Professor Adam Whitworth of the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation (WEO), along with colleagues from across the university and further afield, has been awarded £120,000 for a health-related employment research project.
The project is entitled ‘WHERC: Building a Vision of a Work-Health Expert Research Centre’ and is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The project will enable a 10-month network to come together and develop ideas for a larger research proposal in 2024 into an upcoming NIHR ‘Research Collaborations’ funding call to deliver a step-change in cross-institutional applied research into issues around work and health.
Adam will be working with Strathclyde colleagues Professor Colin Lindsay, Professor Patricia Findlay and Dr Jen Remnant from WEO; Professor Stuart McIntyre and Dr Gioele Figus from the Department of Economics; Professor Robert van der Meer and Dr Itamar Megiddo from the Department of Management Science; and Professor Katherine Smith from HASS.
As an institution, Strathclyde will engage in the project with colleagues from the University of Sheffield, King’s College London, University of East Anglia, University of Leicester as well as Speakup Rotherham, Breakthrough UK and Astriid, three disabled people’s organisations helping people with long-term health issues and their carers to realise their employment goals.
The project will begin next month and run until July 2024.
By 2028 the UK will need to reach a peak of installing nearly two million energy efficiency measures like loft and wall insulation and over 600,000 heat pumps. However, despite the urgent need for a massive scale up in retrofitting, policy design at the moment is not up to the task.
A UKERC (UK Energy Research Centre) funded project compiled by Dr Iain Cairns and Professor Matthew Hannon, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, and colleagues at Leeds and Sussex, has been the inspiration for a report from IPPR on energy retrofit.
The research finds that when policymakers design support for home retrofitting they typically think about the idea of a ‘customer journey’ but assume a person will only embark on this journey and engage with a government scheme if it makes sound financial sense. However, while costs are certainly a factor, ‘social relations’ – who you know, who you know well, which communities you belong to, when and where you interact with them, where you live and what your background is – play a major role in influencing people’s decisions to renovate or retrofit their home.
Developing a greater understanding of the social relations influencing household decisions at each stage in the customer journey could help policymakers determine the right life moments and trigger points to introduce policy support, and to design them in a way that harmonises with households’ existing social networks and backgrounds, not based on the idea of the purely rational economic man.
The research offers an explanation for why retrofitting policies are failing to stimulate the market and attract more interest and lays out some of the implications for policymaking.
The full report can be found here: https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/more-than-money
Professor Adam Whitworth, Department of Work, Employment and Organisation, has been invited to join the Department for Work & Pension’s (DWP’s) Universal Support Expert Reference Group.
This is a significant and confidential advisory group central to informing DWP’s approach to the coming large-scale roll-out of Supported Employment across England & Wales.
The Centre for Board and Director Development at Strathclyde Business School welcomed on to campus the delegates attending the inaugural Customer Centricity programme, delivered by Professor Spiros Gounaris and Martin Newman on September 6 and 7.
On the first day delegates focussed on the theory and philosophy surrounding customer centricity. The group learned that customer centricity is not just about good customer service, it is so much more and is something that should reach every element of a business; from employee and customer engagement to sales and financial decision making. The class explored how to implement and control the customer centricity efforts, and what it means for the institution as well as the individual.
Delegates enjoyed a guest speaker on the second day from the Consumer Champion - Martin Newman, founder of the Customer First Group. Martin led the discussion on how to create a culture of empowerment, new measures and incentives for driving Customer Centricity, and how to move from customer service to customer care and turning customers into fans.
Marko Ivanovic, Head of Global Consumer Relations at Haleon, and Linda McColgan, Finance Director for Mentholatum, were two of the alumni who took part in the course. Marko - returning to Strathclyde 15 years after his Master’s graduation - said, “Stepping into a university institution for a course after so long was an enriching experience. The programme was meticulously structured, offering profound insights into consumer centricity from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It not only clarified the "why" behind consumer-centricity but also equipped me with actionable strategies for immediate implementation in my workplace.
“Returning to Glasgow, where I once pursued my studies, met with my wife and had so many unforgettable memories flooded me with nostalgia. It's incredible how University experience can reignite cherished memories and fuel our passion for growth.”
The latest rankings of UK universities by The Guardian has placed the University of Strathclyde at 16th position in the UK, putting it in the top five of universities in Scotland.
As well as ranking the best UK universities, The Guardian also ranks individual subjects. Within Strathclyde Business School, we were ranked in the top 10 for Hospitality, Event Management and Tourism, and in the top 20 for Business and Management, and Accounting and Finance, and we also gained rankings for Marketing (24) and Economics (36). In the main table ranking, there are 122 universities assessed.
The Guardian University Guide looks at undergraduate courses and how likely courses are to deliver a 'positive, all-round' experience to future students and assesses how past students have fared to do so. The ranking is made up of a number of indicators including student satisfaction, scores based on courses, teaching and feedback, as well as the proportion of graduates in employment or further study after graduation. Bringing these measures together, The Guardian gets an overall score for each department and ranks departments against this.
A call for proposals has gone out for the 2024 Global Followership Conference which is to be hosted at Strathclyde on April 25 and 26.
The conference theme is “Because Followership Matters” and the Call for Proposals includes five different types of presentations. Further information on this can be found here: https://lnkd.in/g48i_gdi
The purpose of the conference is to raise the profile of followership, create community, improve scholarship, and share best practices for training and development. It brings together academics, practitioners, teachers, trainers, employers, students, and HR/OD professionals to share experiences, best practices, case studies, processes, and research with a positive impact on business, organisations, projects, movements, and social causes globally.
Professor Phil Taylor has been awarded a BUIRA (British Universities Industrial Relations Association) Fellowship for his ‘outstanding academic contribution to industrial relations scholarship as well as demonstrating a significant contribution to the community in this field and withing BUIRA’.
Phil has also had a paper, co-authored with prof Debra Howcroft of Manchester Business School, accepted for publication on the Cambridge Journal of Economics, entitled ‘Experience of Working Time, Intensification and Extensification: Examining the Logics of Production in IT Work’. It will be published in a special issue of the journal on The Future of Work and Working Time.
Strathclyde Business School has successfully delivered its first Hospitality and Tourism Management summer school. Students from China, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Iran studied on the “Frontiers in Hospitality and Tourism Management” course for three weeks under the tutelage of Tom Bourkel, Teaching Fellow in the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation.
Although the course was at SCQF level 7, participants were at various stages of their educational journey – from sixth form though to undergraduate level and even PhD. Several of the students, including those from Hochschule Mainz University of Applied Sciences in Germany who were accompanied for the first week of the programme by their teacher Dagmar Schlemmer-Bockius, will have their learning recognised by their home institutions.
Tom and his colleague Dr Kostas Tomazos devised the 10-credit programme to consist of classroom-based lectures and workshops interspersed with subject-relevant fieldtrips and external visits. Participants were introduced to the evolution of the tourism product in Scotland, starting with an insight into the key hospitality and tourism management theories, then leading to further exploration of niche tourism products. Students visited the Balquhidder, Lochearnhead and Strathyre Highland Games, the Oban Distillery, attended a Glasgow ceilidh, and tried their hand at playing the bagpipes.
One participant described the Summer School as “a fantastic experience”. Another said they “enjoyed the summer school so much” and added that “the teaching and outside activities were well-prepared”. The visit to Oban was a particular highlight as students were accompanied by both their lecturer Tom Bourkel and a Scottish Tourist Guide Association-registered guide which gave them a real flavour of the unofficial capital of the West Highlands. The course culminated in a group project, a presentation, and a farewell party.
This summer school is an excellent addition to the faculty’s teaching portfolio as it provides students with a useful introduction to a new discipline, increases their awareness of SBS and the University of Strathclyde. Summer schools can be an affordable way for international students to get a taste of the University and of life in Glasgow. The International Exchanges and Partnerships Team aims to grow the numbers of future summer school participants by attracting students from both new and existing partner universities.
Professors Tom Baum and Dennis Nickson were invited participants to a panel discussion on research into fair work in the hospitality industry. The event was held as part of the Irish Association of Management Annual Conference held at the University of Galway on August 23.
The panel consisted of academics, politicians, local economic development leaders, employers and a trade union representative and amongst the issues discussed was pandemic-exacerbated staff shortages.
At the same conference Dennis was also an invited speaker in his role as Editor in Chief of Employee Relations at a Meet the Editors Session.
Professor Katerina Nicolopoulou has two new book contracts signed for edited volumes that will appear in 2024-2025.
One is “Entrepreneurial Leadership: Future Directions and Impactful Perspectives” to be published by E.Elgar Advancing Business and Management Series, and the other is “Global Perspectives to African Entrepreneurship: Emerging realities and new approaches” published by Palgrave McMillan in its Studies of Entrepreneurship in Africa Series.
A number of students were successful in their PhD vivas over the summer – well done to:
A number of Economics PGR graduates have reported success in the job market including:
Strathclyde Business School’s Help to Grow: Management programme is recruiting for the next cohort which begins on October 25.
Suzanne Mackrell, Associate Director of Keppie, took part in the programme earlier this year and featured in an article in The Herald talking about her thoughts on the programme. In the article, she said, “I found the course stimulating and am hugely grateful to Keppie for supporting me on my Help to Grow journey. I am confident it will help me to continue to develop in confidence, both personally and professionally, as a result.
“The programme taught me the importance of making time to spend working on the business and not simply working in it. Too often we can be ‘too busy being busy’ to pause, take stock and reflect.”
Help to Grow is delivered over 12 half day sessions at Strathclyde Business School. Worth £7,500, this programme is 90% funded by UK Government, meaning the cost to each participant is just £750.
This is open to any senior business leader or founder whose company meets the criteria of having five or more employees and has been established for more than one year.
Once graduated, every participant gets continued growth support from the Business School's suite of leadership, growth and development programmes, as well as access to Strathclyde Inspire; the University's institution-wide entrepreneurship programme.
You can read the full interview here https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23700661.get-course-leadership-skills-strathclyde-business-school/-
More information and how to register can be found here.
Cohort five of the Iberdrola MBA returned to campus for delivery of the Making Strategy module which was delivered by Professor Dave MacKay. The group was joined by Steve Baker, Director of UK Corporate Development - Iberdrola, who was guest speaker and delivered a talk on Strategy within the context of Iberdrola.
The group then went offsite for a strategy session and this was followed by a trip to Whitelee Windfarm. The week closed with Dr Marisa Smith delivering a project methodology session to the cohort.
SEED (Strathclyde Executive Education and Development) hosted its first SME (small and medium enterprise) alumni event of the new academic year at Strathclyde Students' Union, which featured a thought-provoking and interactive talk from Dr Iain MacRitchie, founder, chair and CEO of MCR Holdings and visiting professor at Strathclyde University.
Iain spoke about leadership and responsible business and was happy to welcome the many burning questions on the minds of the audience which comprised of Strathclyde Business School alumni as well as representatives from Strathclyde Inspire and the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation at the business school.
A new research handbook on accounting edited by Dr Julia Smith, Department of Accounting and Finance, will be published in February 2024.
Julia has also contributed to the Research Handbook on Accounting and Information Systems which is part of the Research Handbooks on Accounting series.
The role of the accountant is changing, as developments in technology alter the ways in which information is prepared and analysed. This Research Handbook addresses the use of both financial and non-financial information for planning, decision-making and control in organisations. Written by experts in the field, the book uses comprehensive literature reviews, empirical fieldwork and theoretical developments to provide an overview of research in this important area.
The book has already received a positive review from Alnoor Bhimani of London School of Economics and Political Science which said, “A highly current and comprehensive book providing analyses and insightful views in relation to the latest research in the area. The reader is not only exposed to academic investigations but also to grounded issues from cases and illustrations that will benefit practitioners and executives.”
Dr Eleni (Lenia) Tsougkou from the Department of Marketing has been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (£9,969).
Lenia will be Principal Investigator, to study the practice of Peace Brand Activism, along with Dr J. Oliveira (University of Essex).
The project entitled “Marketing for Peace: Investigating why, when, and how brands decide to become activists for peace" seeks to explore the managerial decisions regarding whether (or not), as well as when and how, to use brands to advocate for peace or against conflicts through social media. The grant will run over the course of two years.