My research focuses on work and employment relations in voluntary sector organisations. I use qualitative research approaches to gain a better understanding of the forces shaping and the experience of employment conditions in voluntary sector work.  I examine how workers respond to tensions in a variety of settings such as front-line social care work, nonprofit-business partnerships, philanthropic organisations, and more recently family-owned businesses. My research also focuses on theorising in qualitative inquiry and innovating research methods in management and organisation studies.

Through engaged scholarship, I seek to produce social impact concerning a range of workforce issues in the social care sector. Recent projects have included a focus on digital technology in care work, the Fair Work agenda, the implementation of the Scottish Living Wage, work redesign, service personalisation, contract withdrawal and the sustainability of employment conditions in the context of austerity.

My research is situated within the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good (CSPPG). My work has been funded by ESRC, The British Academy, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, and the Ministry of Science and Culture in Lower Saxony. I have published in a range of leading journals such as the Journal of Management Studies, Organizational Research Methods, British Journal of Management, Human Resource Management and the Journal of Applied Psychology. I also have written two monographs on managing nonprofit organisations, one research focussed (Routledge) and another a co-authored textbook (Palgrave Macmillan). My recent work on adult social care has been externally commissioned by policy and third sector organisations (e.g., Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland, HR Voluntary Sector Forum, UNISON) and resulted in a series of reports on workforce issues in the social care sector. 

PhD supervision

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students examining:

-work and employment, particularly studies exploring Fair Work and the experience of social care and circular economy work 

-qualitative methods, particularly innovative methods for studying and theorising complex issues and grand challenges

I am a Professor of Management at the Business School (Department of Management), University of St Andrews. I also serve as an Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good.

Prior to joining St Andrews in 2012, I worked as a Lecturer at the Leibniz Universitaet Hannover at the Institute of HRM where I received my PhD (summa cum laude) from the Faculty of Economics and Management. I was awarded an MA in European Studies from the Leibniz Universtitaet Hannover and graduated with high distinction from the University of Virginia, USA (BA in History).

Employment relations in voluntary sector organisations
Fair Work
Philanthropy and the voluntary sector

Social care; employment relations; HRM; voluntary sector

• MN2001 Management and Society
• MN3213 Human Resource Management
• MN5470 Managing Human Resources