School of Business and Economics

Professor Peter Ackers (Professor of Industrial Relations and Labour History)
Industrial Relations History & Theory; Worker Participation & Partnership

Dr Maurizio Atzeni (Lecturer in Labour and Industrial Relations)
Work and labour relations: in particular: labour conflict, mobilisation theory, labour process, work organisation in self-managed factories and trade unionism in Argentina

Dr Alistair Cheyne (Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology)
Organisational culture; safety; employee attitudes

Professor Laurie Cohen (Professor of Organisation Studies)
Careers; language and organisation; professional work: gender and organisation

Dr Sara Bosley (Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour)
'The Role of Unlearning in Healthcare Managers’ decision-making.

Professor Kevin Daniels (Professor of Organisational Psychology)
Cognitive performance, problem-solving and job design; stress; well-being and safety at work

Dr Donald Hislop (Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management and HRM/OB Research Group Coordinator)
Knowledge management and mobile tele-working

Dr Stewart Johnstone (Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour)
Labour-management co-operation/workplace partnership; employee participation, change initiatives

Professor Marek Korczynski (Professor of Sociology of Work)
Service work; music at work; social theory

John Loan-Clarke (Senior Lecturer in Organisational Development)
Healthcare; organisational psychology; roles

Alison Smith (Director of Professional Programmes)

Dr Scott Taylor (Reader in Organizational Behaviour)

Dr Cheryl Travers (Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour)
Stress; adaption to work; management of change

George Hespe, Part time University Teacher

Alison Smith (Acting-Director of the Professional and Management Development Centre)

Deborah Walker (Tutor/ Lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety Management)
Risk assessment in small firms; motivating influences on SMEs to manage health and safety; the role of intermediaries in supporting SMEs; strategy issues for small firms' intervention

Dr David Wenham (Director of the Postgraduate Programme in Occupational Health and Safety Management)
Occupational health and safety law; health and safety management in educational establishments; negligence

Claire Evans (Research Associate)

Jane Glover (Researcher)

Amanda Harrington (Research Associate)

Ruth Hartley (Research Associate)
Personality and safety culture

Dr. Esmeranda Manful (Research Associate)

Neil Anderson, University of Amsterdam, Work Psychology Professor

Professor John Arnold, Institute of Work Psychology, The Management School, University of Sheffield

Debashish Bhattacherjee, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, India

Jan De Jonge, Professor of Work Psychology – Einhdhoven University of Technology

Professor Bruce E. Kaufman, Georgia State University (Atlanta).

Professor Mark Savickas, Chair of Behavioural Sciences Department, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, United States

José Manuel Tomás, University of Valencia

Professor Adrian Wilkinson, Director Centre For Work ,Organisation and Wellbeing
and the Department of Employment Relations, Griffith Business School, Australia

Major Research Grants and Projects

Group members regularly achieve funding for research from research councils, government, professional bodies and industry. The web pages for individual staff give more detail about this. Recently funded projects include:

ESRC

• ‘Successful Radical Innovation: From Ideas to Market’ - Seminar Series, Vicky Story, Andy Dainty, Kathryn Walsh, Zoe Zolkiewski, Kevin Daniels
• ‘Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Career and Migration’ – Seminar Series – Laurie Cohen, John Arnold, Maggie O'Neill (Loughborough University Social Sciences Department)
• ‘The Organization and Management of Science in Diverse Contexts’ – Laurie Cohen with Joanne Duberley (University of Birmingham)
• ‘Careers and Family Friendly Policies’ - Seminar Programme – Amal El-Sawad, Laurie Cohen and Peter Ackers
• ‘Contemporary Service Work’ – Seminar Programme – Marek Korczynski
• ‘New Dynamics of Ageing, ‘Working Late’’ – Research Council Programme – Laurie Cohen, John Arnold (plus Human Sciences and ESRI)
• ‘Careers of allied health professionals in and outside the UK National Health Service’ – John Arnold, John Loan-Clarke, Crispin Coombs

EPSRC

• ‘Designing for innovation and safety: How can medical device designers do both?’ - Kevin Daniels, Alistair Cheyne, Donald Hislop, Laurie Cohen, Varuni Wimalasiri, Nick Beesley
• ‘Risk and the Design Engineer’ - Kevin Daniels and Alistair Cheyne

British Academy

• ‘History of Academic Industrial Relations Theory’ - Peter Ackers
• ‘The Careers of Call-Centre Workers in the Indian Office: A UK-based Services Organization’ - Amal El-Sawad and Laurie Cohen
• ‘The Invisible Woman: Women and Abjection at Work’ – Laurie Cohen
• ‘The Social Origins of Broadcast Music in British Factories’ – Marek Korczynski

Arts and Humanities Research Council

• ‘Music at Work: The Missing History’ - Marek Korczynski with Michael Pickering (Loughborough University, Social Sciences Department)
• ‘Music at Work’ – Research Dissemination Grant – Marek Korczynski and Michael Pickering

Department of Health

• ‘Why Qualified Allied Health Professionals Stay In, Leave, or Return to the NHS’ - John Arnold, John Loan-Clarke and Crispin Coombs

Health and Safety Executive

• ‘Trojan Horse Construction Site Safety Messages; Phase II; Behavioural Observation.’ - Alistair Cheyne
• ‘Health and Safety Performance Management Index’ - Alistair Cheyne and Deborah Walker
• ‘Human Factors Involved in Workplace Transport Accidents’ - Ruth Hartley, Alistair Cheyne

 
National Union of Teachers

• ‘Teacher Ethnicity and Stress’ - Cheryl Travers

 
East Midlands Development Agency

• ‘Daily Learning in SMEs’ - Kevin Daniels with Grahame Boocock and Julie Holland

Leverhulme Trust

• Peter Ackers secured a Leverhulme Study Abroad Fellowship at IIM, Calcutta for 5 months during 2005/6

Research Collaboration

Group members have collaborative links with other leading researchers throughout the UK and overseas. The following information illustrates some international collaborations:

• Peter Ackers has undertaken work with the Indian Institute of Management
• Marek Korczynski has worked with Randy Hodson, editor of the American Sociological Review and professor at Ohio State University, USA, in jointly editing Social Theory at Work (along with Paul Edwards) for Oxford University Press. He has also worked with Cameron MacDonald from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, USA, in editing Service Work: Critical Perspectives for Routledge. Both books feature the work of leading international scholars, such as George Ritzer (Maryland University, USA), Robin Leidner (University of Pennsylvania, USA), and Dorothy Sue Cobble (Rutgers University, USA)
• International careers research occurs with colleagues in Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Switzerland (John Arnold) and New Zealand (Laurie Cohen); Healthcare projects also include New Zealand (John Loan-Clarke)
• Alistair Cheyne conducts safety climate research with University of Valencia collaborators

Policy Impact

Much of the research undertaken by group members has tangible policy, as well as academic impact. For example:

• Quality of Working Life - work by Alistair Cheyne on safety climate (HSE); Kevin Daniels on stress (HSE) and Cheryl Travers on teacher stress (NUT)
• Healthcare Professionals Recruitment and Retention – John Arnold and John Loan-Clarke and the Dept of Health
• Employee Voice – Peter Ackers and Adrian Wilkinson (CIPD)
• Professor Kevin Daniels acts as a Special Scientific Advisor for the UK government’s Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton, Derbyshire.

Publications

• Work and Occupations
• Journal of Organizational Behaviour
• Human Relations
• Journal of Management Studies
• Organization Studies
• Work Employment and Society
• British Journal of Industrial Relations
• International Journal of Human Resource Management
• Organization
• Human Relations
• British Journal of Management
• Work and Stress
• Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology
• Journal of Vocational Behavior
• International Journal of Management Reviews

Books

Members have also written or edited a number of books, the most recent of which are:

Ackers, P. and Wilkinson, A., (eds), (2003) Understanding Work and Employment: Industrial Relations in Transition, Oxford University Press

Daniels, K., Harris, C. and Briner, R., (2002) Understanding the Risks of Stress: A Cognitive Approach, HSE Books

Hislop, D., (2005) Knowledge Management in Organizations: A Critical Introduction, Oxford University Press

Hislop, D., (2008) Mobility and Technology in the Workplace, Routledge

Korczynski, M., Hodson, R., and Edwards P., (eds.) (2006) Social Theory at Work, Oxford University Press

Korczynski, M. and Macdonald, C. (eds) (2009) Service Work: Critical Perspectives, Routledge

Schabracq, M., Cooper, C., Travers, C., and van Maanen, D., (2001) Occupational Health Psychology: The Challenge of Workplace Stress, BPS Books

Tietze, S., Cohen, L., and Musson, G., (2003) Understanding Organisations Through Language, Sage

Employment Relations Conference

15-16 September 2011

In the face of current UK austerity cuts, redundancies and public sector strikes, Dr Stewart Johnstone and Professor Peter Ackers have organised a conference on the changing face of employer-employee relations and how employees are involved in decisions affecting their employment.

Tell me more about the conference >>

List of confirmed speakers >>

Workers and Researchers Forum on Self-Management and Alternative Forms of Work Organisations (Hosted by Maurizio Atzeni, Loughborough University Business School, October 2009) In October 2009, Dr Maurizio Atzeni hosted a unique forum on workers’ self-management. Held at the Business School, it was attended by labourers and academics from South America, Europe and the UK. Tell me more about the forum

International Activities

Peter Ackers has been a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta and regularly collaborates with IIM colleague Debashish Bhattacharjee, with whom he is currently guest editing an issue of Industrial Relations Journal

Maurizio Atzeni is a visiting professor at the University of Cagliari, Italy working on the organization of an international summer school in Comparative Labour Studies. He also has long term working relations with colleagues at the Centre for Socio-Historical Studies, University of La Plata, Argentina. He is also coordinator of the research network on labour and social mobilization, LABOURAGAIN, which is hosted at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam

Alistair Cheyne is currently a Visiting Fellow at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, where he is presenting seminars to colleagues in the schools of Management and Psychology, and establishing collaborative contacts. He is a regular visitor to the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Valencia and has enjoyed many years of collaboration and publication with Amapro Oliver and Jose Tomás.  The collaboration on this research theme is being expanded to include Nick Turner (University of Manitoba). He has been awarded funds from the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology to organise a Small Group Meeting in Santiago de Compostela, involving colleagues from across Europe, including Orenburg State University (Russian Federation), Göteborg University (Sweden) and ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute (Portugal)

Laurie Cohen and John Arnold are working together with academics from North America and mainland Europe in the course of their ESRC seminar series on careers and migration. Participants include, among others, Professor Mark Savickas, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA. Editor of Journal of Vocational Behaviour; Prof Richard Young, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Prof Ladislav Valach, Division of Psychopathology, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Prof Donna Schultheiss, Department of Counseling, Administration and Adult Learning, Cleveland State University, USA

Professors Laurie Cohen and Peter Ackers are setting up a new project on HRM in the hotel sector in India, working with Anapurna Shaw and Debashsish Bhattacharjee at Indian Institute of Management.

Conferences

Organising Roles:

Peter Ackers co-chaired the 'History and Theory' stream at June 2008 Industrial Relations in the European Community (IREC) conference in Greenwich and has just become co-chair of the International Industrial Relations Association (IRRA) 'Theory Study Group' with Professor John Kelly, Birkbeck and Professor Bruce Kaufman, Goergia State. He will be jointly organising the meeting of the 'Theory Study Group' at the 2009 IRRA Conference in Sydney, Australia

Maurizio Atzeni was the lead organiser of 'Alternative Work Organizations', an International Labour Process Conference at Rutgers University, New Jersey on 15th -17th March 2010

Maurizio Atzeni organised a panel on 'Alternative Labor organisations: Workers Councils and Rank and File Control' at the Left Forum at Pace University, New York on 19th-21st March 2010

Donald Hislop was a co-convenor of a conference stream on mobile technology use in work at the 2008 European Group for Organization Studies conference in Amsterdam

Invited Speaking Roles at Conferences:

John Arnold & Laurie Cohen gave an invited state of the art address on career success at EAWOP (European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology), in May 2009

Marek Korczynski is giving a keynote presentation at 2009 American Sociological Association in San Francisco

Journal Editorships

Peter Ackers was previously joint editor of Labour History Review and is currently an editorial member of Work, Employment and Society

Laurie Cohen is an editorial board member of Management Learning and Human Relations she has also guest-edited special issues of International Studies of Management and Organisation

Kevin Daniels is Associate editor of Human Relations, editorial board member: British Journal of Management, Journal of Management, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

Donald Hislop is on the Editorial Advisory Board of New Technology, Work and Employment

Marek Korczynski has guest-edited special issues of Human Resource Management Journal, Gender, Work and Organization, Journal of Consumer Culture, and Group, Organization and Management

Cheryl Travers is on the editorial board of Women in Management Review

Awards

 

Current PhD Students

Mona Abelhady (full time)
Acculturation in MNCs as informal control

David Achtzhen
Interpretive Perspectives On Entrepreneurship In Diverse National/Cultural Contexts

Athfah Akhtar (full time)
Workplace factors in recovery from depression

Peter Beszter (full time)
Changing Employment relationship of public sector workers in the UK

Ken Brown (part time)
Technology and care work

Zahra Bouzalim (part time)
Emotional Labour and the Experiences Of Migrant Women

Ekaterina Chertkovskaya
Job search strategies of male and female university students

Andy Cope (part time)
Positivity and success in organisations

Fernando Duran-Palma (part time)
Union revitalisation in Chile

Uzoukwu Ejekwumadu (part time)
Employment Trend & Challenges of Work-Life Balance in the Nigerian Banking Industry.

Dulini Fernando (full time)
Professional women’s careers in Sri Lanka

Martin Gubler (part-time)
The careers of IT professionals in Europe

Amanda Harrington (part time)
360 feedback: examining diverse perspectives

Ruth Hartley (part time)
Safety Culture in the Construction Industry

Jonathan Hoskin
Research topic: Industrial Relations and Partnership at a Nuclear Site - A Longitudinal Case Study

Carolyn Hunter (full time)
Gender and Humour in Organizational Culture

Joyce Jiang
Unionization of Migrant Workers in the UK: Social identity and Union Membership

David McConville (full time)
The psychological impact of employee share ownership schemes

Bill McCormick (part time)
Stress and the transition from FE to HE provision in tertiary colleges

Debbie Naudi (full time)
The nature and roles of goal orientations in task performance

Teresa Roca (full time)
Teacher experiences in failing schools

James Rumbold
Stress in Elite Athletes (jointly with David Fletcher in Sports, Exercise and Health Sciences)

S. Sabeeh (full time)
Issues of power/knowledge in the implementation of IT systems – empirical focus on Banking sector in Pakistan

Bradley Saunders (full time)
Why do highly skilled migrants to the UK work in jobs which are not commensurate with their qualifications and experience?

Clive Trusson (full time)
Knowledge Management within the context of IT service management

John Withers (full time)
Development of a measure of team innovation flow

Xiaozheng Zhang (full time)
The effect of cultural interaction on the academic staff and organizational management of higher education

Recent PhD Graduates

Nick Beesley (2008), Risk and the Design Engineer

Raysen Cheung (2008), Career exploration of Chinese university students in Hong Kong

Mike Clark (2008), Growth and generativity among men in middle and later career

Mick Fryer, Ethics and leadership

Jane Glover, Why do Dairy Farmers Continue to Farm?

Kay Harness (graduated with MPhil) Evaluating an Enhanced Model of careers guidance

Lia Loukidou (2008), Boredom at Work

Ofelia Palermo, Impacts of the introduction of new control mechanisms in a regional probation service

Thinking of doing an MRes or PhD?

Doctoral students join a lively and supportive community of research students, becoming an integral part of the School’s research culture. We welcome approaches from suitably qualified graduates, particularly those with a relevant Masters degree and sufficient funding, who may wish to undertake research projects in the specialist areas of the group, leading to a PhD. As a research student, you will be encouraged to attend conferences to present your work and develop joint publications with your supervisors.

The Group has great supervisory experience and is keen to supervise high quality research students in members’ specialist research fields. Recognition of the quality of supervision offered by Group members has resulted in funding for doctoral students from organisations and the ESRC for post-doctoral work. For students interested in further information on potential PhD projects and supervisors, please look carefully through our webpages.

For an online application form click here
and for full details of the Business School PhD programme click here

For those interested finding out about our MRes in Business and Management, which is a 12-month full-time programme, please click here.