Research highlights

Our members regularly review for academic publishers, edit collections and book series, and publish research monographs including:

• Academy of Management Review
• British Journal of Management
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Gender in Management
• Gender, Work and Organisation
• Human Relations Journal of Labour and Society Management
• Learning Organisation
• Organisation Studies
• Work, Employment and Society
• Work in the Global Economy

The focus of CWOS research in this area is the key processes that are critical to developing collective creativity, underlining the types of organisational mechanisms that can be intentionally designed to foster collective creativity. Current projects are being undertaken with different collaborative research initiatives, developed thanks to partnerships with various organisations, particularly in the Italian fashion and industrial design industries. Another set of studies is on practices of collaborative innovation, focusing in particular on University-based intermediaries as key actors that can promote innovation-related collaborations and collaborative spaces.

• Cirella S. (2016) ‘Organisational variables for developing collective creativity in business: A Case from an Italian fashion design company’, Creativity and Innovation Management. 25(3): 331-343.
• Cirella S., Radaelli G. and Shani A.B. (2014) ‘Team creativity: A complex adaptive perspective’, Management Research Review. 37(7): 590-614.
• Cirella S. and Yström A. (2018) ‘Creativity and science parks: More than just a physical platform?’, CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation. 2(1): 8-13.
• Flocco N., Canterino F., Cirella S., Coget J.F. and Shani A.B.R. (2018) ‘Exploring integrative creative leadership in the filmmaking industry’, in C. Mainemelis, O. Epitropaki and R. Kark (eds) Creative Leadership: Contexts and Prospects. London: Routledge, pp. 244-258.
• Hoedemaekers, C. (2018) ‘Creative work and affect: Social, political and fantasmatic dynamics in the labour of musicians’, Human Relations. 71(10): 1348-1370
• Radaelli, G., Guerci, M., Cirella, S. and Shani, A.B. (2014) ‘Intervention research as management research in practice: Learning from a case in the fashion design industry’, British Journal of Management. 25(2): 335–351

Research in this area includes the critical analysis of particular workplace cultures and settings, and of emotional, aesthetic and sexualized forms of interactive service work, using visual methods of data collection, analysis and critical discourse analysis. Current research also includes studies of organisational space, place and setting, incorporating immersive and embodied methods including rhythmanalysis. Current doctoral research on emotional labour includes a study of higher education institutions and organisational change.

• Hoedemaekers, C., (2019) ‘The fantasy of control: Behaviourist transgressions of neoliberal subjectivity’, Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. 24(3): 303-322.

• Nash, L., (2020) ‘Performing place: A rhythmanalysis of the city of London’, Organisation Studies. 41(3): 301-321.

• Tyler, M. (2020) Soho at Work: Pleasure and Place in Contemporary London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Freeman, T., Kunter, A., Douglas, C. and Roper, I., (2015) ‘Ethics and spirituality in the workplace’, Human Resource Management International Digest. 23(5): 43-44.

• Fu, H., Su, Y. and Ni, A., (2018) ‘Selling motherhood: Gendered emotional labour, citizenly discounting, and alienation among China’s migrant domestic workers’, Gender and Society. 32(6): 814-836.

• Hancock, P. (2019) ‘Organisational magic and the making of Christmas: On glamour, grottos and enchantment’. Organisation. On-Line First DOI: 

Our CWOS researchers are working on several projects focusing on gender and work, including embodied experiences and perceptions of ageing and sexuality in the workplace, LGBT people’s experiences of work, the future of work in relation to gender, and reproductive labour in the Global South.

Current doctoral research on gender and work includes an ethnographic study of aerial dance and the gendered nature of ‘edgework’, and working practices at the Feminist Library, London. Collaborations include the United Nations Global Compact Target Gender Equality, Johnson & Johnson, the United Nations Systems Staff College, the International Labour Organisation, and the European Parliament. Research also includes collaborations around auto-ethnographic accounts of race, gender and marginalized communities.

• Hancock, P., Sullivan, K. and Tyler, M. (2017) ‘A touch too much: Negotiating masculinity, propriety and proximity in intimate labour’, Organisation Studies. 36(12): 1715-1739. 
• Tyler, M. (2019) Judith Butler and Organisation Theory. London/New York: Routledge. 
• Adamson, M. and Kelan, E. K. (2019) “Female Heroes’: Celebrity executives as postfeminist role models’, British Journal of Management. 30(4): 981-996. 
• Duffy, K., Hancock, P. and Tyler, M. (2017) ‘Still red hot? Postfeminism and gender subjectivity in the airline industry’, Gender, Work and Organisation. 24(3): 260-273. 
• Hales, S., Riach, K. and Tyler, M. (2019) ‘Close encounters: Intimate service interactions in lap dancing work as a nexus of ‘self-others-things’. Organisation Studies. 
•  Hales, S., Riach, K. and Tyler, M. (2019) ‘Putting sexualized labour in the picture: Encoding ‘reasonable entitlement’ in the lap dancing industry. Organisation. 26(6): 783-
• Hancock, P. (2016) ‘Recognition and the moral taint of sexuality: Threat, masculinity and Santa Claus’. Human Relations. 69(2): 461 – 481.

CWOS research in this area includes projects with Provide, a Community Interest Company (CIC), and Essex County Council. Other current projects involve an evaluation of mobile technologies with Essex and Kent police, a project with ACAS on the management of mental health at work, and action-learning research on mental health in the workplace, conducted in collaboration with a range of Essex based public, private and voluntary sector organisations. Other collaborations include: Equity, EY (Ernst & Young), and the Department for Work and Pensions.

• Hendy, J., and Tucker, D.A. (2020) ‘Public sector organisational failure: A study of collective denial in the UK National Health Service’, Journal of Business Ethics. (online early)
• Nash, L. (2018) ‘Gendered places: Place, performativity and flânerie in the City of London’, Gender, Work & Organisation, 25(6): 601-620. 
• Tucker, D. and Hendy, J. (2020) ‘How does policy alienation develop? Exploring street-level bureaucrats’ responses to policy context’, Academy of Management Proceedings. Vol 2020 (1)
• Hudson, M., (2016). The Management of Mental Health at Work. London: ACAS.
• Upchurch, P., Kunter, A. and Moore, P. (2015) ‘Marketisation, commodification and the implications for teachers’ autonomy in England: Sraffa and Althusser Reconsidered’, Research in Political Economy. Volume 29.

Research in this area includes international projects adopting a multilevel approach to studies of job insecurity, taking into account factors related to economic conditions, social policies and labour market features. The goal of this multidisciplinary research is to gain a comprehensive picture of job insecurity in order to identify resourceful contexts and common strategies for dealing with it.

• De Cuyper, N., Piccoli, B., Fontinha, R., and De Witte, H. (2019) ‘Job insecurity, employability and satisfaction among temporary and permanent employees in post-crisis Europe’, Economic and Industrial Democracy. 40(2): 173-192.
• Fu, H. (2016) ‘From ‘entering into a firm’ to ‘entering into a profession’: An anthropological approach to changing personhood in Japan’, British Journal of Industrial Relations. 54(3): 552-573.
• Hoedemaekers, C., (forthcoming) “Selling themselves”: Conceptualising key features of freelance work experience’, Culture and Organisation (online early).
• Milroy, T., Cutcher, L. and Tyler, M. (2019) ‘Stopped in our tracks: From ‘giving an account’ to an ethics of recognition in feminist praxis’, Gender, Work and Organisation. 26(4): 393-410. 
• Piccoli, B., Callea, A., Urbini, F., Ingusci, E., Chirumbolo, A., and De Witte, H. (2017) ‘Job insecurity and performance: The mediating role of organisational identification’, Personnel Review. 46(8): 1508-1522. 

Research projects in this area have sought to understand and evaluate the interrelated dynamics of organisational change, transformation and leadership in organisations. Examples of current work include projects on the evaluation of mobile technologies with Essex and Kent police; health and social care system transformations (including the aforementioned Provide CIC, and Anglian Community Enterprise); a range of longitudinal ethnographic case studies examining the lived experience of employees as recipients and agents of change, and a set of studies focusing on organisational learning and transformational leadership dynamics.

• Roper, I. and Higgins, P. (2020) ‘Hidden in plain sight? The human resource management practitioner’s role in dealing with workplace conflict as a source of organisational-professional power’, Human Resource Management Journal. 30(4): 508-524. 
• Canterino F., Cirella S., Piccoli B., Shani A.B. (2020) ‘Leadership and change mobilization: The mediating role of distributed leadership’, Journal of Business Research. 108: 42-51.
• Fu, H. (2020) ‘Social action as “a total social phenomenon”: Comparing leadership challenges facing community-based labour organisations in China and Japan’. Human Relations. On-Line First
• Hancock, P. and Tucker, D.A. (2020) ‘Recognition and change: Embracing a mobile policing initiative’. Journal of Organisational Change Management. (online early).
• Kelan, E.K. and Wratil, P. (2018) ‘Post-heroic Leadership, Tempered Radicalism and Senior Leaders as Change Agents for Gender Equality’, European Management Review, 15(1) 5-18 
• Roper, I., Etherington, D. and Lewis, S. (2017) ‘Hollowing out national agreements in the NHS? The case of “Improving Working Lives” under a “Turnaround” plan’, Employee Relations. 39(2): 145-159 

Critical research on sustainability, ethics and CSR is currently being undertaken in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation’s Decent Work Agenda and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals with specific reference to evaluation projects focusing on the Global South. Other research focuses on the role of multi-stakeholder networks addressing climate change, deforestation and the global food trade, and on global governance efforts in the areas of labour rights and sustainability. Community work undertaken alongside local authorities, libraries and resource hubs focuses on wellbeing and the impact of resource allocations on specific social groups and communities.

In parallel with this stream of research, an on-going project on vocational education schemes and inclusion through work addresses the challenges associated with country specific government-sponsored vocational education schemes such as apprenticeships.  This line of research investigates potentially competing goals, namely, reducing skills gaps, improving workforce productivity, and enabling the inclusion of marginalized groups and socially disadvantaged individuals in the labour market.   

• Guerci M., Siletti E., Radaelli G., Cirella S. and Shani A.B. (2015) ‘The impact of human resource management practices and corporate sustainability on organisational ethical climates: An employee perspective’, Journal of Business Ethics. 126(2): 325-342.
• Tyler, M. (2019) ‘Reassembling difference? Rethinking inclusion through/as embodied ethics’, Human Relations. 72(1): 48-68.
• Ehnert, I., Parsa, S., Roper, I., Wagner, M. and Muller-Camen, M. (2016) ‘Reporting on sustainability and HRM: A comparative study of sustainability reporting practices by the world's largest companies’, International Journal of Human Resource Management. 27(1): 88-108.
• Moog, S. Spicer, A. and Böhm, S. (2015) ‘The politics of multi-stakeholder initiatives: The crisis of the Forest Stewardship Council’, Journal of Business Ethics. 128: 469-493. 
• Parsa, S., Roper, I., Muller-Camen, M. and Szigetvari, E. (2018) ‘Have labour practices and human rights disclosures enhanced corporate accountability? The case of the GRI framework’, Accounting Forum. 42(1): 47-64. 
• Tyler, M. and Vachhani, S. (2020) ‘Chasing rainbows? A recognition-based critique of Primark’s precarious commitment to inclusion’, Organisation. (online early).

CWOS researchers apply critical perspectives to the analysis of human resource management in the public sector in Britain and internationally. Current projects include a critical analysis of governmentality, austerity and public service ‘reform’ in the UK Civil Service, local government and the NHS.

• Barratt, E. (2020) ‘Parrhesia and the ethics of public service – towards a genealogy of the bureaucrat as frank counsellor’, Foucault Studies. 1(28): 120-141. 
• Barratt, E. (2016) ‘Codifying ethics: New Labour and the government of civil servants’, in M. Bevir (Ed.) Governmentality after Neoliberalism, London: Routledge, pp. 71-91.
• Barratt, E. (2019) ‘Speaking frankly: Parrhesia and public service’, Management and Organisational History. 14(3): 294-310.
• Mackenzie, E. and Barratt, E. (2019) ‘The freelance project manager as an agent of governmentality’, in D. Hodgson, M. Fred, S. Bailey and P. Hall (eds) The Projectification of the Public Sector. London: Routledge, pp. 250-267.

CWOS research has a strong international focus with expertise on emerging economies such as India and the Middle East and in the nexus of multinational corporations (MNCs) and their global value chains. In collaboration with colleagues across the Global South current projects examine informal and precarious work, reproductive work, automation and possible work futures. Of particular focus are core labour standards and rights, and workers’ organisations, as well as issues associated with job quality, workplace control and representation.

Current research also examines opportunity structures and social justice in the UK context, engaging with lived experience and social policies. Specific projects currently focus on: structural racisms and their intersections with other social divisions and inequalities; in-work poverty; labour market transitions, and social mobility. Members of CWOS have recently undertaken research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘Immigration and Inclusion’, ‘Poverty and Ethnicity’ and ‘Bradford’ Research Programmes, and for the TUC on vulnerable workers, casualisation and low pay. Funded by the British Academy, another current project in this area, undertaken in collaboration with Equity and the Musicians’ Union, focuses on the impact of COVID on self-employed live performers in the UK.

• Butler, P and Hammer, A. (2020) ‘HR Practice in a fast-food MNC:  Exploring the low discretion, high commitment phenomenon’ International Journal of Human Resource Management.
• Adham, A. and Hammer, A. (2019) ‘Understanding Arab capitalisms: Patrimonialism, HRM and work in Saudi Arabia,’ International Journal of Human Resource Management.
• Hammer, A.  (2019) ‘Comparative capitalism and emerging economies: Formal-informal economy interlockages and implications for institutional analysis’, Review of International Political Economy. 26(2): 337-360. 
• Michalski, M. (2014) ‘Symbolic meanings and E-Learning in the workplace: The case of an ICT-mediated training tool’, Management Learning. 45(2): 145–166. 
• Michalski, M., Śliwa, M. and Manalsuren, S. (2020) ‘Context-specific understandings of uncertainty: A focus on people management practices in Mongolia’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, (online early). 
• Netto, G., Hudson, M., Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N. and Sosenko, F. (2019) ‘Dominant language acquisition in destination countries: Structure, agency and reflexivity’, Sociology. 53(5): 843-860.
• Netto, G., Noon, M., Hudson, M., Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N. and Sosenko, F. (2020) ‘Intersectionality, identity work and migrant progression from low-paid work: A critical realist approach’, Gender, Work and Organisation. 27: 1020-1039. 
• Kelly, P. R. (2018) ‘An activity theory study of data, knowledge, and power in the design of an international development NGO impact evaluation’, Information Systems Journal. 28(3): 465-488.