Margaret Hayward was a Private Secretary in Norman Kirk's office for seven years and following his death wrote Diary of the Kirk Years. Her PhD thesis was Political Leadership in a time of change, 1984-2000, a study of the leadership of five New Zealand’s prime ministers, from Lange to Shipley. In 2018 with Paul Brooker she co-authored Rational Leadership: Developing Iconic Corporations, published by Oxford University Press.