Profile
Role:
Biography:
Mike Noon is Dean of the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, and Professor of Human Resource Management.
As Dean, he is accountable for the academic and financial performance of the School. He leads development and implementation of the School’s strategy and its contribution to meeting the strategic aims of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and of Queen Mary University of London.
He is supported by a talented Executive Committee consisting of three Associate Deans, five Heads of Department and the School Manager (who leads the School’s professional services team).
He has been a full time academic since 1989, previously holding academic management, research and teaching positions at Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, Lancaster University and Cardiff Business School. He has a BA from Sheffield University, and a MSc and PhD from Imperial College London.
Teaching
While he is Dean of the School of Business and Management, Mike’s teaching is restricted to giving guest lectures, so he will not be running a module in the current year.
Mike Noon is Professor of Human Resource Management and has 30 years’ experience of teaching at all levels, from first year undergraduates to executive MBAs. He has published two successful teaching resources for students. The first is a textbook called The Realities of Work – now in its 4th edition – with Paul Blyton and Kevin Morrell and published by Palgrave. The second is a reference book called A Dictionary of Human Resource Management, which is co-authored with Ed Heery, published by Oxford University Press and, in its second edition, is available free of charge as an online to all QMUL students (accessed via the library).
Research
Research Interests:
Mike Noon’s research focuses on workplace equality and diversity, including employee experiences, management initiatives, and local and national policy. His approach, reflected in his publications, critically questions what might be considered ‘mainstream’ approaches to the challenges of equality and he advocates taking a more progressive stance.
Mike's research explores the effects of contemporary management practices on the work of employees. His main research interest is equality, diversity and discrimination, particularly in relation to ethnic minorities. In earlier work he explored the disadvantages faced by ethnic minorities in gaining access to work and training, then broadened the scope to examine the effects of gender, ethnicity, disability and age on the work experiences of UK employees using large scale survey data.
In recent work he has returned to studying the experiences of discrimination for employees through case studies and interviews. In one project, this has included exploring the organisational barriers, obstacles and prejudice experienced by low paid workers struggling to progress to better jobs. In another project it has led to examining inter-managerial tension as senior executives attempt to drive forward inclusion initiatives.
His work also explores the theoretical and conceptual underpinning of equality policy. His approach challenges the assumptions behind mainstream equal opportunity policies in organisations and he argues for the pursuit of more progressive approaches. He has been invited to present his ideas to various equality policy forums including the Government Equality Office, the Higher Education Leadership Foundation and the Equality Challenge Unit (now Advance HE), the Metropolitan Police Service, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and the Cabinet Office.
As well as having research findings reported in the national media, he has published widely in leading academic journals, has co-edited two research books, and co-authored two successful textbooks.
Centre and Group Membership:
Publications
Selected journal articles
- Noon, M and Ogbonna, E. (2020) Controlling management to deliver diversity and inclusion: Prospects and limits. Human Resource Management Journal. 2020: pp1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12332
- Netto G, Noon M, Hudson M, Kamenou-Aigbekaen N, Sosenko F. (2020) Intersectionality, identity work and migrant progression from low-paid work: A critical realist approach. Gender, Work and Organisation, 2020; pp 1–20.
- Noon, M. (2018). Pointless Diversity Training: Unconscious Bias, New Racism and Agency. Work, Employment and Society, 32 (1), pp.198-209.
- Hudson, M., Netto, G., Noon, M., Sosenko, F., de Lima, P. and Kamenou-Aigbekaen, N. (2017). Ethnicity and low wage traps: favouritism, homosocial reproduction and economic marginalization. Work, Employment and Society, 31 (6), pp.992-1009.
- Oswick, C. and Noon, M. (2014) ‘Discourses of diversity, equality and inclusion: trenchant formulations or transient fashions?’, British Journal of Management, 25 (1), 23-39.
- Noon, M., Healy, G., Forson, C. and Oikelome, F. (2013) ‘The equality effects of the “hyper-formalisation” of selection’, British Journal of Management, 24 (3): 333-346.
- Noon, M. (2012) ‘Simply the best? The case for using threshold selection in hiring decisions’, Human Resource Management Journal, 22 (1): 76-88.
- Noon, M (2010) The shackled runner: time to rethink positive discrimination? Work, Employment and Society, 24(4).
Selected books
- Noon, M., Blyton, P. and Morrell, K. (2013) The Realities of Work (fourth edition) Basingstoke: Palgrave.
- Healy, G., Kirton, G. and Noon, M. (eds) (2010) Equality, inequalities and diversity - contemporary challenges and strategies. Basingstoke, Palgrave
- Heery, E. and Noon, M. (2010) A Dictionary of Human Resource Management, (second edition) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Public Engagement
He has been invited to present his ideas to various equality policy forums including the Government Equality Office, the Higher Education Leadership Foundation and the Equality Challenge Unit (now Advance HE), the Metropolitan Police Service, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and the Cabinet Office.
