WEO academic begins research into working lives of migrant workers in Japan

Professor Tom Baum, Department of Work, Employment and Organisation, is chief investigator on a Japanese Kaken research grant held by a colleague at Kansai Gaidai University, located half-way between Osaka and historic Kyoto and offering programmes in Japanese and English. The focus of the research project is the working lives of migrant workers in the hospitality industry in Japan.

Tom recently visited Kansai Gaidai to meet with colleagues and other collaborators from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, and Wakayama University, and plan research outputs. Kansai Gaidai has ambitious plans to develop business and hospitality programmes for Japanese and international students in collaboration with regional (Kansai) businesses and Tom met with their Dean and others about these plans.

Leverhulme Major Fellow Award

Photo of Spiros Gounaris
Spiros Gounaris

Professor Spiros Gounaris, Department of Marketing, has received a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship, amounting to £81,000. This prestigious award is extremely competitive, with a rejection rate of over 85%.

Spiros’ proposal, “Less Job-Stress for More Money? Can a balanced approach to Family-Work Life make the difference?”, was successfully awarded out of 160 applicants. The project will explore how companies can benefit financially by helping employees to achieve a more balanced approach between their work and family lives.

SBS welcomes Breaking Barriers' new cohort

A sixth cohort of students started on the Breaking Barriers programme on January 18 with a session at Strathclyde Business School.

Our pioneering Breaking Barriers programme, delivered in collaboration with ENABLE Scotland, enables young people with learning disabilities to attend university, achieve an accredited qualification and gain real work experience with some of Scotland’s largest employers.

Breaking Barriers raises aspirations and provides equal access to university. As a socially-progressive institution, the University of Strathclyde prides itself on widening access to higher education. The Breaking Barriers initiative is about helping young people with a learning disability reach their potential by giving the opportunity to have a full student experience in a world class university, learning and enhancing their skills.

Around 20 new students were welcomed onto the programme by Deputy Faculty Manager Heather Stenhouse who is Strategic Lead on the Breaking Barriers programme.

Economic Policy Leadership Programme

The first cohort of the Economic Policy Leadership Programme has now successfully completed the course.

Staff from The Scottish Government, ScottishPower, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and The Wood Group took part in this innovative new programme led by Mary Galbraith and featuring some excellent guest speakers.

The team is now recruiting for the second year of the programme. For further information, please contact policy@strath.ac.uk.

Strathclyde hosts second PrOPEL Hub ‘SPARC’ event

Since 2020, the ESRC PrOPEL Hub project – a collaboration led by Strathclyde Business School with eight universities and the CIPD, the UK’s leading body for HR professionals – has promoted effective HR and workplace practices for engagement, wellbeing and productivity.

A key aim of the partnership is to bring together workplace researchers with HR stakeholders and people managers to turn knowledge into practice. 

That’s why PrOPEL Hub hosted its first interactive event at Strathclyde Business School in September 2022 known as a SPARC (Sustainable Practice Action Research Community) event. Entitled: “Towards a Sustainable Practice Action Research Community (SPARC) for evidence-based HRM” which brought together more than forty HR professionals, people managers and researchers to share ideas and identify areas for collaboration.

This month saw its second ‘SPARC’ event take place at Strathclyde Business School on January 18. It featured an interactive keynote led by Professor Colin Lindsay and Carolina Marin Cadavid of SCER, sharing insights on the potential for “job crafting” practices to support employees to innovate in the workplace.

Department of Marketing PhD Funding Success

Dr Andrew Davis and Professor Beverly Wagner (Department of Marketing), in collaboration with Professor Carmen Valor Martinez of Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, have been awarded funding for a PhD student to undertake research into the impact of “sense of place” in innovation spaces. While based at Strathclyde the funding will give the student a valuable opportunity to spend time in Madrid experiencing a different research environment whilst under the supervision of Professor Martinez.

In addition, Dr Natalie McDougall and Professor Beverly Wagner have been awarded a Research Excellence Award. They are now looking to a appoint a PhD student for their research topic “Frugal innovation for Sustainable & Resilient Energy Resource Optimization: Mitigating the Energy Crisis.

Both these awards will help the department contribute to a growing research agenda surrounding innovation in the Department of Marketing.

Marketing Competition for Schools

This year, the annual competition for schools, run by the Marketing Department at Strathclyde Business School, focused on the long-standing tradition of support for charities. Each school has their own preferred charities and pupils were asked to detail a plan to promote the charity itself or an event to support the charity.

We were delighted with the response and the creative ideas proposed for the different charities, with the level of commitment to each one, evident to see. The judging panel consisted of all members of the Marketing Department and all submissions received votes. Thank you and well done to all the pupils who took part. Each entry received a lot of positive comments from the judges.

The winners are: