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Centre for Work, Organisation and Society

Postgraduate Research

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Accomplish your PhD studies with us

We take pride in our University's status as a world-leading university, committed to the advancement of knowledge, research and society. Our PGR students embark on their postgraduate research journey alongside academics, who are leading experts in the field of cutting-edge work and organisation studies research.

Our international leading research environment is recognised around the world, and being part of the Centre for Work, Organisations and Society (CWOS), our PGR provision is dedicated to supporting and guiding our PhD students throughout their academic journey.

To foster a stimulating and enriching academic environment, CWOS organises exciting events from regular weekly seminars featuring expert speakers, workshops and an Annual Conference dedicated to our PGRs.

Such events enable PGRs to establish networks with the academic community, scholarly networks as well as practitioners in their field and develop links that are connected with groundbreaking research in the field of OSHRM.

Our wide range of expert researchers pose imaginative and bold questions, challenging received wisdom and extending the frontiers of knowledge in critical work and organisations studies.

We offer a wide range of expertise as well as routes to PhD study, for example as a standard PhD , typically 3 years full time, or we offer part time study for those who are in work or wish to study over a longer period. We also offer the option of joining our four-year integrated PhD course that suits those who want to integrate research and language skills within their study.

Current projects

Our current research study projects are outlined below:

  • Involved fathers: An exploration of work-family balance dynamics.
  • Exploring Humanitarian Supply Chain Network Design in Response to Refugees’ Services Needs
  • A Paradox Perspective on Corporate Sustainability and Green HRM: A Comparative, Cross-Industry, Case Study in Malaysia
  • The Effects of Covid-19 on the gender pay gap in the UK Theatre Industry
  • A Feminist Account of High-Risk Leisure Consumption
  • Disability Inclusion at the workplace:An assessment of the role of Human Resource (HR) Practices in the Pakistani Context
  • Models for end-user culture and mind-set changes for digital health transformation in the public hospitals in Saudi Arabia’
  • Between discontent and contentedness: Resistance in contemporary low-skilled migrant labour
  • Discrimination and sexual harassment in the legal profession
  • Smart Learning: Critical engagement of e-learning stakeholders

Our expertise

The Centre for Work, Organisation and Society is home to academic experts and dedicated professionals at the forefront of cross-disciplinary research on work, society, and organisational life in a range of study contexts and geographical areas.


Our Research Supervisors

Sociology of work and Critical Organization studies; Leadership and organisational change; Gender, Sexuality and Organisations; Creativity and Innovation; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace; Wellbeing and Autonomy at work; Performance management; Social Justice and globally sustainable work; Alternative Organizations.

Through our breadth of topics, and with methodological expertise ranging from creative, qualitative, mixed and participatory methods, we pride ourselves in our exemplary research supervision experience, offering a supportive and intellectually stimulating environment for our PhD students, equipping them with theoretical, methodological and empirical tools and knowledge for cutting edging research that will advance knowledge, learning and society.

Past Postgraduate Research Projects

Our expertise over the years have enables students to research a broad range of topics.

Our past projects include:

  • Leadership and Inter-subjective Ethics
  • Leadership, Collaboration & Wellbeing
  • Gender dynamics in processes of delegation in small entrepreneurial ventures
  • Transgender and gender non-conforming inclusion
  • Neoliberal and postfeminist discourses in a bank and a network marketing organisation
  • Gender in accounting and finance
  • Workplace Wellness and the ‘Fit’ Body
  • A Textual Analysis of The Ordination of Women Priests
  • Managing Fun in the Creative Industries
  • A Socio-material Analysis of ICT in Social Work
  • Retirement as Transition
  • The Significance of Organizational Things
  • Time, Gender and Migration: Exilic Perspectives
  • Sliding Down the Pole: Sexuality and Ageing in the UK Lap Dancing Industry
  • Members Only: Place and Performativity in the City of London
  • Digital Organisational Storytellers: Online Marketing as Identity Work
  • Leadership, Leaderlessness and Leaderless Groups: The Case of the Occupy Movement
  • Treading the (Corporate) Board: A Critical Analysis of Diversity Discourse
  • A Feminist Account of High-Risk Leisure Consumption
  • The Art of Herstory Keeping: The Feminist Library’s Archiving and Organisational Practices
  • Civil Society Organisations and Food Poverty in the UK: A Case Study of the London Borough of Islington
  • Professional identity in investment banking in the context of the 2008 financial crisis. 
  • The inescapable space : a study on the production of spaces in Chinese government organisation
  • Policing and Performing Gay Sexualities
  • Death, Dying and ‘Difficult’ Marketing: An Ethnographic Study of Marketing At an English Hospice
  • The Festival of Nowruz and Consumer Identity Politics: An Ethnographic Case Study of Persian Consumers in the UK
  • A Bourdieusian Analysis of Intersectionality In Ontario’s Community College System
  • Changing Gender Relations in Small Businesses: Experiences of Women Entrepreneurs of Pakistani Origin in Greater Manchester
  • Gender inequalities in education: a case study of the girls’ stipend programme in Punjab, Pakistan
Get in touch
Dr Louise Nash Director for Postgraduate Research
Dr Shoba Arun Associate Director of PGR (OSHRM)
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