Academic biography

Brian Harney BA (Hons), MBS, PhD (Cambridge), MCIPD is Professor in Strategy & HRM at DCU Business School. He is founder and former Programme Director of the award winning BSc in Digital Business & Innovation (#AACSB Innovation thats inpires award 2023; Education Awards best student experience 2022) and former Programme Director of the award-winning MSc in HRM (gradIreland Best Postgraduate Course 2016).

Brian’s research focuses on the intersection of Strategy and HRM, with a particular focus on SMEs, growth and knowledge-intensive sectors. His research has received over 15 Best Paper awards and is widely published. Brian is the author of several books including Strategy and Strategists (Oxford University Press) and edited collections The Global Case Book (Routledge), Reframing HRM in SMEs (Palgrave Macmillan) and Strategic HRM: Research and Practice in Ireland (Blackhall/Orpen). He is the only DCU faculty member to have won both categories of the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (new lecturer and overall award), and in 2020 was the recipient of the Academy of Management HR Division Innovative Educator award. Brian has experience in strategy and HR consulting and has designed and delivered executive education programmes for clients including Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, and the Irish Stock Exchange. Brian currently serves as the Irish Ambassador for the HR Division of the Academy of Management where he is also an elected representative at large. Previously he was an elected Board Member of the European and Irish Academy of Management. Brian has held visiting positions in China, Slovenia, Canada and the US, most recently at the University of Southern California. He serves as an Associate Editor for HRM a Financial Times Top 50 Journal and is on the Editorial Board of Human Relations, the International Journal of HRM, Employee Relations and the Irish Journal of Management. Brian is Guest Editor for Special Issues of IJHRM, HRM, HRM Review, International Small Business Journal and Employee Relations. He has secured competitive funding in excess of 3 million Euro. Brian is an external examiner at the University of Warwick and the University of Sheffield and serves as a judge for the annual Gov HR Summit (GCC). In 2012 Brian delivered a 24-hour non-stop lecture for charity and was nominated for a President’s Award for Civic Engagement.