Dr Ashokkumar (Ashok) Manoharan is Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management at the College of Business, Government and Law. Before joining Flinders University, he has taught management courses in the University of South Australia and the higher education sector in India. He also has extensive industry experience in training call centre employees in Australia and providing consultancy for hospitality firms.

Dr Manoharan is the recipient of the college's 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 context of the hospitality industry. He has collaborated internationally with researchers from the US, France, Ireland, China, Korea, and Australia. His research work has been published in the leading hospitality and management journals such as the International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Industrial Relations and presented in Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, International Council of Hospitality and Restaurant Educators Conference (USA), APacCHRIE & EuroCHRIE Joint Conference, and Australian New Zealand Academy of Management Conference. In recognition of his research, he has been successful in collaborating and obtained external research grants and university-level research grants. His research has been supported by Australian Hotels Associations.

Dr. Manoharan was born and raised in Madurai, India. On completing his bachelor's degree, he was trained to be a chef; however, he went on to complete his MBA and then M.Sc Psychology. He earned his doctorate from the School of Management, University of South Austalia.