Dr. Tanachia Ashikali is Assistant Professor of Public Management at Leiden University, based at the Institute of Public Administration (Department of Public Management and Organisation), and serves as Co-Director of Education at the Leiden Leadership Centre. Her research examines how leadership can foster just, safe, and representative public organizations. She focuses on the impact of leadership on team dynamics, diversity, inclusivity, and citizens’ trust in public services.

More information about Tanachia Ashikali

Dr. Tanachia Ashikali is Assistant Professor of Public Management at Leiden University, based at the Institute of Public Administration (Department of Public Management and Organisation), and serves as Co-Director of Education at the Leiden Leadership Centre. Her research examines how leadership can foster just, safe, and representative public organisations. She focuses on the impact of leadership on team dynamics, diversity, inclusivity, and citizens’ trust in public services.

Her work is positioned at the intersection of public leadership, representative bureaucracy, and organizational inclusion. Drawing on both mainstream and public management literature, she examines how diversity management and inclusive leadership enhance organizational commitment, psychological safety, and employee engagement.

In addition, she investigates how identity congruence between public professionals and citizens can strengthen trust and public service quality, as well as how algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping inclusion and representation in public decision-making.

Tanachia collaborates closely with public institutions, such as municipalities, ministries, and educational organizations, through applied research, workshops, and advisory roles. She teaches courses on leadership and public management, and supervises bachelor’s and master’s theses on these and related topics.

Research and academic background

Ashikali received her PhD in Public Administration from Leiden University in 2018. Her dissertation examined how leadership and diversity management relate to inclusiveness in public organizations and their effects on employee and team-level outcomes, using quantitative survey data. Her findings underline the importance of inclusive team climates, especially in a society that increasingly expects public institutions to be adaptive, equitable, and responsive.

Grants and Awards

In 2019, Tanachia received a LUF grant to study determinants of inclusive leadership in public organizations. For her article, on diversity management, transformational leadership, inclusiveness, and employees’ affective commitment co-authored with prof. Sandra Groeneveld, she was granted the best article published in 2015 award by the journal Review of Public Personnel Administration.

Publications