Fahri Karakas

Fahri Karakas serves as Associate Professor in Business & Leadership at the University of East Anglia's Norwich Business School, where he has been a faculty member since 2012. His academic journey includes prior research fellowship at Open University Business School and current visiting lecturer positions at Mountbatten Institute (London) and Pembroke-King's Programme (University of Cambridge). As a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, he actively contributes to management education innovation while supervising PhD students in leadership and organizational change.

His educational background features a BA from Koc University, MBA from Bogazici University, and PhD in Organizational Behaviour from McGill University where his dissertation on benevolent leadership earned the 2010 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award. These qualifications anchor his interdisciplinary approach spanning business ethics, positive psychology, and spiritual studies in organizational contexts.

Karakas' research centers on four interconnected streams: benevolent leadership (developing the Benevolent Leadership Scale measuring ethical sensitivity, spiritual depth, positive engagement, and community responsiveness); corporate spiritual responsibility advocating for workplaces that nurture spiritual wellbeing; positive management education transforming learning through creative pedagogies; and renewing leadership studies through arts-based metaphors. His work consistently explores how organizations can awaken human potential through humane values to build creative, compassionate workplaces aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals strong thematic continuity in organizational spirituality and leadership innovation, with increasing methodological diversity incorporating visual, narrative, and ethnographic approaches. Recent outputs show growing emphasis on corruption dynamics in international business and practical applications of arts-based learning in entrepreneurship development.

• Best Paper Award, Academy of Management Conference (Management, Spirituality and Religion Division) (2015)
• Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award in Leadership and Organization Development (2010)
• Excellence in Teaching Award, McGill University Ph.D. Program (2009)
• Finalist, Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame 'Future Telecom Leaders' award (2008)
• Koc University Vehbi Koc Scholar Academic Excellence Award (1997)

His research supervision focuses on PhD candidates exploring creativity, spirituality, and leadership, supported by two major grants from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council totaling over CAD $500,000 for corruption studies. Karakas actively reviews for 15+ journals including Academy of Management Review and Journal of Business Ethics while developing innovative teaching frameworks like 'Positive Management Education' and 'Management Learning at the Speed of Life'.

As a member of the University of Michigan's Positive Organizational Scholarship network, he collaborates internationally to advance research on organizational flourishing. His current work integrates research streams through multi-level theory development while creating practical tools like the 'Self-Making Studio' doodle kit for career development.