James Richards

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

I am currently a Co-Investigator on the EPSRC funded Disability Inclusive Science Careers (DISC) project.

I am also involved in current research projects looking at Leaveism (nothing to do with Brexit!) and the Trade Union Act 2016.

I have recently completed a research project on in-work poverty leading to publications in in-work poverty and disability and in-work poverty and human resource management philosophy and practice.

I have also recently completed a research project with the TSSA trade union, aimed at providing training recommendations for line managing neurodiverse employees in the UK transport and travel industry.

Publication to come from the TSSA project include articles on trade unions as facilitators for disabled employees, and, masculinities and disability.

Previous research has looked at employee use of the Internet/social media. For example, I have had research published on how Generation Y employees regulate their social media settings to avoid employer surveillance, how Facebook can be used to help employees cope with anti-trade union employers, cynicism expressed via social media can give employees a sense of empowerment.

As of April 2019 I have two publications under review on sustainable HRM, and the role of emotional labour in line managing neurodiversity.

I currently supervise six PhD students on the following topics: quality of working life and the gig economy, marketing of disability services to employees and employers, socially irresponsible HRM in the betting shop industry, work experiences of LBGTQ academics, disability and academic careers, and, history and emergence of HRM.

I have supervised PhD students to completion on the following topics: 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.

At present I would be interested in supervising PhD students in the area of in-work poverty, trade union organising, social media and employee resistance/misbehaviour, and disability issues in the workplace.

I am a reviewier for the following journals:

Culture and Organization

Cyberpsychology

Economic and Industrial Democracy

Employee Relations

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Human Relations

International Human Resource Management Journal

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management

International Perspective of Equality and Diversity

Journal of Human Resources Costing and Accounting

Journal of Management and Orgaization

Journal of Managerial Psychology

Journal of Marketing Management

Journal of Organisational Ethnography

International Journal of Retail Distribution Management

New Technology, Work and Employment

Personnel Review

Work, Employment and Society (member of Editorial Board, 2019-2021)

I am a member of Court and Senate at Heriot-Watt University, including being a member of the Campus Committee and Remuneration Committee.

I also hold the following roles at Heriot-Watt University: Chair of the University Research Ethics Committee, Chair of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee, and member of University Committee for Research and Innovation and Combined Joint Negotiation and Consultation committees.

I am Vice-President of the HWUCU and been awarded prizes for organising from UCU Scotland and the STUC.