Valerie Purchase

Valerie Purchase rejoined the School of Communication in 2010 following a career in consultancy and over ten years at the School of Management, University of Bath.  She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the areas of organisational and digital communication.  Valerie started her career lecturing at Ulster University’s Jordanstown and Magee campuses before developing a passion for working directly with organisations.  Applying her skills and knowledge in organisational communication, she supported organisational leaders in both the public and private sector in implementing change and facilitating communication in senior management and operational teams.  Valerie’s experience and interest in managing change led to her joining the University of Bath on national and international programmes targeting transformation in the aerospace and manufacturing sectors.  Her research on organisational transformation has involved working closely with a wide range of external collaborators including: research institutes nationally (University of Warwick, Cranfield, Nottingham, Cambridge, Loughborough and Exeter) and internationally (US Lean Aerospace Initiative at MIT); and a European funded project LeanXEur with partners from Ireland, Sweden, Spain and Poland.  Valerie has also worked closely with regional government and trade organisations and with 45 aerospace companies including Airbus, Rolls Royce, Agusta Westland, BAE Systems, Goodrich, Thales, Messier Dowty and the MoD.  Her current research and teaching interests lie in organisational and digital communication; organisational readiness in a digital era; dialogue and value co-creation with the customer; and managing and leading change across complex multi-organisational enterprises.