Our core mission as a Department is twofold: a. to lead with excellence in both education and research in multi-disciplinary fields pertaining to organisational behaviour, human resource management and employment relations and the effects at multiple levels – from the individual to the organisational and the institutional, b. to promote in our practice and teaching the values of social justice, equality, diversion and inclusion and wellbeing. We are exploring the interaction between people and organisations in a world that is rapidly changing and facing new challenges around managing equality and diversity, intersectionality, leadership, learning and innovation as well as the challenges to individuals’ personal and professional development in diverse management contexts. We do so drawing on both mainstream and less mainstream research methods and approaches.
Our Department plays an important role in equipping our diverse body of students with the knowledge, skills and critical thinking to become global responsible citizens and to successfully set out on exciting career paths in corporate, non-profit or governmental organisations or as entrepreneurs themselves. The Department is host to the CIPD accredited International Human Resource Management MSc and our academic staff regularly contribute to the School’s BSc programmes in management, teaching core and elective modules. Our research is academically rigorous, impactful, recognised around the world for its invaluable contributions to knowledge creation in the field of organisational behaviour/ human resource management and useful for practitioners. We are also particularly proud that our education and research projects are actionable and have supported our local community.
Members of our Department have received numerous research and education excellence awards at leading national and international conferences as well as being awarded grants ranging from small, seedcorn funding to kickstart new research to large scale funding from national and international funding bodies.
The researchers of the People & Organisations Department have published widely in internationally leading journals. Members of the Department are invited to work with and advise external bodies including business organizations, government departments, professional organizations and trades unions. Our academic staff have produced or presented reports for diverse audiences such as national and international high profile organisations. Research produced by our academic staff is regularly reported in national and international media. Our researchers and our students benefit from a highly collegiate and supportive environment that aims to nurture intellectual curiosity, support collaborations and seek answers to pressing management, people and organisations research questions drawing on a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Members of the Department are also actively engaged in shaping the national and international Higher Education agenda and taking leading roles in international teaching and learning committee work and organising education-focused conferences such as the Academy of Management’s Teaching and Learning Conference TLC@AoM.
Under the broader themes of People & Organisations the areas that our academic staff and doctoral students specialise in can be grouped into the following themes:
Overall, members of our Department are actively participating in the School’s research centres and groups aligned to the Department’s interests such as CRED and OPPRG. The academic staff of the People and Organisations Department regularly secure funding/grants for their research projects and have received numerous awards from academic and professional bodies. Being part of a Department that is highly international and diverse, our People and Organisations academic staff have long established national and international collaborations with scholars from other academic institutions. With the research of our Department anchored towards contribution in both academia and practice, the produced studies by our academics are frequently mentioned in the media. Our academic staff have been active in engaging with external organisations (private, governmental and intergovernmental organisations) to produce research reports on a variety of issues relating to people and organisations. Last but not least, our academics have been consistently contributing to the School’s research impact efforts by producing impact case studies for the REF.
We publish in leading international journals such as:
General Management
Specialised journals
We also publish books in leading publishing press including: Oxford University Press, Bristol University Press, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Elsevier and Edward Elgar.
The Department of People and Organisations is seeking hard-working, committed and intellectually curious doctoral applicants from diverse backgrounds who have a strong academic record and a keen interest in producing cutting-edge research in this field. We expect our PhD students to actively contribute to the School’s intellectual community. They will be provided with the support to explore interesting research questions drawing on a variety of research methods, under the supervision of People & Organisations academic staff. Our students are offered a range of opportunities for development of research skills, participation in conferences to present their research or in the organisation of research activities within the School. They are also offered the opportunity to contribute to teaching and build a portfolio of skills that would allow them to carry successful careers in academia into the future.
Prospective doctoral candidates are encouraged to contact the Head of Department, or other academic staff within the People & Organisations Department for informal enquiries about the programme and potential research topics for PhD supervision.