Dr Julie Pepper
Programme Director Operations/ Departmental Manager Apprenticeship & Lecturer
Julie's background is in mathematics and psychology. She moved to the Business School in Feb 2022 from Psychology. Julie is Programme Director of the Operations/ Departmental Manager Apprenticeship. Also, she currently convenes professional practice and project modules for the Financial Services Degree Apprenticeship, where she brings psychology research and @lego serious into her teaching.
A common thread through Julie's work is her interest in workplace psychology – women in risky leadership positions, rule breaking, healthy workplaces and the careers that young people aspire to, Julie has published research on these topics. She co-supervises 2 MbyRes students on ethical leadership and learning from experience.
While her current role is as an educational and scholarship lecturer, she has side projects relating to health and wellbeing in the natural environment and communicating science using art – please let her know if you would like to be involved.
Julie has a ATP role in collaboration and innovation where she is carrying out projects on neurodiversity, maths anxiety and mature students. She is a member of the ESE Better Assessment Working Group.
Julie recently completed the Aurora leadership course for women and is currently completing her APP, where her assignments will focus on maths anxiety. She is taking part in the Notion Star coaching programme. She is a member of an informal qualitative research group in psychology and mentors a clinical postdoctoral fellow. As part of her lectureship role, she would love to promote the inclusion of qualitative research and training as part of the teaching content. This would reflect the importance placed on the lived experience of participants. Non-judgemental listening, reflecting to ensure understanding and allowing time for productive silences are key skills gained during qualitative training which have so much applicability to workplace situations.
She did her degree, masters, PhD and a number of fellowships at Exeter. Outside of academia, Julie loves swimming in the sea and spending time with her family.
Julie is a member of the Centre for Social Mobility and is passionate about widening particpation.
PhD in Social and Economic Psychology
MSc in Economic and Consumer Psychology (distinction)
BSc in Mathematics (first class - with Dean's commendations at stages 1 and 2 of assessment)
Centre for Social Mobility
Women & Leadership
Rule Breaking – particularly tax compliance
Healthy workplaces
Career Aspirations
Educational Pedagogy and helping all students achieve.
Julie has a very multi-disciplinary background (a first-class degree in maths, an MSc with distinction in Economic and Consumer psychology, an ESRC funded PhD in Social and Economic Psychology and fellowships in the Business School and the Medical School at Exeter and at the Institute of Education in London. She has a strong track record in quantitative and qualitative research and a broad range of research-related skills, which bring her teaching to life. Julie has 8 first author peer reviewed journal articles, an article in a professional journal and an edited book chapter. She also has 2 co-author publications in peer reviewed journals.
Ashby JS, Schoon I (2012). Living the dream? a qualitative retrospective study exploring the role of adolescent aspirations across the life span. Dev Psychol, 48(6), 1694-1706.
Living the dream? a qualitative retrospective study exploring the role of adolescent aspirations across the life span.
There is a lack of longitudinal research linking adolescent career aspirations to adult outcomes other than career and income attainment. Drawing on Nurmi's (2004) and Salmela-Aro, Aunola, and Nurmi's (2007) life-span model of motivation and using quantitative survey data at ages 16, 23, 33, 42, and 50 years, combined with retrospective interview data at age 50 (collected from 25 members of a British cohort study born in 1958), we aimed to gain a more rounded understanding of the role that adolescent career aspirations play in shaping not only adult career development but also adult identities and well-being. Twenty-two of the 25 participants fulfilled their adolescent career aspirations later in life through achieving (a) the exact career they aspired to or (b) the social status of the career they aspired to. In relation to adult personal identity and well-being, the findings suggest that what matters is not just whether a person aims high at age 16 (i.e. to be a professional or a manager) but also whether the person remembers having strong or meaningful career aspirations. Further themes, gender differences, and implications for policy and future research are discussed.
Abstract. Author URL. DOI.
Ashby JS, Schoon I, Webley P (2011). Save now, save later?: Linkages between saving behavior in adolescence and adulthood. European Psychologist, 16(3), 227-237.
Save now, save later?: Linkages between saving behavior in adolescence and adulthood
Using evidence from an 18-year British follow-up study this paper examines whether saving during adolescence is linked to saving in adulthood. A contextual development model of saving behavior is tested, examining the interplay between socioeconomic family background, parenting style, economic socialization, adult socioeconomic attainments, and saving behavior in adolescence and adulthood. The findings suggest that saving at age 16 is linked to saving at age 34, and that socialization experiences during adolescence, as well as own social status and income, shape the savers that we become. © 2010 Hogrefe Publishing.
Abstract. DOI.
Ashby JS, Haslam SA, Webley P (2009). The distinct role of group-central and group-peripheral norms in taxpaying behaviour. Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(2), 230-237.
The distinct role of group-central and group-peripheral norms in taxpaying behaviour
In recent years, a social identity approach has been used to help understand why people do or do not pay tax [see Taylor, 2003; Wenzel, M. 2002. The impact of outcome orientation and justice concerns on tax compliance: the role of taxpayers' identity. Journal of Applied Psychology 87, 629-645; Wenzel, M. 2004. An analysis of norm processes in tax compliance. Journal of Economic Psychology 25, 213-228; Wenzel, M. 2005. Misperception of social norms about tax compliance: from theory to intervention. Journal of Economic Psychology 26, 862-883; Wenzel, M. 2007. The multiplicity of taxpayer identities and their implications for tax ethics. Law & Policy 29, 31-50]. This research, which has focused almost exclusively on national identity, indicates that the more people identify with a group, the more likely they are to adhere to its tax norms and values. However, conformity to group norms may be more nuanced than this, and depend on (a) the meaning or content of the identity in question [e.g. Turner, J.C. 1999. Some current themes in research on social identity and self-categorization theories. In: Ellemers, N. Spears, R. Doojse, B. (Eds.), Social Identity: Context, Commitment, Content. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 6-34] and (b) whether the norms and values are central or peripheral to the content of that identity. In line with this idea, two studies explored whether the concept and act of taxpaying are more central to what it means to be a member of one's nation than of one's occupational group. Both studies confirm this expectation. Importantly, the findings also suggest that although occupational groups have different norms and values in relation to pre-tax behaviours (e.g. how to deal with extra income), these too can be peripheral to what it means to a group member. If norms are peripheral to identity content, conformity to such norms may be independent of group identification. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Ashby JS, Webley P, Haslam AS (2009). The role of occupational taxpaying cultures in taxpaying behaviour and attitudes. Journal of Economic Psychology, 30(2), 216-227.
The role of occupational taxpaying cultures in taxpaying behaviour and attitudes
Many individuals embark on their careers as tax novices and become acculturated into their occupational sector's taxpaying culture (i.e. its norms and values) over time. This paper uses a social identity framework to investigate whether perceptions of occupational taxpaying culture and related variables influence not only self-reported tax compliance, and tax minimization, but also how taxpayers position themselves in relation to the tax office. A questionnaire study (N = 511) with an Australian sample measured the way in which participants perceived their occupational taxpaying culture. Linear and logistic hierarchal regression analyses revealed that occupational taxpaying culture is important in explaining stances towards the tax office and tax minimization, even when more "traditional" economic tax variables (e.g. deterrence) are included. However, a more refined measure of culture is needed to determine the role that taxpaying culture plays in tax compliance. The analyses also indicate that the relationship between occupational identity and taxpaying culture is complex. Overall, we build a case for an integrated approach that marries traditional variables with social and cultural ones. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Ashby JS, Webley P (2008). 'But everyone else is doing it': a closer look at the occupational taxpaying culture of one business sector. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 18(3), 194-210.
'But everyone else is doing it': a closer look at the occupational taxpaying culture of one business sector
When individuals embark on their careers they not only become acculturated into their occupational sectors' day-to-day norms and practices, but also their taxpaying ones. Although the research on taxpaying cultures is still in its infancy, understanding more about taxpaying cultures could improve our understanding of the processes underlying tax compliance. To this end, this study aimed to build a detailed picture of the taxpaying culture (i.e. the norms and values) of one business sector-the hairdressing/beauty industry. Nineteen small business and self-employed hairdressers/beauticians were interviewed and a variant of Grounded theory was used to uncover the main themes that ran through the interviews as a whole. The main themes that emerged-which appear to characterize this sector's culture-include a reliance on accountants/tax advisors, the notion of an acceptable level of cash-in-hand payments, and the use of different mental accounts for different types of income. Although some of these themes have already arisen in the small business literature they have often been couched in individualistic terms. We build a case that these issues are more cultural than individual-they are tied to occupational group membership as they are socially constructed within occupational groups and are a key component of the group's taxpaying culture. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Julie is an associate member of MARG (https://marg.wp.derby.ac.uk/sample-page/about/)
Julie is passionate about research inspired teaching and providing a supportive learning environment for students.She particularly likes using problem-based learning and @lego serious play in her teaching. Julie is a mental health first aider and is very interested in embedding wellbeing into modules from the outset.
BEF2106DA - Advanced Professional Practice
BEFM030DA - Advanced Professional Practice (level 7)