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Dinuka is currently supervising students on Human Resource Management in SMEs at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

He is also is interested in supervising PhD projects in the following areas:

• Organizational Adaptability (plasticity)
• The application of agent based modelling techniques for studying organisations.
• Scale development for measuring disorganisation in businesses
• Social Entrepreneurship

Apart from the aforementioned areas, He is also interested in novel quantitative, qualitative and mixed method projects

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Last updated 18th April 2024

Dr. Dinuka B. Herath, Ph.D., CMgr, MCMI, FHEA, MSc, PGCHE, BSc (Hons), Dip (ICT), CC, CL; is the Director of Home Recruitment at the Business School (formerly Lecturer: 2016 – 2019 & Senior Lecturer 2019 – 2022). He is currently a Cluster Director at the Northern Productivity Hub (NPH) and a Track Chair in the Organizational Behaviour Special Interest Group (OB-SIG) at the European Academy of Management (EURAM). He is a fellow of the British Higher Education Academy, EURAM, and a member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). To date, he has over 20 academic publications including articles in reputed journals, numerous successful research/enterprise funding bids, and multiple book chapters. 

He has over a decade of experience in higher education institutions. He studied and worked in 4 universities in the UK (Staffordshire University, The University of East Anglia, Bournemouth University, and The University of Huddersfield) as well as being a visiting researcher at The University of Southern Denmark. Furthermore, He has received funding from the European Academy of Management and the HuD Research Fund for his work. In addition, he is the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior (IJOTB) and acts as a reviewer for multiple highly acclaimed journals, and has guest-edited 3 journal special issues to date (IJEI, EB-HRM & RMS). Moreover, he has successfully organized multiple funded national and international research symposia. Within the university, he is an executive leader of the Centre of Biomimetics Societal Futures and has taken active roles in the Business School research conferences including acting as a co-track chair. He is also currently working on multiple funded projects involving national and international companies (over £350,000) focusing on topics such as plasticity, diversity, agent-based modelling, productivity, and blockchain technologies. In terms of wider global experience, to date, he has presented his research in the US, China, Iceland, France, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, and Italy. He has also given invited lectures, (i.e., University of Leeds) along with numerous other workshops and events.

Before his position at Huddersfield University, he completed a fully-funded Ph.D. in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at Bournemouth University (BU), UK. He received a fully-funded studentship for his Ph.D. and was the youngest Ph.D. student at BU. His Ph.D. thesis was examined by Professor Bruce Edmonds who is a key figure in the field. At BU he was also a P/T lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management. Apart from his academic positions, he was also the president of the Doctoral Student Society, the Chairman of the BU Institute of Directors, and a P/T officer at the BU Students Union. He also holds an MSc with distinction in Information Systems and a BSc with honours in Business Information Technology. He is also a certified orator and holds a Competent Communicator certificate from Toastmasters International. He formerly also worked as a member of a multi-year EU-funded (ERASMUS) researcher grant, known as SHARPEN. He has also been a senior advisor for Pronoia Consulting. Before his academic career, he has extensive experience in industry, notably as a marketing manager at a multinational information technology company, VoiceTec Systems Limited. His work has been featured in Newsweek, Yahoo News, UK Bulletin, and other prominent outlets and he has also been featured in BBC news. To keep track of his latest work you can follow Dr. Herath on LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook.

Some Selected Works

• Special Issues - Special issue: Championing Difference – Exploring Entrepreneurship amongst the Socially Excluded
• Emerald book: "Business Plasticity through Disorganization" now available worldwide - Amazon (Hardcover). Also available at Emerald, Waterstones, Blackwell's & WHSmith.
• Full List of Publications: ResearchGate, GoogleScholar
• Newsweek Article: "Mess is Good for Business"

Research Interests

Dinuka’s research focus is on Organisational behaviour and Human resource management. He primarily uses quantitative research methods including statistical tools, big data analysis techniques and computer simulations. Dinuka is interested in studying organisational structure and processes. Dinuka systematically studies the effects structural and procedural changes have on an organisation’s employees. His research in the past three years focused on minimally organised (disorganised) organisational structures and processes with an emphasis on how the change of one or both these constructs affected individuals and teams within organizations. Dinuka’s research has implications for both academics and practitioners on how productivity/ efficiency can be increased using disorganisation. He is currently looking at developing a validated measurement scale for measuring disorganisation. Dinuka also conducts methodological research focusing on computer simulations using agent based modelling (ABM) techniques and how ABM can be used in management research. Currently he is looking at how ABM can be applied to study an array of management theories (i.e. leadership, dynamic capabilities, consumer behaviour, talent management, etc.). His most recent work has focused on entrepreneurship in the third sector and minority entrepreneurship.