Dr Anna Paolillo

Contact

Anna Paolillo
About
Teaching and learning
Research
Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact
Leadership and management

About

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management and Course Director of the MSc in Business and Occupational Psychology. I have a PhD in "Organisational Psychology: Differentiation and Integration processes" from University of Verona (Italy). During my doctorate I received two international mobility grants for the project entitled "Improving safety at work: the role of climates" (awarded fund: 14000 €) which allowed me to complete half of my PhD at University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL, Portugal) in co-supervision of thesis and to be awarded also PhD in "Management, HR and Organisational Behaviour" from the above mentioned University.

My main research topics are on diversity, well-being and safety at work; specifically, I have been examining the role of different facet specific climates (Diversity Climate, Climate for Inclusion, Safety Climate and Communication Climate) on safety performance within several firms in the metal and mechanical sector. Those projects successfully led to a decrease in accidents, injuries and an improved company safety culture.

I have also been conducting extensive research in positive psychology, with relationship to the psychological capital components (i.e., resilience, optimism, self-efficacy) and their application to education, career counselling and organisational settings. My focus has been on developing evidence-based tools to support educators, career professionals and psychologists in assessing and enhancing students' skills and achievement. My efforts led to publications with Hogrefe and Erickson eds., and in peer-reviewed journals.

Since 2008 I have been a visiting lecturer at several Italian Universities and skills training centres, leading on modules such as Organisational Behaviour, Career Counselling and Psychometrics. My teaching has been consistently grounded in my fifteen-year experience as a work psychologist and career counsellor. My professional background has enabled me to help individuals at different stages of their career, including students, employed/unemployed people, vulnerable groups, professionals and executives in various sectors.

Academic responsibilities

Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology

Qualifications

  • BSc in Psychology
  • MSc in Psychology
  • PGDip in Career Counseling
  • PhD in Organizational Psychology: Differentiation and Integration Processes
  • PhD in Management, Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour
  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow - British Psychological Society (BPS) and Member of the Division of Occupational Psychology (DOP)
  • Occupational Psychologist - Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)

Teaching and learning

Throughout my experience with different audiences (e.g., undergraduate, postgraduate, Ph.D., professionals, low and high educational levels), I have developed sounded and robust teaching strategies, grounded in pedagogic research and tailored to the students' needs. My inclusive approach has been recognised as exemplar through internal and external feedback; specifically, my innovative practices have been highly commended through the achievement of the Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, and recognised by the external examiners and during accreditation visits.

My sustained efforts in developing an inclusive curriculum have been acknowledged through the awards and recognitions obtained in the last three year, especially in terms of funded research to address the PG achievement gap for BAME students and the awards as lecturer of the year and runner ups for best personal tutor.

A substantial part of my published research is also focused on providing professionals in the educational sector (e.g., teachers, educators and career counsellors) with evidence-based tools and advice to enhance students' skills.

KU Awards, Recognitions and Teaching Research Grants

  • Principal Investigator for the project entitled "Addressing the postgraduate attainment gap for BAME students: a research intervention on predictors of academic achievement and peer tutoring", within the Student Academic Development Research Associates Scheme (SADRAS), Kingston University(2022). Awarded maximum budget for 100 hour of student research assistance. 
  • Winner, Lecturer of the year award for Best Use of Technology, KBS (2021).
  • Runner up, Lecturer of the year award as Best Personal Tutor, KBS (2020).

Visiting roles and external appointments:

  • External examiner for Leeds Beckett University BA (Hons) Social Psychology – BASOP and BA (Hons) Sociology and Psychological Studies – BASPS (since 2022).
  • External examiner for Birkbeck MSc Organisational Psychology (since 2022).
  • Member of the ABP Accredited Programme Leads (since 2021), piloted the first round of "Buz Psych Cup".
  • Member of the Stakeholder Committee, Department of Educational Processes, University of Catania, Italy (since A.Y. 2019/20). My expertise and feedback has been fundamental for their re-accreditation with the ANVUR (Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems).

  • Visiting lecturer at University of Catania Italy; Invited seminars on Quantitative research in Career Counselling within the Undergraduate Degree in Psychology (since 2020).

  • Honorary fellow in Work and Organizational Psychology, Department of Educational Processes, University of Catania, Italy (since 2011), acting as a dissertation supervisor and member of the examination and assessment panel (including marking) until 2016.

  •  Honorary fellow in Psychometrics, Department of Philosophy, Education and Psychology Department, University of Verona, Italy (since 2012), acting as a dissertation supervisor and member of the examination and assessment panel (including marking and delivering research workshops on psychometrics) until 2015.     

      

                                                                                                                  

Qualifications and expertise

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Certified Management and Business Educator

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Research

My research expertise is in the area of psychological assessment in organisational contexts, from workplace to educational and students' career development. Those research interests are linked to both my teaching core areas and my professional practice and experience of more than fifteen-years as a career counsellor and training consultant for low and higher education students and professionals in the UK and abroad.

I have long standing experience in the development of robust and theoretically sounded tools to assess employees perceptions in the workplace (i.e., organisational climates related to diversity, inclusion and safety) and individual differences that can impact students' achievement and career choices (e.g., risk intelligence and psychological capital). 

I successfully published the outcomes of the above research in peer-reviewed journals, ranked Q1 and Q2 on Scimago, including Journal of Safety Research (ABS 2 stars) and Personality and Individual Differences (ABS 3 stars). My work has also been published by sector-leading editors in the area of educational and psychological testing, such as Hogrefe and Erickson Eds.

Since 2020, I am an Editorial Board Member of Frontiers in Psychology (IF: 2.067; SJR: 0.914) and Life Span and Disability (IF: 1.000; SJR: 0.329) journals and I am a regular reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals.

I have recently received a grant as Principal Investigator within the BA Leverhulme Small Grant Funding Scheme for a project entitled "Rethinking employee safety and customer experience in the post-pandemic era: a pilot study in the hospitality sector" (Funding Awarded: £9,947.76).

I am an active member of two KU Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research Teams, having submitted an internal bid as part of the Research for Better Health, Health Care and Social Care stream and an internal bid as part of the Research on AI, Digital Society, Security, Risk and Resilience stream. Currently awaiting outcome.

Qualifications and expertise

  • RISE Leadership Research Academy
  • Registered and active PhD/PGR supervisor

Areas of specialism

  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Health and Safety
  • Organisational climate
  • Psychological capital
  • Wellbeing at work

Scholarly affiliations

  • Future of Work and New Ways of Working - Research Hub
  • Member of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology - EAWOP
  • Member of the European Association of Occupational Health Psychology - EAOHP
  • Member of the editorial board of 'Frontiers in Psychology' journal
  • Member of the editorial board of 'Life Span and Disability' journal

Research student supervision

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book Section | Conference or Workshop Item
Number of items: 32.

Article

Platania, Silvia and (2022) Anales de Psicolog铆a = Annals of Psychology, 38(1), pp. 63-75. ISSN (print) 0212-9728

, Sinval, Jorge, Silva, S铆lvia A. and (2021) Sustainability, 13(18), p. 10252. ISSN (online) 2071-1050

Platania, S., and Silva, S. (2021) Safety, 7(1), e22. ISSN (print) 2313-576X

, Silva, Silvia, Carvalho, Helena and Pasini, Margherita (2020) Journal of Safety Research, 72, pp. 47-60. ISSN (print) 0022-4375

Craparo, Giuseppe, Magnano, Paola, and Costantino, Valentina (2018) Current Psychology, 37(4), pp. 966-981. ISSN (print) 1046-1310

Magnano, Paola, , Platania, Silvia and Santisi, Giuseppe (2017) Personality and Individual Differences, 111, pp. 13-18. ISSN (print) 0191-8869

, Pasini, Margherita, Silva, Silvia A. and Magnano, Paola (2017) Quality & Quantity, 51(2), pp. 873-890. ISSN (print) 0033-5177

Magnano, Paola, Craparo, Giuseppe and (2016) International Journal of Psychological Research, 9(1), pp. 9-20. ISSN (print) 2011-2084

, Silva, Silvia A. and Pasini, Margherita (2016) International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 9(3), pp. 308-327. ISSN (print) 1753-8351

Magnano, Paola, and Barrano, Carmine (2015) International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 1, pp. 10-19. ISSN (print) 2371-1655

, Platania, Silvia, Magnano, Paola and Ramaci, Tiziana (2015) Procedia : Social and Behavioral Sciences, 191, pp. 1697-1701. ISSN (print) 1877-0428

Magnano, Paola, and Giacominelli, Barbara (2015) Sage Open, 5(2), ISSN (online) 2158-2440

Magnano, Paola, and Santisi, Giuseppe (2015) Scienze e Ricerche, 5, pp. 61-67. ISSN (online) 2283-5873

Santisi, Giuseppe, Platania, Silvia and (2013) Turismo e Psicologia, 6(1), pp. 106-116. ISSN (online) 2240-0443

Magnano, Paola and (2011) Life Span and Disability, 14(1), pp. 89-108. ISSN (online) 2035-5963

Book Section

Magnano, Paola, Santisi, Giuseppe, Ramaci, Tiziana and (2015) In: Nota, Laura and Soresi, Salvatore, (eds.) La psicologia positiva per l'orientamento e il lavoro. Strumenti e contributi di ricerca. Firenze, Italy : Hogrefe. pp. 72-97.

Di Nuovo, Santo, Magnano, Paola and (2013) In: Di Nuovo, Santo and Magnano, Paola, (eds.) Competenze trasversali e scelte formative : Strumenti per valutare meta cognizione, motivazione, interessi, abilita sociali nella continuita tra livelli scolastici. Trento, Italy : Erikson. pp. 29-39. ISBN 9788859001546

Magnano, Paola and (2008) In: Di Nuovo, Santo, (ed.) Riscoprire i valori. Un approccio psicosociale in Sicilia. Troina, Italy : Citta' Aperta. pp. 181-195. ISBN 9788881373741

Conference or Workshop Item

, , Kremis, Adam and Mangalore Harish, Shravya (2023) In: The European Conference on Education (ECE2023); 13-17 Jul 2023, London, U.K..

, and Memon, Ally R. (2023) In: 21st Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) : The future is now : the changing world of work; 24-27 May 2023, Katowice, Poland. (In Press)

Morando, Martina, Gruttadauria, Stefania, Platania, Silvia, and (2023) In: 21st Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) : The future is now : the changing world of work; 24-27 May 2023, Katowice, Poland. (In Press)

, and (2022) In: 48th European International Business Academy (EIBA) Annual Conference: Walking the talk? Transitioning towards a sustainable world; 08鈥�10 Dec 2022, Oslo, Norway. (Unpublished)

, and (2022) In: 15th Equality Diversity Inclusion Conference (EDI) : Disruption; 22 鈥� 24 Jul 2022, Cape Town, South Africa. (Unpublished)

and (2022) In: 15th European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology Conference (EAOHP) : Supporting Knowledge Comparison to Promote Good Practice in Occupational Health Psychology; 06 - 08 Jul 2022, Bordeaux, France. (Unpublished)

, and (2022) In: 15th European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology Conference (EAOHP) : Supporting Knowledge Comparison to Promote Good Practice in Occupational Health Psychology; 06 - 08 Jul 2022, Bordeaux, France. (Unpublished)

, Platania, Silvia and Silva, Silvia A. (2019) In: 19th Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) : Working for the greater good; 29 May - 01 Jun 2019, Turin, Italy. (Unpublished)

and Silva, Silvia A. (2019) In: 19th Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) : Working for the greater good; 29 May - 01 Jun 2019, Turin, Italy. (Unpublished)

, Silva, Silvia, Carvalho, Helena and Pasini, Margherita (2017) In: 9th International Conference on the prevention of accidents at work (WOS 2017); 3-6 Oct 2917, Prague, Czech Republic. (Unpublished)

Silva, Silvia and (2017) In: 10th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference; 28-30 Jun 2017, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, Silva, Silvia A. and Pasini, Margherita (2014) In: 7th Equality, Diversity and Inclusion International Conference; 08鈥�10 June 2014, Munich, Germany. (Unpublished)

, Silva, Silvia and Pasini, Margherita (2014) In: 11th European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology Conference (EAOHP) : Looking at the past - planning for the future : Capitalizing on OHP multidisciplinarity; 14-16 Apr 2014, London, U.K..

Brondino, Margherita, , Pasini, Margherita, Lazzarini, Gianluigi and Romeo, Luciano (2013) In: 16th Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP) : Imagine the future world: How do we want to work tomorrow?; 22-25 May 2013, M眉nster, Germany. (Unpublished)

This list was generated on Sat May 18 06:35:21 2024 BST.

Professional practice, knowledge exchange and impact

Since 2008 I have been working as a Business Psychologist consultant, researcher and trainer for small, medium and large enterprises in Europe and Kuwait. Main clients included a wide range of professionals at various levels and areas of expertise, such as educators in the penitentiary sector, social workers, manufacturing and infrastructure workers, healthcare assistants, HR and Finance mid-level executives.

I have been using my long international experience as a practitioner to help diverse people before, during and in between employments, and published articles in peer-reviewed journals on the assessments and interventions I delivered.

In the last ten years, I have been working as a consultant on several research projects regarding workplace health and wellbeing at national and international companies. Main topics regarded safety climate and safety performance in their relationships with diversity management, inclusion and communication at work. Clients included: multiple metal and mechanical Italian firms, in collaboration with the Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL, Italy) and a Portuguese infrastructure company with more than 15 international branches.

I also served as funded researcher and consultant in career and vocational guidance, study skills and motivation at many schools and university projects (multiple lower secondary schools belonging to the Borough of Catania, Italy, and referring to the Centre for research and investigation about disabilities), in collaboration with University of Catania and Kore University of Enna.

Since joining Kingston Business School, I have significantly supported students at every level of seniority and experience to analyse, diagnostic and intervene on organisational and management matters.

Qualifications and expertise

  • Certificate in Practical People Assessment – Association for Business Psychology
  • Career counselling and coaching
  • BeTalent Strenght - accredited
  • BeTalent Teams & Values - accredited
  • BeTalent 360 - Accredited
  • Psychometrics and psychological testing

Professional and scholarly affiliations

  • Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and Associate Fellow (AFBPsS) - British Psychological Society (BPS)
  • Occupational Psychologist - Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC)
  • Certified Business Psychologist - Association for Business Psychology (ABP)
  • Member of the Italian Association of Psychology (AIP) – Section of Organisational Psychology
  • Member of the Italian Association for Career guidance and Counselling (SIO)

Leadership and management

University responsibilities

  • Course Director MSc Occupational and Business Psychology, full-time occurrence

Social media