Dr Mary Welch

Senior Lecturer in Communication Management

Lancashire Business School

Greenbank Building 322

+44 (0) 1772 894753

MWelch@uclan.ac.uk

Mary joined the University of Central Lancashire in 2001 following a career in corporate communication management and public relations in the not-for-profit and public sectors. She has a PhD in internal communication (Manchester Business School, 2008) an MSc in Marketing (UMIST, 2000) and a BA(Hons) in Social Studies (University of Liverpool, 1991).

Membership of professional and learned societies

• Institutional Member of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Institutional Member of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA)
• Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM)
• Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (MCIPR)

Current Teaching Activities

Mary has Accreditation as a Teacher in Higher Education (SEDA, 2003), a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (UCLan, 2002), and a Postgraduate Certificate in Research Student Supervision (UCLan 2011). She currently teaches on a range of modules covering strategic communication, research methods and internal corporate communication at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She supervises undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. Additionally, Mary is currently Course Leader for the part-time executive blended learning MA Strategic Communication course.

Publications

Publications and papers

Welch, M. (2012) Appropriateness and acceptability: Employee perspectives of internal communication. Public Relations Review. Vol. 38 No. 2 pp. 246-254.
Ruck, K. Welch, M. (2012) Valuing internal communication; management and employee perspectives. Public Relations Review. Vol. 38 No. 2 pp. 294-302.
Welch, M.  (2011) The evolution of the employee engagement concept: communication implications. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. Vol. 16 No. 4 pp. 328-346.
Welch, M., Jackson, P.R. (2010) Rethinking internal communication. In Ruck, K (Ed.) Exploring internal communication. Harlow. Pearson Education.
Welch, M., Jackson, P.R. (2007) Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. Vol. 12 No. 2 pp. 177-198.
Welch, M. (2006) Rethinking relationship management: exploring the dimension of trust. Journal of Communication Management. Vol. 10 No.2 pp. 138-155.

Conference papers

Invited speaker - Employee engagement: Evolution and communication implications. “Focus on Internal Communication” International Business Communication Evening Seminar.  Department of Communication, Aalto University, Helsinki. 16 February 2012.
Welch, M (2011) Appropriateness and acceptability: Employee perspectives of internal communication. 18th BledCom Conference: Internal Communication, Slovenia. July 2011.
Invited panellist - BledCom Round Table panel discussion: Internal communication education. 18th BledCom Internal Communication conference, Slovenia. July 2011.
Invited speaker - Internal communication: A stakeholder approach. Study day of the academic research contact group FNRS on internal communication. Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. 20th May 2011.
Welch, M., Jackson, P.R. (2010) Internal corporate communication behaviour: knowledge worker preferences for methods. Corporate and Marketing Communications 15th Annual Conference Proceedings. Aarhus Business School, Denmark.
Welch, M. (2009) Distrust and internal corporate communication. Conference on Corporate Communication 2009. Wroxton College, Oxfordshire, UK.
Invited panellist - Globalizing the PR curriculum and converging theory and practice. Conference on Corporate Communication 2009. Wroxton College, Oxfordshire, UK.
Welch, M. (2008) Engaging employees with internal corporate communication. Conference on Corporate Communication 2008. Wroxton College, Oxfordshire, UK.
Welch, M. (2006) Exploring the dimension of trust in internal public relationships. European Public Relations Education and Research Associations (EUPRERA) 8th Annual Conference, Carlisle.
Welch, M. (2005) Rethinking relationship management: exploring the dimension of trust. CIPR Alan Rawel Academic Conference. University of Lincoln.
Welch, M., Zolkiewski, J. (2004)  Barriers to virtue: Exploring the dark side of dyadic relationships. 38th Academy of Marketing Conference, University of Gloucester, Cheltenham.

Research

Dr Welch’s research interests and publications focus on internal communication, employee engagement and stakeholder relationship management.

Currently supervising the work of two PhD students:
Kevin Ruck UCLan. Project title: Rethinking internal communication measurement.        
Christine Hambursin, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. Project title: Internal communication and organisational commitment in crisis situations.

In 2011, Mary worked on a UCLan Innovation Voucher research project on employee engagement and communication in which she undertook academic consultancy and research in an industrial services company.

In 2009, she won a UCLan Livesey Sabbatical Award to facilitate internal communication research. In the same year, she won a UCLan Arnoux Award for a PhD studentship in rethinking internal communication measurement.

Other External Academic Activities and Roles

Recent external activities

UCLan representative on the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Approved Course Leader Forum.
 
External Examiner: Liverpool John Moores University 2006-2011.