Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management
College of Business, Government and Law
Dr Ashokkumar (Ashok) Manoharan, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management, is the ERA Discipline Leader (FoR 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism, and Services). Before joining Flinders University, he taught management courses at the University of South Australia and the higher education sector in India. He also has extensive industry experience training call centre employees in Australia and providing consultancy for hospitality firms.
Dr Manoharan is the recipient of the college's 2022 Research Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research and 2020 Research Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Early Career Researcher. His research interest includes workforce diversity, migrant workers, diversity management practices, and organisational culture in the hospitality industry context. He has collaborated internationally with researchers from the US, France, Ireland, China, Korea, Dubai, Ghana, and Australia. His research work has been published in the leading hospitality and management journals such as the International Journal of Hospitality Management and Journal of Industrial Relations and presented in the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, British Academy of Management, International Council of Hospitality and Restaurant Educators Conference (USA), APacCHRIE & EuroCHRIE Joint Conference (Hong Kong), and Australian New Zealand Academy of Management Conference. Recognizing his research, he has successfully collaborated and obtained external and university-level research grants. Australian Hotels Associations have supported his research.
Dr. Manoharan was born and raised in Madurai, India. After completing his bachelor's degree, he was trained to be a chef; however, he completed his MBA and then M.Sc in Psychology. He earned his doctorate from the School of Management, University of South Australia.
PhD in Management (University of South Australia), Master of Business Administration, Masters of Science (Psychology), Bachelors in Catering Science and Hotel Management.
External grants
2023-2024. $40,000. Council of Australian-Arab Relations Grant, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Empowering next generation: Women entrepreneurs, gender equality and social cohesion. Manoharan, A, & Jones, J.
2023-2024 - $524,000. Information Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Program, Department of Social Services, Australian Government. Co-designing disability employment strategies with people with disability, industry mentors, and disability employment experts to diversify the workforce for people with disability in fashion and hospitality nationwide. Goodwin-Smith, I., Manoharan, A., Jones, J., Hutchinson, C. & Yoon, J.
2022-2023 - $80,335. Endeavour Foundation. Factors that support positive employment outcomes for intellectually disabled persons in hospitality. Manoharan, A., Hutchinson, C. & Jones, J.
2021-2022. $24,000. Council of Australian-Arab Relations Grant, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.Cross-cultural perspectives on Arab Gender equality. Manoharan, A, & Jones, J.
2018-2019. $29,375. Le Cordon Bleu – University of South Australia Research Grants Scheme 2018 - 2019. The incidence, experience, and consequences of skill discounting among migrant hospitality employees. Treuren, G., Manoharan, A., Bambacas, M., Jones. L.
2018-2019. $58,000. Diabetes SA. Diabetes SA Market Research. Stocchi, L., & Manoharan, A.
Internal grants
2018-2019. $31,172. BGL College Internal Grant Grant. Manoharan, A.
2017. Faculty Research Grant, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Flinders University. Manoharan, A.
2016 - 2017. $8.000. Flinders University Establishment Grant, Flinders University. Manoharan, A.
Awards
2022. BGL College Research Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research
2020. BGL College Research Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Early Career Researcher
2012 & 2013. Recipient of Leadership Award, School of Management, University of South Australia
2011 - 2014. Australian Postgraduate Award (APA): awarded to students of "exceptional research potential."
2011 - 2014. University of South Australia Top-Up Research Scholarship.
Research Affiliate – Centre for Social Impact and Australian Industrial Transformation Institute
Academic Integrity Officer (2016 to Present)
Student Progress Committee (2018 – Present)
ECR Representative College Research Committee (2019 - 2020)
Coordinator - Business, Economics & Industry Research Section (2018 - 2020)
Reviewer