WOW Leadership: Insights from Ireland

Within the WOW Leadership project, we explore the role of leadership in organisations in the broadest sense: as a key driver for Wellbeing@Work (WOW), with the aim of enabling employees, teams, and organisations to thrive. Leadership plays a crucial role in creating the conditions in which both people and organisations can flourish.
Recently, the Hanze WOW Team conducted a research visit to Dublin and Cork, Ireland. Ireland has many inspiring initiatives in the field of wellbeing at work and leadership, both within academia and among companies, organisations, and entrepreneurs.

During the visit, the research team engaged with a diverse range of organisations, including local companies from various sectors, employee organisations, professors and researchers from universities, and government institutions. The team visited organisations such as LinkedIn in Dublin, met with researchers from University College Cork, hosted a research seminar at the university and held discussions with several entrepreneurs.

Report with key findings from WOW Leadership Ireland

The insights from this research visit have now been compiled into a concise research report. The report highlights the key successes, challenges, and promising practices related to Wellbeing at Work in Ireland.

The findings are structured using the IGLOO framework, which examines wellbeing at work across five interconnected levels: the Individual, Group, Leader, Organisation and Overarching Environment. The report highlights where organizations already have strong foundations for wellbeing at work, where opportunities for further development exist, and how leadership contributes to creating healthy, resilient and innovative organisations.

Research report WOW Leadership – Key Insights on Wellbeing at Work & Leadership in the region Ireland

Our ambition

The outcomes of this research visit, together with the exploratory research conducted in Singapore at the end of 2025 and the visit to Malta in early 2026, represent the first steps towards building a European platform and network for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and researchers. This platform focuses on leadership and aims to contribute to the development of healthy, innovative, productive, and future-ready rural regions, such as the Northern Netherlands.

Mini-symposium 27 October 2026

On Tuesday 27 October 2026, the research team will organise a mini-symposium to share more about the research project and present the first findings. During the symposium, several interactive sessions will be organised to engage in dialogue with participants and further explore the themes emerging from the research. More information on this symposium will follow by the Hanze website. 

The WOW Leadership project is an integrated collaboration between the Leadership & Sustainable Employment professorship, the Regional Innovative Capacity professorship and the Labour Market Transitions professorship.