Department of Management Subject Groups and Research Themes

Research in the BLE subject group uses a range of methodologies and data to uncover various aspects of labour markets, industrial policy and international trade. One of its aims is to better understand how management structures and government policies impact upon employment relationships, working lives and the wider labour market contexts within which public and private sector organizations function. Another important area of focus is to analyse firm internationalization within developed and developing countries and within global value chains. The research within this work stream has been published in Management Science, Research Policy, Journal of World Business, International Business Review, Regional Studies, International Journal of Production Economics, Review of International Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Cambridge Journal of Economics and Economic Letters.

By working closely with small business owners/founders, financial institutions lending to start-ups, trade unions, policymakers and other academics around the world, the ELI subject group explores entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation in all its forms at city, regional and national levels. Specific research areas within this work stream include community media and creativity, ‘Smart City’ leadership, start-ups, propensity to engagement in entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation. Research within this work stream has been published in journals including British Journal of Management, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Work Employment and Society, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Organization, Regional Studies, Urban Studies, Gender, Work and Organization, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Journal of Small Business Management and Small Business Economics. 

OWE is the largest group within the Department of Management. Faculty staff undertake a range of teaching and research in the following broad disciplinary areas: organisation studies; human resource management; employment relations; political economy.

The research interests of the group cut across the following themes:

• Contemporary issues for the future of work, including flexible working, the gig economy, decent work/quality of work, pay (e.g. living wages)
• Economic Policy - Macro and micro, including employment regulation, comparative political economy, industrial strategy, regional policy and labour markets
• Employment relations – work and the workplace, employee voice and trade unionism
• Entrepreneurship and small business
• Equality, diversity, inclusion and workplace well-being
• Human resource management
• Knowledge, skills and human capital
• Organisational learning
• Trust and social capital:
• across global value chains and production networks
• between organisations and their stakeholders
• within and between organisations

Research in this work stream has been published in leading journals in the area including The British Journal of Industrial Relations, The British Journal of Management, Human Relations, Human Resource Management Journal, the Journal of Management Studies, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, The Journal of Vocational Behavior, Work Employment and Society, Regional Studies, Gender Work and Organization, Industrial Relations Journal, Work and Occupations, Economic and Industrial Democracy.

The POM group undertakes a range of teaching and research in the following broad disciplinary areas: Operations and Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Project Management, Crisis and Resilience Management, Procurement and Contract Management, Data Analytics, Innovation and Digital Transformation.

More specific research interests of the POM group cut across the following themes: 

• Organisational buying behaviour, strategic sourcing and make-buy
• Developing cross-functional procurement strategies
• Digitisation and Data Analytics and its impact upon organisations/ supply chains
• Sustainability and Resilience
• Global Value Chains and Production
• Trust and social capital within and between organisations and their stakeholders
• Policy, systems, creativity facilitation, buyer-seller and horizontal inter-organisational innovation

Research produced within the POM group has been published in journals including Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal of Service Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Production, Planning and Control and Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management.