• EH14 4AS

    United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Disability in the workplace (including neurodiversity); in-work poverty; sustainable HRM; trade union organising; leaveism

20022025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Research interests

Overview

I am a member of the HRM team within the Management group of the Edinburgh Business School, at Heriot-Watt University, as well as Deputy Director of the Centre for the Transformation of Work (CTW).

I am a long-term Academic Member of the CIPD, a Fellow of the HE Academy, and member of BAM, BSA and BUIRA.

I am the Co-Director of Engagement within the School of Social Sciences and REF2029 Impact Case Study Champion for the Edinburgh Business School - key aspects of these roles include building a culture of engagement across the School, and preparing the School for the impact element of REF2029.

My teaching role involves co-ordination of courses on Employment Relations (hons level), and Sustainable Human Resource Management (PGT MSc).

Research, enagagement and impact

I am CI (2023-2026) on the EDI Caucus (EDICa) grant (£4.2m), acting as Principal Investigator on Work Stream 3, the Organisation of Work.

Within EDICa, I am PI on a project published recently (1/2025) aimed at EDI-related changes to doctoral training grants.

I am an Engagement-Champion (Neurodiversity) for the EPRC EDI Hub+ based at the University of Leeds (1/2025 - 12/2028).

I am working on an impact case study for REF2029 entitled, for now, as: Trade union organising responses to the balloting thresholds of the Trade Union Act 2016. Underpinning research includes a paper published in Personnel Review, with a second paper currently under review with Employee Relations journal.

 Recent research

PI on a project (2022-2023, in partnership with Into Work and funded via Inspiring Scotland), a project looking to take the lived experience of autism and employment, plus the lived experience of managing autistic employees, to extend Scotland's Fair Work Framework to include the autistic workforce - see published summary report here.

CI (2018-2022) on a highly successful EPSRC Inclusion Matters funded Disability Inclusive Science Careers (DISC) project (£494k), a project leading to evidence-based training for managers of disabled STEM-based staff (contact me if you want to know more about such training).

Recent publications

Key recent publications involve a systematic review of the lived experience of autistic employees (Autism in Adulthood),  meaning of work in Sri Lanka (Journal of Critical Realism), leaveism (HRMJ), sustainable HRM (Employee Relations), managing leaky bodies in the workplace (Sociology of Health and Illness),  job quality and gig work (International Journal of HRM), trade union organising (Personnel Review), and socially irresponsible HRM (International Journal of HRM).

Doctorial supervision

I currently supervise twelve PhD/DBA students on the following topics: marketing of disability services to employees and employers, chronic ill-health and academic careers, history and emergence of HRM, hybrid working in call centres, disability in professional working, autism and employment (3 students), industrial relations and corporate bias, coaching women leaders in Pakistan, and trade union organising in Nigeria.

I have supervised 10 PhD students to completion on the following topics: socially irresponsible HRM in the betting shop industry, job quality and gig work, LGBTQ+ and academic work, work values in the third-sector, intersectionality and experiences of work for women Polish migrants, bi-polar disorder and the workplace, lived experiences of Nigerian line managers under strategic HRM, meaning of work in Sri Lanka, the labour process in the music industry, and, human resource management in the Chinese oil industry.

External roles

I am a postgraduate (MSc) external examiner at Cardiff University (2023-). I also hold external roles with Scottish Government - Labour Market Evidence Network (2023-) and an advisory board member on the Disability Inclusive Remote and Hybrid Working project, hosted at Lancaster University.

I was a member of the Editorial Board for Work, Employment and Society (2019-2023). I have also examined PhD students at the University of Salford, Nottingham Trent University, Cranfield University, and University of Strathclyde. I have previously held external examiner roles at University of Stirling, Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Bradford.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

External positions

MetaHub Advisory Board

24 May 202523 May 2029

British Sociological Association - Mentor programme

15 Jan 2025 → …

ESRC Peer Review College

9 Apr 2024 → …

Cardiff University

13 Oct 202331 Oct 2027

Scottish Government - Labour Market Evidence Network

1 Sept 202331 Mar 2024

Lancaster University

15 Feb 20231 Jan 2025

University of Stirling

1 Oct 202030 Nov 2024

Work, Employment and Society

25 Jan 201924 Jan 2023

Edinburgh Napier University

1 May 201631 Aug 2020

University of Bradford

1 Jun 20141 May 2016

Keywords

  • HM Sociology
  • H Social Sciences (General)

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