I came into academia following eighteen years of working in the public sector (including Local Government, Social Services, the Probation Service and the NHS) where I worked as an Administration Officer. I made the decision to go to university as a mature student in 1997, initially as a way of qualifying to train as a Probation Officer. However, I ‘accidentally’ found myself extending my studies and becoming an academic instead! Before coming to Staffordshire University in 2005, I worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and then as an Associate Lecturer at Keele University, where I completed my PhD.
Professional memberships and activities
Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
Fellow of the HEA
Academic qualifications
PhD HRM/Industrial Relations (Keele)
MA Industrial Relations (Warwick)
BA (First Class Hons) HRM and Social Anthropology (Keele)
Associate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (Keele)
Postgraduate Certificate in Research Supervision (Staffordshire)
Expertise
- Employee relations (particularly in the public services/criminal justice system)
- High Performance Work Systems
- Performance Management
- Qualitative Research Methods
Research interests
The challenges, contradictions and struggles surrounding the employment relationship and the labour process and how these are played out in practice in the workplace, particularly in the public services and criminal justice services.
Enterprise and commercial interests
Worked closely with the Corporate Programmes Team delivering HRM courses to the armed forces.
Contributions to the development and validation of the CIPD programmes delivered by the university.
Teaching
Managing Employee Relations (MA/PG Diploma in HRM)
Improving Organisational Performance (Intermediate Certificate in HRM)
Organisational Development (Intermediate Certificate in HRM)
Introduction to Human Resource Management (Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship)
Masters and Doctoral Supervision
Publications
'Government reforms, performance management and the labour process: the case of officers in the UK Probation Service’, Work, Employment and Society (2012)