Wendy Andrews joined academia after a successful career in business, bringing a unique combination of industry experience and academic expertise to her research. After earning a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, she worked for several years in technical-commercial roles and as a business consultant before completing an MBA in General Management at IESE Business School (Barcelona). She subsequently transitioned into academia, earning a Master's in Research in Organizational Behavior from London Business School and a PhD at the Centre for Research on Self and Identity at the University of Southampton. Her doctoral research examined status and hierarchy in face-to-face groups, laying the foundation for a broader research programme on leadership, competition, and organizational dynamics. She has since published more than twenty journal articles and book chapters on these topics.
After returning to the Netherlands in 2009, Wendy held academic positions at Tilburg University and the Open University before joining Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2018 as Assistant Professor of Organizational Psychology. She is an active member of the Institute for Brain and Behavior Amsterdam, serves on the Faculty Impact Board, and is Business Director of the Amsterdam Leadership Lab. She currently (co-)supervises four PhD candidates whose research spans leadership, career advancement, organizational culture, and gender, employing experimental, survey, and observational methods.
A defining feature of Wendy's work is the development of scientifically grounded tools that can be applied in practice. Her research has been supported by an ESRC scholarship, three grants from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), four China Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarships awarded to her PhD candidates, and a Dutch Starter Grant. Together with collaborators, she has developed several innovative applications, including SALT, a web-based assessment tool that helps organizations identify the leadership style best suited to a specific role and organizational context; the FFNI, a survey-based measure to assess the fundamental follower needs that underlie individual's leadership preferences; an online charisma training that uses self-deepfakes to enhance leadership development; and the Science meets Improv charisma workshop, which combines evidence-based insights with techniques from improvisational theatre.
Throughout her career, Wendy has sought to bridge the gap between academic research and organizational practice. Drawing on her experience in both worlds, she is committed to producing research that advances scientific understanding while equipping managers and organizations with practical, evidence-based tools to improve leadership and organizational effectiveness.
