Dawn Nicholson
Dr Dawn H. Nicholson is a lecturer in Business & Organisational Psychology at the University of Kent, where she was awarded a PhD in the psychology of decision-making in 2019.
Dawn worked for almost 28 years in internal Human Resources (HR) roles and as an advisor to HR, in
professional and financial services in the City of London. Immediately prior to returning to academia to pursue her decision-making research, she spent 3 years as a Partner in PwC’s HR Consulting business, working with clients on their people-related issues, including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Prior to PwC, Dawn was Managing Director, Deputy Head of Human Resources for Europe, The Middle East and Africa, for the global investment bank, Morgan Stanley, where she worked for 16 years. Dawn was responsible for areas including reward, benefits, diversity, employee engagement, learning and development and recruiting. During that time, she also worked closely with internal employee diversity networks and was the Senior Sponsor of the LGBT and Cultural Awareness networks.
In her new role as Head of Accreditation and Standards for the ABP, Dawn has identified several key goals including:
- Working with our partner universities to increase excellence in the knowledge, teaching and application of business psychology to both undergraduate and Masters students.
- Growing the accreditation programme and adding to the numbers and types of accredited programmes and universities.
- Seeking out ways to bring together the ABP’s professional and student members, so students can learn first hand from the rich knowledge base of our professional members.
The challenges of building and evolving the workplace, made more acute by the global pandemic, mean that the role of business psychologists is even more important. In her new role, Dawn aims to position the ABP at the forefront of helping to grow and develop the business psychologists of the future – students who not only have great theoretical and technical skills, but can also apply these to solving real world problems and building the workplace of the future.
To learn all about the Biz Psych Cup!!
What on Earth is the Biz Psych Cup??
The Biz Psych Cup is a new competition the ABP is launching in 2021-22. In brief, it is a high-quality intramural team event, where student teams of 4 apply business psychology to solve real world challenges set by our corporate members.
The student teams will represent their universities – so they will be endorsed/sponsored by their universities. It will be open to UK and International universities, whether accredited and non-accredited by the ABP.
Teams will comprise 4 students: 2 x MSc, 2 x BSc drawn from each of Stage 1, 2 and Final Year (Note: PhD students will be excluded – this is principally about offering an event for MSc/BSc students). The team mix is deliberately designed to encourage students of different levels to learn from each other and understand how to collaborate effectively.
The ABP Board will judge the winners, based on clear judging criteria (in discussion). Winners will receive a prize (to be determined). Judging criteria will comprise of both academic and practice-based criteria. The corporate member challenge setters will also feed into the judging.
Why is the ABP launching this event?
The Biz Psych Cup contributes towards the achievement of several our 2021 strategic objectives, as highlighted below:
• Bridge to Academia: Our corporate and professional members want more access to research – the Biz Psych Cup provides that and asks universities to apply theory to identify solutions to the business challenge.
• Early Talent/Employability: We want to offer business psychology students exposure to real life business challenges so they can learn about the application of our science whilst building employability skills and
links to business. The Biz Psych Cup offers something unique for students to participate in
• Networking: The Biz Psych Cup provides a way to bring together our professional and student members by: a) having our professional members set the challenges; and b) having our professional members serve as “Pro Coach Angels” to guide and mentor the student teams. It offers a fantastic opportunity for increased connectivity between our professional and student members and for our professional members to help develop the next generation of business psychologists.
• Visibility/Internships: Universities get an opportunity to showcase their excellence. It brings an additional value of membership/accreditation to them and their students.
What Does Success Look Like?
• Key Success Criteria: a well-run, high-profile event that students (from both accredited and unaccredited universities) enjoy, and which presents palpable gains in terms of research application for our professional members, increased student engagement and networking and employability skills.
Sounds Great! How Can I Get Involved?
We want ABP member volunteers who can act as Pro Coach Angels to guide and mentor our student teams as they undertake their challenge. Come to this session to hear all about this important role and our new competition!
