Staff profile

Les joined Durham University Business School in 2003, after working in the automotive sector for twenty-two years where he held a number of executive roles. He completed his PhD at Utrecht University in March 2009 on the topic of leadership, personality and burnout.

From August 2010, for three years, he worked on the FP7 Collaborative Project: Comparative Police Studies in the EU (COMPOSITE) which involved a study of the cultural and societal pressures faced and the challenges and processes involved in organisational change for police forces in ten European countries.

Over the past four years, he has been working in collaborative research partnerships with thirty-three police forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to study the impact of workplace factors, such as leadership and fairness, on individuals’ well-being, engagement and integrity behaviour. He leads the Policing Research Unit at Durham University Business School and has a keen interest in sharing the evidence and underpinning theory from this research to achieve insight and impact in policing.

He is also Principle Investigator (PI) for a research project with Toni&Guy, the international hairdressing conglomerate. Since 2012, he has conducted collaborative research projects with Toni&Guy to investigate the impact of leadership on service delivery.

Mini Biography

Professor Les Graham received his PhD at Utrecht University in 2009 on the topic of leadership, personality and burnout. He leads the Policing Research Unit at Durham University Business School. His research focuses mainly focuses on the impact of leadership on individuals’ well-being, engagement and ethical behaviour.

• Leadership
• Identity
• Service Delivery Behaviour
• Ethical behaviour
• Well-being
• Leadership and Followership
• Management and Maketing Faculty

Edited book

• Graham, L., Betteridge, K., Casey, R., & van Witteloostuijn, A. (Eds.). (2012). Best Practices in European Policing: A Selection of Case Studies. Durham University

Journal Article

• Chen, L., Huang, X., Sun, J., Zheng, Y., Graham, L., & Jiang, J. (2024). The Virtue of a Controlling Leadership Style: Authoritarian Leadership, Work Stressors, and Leader Power Distance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 41, 507–547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-022-09860-7
• Legate, N., Weinstein, N., Graham, L., & Plater, M. (2023). Anti‐bias training and perceived force climate: Links with prejudiced attitudes in United Kingdom policing. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 33(4), 929-939. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2682
• Weinstein, N., Legate, N., Graham, L., Zheng, Y., Plater, M., Al-Khouja, M., & Moller, A. C. (2023). The Role of Perceived Autonomy-Supportive Communications for Motivating Prejudice Reduction and Avoiding Defiant Backlash Within the Police Force Workplace. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 53(5), 443-454. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12953
• Ete, Z., Epitropaki, O., Zhou, Q., & Graham, L. (2022). Leader and Organizational Behavioral Integrity and Follower Behavioral Outcomes: The Role of Identification Processes. Journal of Business Ethics, 176(4), 741-760. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04728-6
• Zheng, Y., Epitropaki, O., Graham, L., & Caveney, N. (2022). Ethical Leadership and Ethical Voice: The Mediating Mechanisms of Value Internalization and Integrity Identity. Journal of Management, 48(4), 973-1002. https://doi.org/10.1177/2f01492063211002611
• Lockey, S., Graham, L., Zheng, Y., Hesketh, I., Plater, M., & Gracey, S. (2022). The impact of workplace stressors on exhaustion and work engagement in policing. Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles, 95(1), 190-206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258x211016532
• Zheng, Y., Graham, L., Farh, J., & Huang, X. (2021). The Impact of Authoritarian Leadership on Ethical Voice: A Moderated Mediation Model of Felt Uncertainty and Leader Benevolence. Journal of Business Ethics, 170(1), 133-146. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04261-1
• Xu, E., Huang, X., Jia, R., Xu, J., Liu, W., Graham, L., & Snape, E. (2020). The “evil pleasure”: Abusive supervision and third-party observers’ malicious reactions toward victims. Organization Science, 31(5), 1053-1312. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2019.1349
• Zheng, Y., Huang, X., Graham, L., Redman, T., & Hu, S. (2020). Deterrence Effects: The Role of Authoritarian Leadership in Controlling Employee Workplace Deviance. Management and Organization Review, 16(2), 377-404. https://doi.org/10.1017/mor.2019.50
• Zheng, Y., Graham, L., Epitropaki, O., & Snape, E. (2020). Service Leadership, Work Engagement and Service Performance: The Moderating Role of Leader Skills. Group and Organization Management, 45(1), 43-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601119851978
• Zheng, Y., Wu, C., & Graham, L. (2020). Work-to-non-work spillover: the impact of public service motivation and meaningfulness on outcomes in work and personal life domains. Public Management Review, 22(4), 578-601. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1601242
• Al-Khouja, M., Graham, L., Weinstein, N., & Zheng, Y. (2020). How autonomy support and ethical value alignment influences attitudes towards diversity in English police. Journal of Moral Education, 49(3), 365-380. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2019.1697867
• Lockey, S., Graham, L., Redman, T., & Zheng, Y. (2019). The Impact of a Local Community Engagement Intervention on Residents’ Fear of Crime and Perceptions of the Police. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 21(3), 168-180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461355719856039
• Hesketh, I., & Graham, L. (2017). Theory or not theory? That is the question. Australasian policing, 9(1), 10-12
• Barlage, M., van den Born, A., van Witteloostuijn, A., & Graham, L. (2014). Estimating public performance bias through an MTMM model : the case of police performance in 26 European countries. Policy Studies, 35(4), 377-396. https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2013.875154
• van den Born, A., van Witteloostuijn, A., Barlag, M., Sapulete, S., van den Oord, A., Rogist, S., Vallet, N., Reguli, Z., Vit, M., Mouhanna, C., Binder, H., Blumenthal, V., Christe-Zeyse, J., Giljohann, S., Gruschinske, M., Pautz, H., Stein-Müller, S., Bisogni, F., Costanzo, P., Stojanovski, T., …Polos, L. (2013). Policing opportunities and threats in Europe. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(5), 811-829. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-09-2012-0145

Report

• Betteridge, K., Casey, R., Graham, L., & Polos, L. (2012). Description of Best Practices. [No known commissioning body]
• Betteridge, K., Casey, R., Graham, L., & Polos, L. (2012). Identification of Internal Capabilities Strengths and Best Practices. [No known commissioning body]
• Betteridge, K., Casey, R., Graham, L., & Polos, L. (2012). Typology of Police Organisations. [No known commissioning body]