I. Eds (2012) Managing Organizational Ecologies: Space, Management and Organizations. Routledge
Bull, M. & Brown, T. (2012) Change communication: the impact on satisfaction with alternative workplace strategies, Facilities, Vol 30, No. 3 pp 135-151 (Paper also won a highly commended paper award from the Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence 2013)
Bull, M. & Brown, T. (2011) Implementing Change. In Finch, E., (Ed) Facilities Change Management, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Ltd Pages 108-122.
Bull, M. (2010) FM and Communication. The Language of Business. FM World
Press expertise
Communication, organisational behaviour, women in leadership, change management, workplace and facilities management.