The Organisational Psychology Research Group at City St George’s, University of London brings together academics specialising in well-being, leadership, coaching, and psychological assessment in the workplace. Across our research and teaching, we combine methodological depth with a strong applied focus.

Our group-based supervision model reflects how we work ourselves—collaboratively, critically, and with an emphasis on shared expertise. We prioritise research that informs practice and prepares students to engage confidently with complex organisational challenges.

For more information on each member of the team, please see our bios below.

Professor Julia Yates

Julia joined the psychology department in January 2017, and teaches on City’s award winning MSc in Organisational Psychology. Information on this course can be found here: http://www.city.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/organisational-psychology. Julia specialises in the development of individuals within their careers, and teaches career development, coaching psychology and learning and training. Her research interests are in career decision making, the career paths of those facing particular barriers, and the integration of career theory and coaching practice. Julia is a Chartered Psychologist, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a full member of the BPS’s Division of Occupational Psychology and a Fellow of the National Institute of Career Education and Counselling.

To see an example of Julia’s teaching on coaching, click here.

Dr Paul Flaxman, Reader

Paul has been a lecturer and researcher in City’s psychology department since 2006. His main research interests are in the field of occupational health psychology. Over the past 15 years, Paul has taken a prominent role in adapting and evaluating acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help improve employees’ psychological health. His latest ACT-based training program has been successfully utilised by around 30 NHS trusts, and in various other organisations. Paul’s ACT research was profiled in impact case studies submitted to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercises in 2014 and 2021. Paul’s other main areas of research focus on the functions of perfectionism in workplace settings, and examining predictors of employees’ ability to recover from work demands during non-work time (e.g., evenings and vacations). Paul teaches on City’s longstanding MSc in organisational psychology, focusing on various topics around employees’ mental health and well-being.

To see an example of Paul’s teaching on ACT, click here.

Dr Jutta Tobias Mortlock, Reader

Jutta Tobias Mortlock, PhD, is a social psychologist with 25 years of work experience in organisational development and capacity-building in six countries on three continents. Jutta’s research interest is focused on behaviour change initiatives in workplaces geared at generating sustainable wellbeing and performance, using “third wave” cognitive behavioural approaches such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other evidence-based mindfulness frameworks. She researches and teaches workplace mindfulness and leadership in collaboration with a variety of organisations and is a popular keynote speaker on the link between wellbeing and performance. Jutta serves as advisor to UK thinktank The Mindfulness Initiative and to the US-based mindfulness in education non-profit Inner Explorer. Jutta has won several academic and adult teaching and learning awards at the institutions she works, including the 2019 City University School of Arts and Social Sciences Learning & Teaching Award and People’s Prize, and several Cranfield University Research and Teaching awards, in particular for her innovative work on incorporating mindfulness into academic and executive education after introducing thousands of senior managers and executive students to mindfulness. She has been investigating and delivering innovative mindfulness interventions in the British Army and the Royal Navy and currently conducts research on resilience in the Royal Marines Corps. In partnership with her colleague Dr Trudi Edginton, Jutta co-directs City University’s Centre for Excellence in Mindfulness Research (mindfulness-science.com). Jutta’s work has been published in a number of leading academic journals such as Journal of Business Venturing, Management Accounting Research, Journal of Learning and Instruction, and in the International Journal of Operations and Production Management (in which her work was awarded the 2018 best paper award). Jutta has also featured in the popular press, including in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, Newsweek, on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, and in the 2015 TV documentary “The Mindful Revolution”. In her life before academia, Jutta worked for nearly a decade as a consultant for several IT consultancies including Arthur Andersen, partnering with firms such as Goldman Sachs, Nomura and McKinsey on IT and strategy projects. During her doctoral studies at Washington State University, Jutta was fortunate to be selected to direct a student-led project creating a sustainable community internet space in rural Rwanda on behalf of USAID. Jutta’s doctoral research took her back to Rwanda where she conducted one of the first government-endorsed scientific surveys of post-genocide intergroup relations between Hutu and Tutsi and the effect of institutional reform to increase entrepreneurial opportunity in a desperate poverty post-genocide context. Subsequently, Jutta learned the art and science of lobbying in the public interest as the post-doctorial James Marshall Public Policy Fellow for the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Society for the Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) during Washington, DC’s “glory days” when President Obama introduced the Health Care Reform bill. Jutta is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), holds a psychotherapeutic counselling qualification from the University of Cambridge, and has volunteered in US prisons for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a volunteer-run conflict transformation program. She lives in Suffolk with her family and a pushy poodle who moonlights as a PAT (Pets As Therapy) dog.

To see an example of Jutta’s teaching on leadership, click here.

Dr Lara Zibarras, Reader

Dr Zibarras became a lecturer in the Organisational Psychology Group at City University London in 2008. She was previous Programme Director of City’s MSc in Organisational Psychology and currently admissions tutor for the course. She joined City in 2004 as a research assistant and then in 2005 started her PhD, during which time she had various course related responsibilities including teaching and dissertation supervision. Prior to her PhD she held diverse roles from training and development, IT manager and independent consultant (working for a range of public and private sector organisations). Dr Zibarras is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist (HCPC registered); an Associate Fellow of the BPS Division of Occupational Psychology and a member of the Society of Industrial and Organisational Psychology. Since 2004 Dr Zibarras has been involved in a number of consultancy projects which have included:

• Developing a way to measure “effectiveness” within a social housing organisation (2022)
• Creating a patient outcome measure for knee and hip surgery with colleagues at Imperial College (2020-ongoing)
• The development and validation of selection methods for underwriters in a medium fintech company (2017-2021)
• Understanding unconscious bias during recruitment to support diversity and inclusion practices in leading law firms / management consultancies (2014-ongoing)
• Developing risk questionnaires (2009-2012)
• Evaluating selection processes/methods from an applicant’s perspective, for a local council and medical / dental deaneries (2007-2009)
• Gender perceptions in occupations (2007)
• Development of appraisal tools for a small market research company (2006-2007)
• The design and validation of selection tools for a leading, medium sized recruitment consultancy (2006)
• The development and validation of innovation selection tools in a large, multinational organisation (2005)
• Design, development and evaluation of a database training course in a medium sized organisation (2004-2005)
• Development of database and website interfaces for a property company, using user-centred and usability design techniques (2004-2005)

Dr Jennifer Stead, Lecturer, Programme Director

Jennifer received her BA in Psychology and Cultural Anthropology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 2010, and an MSc in Cross-Cultural Psychology from Brunel University London in 2013. She completed her PhD in Psychology at City, University of London in 2018. Her doctoral research investigated the role of individual differences in personality, social comparison, and online behaviours in the relationship between Facebook use and subjective well-being. Her thesis won the Best Dissertation on Quality of Life, Well-being, and Happiness Award from the International Society of Quality of Life Studies in 2019. Following her PhD, Jennifer worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Warwick Business School in the Behavioural Science Group researching the mental health and well-being of postgraduate research students. Jennifer joined the Psychology department at City St George’s, University of London in December 2019, and teaches on the MSc in Organisational Psychology. Her research interests include subjective well-being, individual differences, the impact of social media sites on individuals and society, social comparison, cyberpsychology, well-being of university students and academics, and academia as a work-place.