Penny Tamkin
Programme Director, Management and Leadership
The Work Foundation
Background
Penny has just taken up a new role as Programme Director Management and Leadership Research at The Work Foundation, before that she was an Associate Director at the Institute for Employment Studies where she managed the Employer research team undertaking research and research based consultancy assignments for employers and employer bodies.
Experience
Penny joined The Work Foundation in April 2007 after 13 years at IES. Over that period she has undertaken a wide range of projects with employers, employer bodies and policy clients. This work has tended to fit within four main themes:
The capability of managers and leaders. Penny current role is focusing on understanding the role of leadership in sustainable high performance. She has previously completed researching the comparative capability of
The impact of human capital/HR investment on business performance. Penny has conducted a number of studies looking at how all kinds of human capital investment and high performance working practices contribute to organisational performance. An initial literature review and analytical report presented a model of how various dimensions of people investment contribute to human capability and hence organisational performance which is currently being tested.
Workplace development. A major input to human capital within organisations is the knowledge, skills and ongoing development of the workforce. Penny has researched the impact of development on individuals, organisations and nations, she has also looked at the different means of development employed within the workplace and evaluated its success. Clients for this work have included policy bodies such as the Department for Education and Skills, the Sector Skills Development Agency, public funded bodies such as IiP
The impact of the HR function. Building on her work on human capital, Penny has conducted a number of studies on behalf of the CIPD looking at how the HR function contributes to the management of people within organisations and is itself changing. She has also explored the impact of those changes for HR practitioners.
