![Helen Mussell](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/1364?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Helen Mussell
Lecturer in Organizational Studies
Director of Online Learning
- MussellH@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29206 88841
- Aberconway Building, Room C52, Colum Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Helen is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Organizational Studies in the Management, Employment, and Organization section, and the Director of Online Learning for Cardiff Business School. Prior to joining Cardiff, Helen was Director of the Master's in Sustainability Leadership at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge.
She completed her BA (Hons) in Women’s Studies at Lancaster University, and holds an MPhil and PhD in Gender Studies (philosophy and economics focus) from the University of Cambridge, where she was Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust Scholar (2012-2016).
Helen is Co-Editor of the Economics and Business Ethics section of the Journal of Business Ethics (a Financial Times Research Rank top 50 journal), an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and an alumna of Newnham College, Cambridge. Her recent publication 'Theorising the Fiduciary: Ontology and Ethics' in Journal of Business Ethics (2023) was awarded the Gavin C Reid Best Paper prize 2022 by the Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School.
Her highly interdisciplinary work focuses on organizational ethics, including fiduciary duty, trust, and power in organizations. Helen is published in philosophy (ethics, epistemology, and ontology), heterodox economics, business and feminist ethics, and social psychology. She is published in leading journals including Business Ethics Quarterly and Journal of Business Ethics, and has published a monograph - Ontology, relational ethics and corporations - with Palgrave Macmillan (2024).
Prior to her academic career, Helen worked in industry for fourteen years, in sectors including media, publishing, and consultancy, where she engaged with organizational culture issues regarding gender, leadership, and management in the workplace.
Helen also acts as a Specialist Advisor with Principia Advisory supporting executive leadership teams and Boards on ethical practice, focussing on the ethical implications of fiduciary duties, including issues relating to interpretations of responsibilities of trusteeships from an ethical perspective.
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Publication
2025
- Mussell, H. 2025. Ethics of care/care ethics/relational ethics. In: Helms, J., Williams, K. S. and Bendl, R. eds. Encyclopaedia of Gender and Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
2024
- Mussell, H. 2024. Ontology, relational ethics, and corporations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
2023
- Mussell, H. 2023. Theorizing the fiduciary: ontology and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 186, pp. 293-307. (10.1007/s10551-022-05235-6)
- Mussell, H. 2023. Investigating the fiduciary using social positioning theory: An in-depth analysis. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research (CBR), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp536.pdf
2021
- Mussell, H. 2021. Reclaiming the relational ontology of the fiduciary and exploring relational ethics. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research (CBR), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp534.pdf
- Mussell, H. 2021. Exploring epistemic vices in the fiduciary: injustice and beyond.. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research (CBR), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp533.pdf
- Mussell, H. 2021. The silenced and unsought beneficiary: investigating epistemic injustice in the fiduciary. Business Ethics Quarterly 31(4), pp. 549-571. (10.1017/beq.2021.4)
2020
- Mussell, H. 2020. Leadership and the fiduciary: addressing asymmetrical power by caring well. In: Tomkins, L. ed. Paradox and Power in Caring Leadership Critical and Philosophical Reflections. New Horizons in Leadership Studies Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 86-97.
2019
- Mussell, H. 2019. Elucidating limited shareholder engagement: identifying ethical and epistemological factors in the fiduciary. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, Cambridge University. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp516.pdf
2017
- Mussell, H. 2017. Who dares to care? (In the world of finance). Feminist Economics 24(3), pp. 113. (10.1080/13545701.2017.1390319)
- Mussell, H. 2017. The nature of social responsibility: Exploring emancipatory ends. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 47(2), pp. 222. (10.1111/jtsb.12119)
2016
- Mussell, H. 2016. The truth of the matter. Hypatia 31(3), pp. 537-553. (10.1111/hypa.12258)
Articles
- Mussell, H. 2023. Theorizing the fiduciary: ontology and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 186, pp. 293-307. (10.1007/s10551-022-05235-6)
- Mussell, H. 2021. The silenced and unsought beneficiary: investigating epistemic injustice in the fiduciary. Business Ethics Quarterly 31(4), pp. 549-571. (10.1017/beq.2021.4)
- Mussell, H. 2017. Who dares to care? (In the world of finance). Feminist Economics 24(3), pp. 113. (10.1080/13545701.2017.1390319)
- Mussell, H. 2017. The nature of social responsibility: Exploring emancipatory ends. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 47(2), pp. 222. (10.1111/jtsb.12119)
- Mussell, H. 2016. The truth of the matter. Hypatia 31(3), pp. 537-553. (10.1111/hypa.12258)
Book sections
- Mussell, H. 2025. Ethics of care/care ethics/relational ethics. In: Helms, J., Williams, K. S. and Bendl, R. eds. Encyclopaedia of Gender and Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar
- Mussell, H. 2020. Leadership and the fiduciary: addressing asymmetrical power by caring well. In: Tomkins, L. ed. Paradox and Power in Caring Leadership Critical and Philosophical Reflections. New Horizons in Leadership Studies Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 86-97.
Books
- Mussell, H. 2024. Ontology, relational ethics, and corporations. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Monographs
- Mussell, H. 2023. Investigating the fiduciary using social positioning theory: An in-depth analysis. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research (CBR), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp536.pdf
- Mussell, H. 2021. Reclaiming the relational ontology of the fiduciary and exploring relational ethics. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research (CBR), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp534.pdf
- Mussell, H. 2021. Exploring epistemic vices in the fiduciary: injustice and beyond.. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research (CBR), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp533.pdf
- Mussell, H. 2019. Elucidating limited shareholder engagement: identifying ethical and epistemological factors in the fiduciary. Working paper. Cambridge: Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, Cambridge University. Available at: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cbrwp516.pdf
Research
My research focusses on organizational ethics, including fiduciary duty, trust, and power in organizations, and includes ethics in finance. I am interested in epistemic virtues and vices in organizational contexts, and how certain economic interpretations of key concepts carry implications for organizational behaviour.
Alongside journal articles and book chapters, I have published a monograph - Ontology, Relational Ethics, & Corporations - with Palgrave Macmillan on their Philosophy and Religion list. The following summarizes the book's contribution:
'This book offers a unique exploration and analysis of social responsibility and associated ethical concepts used by business and financial organizations. Mussell lays out the argument that a realist analysis of social responsibility reveals caring relations underpinning this ethical behavior. The combination of a realist social ontology with contemporary relational care ethics provides the theoretical framework needed to successfully explore the ethics of social responsibility. She then applies this realist caring relations argument to three specific contexts in which social responsibility is explicitly evident - including corporate social responsibility, socially responsible investment, and the legal concept of the fiduciary. By tracing the historical development of each concept – including how economic methodology has influenced interpretations and practice – a complex picture emerges, showing how ethics, economic theory, and political theory intersect. This is an insightful work of philosophically informed contemporary political economy, analyzing the evolution and connection of key ethical concepts widely used by organizations'.
I am also a member of the Cambridge Social Ontology Group.
Teaching
I am module leader and teacher of International Business Ethics and Political Economy (BST464) on the MSc in International Management.
I also hold an academic leadership role as Director of Online Learning for Cardiff Business School.
In 2024 I was selected to participate in the Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop at The Hoffman Center for Business Ethics, Bentley University, Boston, US.
Supervisions
Potential PhD candidates interested in the following areas of research are welcome to contact me:
- Organizational Ethics (including Ethics of Care)
- Applied feminist philosophy in organizational contexts
- Epistemic vices and organizations
- Social ontological approach to studying organizations