Research groups - Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour
The research focus within the Group is upon all people working in organizations, from unskilled employees through skilled craft and other workers, to employee representatives, professional staff, managers and leaders. Research within the group falls broadly within three stream of:
- Human Resource Management
- Industrial Relations
- Organisational Analysis
With colleagues working collaboratively across these areas of activity. The group's strength is in the range of theoretical perspectives which they bring to the shared interest in individuals and groups in organisations. Strengths within the group specifically in qualitative research complement and are augmented by the School's broader strengths in quantitative methods.
The School has recently set up a new research centre, the Centre for Managerial Excellence, under the leadership of Professor Ford of the OB/HRM Group. The Centre focuses on cross-disciplinary and business-engaged research and a number of members of the group are active on research projects within the Centre.
Some 15 doctoral students are being supervised by members of the Group. These students are researching in areas across the OB/HRM disciplines.
Human resource management
The main areas of human resource management research are:
- learning and change in organisations
- the psychological contract in small businesses
- the way employment institutions shape labour markets and strategies for human resource management
Professor Jackie Ford and Dr David Spicer are researching learning and change in organisations, particularly organisational learning, change agency and leadership and the relationship between individual and organisational learning.
Professors Jackie Ford and Nancy Harding are researching talent management and its implementation in organizations, and specifically in the NHS.
Dr Carol Atkinson is researching issues concerning the workforce in the care sector.
Dr Robert Wapshott is researching HR issues in SMEs.
Dr Hugh Lee is researching diversity policies and ethics.
Alison Lewis is researching the outsourcing of HR services.
Dr Peter Prowse is researching work design and flexibility in midwifery in the National Health Service.
Industrial relations
The main areas of industrial relations research are:
- forms of collectivism
- community unionism and partnership arrangements
- social inclusion and participation - especially the effects of redundancy on black and minority-ethnic workers and trade unions
Dr Jo McBride and Dr
Robert Perrett are carrying out research in these areas.
Research on the effects of redundancy on black and minority-ethnic workers and
trade unions has resulted in numerous publications, invited presentations and
reports for bodies including the European Centre for the Development of Vocational
Training and the European Commission.
Dr Perrett has advised the
Trades Union Congress and the Unison trade union.
Dr Peter Prowse is researching in public service employee relations policy and their consequences on union recruitment.
Organisational analysis
The main areas of organisational analysis research are:
- critical, post-structuralist research into management in organisations through the stories managers tell and biographical accounts of their lives
- critical analysis of organisations, management and working lives, including the way organisations are constructed through interactions between people, how managers practise managerial identities and how a sense of self is constructed through work
- critical ways in which leadership is conceptualised, researched and practised in organisations
- insights from research into, and conceptual analysis of, the improvement of leadership and management in organisations
- new ways of drawing on philosophy and psychoanalytical theory for theorising about, and researching into, organisations.
Jackie Ford is focusing on critical, post-structuralist research into management in organisations through the stories managers tell and biographical accounts of their lives. Post-structuralist, gender and psychoanalytical theories are informing the research of Jackie Ford and Nancy Harding on the critical analysis of organisations, management and working lives, including the way organisations are constructed through interactions between people, how managers practise managerial identities and how a sense of self is constructed through work.
Professor Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe, Jackie Ford and Dr Spicer are exploring critical ways in which leadership is conceptualised, researched and practised in organisations, while Professor Alimo-Metcalfe, Jackie Ford, are seeking insights from research into, and conceptual analysis of, the improvement of leadership and management in organisations. Jackie Ford and Nancy Harding are examining new ways of drawing on philosophy and psychoanalytical theory for theorising about, and researching into, organisations. Nancy Harding and Hugh Lee are exploring how to develop insights from queer theory so as to conceptualise the sub-texts within organizational relationships.
Dr Sue Richardson researches inter-professional and inter-organizational working and has explored information sharing issues in partnerships that include public sector organizations.
Example Research Projects
- developing critical insights from learning and leadership in organizations (Cornelius, Ford, Harding, Spicer);
- exploring the nature of employment relationships and flexible working practices in small firms (Atkinson, Wapshott);
- researching human resource practices and performance in the care sector (Atkinson);
- exploring inequality and diversity in work organizations (Cornelius, Ford, Lee);
- collaborative research into workplace mentoring in the UK and France (Cornelius);
- employment, representation and social inclusion (McBride, Perrett);
- power and control in the employment relationship (McBride);
- public-private partnerships, the role of a public sector model of employment relations and union recruitment in the UK public sector (Prowse, Smith);
- the development of new ways of drawing on philosophical, social, cultural and psychoanalytical as well as institutional perspectives for theorising about, and researching into, organizations (Cornelius, Ford, Harding, Lee);
- exploration of dynamic capabilities, organizational learning and strategic change within high-technology firms (Spicer with Sarah Dixon);
- the aesthetics of leadership (Ford and Harding);
- talent management and its introduction into the NHS (Ford and Harding);
- working lives in Indonesia (Lee and Harding);
- the changing role of HR in organizations and the impact of HR outsourcing on the HR professional (Lewis);
- exploring the concept of care in employing organizations (Smith);
- adoption of lean working methods to the public sector (Smith);
- evaluating the work redesign for UK Midwives (Prowse);
- the evaluation of the effectiveness of partnership working in health; Inter-organizational information sharing in health and social care services (Richardson).
Collaborations, partnerships and international links
Collaborative partners include Schools within the following Universities: Birmingham, Brunel; De Montfort; Ecole des Mines Paris;, Glasgow Caledonian; Heriot-Watt; Lancaster; Leeds; Manchester; Nottingham; Reading; Salford; Southampton; Strathclyde; Warwick and the University of West of England.
The Group provides editors, guest editors and deputy editors for five peer-reviewed management related Journals (Cornelius, Ford, Harding, Lee, McBride, Prowse). They include invited speakers at academic and practitioner conferences (Alimo-Metcalfe, Ford, Harding, Prowse) and seminars (Cornelius, Ford, Harding).
Members of the group regularly organize conferences and conference streams in the UK and internationally (Cornelius, Ford, Harding, McBride) and participate in the organization of the Academy of Management's annual conference (Critical Management Studies Division - Ford, Harding; Management Education Division - Spicer and Morgan).
The following national committees and bodies have representation from the Group:
- Association of Business Schools Programmes Steering Committee (Morgan);
- British Academy of Management (Lewis);
- British Universities Industrial Relations Association (Atkinson);
- Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (Atkinson, Ford);
- Unison (Perrett).
Research Outcomes and Impact
Research undertaken by the group is transmitted to practitioners through teaching, seminars and executive education, following programmes specifically designed to assist translation of research into practice (notably Ford, Prowse, Spicer and Wapshott and their work with the School's SME Knowledge Network). Research from the group has also been published in high quality academic Journals. Other outputs include a series of research reports and publications and consultancy documents relating to the training needs and employment rights of black and minority ethnic communities (Perrett, McBride), publication in professional journals (Alimo-Metcalfe, Spicer) and practitioner reports on HR outsourcing impacts on the HR function (Lewis).
OB/HRM staff also apply their research expertise within the School by engaging in knowledge transfer activities such as teaching on executive education programmes, supervising DBAs and informing and developing knowledge and skills used in teaching on UG and PG programmes both in Bradford and internationally, for example, on TiasNimbas (Tilburg and Utrecht) and Kozminski (Warsaw) programmes and visiting professorships in for example at Copenhagen Business School.
Grants / sources of funding
Staff Research and Supervision Interests
Professor Nelarine Cornelius holds a number of broad research interests in her areas of expertise, Human Resource Management and Organization Studies. These include equality, diversity and fairness, business ethics (including well being and social justice) and the management and contributions of social organizations including social enterprises. More generally, Professor Cornelius has also undertaken research and supervised PhD projects in the area of commitment, leadership development, cross-sector partnerships, post-colonialism and human resource management, and public sector management in developed and developing economies.
Professor Jackie Ford's research interests are associated with the study of working lives, notably in exploring critical approaches to leadership, gender, management and organization studies. Current research studies include: an exploration of storied accounts of managers' experiences as leaders; analysis of the business case for diversity; and researching talent management from a critical perspective. She is interested in the further development of critical, poststructuralist and psychosocial research methods and approaches that inform a better understanding of the experiences of working and organizational life.
Professor Nancy Harding's expertise lies in qualitative research methods, and her interest is in working lives, approached from a critical management perspective. She researches ways in which the self is constructed at work, the manner by which knowledge develops and circulates, and any intriguing question that can be explored from post-structural and/or gender perspectives.
Dr Carol Atkinson has published widely on a range of topics including high performance work systems, the psychological contract, the small firm employment relationship and working time flexibility. Her most recent research projects explore the care worker occupation in social care in England and flexible working practices for older workers in small and medium sized enterprises.
Dr Hugh Lee's recent and current research interests focus primarily on work in business ethics. In the international perspective, in South East Asia, he is looking at value systems and how concepts such as respect, loyalty and integrity are understood and used by cultures that are often far less individualist and more communitarian based than those in the west. More locally he is currently interested in issues around diversity and fairness within human resource management in the workplace and how legislation aimed to secure and promote these public goods via mechanisms such as tick-box questionnaires may not be appropriate ways to provide reassurance and respect for employees at whom such questionnaires are directed e.g. those who are non-white, non-straight, non-male and so on.
Alison Lewis researches the changing nature of the role of the HR professional in organisations. Her current research assesses the impacts HR outsourcing strategies on the HR function, and the extent to which outsourcing engagement creates an enhanced role for the HR professional. She plans to extend this study to other international contexts and further examine the status of HR transformation and HR centrality to the strategic decision making process.
Dr Jo McBride's research activities focus on Trade Union renewal strategies, workplace collectivism and mobilisation and occupational identity and the symbolic value of work. Jo is currently working on a research project on a comparative analysis of independent worker activist networks focusing on their organising and mobilising through social capital and social networking websites.
Dr Robert Perrett's primary research interests lie within employment, representation and social inclusion. More specific areas of interest: Employment rights and employee relations; Employment rights within migrant and BME communities; Communication through networks and community space; Lifelong learning and the apprenticeship system; The social and economic impacts of redundancy; Health and Safety and absence management; Union renewal, revitalization and community unionism; Employment relations within the airport sector. Recent research focuses on the diversity of new systems of employment relations and the ability to represent new clusters of workers within an increasingly decentralized and fragmented economy.
Dr Peter Prowse's research interests are flexibility at work and he has published widely in books and journals on managing the relationship of outsourcing, particularly in Civil Service Agencies and the Health Sector. He has advised companies on the issues of flexible working and the reduced delivery time to suppliers. He recently worked with Barnsley NHS Foundation Trust on their Partnership Programme. His Current Research Interests include research on Work Design for Midwives in Healthcare, Workplace Flexibility and exploring why people identify and join trade unions. He has recently published on Performance Management and the contribution of Human Resource Management to organizational performance.
Dr Sue Richardson has researched organizational change and new technology; inter-organizational working arrangements; and service delivery in the public sector. She is particularly interested in identity and allegiance in situations of cross-organizational working.
Dr Andrew Smith's research interests are in the sociology of work and employment relations issues. He has conducted research on employment change and public-private partnerships in the civil service. He is currently involved in an ESRC funded project that critically examines the concept of care in and around the workplace. Dr. Smith is also involved with a team of academics investigating the use of 'lean' working methods in the Civil Service, and is currently working on publications and knowledge transfer activities.
Dr David Spicer has broad interests in the study of learning and change in organizations, specifically organizational learning, organizational change, dynamic capabilities for learning and change, change agency and leadership, relationships between individual and organizational learning, and the impact and assessment of cognitive/learning style.
Dr Robert Wapshott has conducted research in the areas of employment practices in small firms and staff attitudes towards organizational change programmes. His future research activities will build on ideas from these existing interests, particularly in service sector organizations. In addition he is developing work around the areas of work-life boundaries and knowledge workers, again with an orientation towards predominantly service sector organizations.