Prof. Deirdre O'Shea, F.Ps.S.I., C.Psychol.Ps.S.I., is Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology in the Department of Work and Employment Studies at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick.

Prof O'Shea completed her PhD and M.Sc. in Work and Organisational Psychology from Dublin City University in 2011 and 2005 respectively, and her B.Sc. in Psychology from University College Dublin in 2002. She received a DCUBS research scholarship to complete her PhD research, which received a Highly Commended Award (Management and Governance Category) in the 2012 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards.

She is a Fellow of the Psychological Society of Ireland and a Chartered work and organisational psychologist. She served as General Secretary and Executive Committee Member of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (https://eawop.org/) for four years, completing her term in 2025. She is a member of the Board of Delegates (EAWOP representative) of the Alliance for Organizational Psychology (AOP; https://alliancefororganizationalpsychology.com/), and served as Chair and Committee member of the AOP conference subcommittee from 2022-2025.

Deirdre has been an international visitor at the University of Valencia, Spain (2022, 2024, 2025), Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany (2012, 2017, 2018, 2025), Claremont Graduate Unviersity, USA (2025), EM Business School Strasbourg, France (2022), University of Pavia, Italy (2019), Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (2016, 2018),  University of Mannheim, Germany (2017), University of Guelph, Canada (2014, 2015), Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago (2014), and the University of Heidelberg (2013).

Deirdre currently supervises 7 PhD research scholars, and has previously supervised 12 to completion.  She has supervised over 100 taught masters dissertations, and supervises undergraduate final year projects on occasion.  

As a work and organizational psychologist, Deirdre's focus is on the application of psychological principles to various applied settings, including employment, entrepreneurship, sporting organisations and political fora. She has a particular interest promoting the self-management skills of individuals, which can contribute to their performance, well-being and/or optimal functioning. As such, she has published research on:

• Work motivation, self-regulation and proactive and adaptive behaviours;
• Psychological resource based interventions to enhance motivation, well-being and performance behaviours;
• Occupational health psychology, including positive psychology and resilience; Emotions and emotion-regulation, both intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation;
• Silence and voice in the workplace;
• Interpersonal processes and behaviours, including trust, incivility and aggression

Find out more about Deirdre's research:

• Kemmy Business School Meet the Researcher: Deirdre O'Shea
• Deirdre O'Shea's Tedx Talk

Deirdre is involved in various national and international collaborative research projects investigating these topics and has received research funding from Horizon Europe (2024), the Higher Education Authority (2022), Health Research Board (2020-2021), Erasmus+ (2016-2018), the Irish Research Council (2014-2016), Enterprise Ireland (2008, 2009), and European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology (2013), amongst others. She has published her research in outlets such as: the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Work and Stress, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Personality and Individual Differences, and European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, amongst others.

Together with her colleagues, she received the 2017 Best Paper Award in the European Journal of Work and Organisational Psychology, awarded by the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology (EAWOP) and sponsored by the Centre for Creative Leadership.