About the Work Inclusivity Research Centre

Led by Professor Scott Taylor and Dr Neve Abgeller

This stream involves researchers who study the individual experience of diversity within organisations and across the career pipeline: occupational gender segregation; social mobility and access to the professions; the gender pay gap; the experiences of disability and inclusion; managing an ageing workforce; time use and well-being; and the take-up and experience of shared parental leave.

Led by Dr Minjie Cai and Dr Fuk Ying Tse

The Employment Relations and Regulating Work workstream examines the concept of inclusivity through critical employment relations and sociological perspectives. Core research themes include patterns of labour governance; workplace conflict, resistance, and worker agency; employee voice, silence, participation, and industrial democracy (including the roles of trade unions, management–labour partnerships, worker directors, and employee‑owned organisations), and; the ethics of workplace governance and HRM practices.

We explore why employment relations matter(s) for the governance and regulation of the employment relationship, situating these issues within broader political‑economic dynamics and the sociology of work. We also consider how global phenomena such as the climate emergency are reshaping regulatory environments, working conditions under structural inequalities such as gender and ethnicity, and subsequent collective worker responses.

The workstream further engages with specific issues related to job quality and good work in various national and regional contexts, such as pay and reward (living wage, gender pay gap), work-life inclusivity (flexible working arrangements, 4-day work week), occupational health and safety, future of work shaped by new technologies, as well as labour mobility.

Led by Dr Margarita Nyfoudi

Trust within and between organisations has been shown to be the lubricant which enables business to function. In organisations where there are high levels of trust, employees are more productive and collaborative, have more energy and are more likely to stay longer. Arguably as important, if not more so, they are also more likely to be happier in the workplace and in their lives generally.

In the Business School’s Workplace Inclusivity Research Centre, the Trust research stream explores issues of employee trust and distrust both within and between organisations as well as between organisations and those who interact with them. Within our work, trust is defined as the willingness to become vulnerable to another based upon favourable expectations of their intentions and behaviour. This trust is demonstrated through a risk-taking act.

The conceptual and empirical research in the trust stream advances our understanding of the role and dynamics of trust and distrust, its development in organisations and its impact on both those in the workplace and those who interact and engage with them.

Led by Dr Christian Darko 

The workplace well-being, flexibility and labour market inequalities workstream explores the diverse factors influencing access to, and experiences of, work drawing on expertise in labour economics, the sociology of work, human resource management and more.

Recognising inequalities in a range of work-related characteristics and circumstances, the stream considers differences in employment participation, income and occupation by gender, ethnicity, disability, age and other individual factors. The stream applies this understanding to impactful research on dimensions of workplace well-being and job quality including work autonomy, working time, flexible working, remote and hybrid work, work-life balance, relationships at work and work-related travel.

Working with academic, practitioner and policy partners, the stream advances understanding of workplace well-being, flexibility, and labour market inequalities, generating evidence that informs organisational change, policy innovation, and the future of work.

Led by Dr Caroline Chapain and Dr Mattia Boscaino 

The workstream aims to:

• Promote the development of scholarship on inclusive and diverse management education and learning practices within higher education institutions and organisations.
• Support the awareness and implementation of inclusive and diverse learning and teaching practices within the Business School.

The workstream collaborates with colleagues across the WIRC research areas to facilitate the transfer of research findings into learning and teaching activities within the Business School programmes and any other related higher education and organisational training.