• PhD (The University of Sheffield) 1989
• MA in Occupational Psychology, The University of Sheffield
• BSc (Hons) in Social Psychology, The London School of Economics and Political Science

Before joining Birmingham Business School in September 2017, Catherine held a number of other academic leadership roles. She was Deputy Dean at Deputy Dean at Leeds University Business School (2014-2017). Previously she worked at Manchester Business School being Head of doctoral programmes; Head of People, Management and Organisations Division; and Deputy Director (Teaching and Learning). Before beginning her time at Leeds, she worked at the Management School at the University of Sheffield where she was Director of Research for a number of years.

Catherine has also had a number of roles within the British Academy of Management. She was Dean of the Fellows College in 2015 and Chair and Convenor of the British Academy of Management Special Interest Group in Research Methodology (2005 - 2011). Professor Cassell was also a founding member of the steering committee of the European Academy of Management’s Special Interest Group in Research Methods and Research Practice. Together with Gillian Symon she was inaugural co-Editor of 'Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: an international journal', and also served as Associate Editor of the British journal of Management for nine years. She is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of five other journals.

Catherine has research interests in the areas of change, learning and diversity at work. Moreover, she has a longstanding interest in research methodology and the use of qualitative methods in the business, organization and management field. This underpins all her research interests and outputs. Together with Professor Gillian Symon from Royal Holloway University of London, she has edited four books for Sage about the use of qualitative methods in organizational research and published numerous papers about the uses of qualitative research in the organizational psychology and management field more generally. Current projects focus upon the use of photographic methods to understand work-life conflict, diversity and change in the retail sector, and translation as a methodological issue. She published a solo authored text: Conducting interviews in business and management research published by Sage in 2015, and her most recent edited collection is the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods, edited together with Ann Cunliffe and Gina Grandy.

Catherine has received over £1.6 million research income during her career including funding from the ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy and European Regional Development Fund. 

Recent journal articles

Cassell, C.M. (2017). Pushed beyond my comfort zone: using qualitative research for the first time.  Academy of Management Learning and Education (In press).

Lee, B. and Cassell, C.M. (2017). Social accounting, democratic accountability and learning representative initiatives. Critical Perspectives on Accounting. 46: 24-37.

Cassell, C.M. and Lee, B. (2017). Translation Work: the evolving interpretation of a trade union idea. Organization Studies. 38(8): 1085-1106.

Symon, G. Cassell, C.M. and Johnson, P. (2016) Evaluative processes of qualitative management research. International Journal of Management Reviews .In Press.

Symon, G. and Cassell, C.M. (2016) Qualitative I/O Psychology: a view from Europe.   Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on science and practice. 9(4): 744-747.

Cassell, C.M. (2016). European qualitative research: a celebration of diversity and a cautionary tale. European Management Journal. 34 (5): 453-456.

Crozier, S and Cassell, C.M. (2016) Methodological considerations in the use of audio diaries in work psychology: adding to the qualitative toolkit. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 89 (2): 396- 419. 

Daverth, G., Hyde, P. And Cassell, C.M. (2016) Organizational culture and fairness decisions. International Journal of Human Resource Management. 12 (7): 1092-1106.

Daverth, G, Cassell, C.M. and Hyde, P. (2016) The subjectivity of fairness: the influence of embedded gender role beliefs in managerial decisions of fairness and justice. Gender Work and Organization 23 (6): 89-109.

Cassell, C.M. and Symon, G. (2015). Qualitative research in organizations and management ten years on. Qualitative research in organizations and management: an international journal. 10 (4): 302-306

Cassell, C.M. and Symon, G. (2015). Qualitative research: opportunities for researchers in the Baltic region. Baltic Journal of Management 10 (2): .

Radcliffe, L. and Cassell, C.M. (2015). Flexible working, work-family conflict and maternal gatekeeping: the experiences of dual-career couples. Journal of Occupational and organizational Psychology 88 (4): 835-855.

Radcliffe, L. And Cassell, C.M. (2014) Resolving work-family conflicts: the complexity of decision-making and the introduction of a new framework. Human Relations, 67 (7): 793-819.