review
DESCRIPTION
Research that creates an impact in organisations – the annual publication from Sheffield University Management SchoolTRANSCRIPT
R E S E A R C H T H A T C R E A T E S A N I M P A C T I N O R G A N I S A T I O N S
OF MINDSA MEETING
Working together to make a difference
Issue 1. Review is produced by Sheffield University Management School, the University of Sheffield
EDITORIALExecutive Editor - John Yates Contributors - Heather Pass, Jody White
DESIGNInk & Water (inkandwater.co.uk)
CONTACT USSheffield University Management School Conduit Road Sheffield S10 1FL Tel: +44 (0)114 222 3232
Management Gateway: management.sheffield.ac.uk
School website: www.sheffield.ac.uk/management
@UoS_Management
www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/facebook
www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/linkedin
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WELCOMEProfessor David Oglethorpe, Dean of Sheffield
University Management School, introduces our new publication
HOW TO ENGAGE Why a partnership with Sheffield University
Management School can make a huge impact on your organisation and society
MAKING A DIFFERENCEDiscover how the properly harnessed power of
research can drive change in organisations in a way that improves performance, stimulates innovation, and promotes socially responsible
work practices
Find out how our academics are leading the way in the key areas of concern for today's businesses
BUSINESS CONTINUITY & RESILIENCE
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
LEADERSHIP
NEW BUSINESS CREATION
STAFF PERFORMANCE & WELLBEING
DIRECTORY OF EXPERTISEOur academics, listed by field of expertise for
easy reference
CONTENTS
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BY FORGING LINKS WITH ORGANISATIONS, we aim to form a meeting of minds which creates change – theory meeting practice. Whether you benefit from the help of our high-achieving students on a project, engage with a world-leading academic in their research or pass on your expertise as a guest lecturer, collaborating with us will benefit your organisation and help to change the world.
Much of the Management School’s research falls under an overarching theme of sustainable and socially-responsible work practices and processes. This focus allows us to concentrate on projects which really are going to make a difference to society, organisations and individuals. There are many ways that you can collaborate with our academics on research, and throughout this publication you will find case-studies on how they’re already working with organisations – just like yours.
The Sheffield Academic, many of whom you’re able to read about in Review, is constantly in pursuit of research excellence – at the Management School we also focus on sustainability, ethicality and social responsibility. The School has created a resilient and sustainable research environment that engages with a huge variety of organisations and nurtures the next generation of management academics. You can benefit from our approachable experts – the Directory of Expertise on page 36 should point you in the right direction.
It’s a pleasure to introduce this new publication, which is designed to show you how easy and rewarding it is to work with Sheffield University Management School.
We’re proud of our research achievements, but there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing our students flourish in the Management School’s rich learning and teaching environment. Our programmes are designed to prepare students for the modern working world; they have a comprehensive understanding of theory as well as all the skills to apply their learning in practice. We aim for our students to be work-ready when they graduate. To support this, as part of their curriculum our Masters students undertake a project that can be carried out in an organisational setting.
Studying across all areas of business and management, including marketing, finance, human resources and work psychology, we could really make a difference to your workplace. If your organisation needs a helping hand to tackle a specific challenge it's facing, depending on the nature of the issue one of our academic researchers or talented students can help. Read more about the opportunities you have to utilise our talent from page 6.
We are in the top one per cent of business schools globally due to our Triple Crown accreditation, and have an enviable reputation for research, teaching and industrial consultation. You can be part of it – find out how in this issue of Review.
David OglethorpeDean of Sheffield University Management School
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ENGAGEIT IS VITAL THAT WE listen to the business leaders of today to both benefit the leaders of tomorrow and ensure our research is focused and useful to external organisations. We encourage leaders from all sectors and disciplines to w ork with us; whether you are willing to share your knowledge through delivering a guest lecture, work with our students on internship opportunities, attend events and network or get fully involved and work with us on a collaborative research project, a partnership with Sheffield University Management School can make a huge impact on your organisation and society.
how you can
Working closely with partners, we carry out bespoke research and consultancy to meet your organisation’s needs and improve growth and efficiency. We also provide expert training programmes and networking opportunities for you and your employees. Alongside this, we provide the resources and facilities to develop your people through a range of training opportunities such as professional networking events, programmes and courses, and access to research-led toolkits that can be used in the workplace.
Developing your business – we listen to you
Working closely with external partners, we can deliver the following:
• Research and consultancy
• Training programmes and toolkits
• Events and conferences
At Sheffield University Management School, we believe that the work we do should benefit the wider economy. To this end we encourage involvement with business, companies, and public and third sector organisations at local, national and international levels to make sure that our research has impact and benefits the people we are aiming to help.
Sheffield University Management School has a proven track record in providing bespoke support to a range of companies across the industry. If you have an organisational issue or an idea for collaboration that you would like to discuss, we would be happy to put you in touch with our experts who can provide you with consultation and advice.
management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
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AS A THRIVING RESEARCH HUB at the University of Sheffield, we see the benefits of undertaking our research through the process of co-production – a meeting of minds.
This process sees co-ownership of a project. The Management School works with you throughout its course to establish design, through to delivery and implementation. The power of co-ownership is shared between the academic and practitioner, enabling a joint focus on goals, needs and a long-term vision.
Following a successful co-production, research has true academic merit as well as meeting the real-life needs of the external partner. We feel that it’s a mutually beneficial way for us to work with external partners, so if you are interested in talking to us about a project you’d like to undertake, contact the external relations team through the Management Gateway: management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
Our academics are more than happy to be approached independently – a directory of their expertise can be found on page 36 of Review.
COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS
Through our academics or research centres, we provide you with the support and knowledge to achieve the following:
• Improved organisational processes• Higher efficiency levels and reduced waste• Good practice guidelines based on research from across
the sector• A toolkit which investigates a problem your organisation
may be suffering from• Specific training aimed at your organisation
COLLABORATIVE STUDENTSHIPS
Collaborative PhD research projects provide an opportunity for organisations to work with a Doctoral Training Centre student throughout their PhD. The research goals are identified in collaboration with the partner organisation and involve substantial user engagement. These opportunities provide collaborative partners with the chance to work alongside a high-quality PhD student undertaking cutting-edge research relevant to the priorities and objectives of the organisation.
Partners may wish to offer students an internship opportunity where the student can develop their own research and transferable skills whilst bringing both knowledge and skills to the host organisation. Benefits include:
• The student can provide crucial extra resources and generate real outputs, adding to the evidence base within the organisation and bringing fresh ideas, and specialised strengths and skills which augment the abilities of the professional workforce.
• The student will benefit from networking within other sectors and have the opportunity to enhance a range of transferable skills such as time management, report writing and communications skills.
• The student gains a range of experience to help your organisation meet the research and leadership challenges in today’s competitive global market place.
projectsWorking with you to make our
research fit-for-purpose
Your options
For more information and example of collaborative projects see wrdtc.ac.uk/collaborations
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STUDENT TALENTTHE HIGH CALIBRE OF OUR students never fails to amaze us, and we want organisations to benefit from that talent too.
Whether you have the capacity to offer a student placement opportunity, a work-based project or an internship, there are many ways in which our students can help you with a business issue you may have.
Whilst they gain the invaluable experience of applying their up-to-date knowledge to real-life scenarios, your business will benefit from the talent and extra support that our students provide. We also provide the facility for you to advertise opportunities directly to our pool of students and graduates through the Management Gateway.
To find out more about the many ways in which you can recruit our graduate and student talent, visit the Management Gateway and click on 'Utilising Our Talent': management.sheffield.ac.uk
Through the Management School’s student projects scheme, you could benefit from the following:
• Problem solving – do you need a marketing plan, feasibility study or another strategic thinker? Our students could be the answer to your organisational issues
• Our undergraduates – studying BA (Hons) degrees in either business management or finance and accounting – they breathe enthusiasm and fresh knowledge into an organisation
• Masters-level students – studying either a MBA or a more specialised MSc – they often have experience in the workplace and can bring another level of skills and expertise to an organisation
What can they do for my organisation?
student profile:Deepack Arunachalam, MBA
“I started working as a consultant for Recovery Enterprises, which is a social enterprise, as part of my MBA. I was there to conduct a comprehensive consumer market segmentation and competitor analysis, supporting their proposed business venture. Working with the company was an enriching experience which substantially increased my business skills.”
company profile:Recovery Enterprises
“Deepack joined us to develop a complex marketing project, and directors were delighted with the results he achieved. He represented our company in a positive and professional manner and his willingness to go above and beyond was testament to a very flexible approach.”
utilise our
Directors were delighted with the results he achieved
“ “
Read more about Professor Colin Williams’s policy changing research on page 16.
We have a wide selection of research expertise at Sheffield University Management School, and a critical mass of academics in a number of areas who can advise on organisational issues:
• Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED)
• Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (CEES)
• Institute of Work Psychology (IWP)
• Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM)
• Work, Organisation and Employment Relations Research Centre (WOERRC)
• Cluster for Research on the Informal Sector and Policy (CRISP)
• Critical Research in Marketing and Society (CReiMS)
• Centre for Research into Accounting and Finance in Context (CRAFiC)
Discover all of our expertise at www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/research
drives policy
Our specialist group of researchers
OUR COMMITMENT TO MANAGEMENT ADVANCEMENT helps to drive regional, national and international policy and governing body strategies. Whether it is working with individual authorities, Local Regional Enterprise Partnerships, national governments or the European Union our experts instigate debate and inform policy change.
If you think your organisation would benefit from the Management School’s wealth of knowledge, refer to the Directory of Expertise on page 36, or contact our external relations team: management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
research
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THE ACTIONS OF MANAGERS AND business leaders impact on the future of an organisation, and at Sheffield University Management School we are passionate about developing strong, innovative leaders. We offer opportunities that you may otherwise have not considered before, such as inviting one of our leading academics into your organisation to run a masterclass or workshop for your employees.
leadersdeveloping
Events and trainingWe are widely involved in the annual Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Sciences. This event sees a number of our academics and doctoral students conduct free workshops across the city, which may be of interest to your employees. Visit management.sheffield.ac.uk/events to find out more about upcoming events.
NetworkingOur global connections help us to access and share best practice from across the world, so by working with us you can become part of this global network.
We also provide the facilities for specialised sector groups to meet and share ideas, our HR Leaders network for example. This group brings together HR professionals with world-leading academics through hosted dinners and workshops, to share best practice developments and debate relevant business critical issues. Contact our external relations team to find out more about becoming a member, or if you’re interested in setting up a network for your area of interest, we'd like to hear from you too.
management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
conferenceslectures &
BUSINESS LEADERS ARE OFTEN FACED WITH new and difficult challenges, and having the advantage of listening to others who have dealt with similar situations can help to keep your organisation ahead of competitors.
At Sheffield University Management School, we invite the business community to join the audience of our expert lectures series, which sees members of world-leading organisations discuss contemporary issues, challenges and opportunities facing the business community today. We also welcome individuals keen to disseminate their knowledge to specific courses, such as our MSc in International Business. Our events list is available on the Management Gateway at management.sheffield.ac.uk/events
Our programme of conferences brings together academics, business experts and practitioners from across the world, to debate and share ideas on critical business issues specific to their field of interest. It has included our 2013 Arts Economy Conference titled ‘New Directions in an Age of Austerity,’ led by the Management School’s Dr Marta Herrero, on behalf of the Research Committee for the Sociology of the Arts of the International Sociological Association.
The school also hosts the biennial Institute of Work Psychology International Conference on work, wellbeing and performance, which brings together over 200 business experts and practitioners in work psychology from all over the world. Other recent conferences include ‘Volunteering as Leisure: Leisure as Volunteering’, in which the benefits of volunteering to organisations and employees was discussed.
If you are interested in the expert lecture series or any of our conferences, contact the external relations team through our Management Gateway: management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
We listen to youTo access any of our services and for further information, visit the Management Gateway: management.sheffield.ac.uk
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DIFFERENCEMAKING A
THESE ARE CHALLENGING TIMES FOR MANAGERS. The after-effects of the financial crash continue to impact on the economic performance of the
private sector, government austerity measures still threaten the delivery of vital public services, and our continued dependency on fossil fuels makes ever more urgent the search for sustainable alternatives.
It is against this backdrop that we publish the first edition of Review, Sheffield University Management School’s new publication that demonstrates how the properly harnessed power of research can drive change in organisations in a way that improves performance, stimulates innovation, and promotes socially responsible work practices.
As one of just 58 management and business schools around the globe to be awarded the coveted Triple Crown – international recognition of our outstanding contribution to the study and practice of management from the world’s three most prestigious accreditation agencies – our research teams are making an impact at local, national and international level.
The range and depth of our research is changing the way supply chains function, making them vital links in the creation of a low carbon economy; it is changing the way we think about entrepreneurialism to build greater resilience in our regional economies; it is developing smarter ways of thinking about logistics, dramatically reducing waste and improving customer satisfaction; and it is cultivating leadership skills in both the private and the public sectors that open the door to innovations in service delivery and the development of new manufacturing processes.
In all of these research projects our ultimate aim is to use the knowledge we gain in our investigations to make a difference. We do this best, however, when we work in partnership with others. That is why, at the heart of everything we do, there is a spirit of collaboration. We know that the challenging economic and social issues of our times are beyond the scope of a simple technological fix, or a single discipline. They demand a collaborative, and often multidisciplinary, search for solutions.
Words: John Yates
one of just 58 management and business schools around the globe to be awarded the
coveted Triple Crown
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In the pages that follow you will see examples of this collaborative research approach in action. You will see how our partnerships with some of the leading names on the high street are bringing about a revolution in reverse logistics that is transforming the way major retail companies and their complex supply chains manage the flow of surplus or unwanted products returned by customers.
The Reverse Logistics Toolkit, designed and developed by our own Professor John Cullen, in collaboration with researchers at Cranfield University, has rapidly become an essential weapon in the fight against waste. Companies using the toolkit have already seen savings on returns of up to 40 per cent, a significant figure given that total UK retail returns have been valued at around £6billion per annum. The toolkit has enabled companies to reduce costs, improve service provision and reduce transport movements.
So successful has this toolkit become that the Department for Transport has identified it as setting benchmark standards in the industry and said:
“The work undertaken by Sheffield and Cranfield in developing their Reverse Logistics Toolkit has played a significant part in providing organisations with the ability to review their reverse logistics processes and also identify performance improvement steps aimed at improving efficiency, reducing costs and improving customer service.”
The key to this research is the building of long-term relationships and trust. In this case the partnerships have been between academics from different disciplines and different universities, and between them and companies working in the fiercely competitive world of the retail sector. Our role, in this case, is to listen to businesses, to understand their drivers and imperatives, and to provide them with a toolkit based on robust and reliable research that is both practical and effective to implement.
Our research into supply chains has also led to the development of a management tool that allows procurement teams to identify ways of dramatically reducing their carbon footprint by identifying emissions hotspots downstream from their core activities. In the case of one major manufacturer of precision engineering products, deploying the Supply Chain Environmental Analysis Tool helped them introduce initiatives leading to a reduction in their C02 emissions to 38 per cent below the government’s benchmark.
In an increasingly tough regulatory climate, where breaches of emissions targets can be punitive, the development of smart tools for identifying where quick wins can be made, and where long-term solutions can be developed, is vital for British business to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Such smart management tools are also integral to providing the wider economy with sustainable growth.
Too often in the past, smaller businesses have tended to see universities as too big, too complicated and too
costly to engage with. That is changing “ “
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The importance of socially responsible work practices and sustainable solutions is reflected in the appointment of Professor David Oglethorpe as our new Dean. Before becoming Dean, David was our Chair of Environmental Sustainability, a role that saw him working across disciplines, bringing different types of thinking – environmental economics, land use and social science – to bear on problems of common concern.
Inevitably, many of our most recent research projects are linked in some way to the turbulence created by the 2008 financial crisis and to the restructuring and rebalancing of economies.
Whether at the European level in the pioneering work of Professor Jason Heyes and his colleague Ludek Rychly – a former deputy-minister in the Czech republic – or at the regional level in the work of Dr Nick Williams and Dr Tim Vorley, our academics are working with public and private sector partners in the quest to find the most effective research-based responses to the promotion of economic growth and innovation.
In the case of Heyes and Rychly, their research makes it clear that those countries with a good social dialogue and close social partner involvement in the governance of public employment services are more likely to keep workers in their jobs during a severe downturn: an important lesson for policy makers across the European Union.
Closer to home, Vorley and Williams’ collaboration with the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership reveals how past attempts at business support and the stimulation of business start-ups has failed to produce the lasting, sustainable growth that the region requires. As their research relationship develops, the search is on for solutions that foster the creation of a much more congenial entrepreneurial climate.
Promoting a more entrepreneurial culture requires leadership from people who are often under intense pressure, from institutional public sector cutbacks or commercial competition. Taking time out to cultivate the qualities of leadership is a risk, but another research-based tool developed by the Management School reduces that risk and is proving an effective instrument to leverage change at the top of organisations.
The CLEAR IDEAS leadership tool, designed and developed by Dr Kamal Birdi, is being successfully deployed by the senior management of seven councils across the Sheffield City Region and has also been taken up by central government, where it is now being used by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills to stretch and develop their own decision makers.
As we move forward, our goal is to not only develop and deepen our research collaborations with existing partners, but to widen the range of scope of our activities. SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy, the building blocks of the enterprise culture and the source of innovation and change. Too often in the past, smaller businesses have tended to see universities as too big, too complicated and too costly to engage with.
That has to, and is changing. Tailored research and support that is flexible and bespoke to the needs of the business, is now a vital part of our offer. Our academic researchers and Masters students are among the best and the brightest, but are a largely untapped resource that business can and should engage with. The knowledge exchange process this sparks is of benefit to both stakeholders.
A common complaint from entrepreneurs and business people is business schools can be difficult to navigate and hard to form relationships with. Our aim at Sheffield University Management School is to ensure that the gateway to our research capabilities is open and accessible and that where there are real synergies between our strengths and a potential partner’s needs, there should be no bureaucratic hurdle preventing that partnership developing.
Our research centres – including the Logistics and Supply Chain Management Research Centre; the Centre for Energy, Environment and Sustainability; the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development; and the Institute of Work Psychology
– develop and sustain long-term relationships with clients and partners.
But we are not complacent. We know how vital it is that we engage with the business leaders of today to help shape the business leaders of tomorrow and to inform our research. This publication is just one of many ways we will communicate with organisations. We hope the interest it ignites will encourage you to engage with us – our goal is to use management research to make a difference
– to you, your organisation and the markets and communities you serve.
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WITH LITTLE SIGN THAT THE impact of climate change will be reduced in the near future it is vital that the public and private sectors develop strategies for dealing with the inevitable increase in severe weather-related conditions.
Few researchers are as well qualified to lead that quest for the most appropriate responses as Sheffield University Management School’s Martina McGuinness, who is an internationally acknowledged expert in the field of risk management and business continuity planning – though it might seem strange that flood-afflicted Sheffield should be playing a part in a major research project in how best to deal with the impact of drought.
“Our new project brings together a powerful consortium of research skills from across the country, and will integrate arts, humanities and social science research methods, with hydrological, meteorological, agricultural and ecological science knowledge through multi-partner collaboration,” says Martina, a former commercial insurance broker and liability investigator, whose research talents have helped the team to secure close to £3.4million in funding for this latest piece of ground-breaking work.
“It may seem strange that Sheffield with its recent history of floods, should be the hub of research into preparing for droughts, but we are also doing some pioneering work with small and medium sized companies in helping them develop resilience to floods,” said Martina.
“But this latest piece of research will span seven case-study catchment areas and use radically different techniques to gather information.”
Through a storytelling approach, scientists will exchange cutting edge science with different drought stakeholders, and these stakeholders will, in turn, exchange their knowledge. These stakeholders will include people involved in construction; gardeners and allotment holders; small and large businesses; local authorities; emergency planners; recreational water users; biodiversity managers; public health professionals - both physical and mental health; and local communities/public.
It was the novel nature of the research project that has attracted so much interest from policy makers and support from funding agencies, including the Natural Environment Research Council: “This research will make a significant contribution to drought policy and practices in the way it brings different stakeholder drought narratives into thinking about and developing drought resilience,” she said.
The interdisciplinary and narrative-based research methods are designed to enhance and dovetail with the impact strategy giving opportunities for new and innovative approaches to achieving impact.
“Our approach will deploy a number of communication tools to engage new and different audiences, which will enable the inclusion of lay voices and narrative data to influence the policy process. Policy makers have to balance all these competing interests – so, rather than handing policymakers the science, our project will supply the whole data package,” she said. “In the current climate, this project could not be more relevant.”
ACADEMIC PROFILE:
MARTINA MCGUINNESS
Taking charge of climate change
PROTECTING
PROMOTING
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BUSINESS CONTINUITY & RESILIENCE
PROFOUND CHANGES IN THE WAY the European Union tackles the so-called ‘shadow economy’ are being made following a series of joint research projects between the public and private sectors with Sheffield University Management School’s Professor Colin Williams playing a leading role.
Recent European Union legislation designed to tackle the problem of undeclared work has been shaped and influenced by the work of Professor Williams, which challenges the accepted view that because this kind of work is always dangerously exploitative and carried out under poor working conditions, it should be eradicated.
A more balanced – and penetrating – analysis of the problem made by Professor Williams, has discovered that aspects of this undeclared work are evidence of a ‘hidden enterprise culture’ that policy makers should seek to harness and legitimise rather than eradicate. His research has also revealed that much of this undeclared work is in the form of ‘paid favours’ for family, friends and neighbours: and thus has an important role to play in creating active citizenship and the strengthening of communities.
Professor Williams’s thinking was crucial in designing a key piece of social research involving three private sector partners – Regioplan, Rockwool and the global market research company TNS – into the nature and extent of undeclared work across the economies of the European Union.
Conducted under the auspices of the European Commission’s Eurobarometer survey, his 2013 survey was the largest of its kind undertaken, and involved more than 26,000 face-to-face interviews in 27 countries. The results of the survey confirmed that Professor Williams had been right to challenge the consensus view of undeclared work as a form of sweatshop exploitation. The survey revealed that 23 per cent of undeclared work in the EU-27 was informal waged employment, 22 per cent self-employed entrepreneurial endeavour and 55 per cent paid favours.”
These results led him to take part in a collaborative venture with the Dutch consultancy, Regioplan, which went on to develop a knowledge bank of best policy practice based on what was happening in five key European Union member states. The success of this study led to funding from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, and the expansion of the research to include 33 countries.
WORKERS,
ENTERPRISE
ABOVE: Sheffield University Management School’s Professor Colin Williams
It has been a fascinating journey and shows what can be achieved when university based researchers collaborate with private sector experts in market research and regional planning, and public sector policy makers at the highest level
“
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“The results of our work attracted the attention of policy makers and politicians within the European Union, and we were invited to present our findings to the European Commission’s Directorate-General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities,” Professor Williams added.
“We discussed a shift in policy away from trying to eradicate undeclared work across the 27 member states towards one in which it could be harnessed and legitimised. This would have the benefit of stimulating economic growth, promoting new businesses, boosting the enterprise culture and citizenship, and raising tax takes.”
As the interest of policy makers increased so did that of legislators. In 2008, his work began to shape a European Parliament resolution: “When the motion eventually came before the European Parliament it called for a shift towards enabling the formalisation of undeclared work, the creation of a knowledge bank of good practice policy measures to facilitate this shift, and for more coordinated action across governments,” said Professor Williams. A satisfying moment as each of these recommendations had been made in his 2008 report Tackling undeclared work in the European Union. The motion became law when it was passed by a substantial majority of MEPs.
But how should the law be implemented? Again EU legislators and policy makers turned to Professor Williams and his private sector collaborators in Regioplan. Having won a €460,000 tender, Professor Williams and his team set about designing the most effective, pan European platform for tackling undeclared work.
“This aspect of the work involved extensive consultation with senior government officials, as well as employer and employee representative organisations throughout every member state of the EU-27. The outcome was a joined-up and coordinated approach to the problem of undeclared work, based on accurate, up-to-date research,” Professor Williams said.
Professor Williams found his ideas were put at the heart of the European Commission’s Towards a job-rich recovery document, which launched a ‘consultation on setting up an EU-level platform between labour inspectorates and other enforcement bodies to combat undeclared work, aimed at improving cooperation, sharing best practice and identifying common principles for inspections’.
Earlier this year those principles were embodied in the second legislative initiative inspired by the Professor Williams’ thinking, which was passed by the European Parliament in January 2014.
“It has been a fascinating journey and shows what can be achieved when university researchers collaborate with private sector experts in market research and regional planning, and public sector policy makers at the highest level,” he added.
Professor Williams has founded and now Chairs the Hidden Economy Expert Group here in the UK.
THE CASH-IN-HAND CULTURE of the building and construction trades across Europe is not entirely driven by the customer’s desire to save money, according to an award winning piece of research involving Sheffield University Management School and the School of Modern Languages.
“This means that changing the cost/benefit ratio confronting consumers when choosing to use the cash-in-hand economy is unlikely to be a successful deterrent strategy,” said Professor Colin Williams, co-author of How much for cash? Tackling the cash-in-hand culture in the European property and construction sector.
The paper, published in Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, argues that policy makers need to turn their attention to improving the availability, speed, reliability and quality of more legitimate markets if they want to stop this practice.
“We also found that many of these cash-in-hand transactions were part of a social and redistributive system between friends, family and neighbours, which will not be affected by cost/benefit approaches,” Professor Williams added. “This is another example of how policy makers can be misled by popular misconceptions, and how robust research should be a vital tool in shaping governmental responses to the management of modern economies.
“Our research challenges the conventional assumption that consumers using cash-in-hand transactions are rational economic actors doing so simply to save money.”
Professor Williams and his team examined evidence from a 2007 Eurobarometer survey involving 26,659 face-to-face interviews across 27 European Union member states to unravel the hidden decision making choices being made by consumers.
“What we found is that saving money is the sole motive of consumers in just 38 per cent of cash-in-hand transactions in the European property and construction sector,” Professor Williams said. “Besides, saving money, consumers engage in cash-in-hand transactions to circumvent the shortcomings of formal sector provision in terms of its availability, speed and quality, as well as for social and redistributive rationales.”
His work reveals the need for in-depth qualitative research to unravel consumers’ complex and diverse reasons for getting involved in this shadowy market.
CA$H?HOW MUCH FOR
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A FLOURISHING ENTERPRISE CULTURE IS seen as the key to regional economic resilience in Britain, but poses a tough challenge for northern cities dealing with the legacy of dependency on big state-owned industries and the public sector.
In a groundbreaking study on the link between a thriving entrepreneurial culture and economic resilience, researchers from Sheffield University Management School have subjected their home city to a forensic investigation.
Dr Nick Williams and Dr Tim Vorley conducted an intensive series of interviews with key players across the public and private sectors of the Sheffield City Region, along with an exhaustive examination of the current research literature on entrepreneurship and economic resilience.
Their findings in the paper Economic resilience and entrepreneurship: lessons from the Sheffield City Region, will help policy makers at both national and regional level refine their approaches to the support of entrepreneurs, and should be essential reading in council chambers across the north and among Whitehall mandarins.
One of the many themes they identify is that the conventional public sector approach to business support is not working – indeed, it could even by having a negative effect on stimulating economic resilience and growth.
“Developing a more enterprising and entrepreneurial economy has become the underlying imperative in the Sheffield City Region, with a view to it becoming more competitive and more resilient,” Dr Williams said.
“However, despite both the Local Enterprise Partnership and local authority policy to promote entrepreneurship the consensus among the stakeholders interviewed was that the prevailing nature of enterprise support has resulted in the creation of businesses that were likely to make little contribution to the resilience or growth of the Sheffield City Region.”
In their paper, the two researchers quote a number of well-placed sources, one of whom said that: “Business support in the city has been over-saturated. For too long providers have been too target focused. Supporting 500 businesses is pretty pointless if they do not have the potential to grow.
There has been unprecedented support for entrepreneurship but it has had questionable impacts. We haven’t seen an increase in the start-up rates, so we need to look again at what works and what doesn’t. We haven’t become more resilient because the sustainability of the businesses supported can be questioned.”
RESILIENCE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE REGIONS
BUSINESS CONTINUITY & RESILIENCE
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The researchers draw three key conclusions that have profound implications for policy makers. First, they note that while the shift from Regional Development Agencies to LEPs as more functional economic areas has been important, it is the LEPs’ strategic function as an intermediary in coordinating and enrolling other stakeholders across the public and private sectors that is critical.
Second, their findings show that while there is a need to identify and build on the core competencies of regions, there is also a need to look beyond the extension of existing paths to the renewal and creation of new routes. “This is not about picking winners, but rather creating conditions which allow entrepreneurship to thrive and contribute to the diversification of economic activity,” said Dr Vorley.
Finally, the authors highlight the need to ensure that any entrepreneurial response meaningfully combines, and is premised upon, public-private partnering. “While successive UK governments have provided an abundance of enterprise support, this needs to create the conditions for high growth, flexible and adaptable businesses to thrive rather than increasing the number of start-ups per se,” Dr Williams added.
Developing a more enterprising and entrepreneurial economy has become the underlying imperative in the Sheffield City Region, with a view to it becoming more competitive and more resilient
“
“
TEA AND COFFEE FARMERS FROM Kenya and Tanzania were among the international food producers who took part in a global workshop hosted by a new multi-disciplinary team including researchers from Sheffield University Management School.
The World Bank forecasts that demand for key agricultural commodities will outstrip supply in the next five years due to factors including climate change and volatile pricing. “To meet this challenge we have helped establish the Building Up Resilience in Supply Chains (BURNS) group,” said environmental sustainability researcher, Professor David Oglethorpe, Dean of the Management School.
“The BURNS project seeks to better understand what underpins resilience and sustainability in the international agricultural supply chains, which is vitally important given the recent World Bank forecast,” Professor Oglethorpe added.
The overall aim of the project – which is a collaborative venture between diverse research teams at Sheffield, Leeds and York universities – is to find ways to improve the resilience of these global food supply chains, which will benefit the producers, the environment and the customer.
“The recent workshop at York was part of our plan to set up an academic and practitioner network where we can share best practice in supply chain management using a variety of models from fair trade partnerships to corporate supply initiatives,” Professor Oglethorpe added.
The team will be working with manufacturers, traders, processors, fair trade organisations, NGOs and Southern Producer Groups to identify key aspects of resilient supply chains. “Our group is still in its infancy, but the urgency with which we need to build resilience in the global food supply chain network is ever more pressing. We will only do that by a collaborative approach that draws on all our talents,” Professor Oglethorpe said.
Securing food supply chains
If this could impact on your organisation, or if you want to know more, get in touch via management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
20
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
A POWERFUL BUSINESS TOOL FOR reducing carbon footprints within industry is significantly improving the way procurement teams around the world are selecting and developing their often diverse and complex supply chains.
CREATING LOW CARBON SUPPLY CHAINS
“Our research into supply chain resource modelling has had economic and environmental impact, helping businesses adapt operations to achieve carbon-reduction targets, whilst reducing costs. It has also influenced regional and national business development strategy,” said Professor Koh, who leads the Low Carbon Supply Chain Project.
Working with international collaborators, Professor Koh and her team undertook new research on green supply chain theory through the study of firms in Europe and Asia.
“We used systems theory to examine how decisions informed by a whole supply chain or an intra-organisational approach could improve performance across the supply chain,” she said. “We then focused specifically on low carbon supply chain management, the impact of environmental directives on intra-organisational decisions and established the need for a comprehensive decision support system for carbon management across the supply chain. The result is a very powerful tool to reduce carbon footprints.”
At a regional level Professor Koh and her team have worked closely with economic decision makers and industry leaders, including members of the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Chambers of Commerce. “As a result of this partnership we are now working to refine and develop the tool to make it even more accessible to business users.” Professor Koh said.
The Supply Chain Environmental Analysis Tool (SCEnAT) is the brainchild of Professor Lenny Koh (pictured left) and her team at Sheffield University Management School. Already the free to use, internet-based tool, has helped businesses change their operations to reduce C02 emissions, make cost savings of up to £250,000 per company, and improve their performance through
– in one case – winning additional contracts worth £1.75million.
21
ECONOMIC STRATEGISTS IN CHINA AND Europe are exploring the use of a radically different business accountancy model that provides a more accurate measure of the long-term sustainability of their growth plans.
“The more conventional accountancy models do not balance the bottom line with the social, ecological and environmental costs of industrialisation and growth,” said Frank Birkin, Sheffield University Management School Professor in Accountancy for Sustainable Development, who has developed a new accountancy model that is transforming the way some of the world’s fastest growing regions are thinking about their long-term future.
A frequent visitor to China – where his ideas are grabbing the attention of academics and government figures in Jiangsu, Yunnan, and, recently, in the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Science, Beijing – Professor Birkin is helping policy makers shape the institutional frameworks they need build to make economic growth sustainable in the long term.
Best known for his work on Sustainable Tourism Environmental Protection Systems which has attracted substantial EU funding, Professor Birkin co-hosted a conference on sustainable tourism in Venice that attracted delegates from the European Commission, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Tourism Organisation, the World Wide Fund for Nature, as well as the national Italian environmental agency.
ABOVE: Professor Frank Birkin, right, visiting a
manufacturing facility of the DAQO Group in Jiangsu, China
“Harnessing the findings of university-based research to economic and environmental policy in countries with phenomenal economic growth such as China could help put their development on a much more sustainable footing,” he said.
Accounting for
growth
LEADING HIGH STREET RETAILERS AND their global supply chain partners are deploying a reverse logistics business tool that produces reductions in returns from customers. Given the £6billion value of returns and the potential to reduce this figure by 40 per cent, this represents a reduction of around £2.4billion.
Developed by a team of researchers at Sheffield University School of Management and Cranfield University School of Management, the Reverse Logistics Toolkit is regarded by the Department for Transport as setting benchmark standards for the logistics industry and is now a key feature of its Freight Best Practice website.
For Sheffield’s Professor of Management Accounting, John Cullen, and his collaborator at Cranfield, Mike Bernon, the toolkit is the culmination of a three-year project that involved interaction with managers from more than 40 retail sector companies up and down the country. RE
VERS
ING
TOW
ARDS
SUC
CESS “A key driver of our toolkit was the need to understand costs
and value creation across the supply chain,” Professor Cullen said. “Consequently, our research incorporated management accounting techniques such as quality costing, opportunity costing, activity based costing, and the balanced scorecard approach into the toolkit to improve both diagnosis and performance management.”
Indeed, one high street retailer who has taken advantage of the toolkit reports 40 per cent reductions in its direct-sourced returns from Far East suppliers, resulting in a reduced risk of exposure to the business and significant financial and customer service improvements. Changes introduced through the reverse logistics project saw the value of returns during the period fall by on average £450,000 per month, which represents an annual reduction of around £5.4million per year.
The head of quality and cost reduction at the well-known chain said: “The reverse logistics project had a major influence on our processes. It has helped to increase awareness of the issues and the large potential for improvement to both bottom line performance and customer service through the introduction of improved systems. The identification of new tools and the support provided by discussions at workshops has played a vital part in the implementation of change in our business.”
If this could impact on your organisation, or if you want to know more, get in touch via management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
22
WITH AN ESTIMATED 370MILLION WORKING days a year in the UK spent dealing with ‘conflict’ issues in the workplace, it is vital that HR managers are equipped to identify and resolve these issue promptly and effectively.
But that is not happening. According to a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, including Professor Paul Latreille of Sheffield University Management School, “the focus on the problem of employment tribunal volumes has overshadowed broader changes in workplace relations which have fundamentally weakened the capacity of organisations to manage and resolve conflict within the workplace.”
How to deal with those changes was the subject of an insightful series of seminars funded by the Economic and Social Research Council which drew together the research excellence of some of the UK’s best management schools, along with business leaders and policy makers.
Resolving Conflict in the Workplace
The seminars have brought together leading practitioners and researchers in the field of employment conflict resolution and have shown what can be achieved when mediation agencies and research come together to share ideas and perspectives
“ “
23
“The series deepened our understanding of workplace dispute resolution and provided the basis for more effective policy and practice,” said Professor Latreille. Most importantly, perhaps, it helped the leading employment dispute resolution agency, Acas, in advising government on policy changes, and in shaping the provision of advice services for employers and employees.
“The seminars have brought together leading practitioners and researchers in the field of employment conflict resolution and have shown what can be achieved when mediation agencies and research come together to share ideas and perspectives,” Professor Latreille said.
According to the Head of Strategy at Acas, Gill Dix: “A clear conclusion is that a pre-occupation with employment tribunal volumes has distorted the overall picture. While there was very significant growth in applications during the 1990s, over the past decade, unfair dismissal claims have remained relatively stable and the number of single claims shows a small downward trajectory.
“High volumes can be partly explained by large-scale multiple claims relating to issues such as equal pay, redundancy and working time. This perhaps suggests that the most significant change has not been to the nature or extent of workplace conflict, but to the channels through which it is expressed and potentially resolved. In short, it is not conflict but systems of conflict resolution that have become increasingly individualised.”
The researchers agreed that this process has created a ‘resolution gap’ within companies, both large and small. However, having identified the problem, there was less clarity on the solutions. Indeed, an Acas report on the seminar series concluded that the task of filling this ‘resolution gap’ is more problematic. This is due in no small measure to the lack of reliable data and research on the issue.
Professor Latreille has presented on content management systems recently at a series of practitioner events and is keen to work with organisations on ‘plugging the resolution gap’ his research so far has identified. He said: “To grow a greater body of evidence, I am happy to work with organisations in relation to conflict, and in particular evaluating the impact of measures such as mediation. My recent presentations were of great interest to the practitioners attending.”
AS AN OCCUPATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST AND researcher on the issue, Dr Christine Sprigg is no stranger to the impact that employee bad behaviour, such as violence, bullying and incivility, in the workplace can have on the wellbeing of staff. She is also aware that the focus of attention has often been on the outcomes of such behaviour, and not on how best to limit its impact.
“Bad behaviour at work is an emerging research issue and knowledge in this area is still relatively young,” said Dr Sprigg of the Institute of Work Psychology at Sheffield University Management School.
Dr Sprigg’s research – funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Europe’s leading body for health and safety professionals – not only examines the longer term effect of workplace violence on staff, but also suggests ways of reducing the health and wellbeing consequences.
“Our research team was one of the first to examine both work-related violence from within organisations by other employees and from outside of organisations by customers,” she said. “The aim was to understand more about the complex nature of bad behaviour by taking a novel multi-sector approach, in collaboration with a number of large organisations.”
The centerpiece of the research is a two time-point empirical study that evaluates the relationships between bad events within the workplace and employee health and wellbeing consequences. “This enables us to address some the weaknesses of earlier single-time point research in this area,” said Dr Sprigg.
Christine’s findings may be of interest to employers in both the private and the public sectors. In 2008, for instance, violence between workers resulted in 6,000 reported injuries. The British Crime Survey over the same period found that there were in excess of 300,000 threats of violence, and a similar number of actual cases of physical violence, against British workers.
“I describe myself as an academic work psychologist interested in the dark side of work,” said Dr Sprigg. “But what we do is try to shed the light of research on that dark side and work with organisations to ensure that our findings lead to new ways of limiting the damage to employees.”
BAD BEHAVIOUR& EMPLOYEE HEALTH
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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
FOR MANY COMPANY BOSSES THE very idea of allowing employees to take time off from their day-job to do voluntary work will be seen as bad for business, but new research shows the opposite can be the case – volunteering can be both good for the bottom line and good for the local community.
A joint project between Dr Jon Burchell, of Sheffield University Management School, and Dr Joanne Cook of the University of Hull Business School, shows that while employer sponsored volunteering projects can benefit both firms and communities, there are sometimes hidden barriers to be overcome to making this work effectively.
“Our research shows employers can benefit directly from encouraging their staff to take part in volunteering activities,” said Dr Burchell. “In the extensive interviews we have conducted in this project there is clear evidence that staff motivation, morale, loyalty and skills are improved by volunteer activity.”
He said that while the corporate social responsibility agenda encourages Employer Sponsored Volunteering (ESV), the area remains relatively under-researched, with little understanding of the employee’s experiences of volunteering, the tools required for understanding the impact of volunteering on companies and local communities, and the barriers and constraints to creating effective business-community partnerships.
The research concludes, however, that to ensure ESV has a true impact, there must be greater consideration of how its potential can be effectively harnessed for the benefit of both sides in the relationship.
Dr Burchell said: “Achieving this requires greater investment, understanding and coordination. Brokerage has a key part to play in this but in its current format, under existing resource constraints, brokerage organisations may struggle to fulfil this role.
“Issues of scales and the need for capacity building have to be addressed for these processes to have the fullest impact. Brokerage has the potential to provide the bridge between businesses and third sector organisations by developing a stronger understanding of the needs and challenges of both sides.
“Brokers can function as intermediaries to counteract power imbalances and help third sector groups to transfer social needs and actions into a business language. However lack of resources to support this and pressures to commercialise the process and become financially self-sustaining put many of these activities under significant pressure.”
VOLUNTEERINGand the bottom line
Their research addresses many of these issues and presents findings on ESV and the brokering of relationships between businesses and the third sector. This is all the more important since the financial crash of 2008 and the subsequent reductions in government spending on the voluntary sector.
“There is increasing demand from within the third sector to find new avenues of support given the cuts in government support. At the same time, demand from companies is evident through the increasingly central role of ESV as part of a core corporate social responsibility strategy. Volunteering is seen here as a key demonstration of a company’s commitment to the local communities within which they function,” Dr Burchell said.
But bringing the two communities together – the business and voluntary sectors – is not always easy. “While corporate social responsibility and ESV have resulted in opportunities for the third sector to engage directly with business, these relationships often struggle to develop effectively without some form of brokerage and funding support,” he added.
Their in-depth study of how three different companies approach volunteering provides insights into the motivations for ‘giving something back to the community.’ These range from improving or restoring a company’s reputation, through to community pride and wanting to rediscover the company’s roots.
Our research shows employers can benefit directly from encouraging their staff to take part in volunteering activities
““
25
FROM SPEARHEADING THE MANAGEMENT SCHOOL’S MSc in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, to being hand-picked by Al Gore as an International Climate Leader – Dr Alok Choudhary’s sustainable credentials are influencing organisations on an international scale.
ACADEMIC PROFILE:
DR ALOK CHOUDHARY
Knowledge for sustainability
So what drew the Nobel Prize winner and ex-Vice President to approach Alok? In short, his expertise. Gore has identified a select group of academics, NGOs, independent practitioners in the sector and entrepreneurs from across the world to become Climate Leaders. Now he has attended a Chicago-based training workshop where he met the man himself, Alok’s responsibilities include raising awareness of the global climate crisis to stakeholders, including those on his major research project – Next Generation Sustainable Freight Transportation (NEX-GIFT).
The NEX-GIFT team, which includes representatives from major universities in America and India, are researching new and existing methodologies, identifying best practices and creating a knowledge framework for reducing the environmental impact caused by the freight industry in the UK, USA and India. They hold annual workshops attended by leading industry representatives that will benefit from the study.
Dr Choudhary believes that substantial changes can be made through his pioneering research. He said: “Moving freight creates traffic congestion, air pollution, and noise and consumes fuel. Growing worldwide trade and intense pressure to reduce cost and environmental impact of this aging system will have serious and irreversible consequences. Therefore, there is a growing need for a coherent approach for freight transportation and logistics offering an opportunity for reinforced co-operation between freight transportation researchers in three continents.”
Read more about the Climate Reality Project which Alok is so closely involved in on the website: www.climaterealityproject.org
26
THE OFGIVINGAN INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF RESEARCHERS from Britain and Canada is collaborating on a project to show business leaders how philanthropic sponsoring of the arts can actually give their companies a competitive edge over their less charitable rivals.
Dr Marta Herrero of Sheffield University Management School (pictured below) is working closely with colleagues in Canada, to understand how companies, large and small, make decisions about philanthropic arts activities, and how they see this as a way to improve their overall standing in the market place.
“Boosting business-giving to the arts in Britain has been a central tenet of the coalition government’s arts policy,” says Dr Herrero. But the rhetoric has been harder to turn in to reality. In 2011 – the year the then Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, declared a year of corporate philanthropy – donations to the arts actually fell by seven per cent to a level lower than seven years earlier.
“Last autumn, for the fourth year in a row, donations continued their downward trajectory with total investment down to £134.2million,” Dr Herrero added.
“Along with the continuing declines, the figures also show an increasing gap in support between London-based arts organisations and other regions.”
She added that while the downward trend of business support for the arts remains a concern, the case for corporate philanthropy of the arts is clear: “The arts can play a vital role in corporate social responsibility programmes, helping those communities that matter to businesses.”
ART
in conversation with Dr Marta Herrero
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Green theory
not yet practice
27
In 2011 – the year the then Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt,
declared a year of corporate philanthropy – donations to the arts actually fell by seven per cent to a level lower than seven years earlier
PLACING THE BRITISH ECONOMY ON a more sustainable footing will require entrepreneurs and government to be much more innovative over the next four decades if the country is to make a successful shift towards greener ways of doing business.
To assist this transformation a team of leading researchers from across the UK have been tasked with addressing six different, but related challenges, facing policy makers and business leaders in the coming decades as Britain attempts to make the transition to a more carbon neutral future.
SUPPLY CHAIN AND PROCUREMENT MANAGERS across a wide spectrum of UK businesses have limited understanding of green principles and continue to make key purchasing decisions based on traditional criteria, such as cost and quality.
Her research shows there is a rationale for corporate arts philanthropy:
“The arts can help business enhance their branding and marketing strategies, they can help improve staff productivity and develop innovation.”
With her Canadian colleagues she argues that the role of business philanthropy in the arts can extend to much more than the bottom line:
“The most important thing for corporate arts philanthropy to play a key role as a mechanism for social change is for business and arts organisations to work together in this endeavour. Understanding businesses' thinking and needs, their different budgets and stakeholders, as well as how the arts contribute to their communities, the audiences they attract and the important role they play in driving innovation and creativity.
“The motivations for corporate arts philanthropy are different, but they still need objectives that need to be addressed and fulfilled in collaboration with their art partner.”
-7%
This finding comes from a joint research project between Sheffield University Management School and the University of Naples, which is now one of the most cited studies of its kind in the world. According to one of the authors of Greener supplier selection: state of the art and some empirical evidence, Dr Andrea Genovese, there is a mismatch between the theory of green procurement and what is actually happening on the ground.
A specialist in logistics and supply chains at the Management School, Dr Genovese says their research raises a number of important questions that policy makers need to consider
GREENER MARKETING
According to marketing researcher, Dr Diana Gregory-Smith of Sheffield University Management School: “It is widely acknowledged that this transition to a low carbon economy is unlikely to occur unless radical changes take place on the policy and technology fronts as well as within the organisational structures and how companies see their relationship with the environment. Yet, the presence of various market failures dominate the scene and, as a result, many innovations will not efficiently materialise.”
Dr Gregory-Smith is one of a team of academics tasked with looking at how this transition could be made more efficiently. She will host one of six seminars across the country, drawing together leading researchers, policy makers and business leaders.
“I am interested in how marketing can be used l to change consumer habits, and drive the demand for greener goods and services. Nothing stimulates innovation and growth more than untapped demand, so this could be a valuable tool in making the transition to the low carbon economy,” Dr Gregory-Smith said.
as a matter of urgency: “We need to understand the current degree of penetration of emerging green issues in supplier selection corporate practice. In our research we looked at more than 100 companies in the Sheffield City Region. We wanted to know to what extent firms are incorporating greener supplier selection criteria into their supplier selection practices and what the barriers might be.”
The results make uncomfortable reading for policy makers, politicians and procurement managers keen to bring green thinking into the real world of business decision making.
Green theory
not yet practice
If this of interest to your organisation, or if you want to know more, get in touch via management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
28
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF RESEARCHERS is investigating how the textile and automotive industries in the rapidly developing economies of Brazil and South Africa manage labour and employment standards in their supply chains.
The team, led by Professor Pauline Dibben at Sheffield University Management School, and including partners from the Universities of Warwick, and from Brazil and South Africa, is looking at the extent to which companies consider employment practices in their accounting procedures.
“It is interesting to see if organisations keep careful accounts on social issues such as the number of women working and how much they are paid, how many disabled people they employ and how they manage people from different ethnic backgrounds,” Professor Dibben said.
The team draws on expertise in employment relations, supply chain accounting, and supply chain management, and is supported by a strong advisory board boasting academics and practitioners from three countries, whose knowledge and experience are highly complementary to the international project. The advisory board includes members of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Chartered Institute for Management Accountants (CIMA).
Professor Dibben added: “We want to establish a formula for best-practice
– the project will result in a supply chain accounting and employment practices toolkit, and also contribute toward the development of supply chain accounting and global commodity chain theory.
Accounting for social issue
“It’s also exciting because we are focusing our research on South Africa and Brazil – two emerging economies. Accountants, CEOs, CFOs, HR specialists and other practitioners are engaged as well as employment rights lawyers, politicians and practitioners in other emerging economies. However, the workers themselves are perhaps the most important stakeholders.”
The research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC Grant reference: ES/K006452/1).
The team is keen for the project to help organisations reflect on what happens in their supply chain. Labour standards are a very topical issue and public awareness is growing due to news coverage of working conditions and fatal incidents in factories all over the world. Professor Dibben wants participating organisations to benefit from being involved in the project – she hopes that from engaging in the research, they will help to spread good practice.
You can read more about the project on its website: scaemp.group.shef.ac.uk.
SOCIAL ISSUES
Accounting for
The SCA-Emp Project Team. Back row (l-r): Prof Phil Johnson, Prof John
Cullen and Prof Geoffrey Wood; Middle row (l-r): Dr Juliana Meira, Dr
Debby Bonnin, Prof Luiz Miranda; Front: Principal Investigator Prof
Pauline Dibben
29
Opportunities and challenges of internationalising SMEs
DR PETER RODGERS, ALONG WITH Dr Nick Williams and Dr Tim Vorley, led a workshop in partnership with the South Yorkshire International Trade Centre, seeking to expose the misconceptions and myths of export and internationalisation of small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Dr Rodgers has been involved in research examining the core challenges faced by SMEs in the Sheffield City Region, who are seeking to internationalise. The background has been the political landscape in the UK, which has seen the coalition government seek to place an emphasis on export and internationalisation as a means to drive the UK’s economic recovery. However, research undertaken has highlighted the fact that there still exists
a fundamental ‘information gap’ pertaining to how private businesses, especially SMEs in general and start-ups in particular, understand and perceive the nature of undertaking internationalisation activities and the support agencies available to facilitate their global ambitions.
As such, the event focused on the practicalities faced by SMEs in the Sheffield City Region, looking at
the opportunities and challenges faced by micro-businesses with the aim to engage SME owners and entrepreneurs with internationalisation and export opportunities. ambitions. The event focused on the practicalities faced by SMEs in the Sheffield City Region, looking at the opportunities
and challenges faced by micro-businesses with the aim to engage SME owners and
entrepreneurs with internationalisation and export opportunities.
THE OUTSOURCING OF EMPLOYMENT SERVICES, especially since the global economic downturn, has encouraged short-term labour market integration measures and exacerbated the creaming off of easier-to-place ‘clients’ to the detriment of those who are most in need of assistance, according to a powerful new collaborative study.
“The 2008 financial crisis marked the beginning of a prolonged and ongoing period of extreme economic turbulence that has created multiple challenges for both governments and national systems of labour administration,” said Professor Jason Heyes, co-author of Labour Administration in Uncertain Times: Policy, Practice and Institutions.
Professor Heyes, Chair of Employment Relations at Sheffield University Management School, argues that the impact of the crisis has had a significant effect on labour ministries, which were facing substantial difficulties before the crisis began: “There has been a tendency for ministries of labour to lose authority as labour issues are subordinated to governments’ economic objectives and policy responsibilities transferred to ministries dealing with economic policy or social protection,” he said.
His work is written with colleague Dr Ludek Rychly, who is a Senior Labour Administration and Labour Inspection Specialist at the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
in Geneva and former Deputy-Minister for the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. With contributions from ILO officials and leading labour researchers from across the globe, their research takes an in depth look at how countries as diverse as the United States, Japan and the member states of the European Union have adapted their national labour administration systems and employment policies in response to the economic crisis.
“Countries with a good social dialogue and close social partner involvement in the governance of public employment services were more likely to keep workers in their jobs during the economic downturn,” said Professor Heyes. “When we look at the impact of austerity and cuts in government spending, it is clear that these are eroding the resources, capabilities and effectiveness of national labour administration systems and thereby encouraging an extension of the involvement of private and third-sector bodies in service delivery.
He concluded: “We show that harsh economic conditions are encouraging a re-evaluation of established policies and institutions in the areas of labour, employment, social protection and industrial relations. It is likely that the task of meeting service delivery obligations with reduced resources will remain one of the most serious challenges confronting senior managers of labour administration bodies for some time to come.”
Labour in uncertain times
30
LEADERSHIP
THE PRIVATE SECTOR MAY HAVE been the first casualty of the global financial crash, but government austerity measures to deal with the implications of the 2008 meltdown are now having a serious impact on the delivery of public services.
The conventional approach to such austerity – especially amongst local government administrators – has been service reductions and job cuts. But now the work of Dr Kamal Birdi of Sheffield University Management School is changing that approach for good.
An expert in organisational behaviour, Dr Birdi has built a powerful model known as CLEAR IDEAS to stimulate innovative approaches to the challenges posed by public sector spending cuts. Over the last four years this tool has helped enhance the leadership and managerial skills of senior council officers throughout the Sheffield City Region.
Along with colleagues in Sheffield Hallam University, the Sheffield City Region Leadership Programme has been devised to help them find new ways of dealing with the cut-backs and improve the efficient delivery of services. A successful series of two-day intensive modules, built around the principles embodied in CLEAR IDEAS, challenges delegates, including local council leaders, to think and act differently in the current climate of austerity.
The scheme has been so successful that it has not only been used by seven local authorities in the Sheffield City Region – Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Bolsover, North East Derbyshire, Doncaster and Chesterfield – but also by national bodies such as the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, the Scottish Government and the NHS. Private sector interest in the model is also growing rapidly.
Dr Birdi and his team evaluate each and every module and channel the knowledge gained from this feedback process into refining the CLEAR IDEAS tool. He says: “There is growing evidence of impact on enhancing the innovation resources and skills of employees. But we have also noticed there are downstream impacts. For instance, in our work with the police service in the Sheffield City Region we have noticed changes in the planning and management of services and on continuous improvement training.”
Indeed, the positive impact of the Leaders Programme has led South Yorkshire Police to adopt the CLEAR IDEAS model in their continuous improvement strategy as a supporting toolkit. This involves training officers, staff and service improvement groups in the use of the CLEAR IDEAS methodology so that this can be used throughout the organisation.
“To date, more than 100 employees of differing ranks and roles have taken part in workshops with the aim of developing innovative methods of reducing burglaries, vehicle crime and promoting more efficient working,” said Dr Birdi. “The progress of the ensuing initiatives is being monitored and there is evidence of improvement in service delivery. For example, one group within the force is working on implementing a new strategy for reducing the second-hand market for stolen goods.”
The evolution of Dr Birdi’s tool began with a study of 500 organisations for the then Department of Trade and Industry which revealed that, whilst innovative ideas can be plentiful, internal influences within organisations could prevent these from being implemented successfully. Probing deeper into the impact of creativity training in organisations strongly suggested that there was need to invent a new innovation training model, which developed the skills of employees and managers, to tackle both the creative and implementation aspects involved.
“We knew the model needed to be simple and systematic in order to make it memorable, applicable and accessible. The evidence shows there have been significant improvements in the innovation skill resources of CLEAR IDEAS training workshop participants, leading to notable organisation improvements,” he said.
APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP
ABOVE: Dr Birdi's workshops have proved
popular with the South Yorkshire Police and
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue
31
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION – THESE BUZZWORDS get thrown around regularly in management, but rarely translate seamlessly into organisations. Unless Dr Kamal Birdi has paid a visit.
Kamal, an active member of the Management School’s Institute of Work Psychology, has seen interest in his CLEAR IDEAS creativity training workshops grow rapidly and he now presents to a number of organisations. Those who have successfully integrated Kamal’s ideas into their day-to-day running include South Yorkshire Police, Sheffield City Council and an NHS Foundation Trust.
ACADEMIC PROFILE:
DR KAMAL BIRDI
A clear vision for the future of leadership
LEADERSHIP STYLES AND TALENT RETENTION are the keys to successful cross border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the rapidly changing, centrally controlled economy of China, according to an international research study.
Despite the global financial crash of 2008, the pace of change in the multi-billion dollar M&A market in China shows no sign of letting up. But, until recently, few researchers have been able to shine a spotlight on a still largely unknown aspect of business culture in China.
But a joint project involving Dr Shlomo Tarba of Sheffield University Management School and researchers from Nottingham Trent, Lancaster, and Warwick Universities has found that for mergers to be successful in China, the leadership styles of the new management are crucial to success.
Leadership key to mergers in China
This is important, as the most recent data shows 75 per cent of M&As by multinational enterprises in China either created no value or created significantly less value than expected.
Research found that the informal network of contacts between employees and government known as guanxi isn’t necessarily critical to success: “In our study of a European merger with a Chinese company we found that, contrary to prior research, guanxi with government is insignificant if the operation of the acquired Chinese company is not directly affected by the government or if the acquired firm is located in an economically developed area of China,” Dr Tarba said.
“We found authoritative, coaching, task-focused and relationship-focused leadership styles are appropriate for accomplishing an effective post-merger integration in Chinese context. Specifically, autocratic, empowering, democratic and pace setting leadership styles have been found to be unsuitable during post-merger integration in China. As far as talent retention strategies are concerned, authoritative leaders use communication, whereas leaders adopting a coaching style use an incentive structure to positively influence talent retention,” he added.
A recent talk, entitled ‘But I’m not Creative…’, saw Kamal evaluate the role of creativity training in promoting organisational innovation. Of the talk, he said: “I reviewed the research on creativity training in organisations and discussed the practical experience of running my CLEAR IDEAS workshops in organisations for the past eight years.”
Kamal’s teaching on the Sheffield City Region Leadership Programme has made a significant impression on South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue. Having experienced the impact his CLEAR IDEAS framework has had on their staff who have graduated from the programme, they invited Dr Birdi to facilitate a creative ideas session for middle-managers. Afterwards, they were given a task from senior managers to come up with new suggestions on reducing the organisation’s transport costs, ensuring firefighters are kept up-to-date with training and that key knowledge wasn’t lost when people left the organisation.
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NEW BUSINESS CREATION
The struggle for survival is a phenomenon that all small businesses have to contend with in today’s increasingly competitive, global and turbulent business environments. Never have the challenges of adaptation and learning been more salient for entrepreneurs and business leaders. 150 years after Darwin wrote his seminal book on the Origin of Species, science has shown how nature’s survivors learn to adapt to the tumultuous changes in earth’s history. A group of social scientists have been searching for clues in this evolutionary story, with a view towards understanding the wider ‘evolution’ of culture, politics, technology and organisations.
CHIEF EVOLUTIONARYOFFICER
Rather than focusing their attention on the entrepreneur, the authors suggest a more profitable avenue of inquiry could be the processes by which entrepreneurs acquire the skills and knowledge to build a successful business. “Given the importance of these knowledge components to the survival of the business one might argue that they should become the focus of attention, rather than the entrepreneur,” said Dr Breslin.
But the authors note that if the focus of attention is shifted towards knowledge components, and what is going on inside the entrepreneur's head, this will have implications for the methods used in research.
As one fellow researcher cited by the authors has suggested, perhaps the time has come to think of the CEO not as the Chief Executive Officer of a company, but as the Chief Evolutionary Officer.
Research by Sheffield University Management School suggests these entrepreneurs may be right in their thinking. In an award winning paper, Dr Dermot Breslin – along with his colleague Colin Jones of the Australian Innovation Research Centre, University of Tasmania – suggests that the process by which entrepreneurs learn the skills needed to survive in the market place follows a Darwinian evolutionary pattern.
“By viewing entrepreneurial learning as a multi-level struggle for survival amongst competing knowledge components, we can provide entrepreneurs with a set of evolutionary problem solving techniques to help them understand the evolution of their business,” said Dr Breslin, who gathered a great deal of experience in industry before academia.
MANY ENTREPRENEURS – ESPECIALLY THOSE STARTING up new businesses in the rapidly evolving world of modern technology – may sometimes feel they are engaged in a Darwinian fight for survival in which only the fittest prevail.
By viewing entrepreneurial learning as a multi-level struggle for survival amongst competing knowledge components, we can provide entrepreneurs with a set of evolutionary problem solving techniques to help them understand the evolution of their business
“
“
Dermot acts as a critical friend to a start up, and has seen them grow and develop. If you'd like to learn more about how his work can impact on your organisation, get in touch via management.sheffield.ac.uk/contact
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ACADEMIC PROFILE:
DR ROBERT WAPSHOTTA key link in the chain
AS DIRECTOR AND TRUSTEE OF the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), Dr Robert Wapshott can deliver a comprehensive academic viewpoint on SMEs and entrepreneurship.
Taking on this role alongside his research and teaching responsibilities at the Management School, Robert explained the importance of ISBE, which is a network for people and organisations involved in small business and entrepreneurship research, policy, education, support and advice: “ISBE is working at its best when it operates as a forum for ideas and knowledge-exchange. This happens through events such as workshops, seminars and the annual conference which are focused on contemporary challenges affecting small businesses and aspect of enterprise.”
An active member of the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED), Robert has an interest in local economies. Members of CREED are committed to the development of innovative research which informs and shapes their project work. This includes funded projects with research elements falling within two broad themes: entrepreneurship and SMEs, and regional development and competitiveness.
Making links with organisations is something Robert is well practiced in. From coordinating internship schemes with Santander and the Management School’s external relations team to teaching enterprise skills to our undergraduate students, his enthusiasm is inspirational: “One of the things I enjoy most about researching and teaching around SMEs is their relevance to the study of work and organisations. Understanding how these organisations operate and their role in the wider economy can offer important insights to anyone interested in the world of work and enterprise.”
Helping dispel the myths and misunderstandings small employers have about the risks of hiring their first employees is a vital first step to encouraging the growth of business start-ups in the British economy.
Research by a team of academics at Sheffield University Management School reveals that there is an ‘information gap’ between what the entrepreneur perceives as the risk of hiring new people, and the reality. Bridging that gap is essential if the door is to be opened to new employees.
“The central issue is the lack of congruence between employment legislation and perception by entrepreneurs as employers,” says co-investigator, Professor Jason Heyes (pictured right). “Certain employment rights issues were identified as concerns, such as rights relating to dismissal, working time, holidays and maternity/paternity leave and pay. However, the concerns of entrepreneurs and employers often bore no relation to the nature of employment rights, but rather to their own lack of understanding of these rights.”
Co-investigator Dr Tim Vorley continued: “A key message from our research is that it is not simply the case that more information is required or that more information is better, but rather that the existing information and the realities of employment regulation need to be conveyed, embedded and repeated to improve awareness and perceptions of entrepreneurs and employers.”
MIND THE INFORMATION
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STAFF PERFORMANCE & WELLBEING
MOBILE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND FLEXIBLE working may have liberated people from the daily commute and being chained to the desk, but it also has a ‘dark side’ in the form of excessive hours, constantly being on call, and increased stress and worry.
Avoiding the
DARK SIDEAn intriguing report by Dr Carolyn Axtell, in the Institute of Work Psychology at Sheffield University Management School, reveals that mobile technologies and connectivity allow people to make much more efficient use of what is sometimes known as ‘dead time’ – commuting to work, waiting for a flight.
Her analysis, in collaboration with iPass, the world’s largest commercial wi-fi network, draws on evidence collated in iPass consumer surveys. A quarter of those interviewed said they used the daily commute to work.
“In the past such dead-times might have been a cause of frustration and seen as a hassle or constraint, particularly when deadlines were looming,” said Dr Axtell. “Modern mobile technologies now give workers the opportunity to be productively engaged in work on those occasions. Many say that making use of travel time in this way can help them maintain a better work-life balance, as they are able to finish off bits of work that would otherwise have to be done when they get home.”
A third of iPass survey respondents felt they were better able to set their own schedule and work when and where they want, and 78 per cent thought that they were more productive as a result: “Research has found that having control over when, where and how one works can be a significant benefit in terms of employee wellbeing,” she said.
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But Dr Axtell also cautions that the bright side of flexible working also has a darker side: “Whilst many professionals have the autonomy to set their own hours, they are also expected to work as many hours as it takes to get the job done. So, being able to work from different locations can be quite a challenge for professional mobile workers when trying to manage the boundary between work and home.”
It appears that many mobile workers worked several extra hours as a result of their increased flexibility, with 47 per cent working five to ten extra hours a week and 26 per cent working 15 to 20 extra hours. On closer examination, she found that those working the most extra hours were often using almost every spare moment to do the job.
“We found that these people were more likely to work while commuting, after dinner, or when waiting for something, and were also more likely to stay connected to technology whilst on vacation.”
“Those working ten or more extra hours per week were more likely to say that they had worked at a child’s performance or event, at a sporting event, at a park, and in a restaurant during a dinner date. Whilst some of this extra work could be seen as making good use of ‘dead-time’, other aspects of it seem to be creeping into what should be family and leisure time. This will have significant repercussions for work-life balance and wellbeing,” she said.
The solution, she says, is “learning to switch off.” But for some of those addicted to the dark side, that may be easier said than done.
CYBERBULLYING IS BECOMING MUCH MORE widespread in the workplace as employees use texts and emails to verbally abuse their colleagues, with damaging effects on staff morale and wellbeing. The findings come in a piece of research that will be essential reading for HR professionals, occupational psychologists and managers.
Dr Christine Sprigg, Dr Carolyn Axtell and PhD student Sam Farley of the University of Sheffield, together with Dr Iain Coyne of the University of Nottingham, conducted three separate surveys among employees in several UK universities – asking people about their experiences of cyberbullying in the workplace.
Survey respondents were given a list of what can be classed as bullying, such as being humiliated, ignored or gossiped about, and were asked if they had faced such behaviour online and how often.
Of the 320 people who responded to the survey, 80 per cent said they had experienced one of the cyberbullying behaviours on at least one occasion in the previous six months. Employees who had experienced cyberbullying reported greater mental strain and lower job satisfaction. Sam Farley is continuing the research as part of his PhD.
They also found the impact of witnessing cyberbullying was different than that seen for conventional bullying: “In face to face bullying, seeing someone else being bullied also has a negative impact on the wellbeing of the witness,” said Dr Sprigg. “However, we didn’t find the same negative effect for those who had witnessed others being cyberbullied.”
THE NEW FACE OF BULLYING AT WORK
A £200 MILLION GOVERNMENT FUNDED scheme to get people back to work following periods of unemployment due to illness will have to provide claimants with a telephone-based health assessment, following joint research involving Sheffield University Management School, and funded by the Department for Work and Pensions.
One of those leading the research, Professor Pauline Dibben, said:
“Telephonic approaches can be suitable for assessing clients’ needs and can compare favourably to face-to-face methods. However, there are cases where these approaches may be less effective, such as where people have difficulties with speech or learning difficulties.”
The assessment can be used to make decisions about allocating people to the most appropriate care through a triage
process: “This means that telephonic methods can be used effectively and efficiently to assess the clinical, work and participation needs of people with common health problems,” she added.
The research, in collaboration with the University of Huddersfield and other partners, found that when telephonic approaches yield inferior results, reasons can include inadequate training in telephonic or clinical skills, poor service design and implementation, and poor adherence. The report concludes that clients should be asked about their work to identify obstacles to early return, helped to devise a practical return-to-work plan, and assisted with coordinated action within the workplace. “The evidence indicates that when all these components are put together in an efficient manner with skilled staff, the service will facilitate timely return to work and demonstrate cost-benefits and cost-effectiveness.”
Getting the call back to work
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AccountabilityLee, Bill
Accounting and CultureKomori, Naoko
Accounting EducationMoore, Ken
Accounting for SustainabilityBirkin, Frank
AcculturationMonkhouse, Lien
Activity-based costingBrierley, John
Ageing and OrganisationsDiane Burns
Agent-based ModellingBreslin, Dermot
AggressionSprigg, Christine
Algorithmic TradingNguyen, Minh
Alternative Dispute ResolutionLatreille, Paul
Anti-Corporate CampaignsBurchell, Jon
Applied EconometricsTalavera, Oleksandr
Art Markets, Museums, Management and MarketingHerrero, Marta
Artificial IntelligenceChoudhary, Alok
Arts Marketing and ConsumptionO'Reilly, Daragh
Asset ManagementBrint, Andrew
Asset PricingAdcock, Chris
Audit FirmKomori, Naoko
Audit ProcessKomori, Naoko
AusterityHeyes, Jason
BankingTalavera, Oleksandr
BrandingCheng, RanisO'Reilly, Daragh
Brazilian Human Resource ManagementRenwick, Douglas
BullyingChristine Sprigg
Business EthicsJohnson, Phil
Business IntelligenceMaguire, Stuart
Call Centres (employee well-being)Sprigg, Christine
Capital Market and MarketingYin, Shuxing
Career Choice, Development, Management, and Psychological ContractDean, Laura
Change ManagementJohnson, PhilMaguire, StuartKawalek, John
Change Management in the Police ServiceTopakas, Anna
Children and MarketingOates, Caroline
Chinese Business ManagementBarnes, Bradley
Collaborative Networked OrganisationsChoudhary, Alok
Community FestivalsCarnegie, Elizabeth
Community StudiesWilliams, Colin
Consumer Buying BehaviourMonkhouse, Lien
Consumer PerceptionMonkhouse, Lien
Corporate BrandingCheng, Ranis
Corporate Finance
Talavera, OleksandrYin, Shuxing
Corporate GovernanceChaudhry, Ghafran
Corporate IdentityCheng, Ranis
Corporate MarketingCheng, Ranis
Corporate Performance and Market ValuationJiang, Neng
CorruptionMcGuinness, Tina
Creative and Cultural IndustriesHerrero, MartaO'Reilly, Daragh
Creative EntrepreneurshipHerrero, Marta
Creative LeadershipHerrero, Marta
CreativityBirdi, Kamal
Credit UnionsBrierley, JohnLee, Bill
Critical ManagementBurns, DianeDick, PennyO'Reilly, Daragh
Critical TheoryLee, Bill
Cross Cultural Research in AccountingKomori, Naoko
Cultural BrandingO'Reilly, Daragh
Cultural IdentityCarnegie, Elizabeth
CultureMonkhouse, Lien
Culture ChangePatterson, Malcolm
Customer Relationship ManagementMaguire, Stuart
Deviance and Ethical BehaviourPatterson, Malcolm
DisabilityLatreille, Paul
Disability ManagementDibben, Pauline
Diversity ManagementDick, Penny
E-Business and E-OrganisationsKoh, Lenny
E-LearningKawalek, JohnLatreille, Paul
Econometrics Adcock, Chris
Economic DevelopmentWilliams, ColinWilliams, Nick
Economic InactivityLatreille, Paul
Economic RestructuringWilliams, ColinWilliams, NickRodgers, Peter
Emotion at WorkPatterson, Malcolm
Employability in SMEsCheng, Ranis
Employee Relations in Emerging EconomiesDibben, Pauline
Employee Wellbeing and MotivationPatterson, MalcolmRenwick, DouglasWarr, Peter
OUR ACADEMICS ARE LEADING FIGURES in research. Find out more about their specialisms on our website’s staff pages, www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/staff. Alternatively, look to our directory of expertise below.
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Directory of Expertise
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Employment RelationsDibben, PaulineHeyes, Jason
Employment Relationships in SMEsRobert Wapshott
Employment SecurityDibben, Pauline
Employment TribunalsLatreille, Paul
Energy IndustryBrint, Andrew
Enterprise Resource PlanningMaguire, Stuart
Entrepreneurial BehaviourBreslin, Dermot
EntrepreneurshipTalavera, OleksandrTim VorleyWilliams, Nick
Environmental AccountingBirkin, Frank
Environmental EconomicsOglethorpe, David
Environmental Human Resource ManagementRenwick, Douglas
Environmental Issues in SMEsSimpson, Mike
Environmental StrategyBurchell, Jon
European Union Social PolicyFrize, Michael
EvaluationBirdi, Kamal
Export MarketingBarnes, Bradley
Family-Friendly PoliciesDick, Penny
Fashion MarketingCheng, Ranis
Financial IntegrationCheah, Jeremy
Financial Market MicrostructureNguyen, Minh
Financial MarketsCheah, Jeremy
Fixed-Income MarketsNguyen, Minh
FlexicurityHeyes, Jason
Flood Risk ManagementMcGuinness, Tina
Food SystemsOglethorpe, David
ForecastingBrint, Andrew
Formalisation of Working RelationshipsRobert Wapshott
Gender and Creative LabourHerrero, Marta
Green Human Resource ManagementRenwick, Douglas
Green LogisticsChoudhary, Alok
Happiness and UnhappinessWarr, Peter
Health and Social Care OrganisingBurns, Diane
Health OrganisationsPatterson, Malcolm
Healthcare ManagementDawson, Jeremy
Hedge Funds and Private EquityNguyen, Minh
High-frequency FinanceNguyen, Minh
Household Accounting PracticesKomori, Naoko
Housing MarketBrint, Andrew
Human Resource Management in HealthcareTopakas, Anna
Humanitarian LogisticsKumar, Niraj
Indexing of Corporate PerformanceJiang, Neng
Industrial Relations and the LawFrize, Michael
Informal EconomyWilliams, ColinDibben, PaulineRodgers, Peter
Information & Communication TechnologyMaguire, Stuart
InnovationBirdi, Kamal
Innovation SystemsKawalek, John
Institutional Abuse and MistreatmentBurns, Diane
Insurance and DisasterMcGuinness, Martina
Intergroup Leadership, Intragroup Leadership and Intergroup RelationsRast, David
International Entry ModesGomes, Emanuel
International MarketingBarnes, Bradley
Monkhouse, LienInternationalisationBarnes, Bradley
InvestmentCheah, Jeremy
Job EngagementWarr, Peter
Job RetentionDibben, Pauline
Joint VenturesGomes, Emanuel
Knowledge Discovery and Data MiningChoudhary, Alok
Knowledge ManagementChoudhary, AlokKawalek, JohnKoh, Lenny
Labour Market Policy and RegulationHeyes, Jason
LeadershipPatterson, Malcolm
Line Managers and Human Resource ManagementRenwick, Douglas
Liquidity Risk and Empirical FinanceNguyen, Minh
Location Models and ProblemsGenovese, Andrea
LogisticsChoudhary, AlokKoh, Lenny
Low Carbon Supply Chain and InnovationChoudhary, AlokGenovese, Andrea
Low-paid Work and Minimum WagesHeyes, Jason
Luxury Goods MarketingMonkhouse, Lien
Management Accounting and ChangeLee, Bill
Management ConsultancyKawalek, John
Management ControlJohnson, Phil
MarketingBarnes, BradleyNewman, Nicki
Marketing CommunicationsNewman, Nicki
Marketing TheoryO'Reilly, Daragh
Marketing To ChildrenOates, Caroline
Melas EventsCarnegie, Elizabeth
Mergers and AcquisitionsGomes, EmanuelShlomo Tarba
Migrant WorkersHeyes, Jason
MotivationWarr, Peter
Multi-Criteria Decision MakingKumar, Niraj
Multi-Criteria Decision Making ProblemsGenovese, Andrea
Multinational CorporationsVorley, Tim
Museums ManagementCarnegie, Elizabeth
Occupational Health PsychologySprigg, Christine
Online AuctionsBrint, Andrew
Operations ManagementChoudhary, AlokKumar, Niraj
Operations StrategyKumar, Niraj
OptimisationBrint, AndrewKumar, Niraj
Organisational Culture and Organisational ChangeBurns, DianeTim Vorley
Organisational Culture, Climate and National CulturePatterson, Malcolm
Organisational LearningBirdi, Kamal
Organisational Problem-SolvingKawalek, John
Organisational TheoryJohnson, Phil
Organisational AdaptationBreslin, Dermot
Organisational AmbidexterityBreslin, Dermot
Organisational ChangePatterson, Malcolm
Organisational EvolutionBreslin, Dermot
Organisational RoutinesBreslin, Dermot
Performance MeasurementPadmore, Jo
PersonalityWarr, Peter
Personnel SelectionDick, Penny
Perspective Taking/EmpathyAxtell, Carolyn
PhilanthropyHerrero, Marta
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Physical Work EnvironmentSprigg, Christine
PolicingBirdi, Kamal
Political and General ElectionsCheah, Jeremy
Political Violence and CommerceMcGuinness, Martina
Portfolio TheoryAdcock, Chris
Positive psychologySprigg, Christine
Post Socialist SocietyWilliams, ColinPeter Rodgers
Post-Industrial MuseumCarnegie, Elizabeth
Prediction MarketsCheah, Jeremy
Price PredictionBrint, Andrew
Privatisation of Public ServicesDibben, Pauline
Product CostingBrierley, John
Product PlacementO'Reilly, Daragh
Production Planning and ControlKoh, Lenny
Profitability Dynamics in Emerging Markets
Jiang, Neng
Psychological ContractDick, Penny
Public AccountabilityCarnegie, Elizabeth
Public PolicyHeyes, JasonWilliams, Colin
Public Sector Accounting and New Public ManagementLee, Bill
Public Sector ReformDibben, Pauline
Public Sector Research EstablishmentsVorley, Tim
Public Service Delivery and OrganisationBurns, Diane
Qualitative Research MethodsBurns, DianeJohnson, PhilLee, BillO'Reilly, Daragh
Quantitative MethodsPadmore, Jo
Quantitative Methods and StatisticsDawson, Jeremy
Regional Development, Regional Economic Development and Regional EconomyWilliams, ColinTim Vorley
Rehabilitation through Sport and LeisureNichols, Geoff
Religious IdentityCarnegie, Elizabeth
Research PracticeLee, BillRenwick, Douglas
Resistance, Power and IdentityDick, Penny
RetailingCheng, Ranis
Returns ModellingAdcock, Chris
Reverse LogisticsCullen, John
Risk GovernanceMcGuinness, Martina
Sample Size DeterminationAdcock, Chris
Scale Development and PsychometricsDawson, Jeremy
Self-EmploymentLatreille, Paul
Service ManagementKumar, Niraj
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)Cheng, RanisPadmore, JoTalavera, Oleksandr
SMEs and Business ContinuityMcGuinness, Tina
Social AccountingBirkin, FrankLee, Bill
Social IdentityRast, David
Social InfluenceRast, David
Socially Responsible InvestingCheah, Jeremy
Spatial Interaction TheoryGenovese, Andrea
SponsorshipHerrero, Marta
Sport and Crime ReductionNichols, Geoff
Sports Clubs, Counselling and DevelopmentNichols, Geoff
Sports Event VolunteeringNichols, Geoff
Sports OrganisationsPatterson, Malcolm
Strategic AlliancesGomes, Emanuel
StressAxtell, CarolynDick, PennySprigg, Christine
Supply ChainChoudhary, Alok
Supply Chain AccountingCullen, John
Supply Chain Decision Support ToolsGenovese, Andrea
Supply Chain ManagementCullen, JohnKoh, LennyKumar, Niraj
Supply Chain Risk Management Choudhary, Alok
Supply Chain TechnologyKumar, Niraj
Sustainability LabellingAlevizou, Panayiota
Sustainability MarketingAlevizou, Panayiota
Sustainability MarketingOates, Caroline
Sustainable Land UseOglethorpe, David
Sustainable Supply ChainKumar, Niraj
Systems MethodologyKawalek, John
Tax Non-ComplianceRodgers, Peter
TaxationBurkinshaw, Lynda
Team-workingDawson, Jeremy
Trade UnionsDibben, PaulineHeyes, Jason
TrainingBirdi, KamalLatreille, Paul
Training and DevelopmentHeyes, Jason
Transformational Logistics and Supply ChainKumar, Niraj
Transition EconomiesRodgers, Peter
UncertaintyRast, David
Uncertainty Modelling and ManagementKoh, Lenny
Undeclared WorkWilliams, Colin
Union RenewalDibben, Pauline
UniversitiesVorley, Tim
ViolenceSprigg, Christine
Virtual/Remote WorkingAxtell, Carolyn
Visual CultureHerrero, Marta
Volatility AnalysisNguyen, Minh
Voluntary SectorBurchell, JonNichols, GeoffWilliams, Colin
Volunteering in Events and SportNichols, Geoff
Water ResourcesOglethorpe, David
Women and AccountingKomori, Naoko
Work and EmploymentHeyes, Jason
Work in Creative and Cultural IndustriesHeyes, Jason
Work Design, Redesign and OrganisationAxtell, CarolynMalcolm Patterson
Work PsychologyDick, Penny
Workgroup Diversity and FaultlinesDawson, Jeremy
Workplace ConflictLatreille, Paul
Workplace Learning InitiativesLee, Bill
Workplace MediationLatreille, Paul
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To find out more about working with our academics, contact us via the Management Gateway: management.sheffield.ac.uk
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