Research and Innovation

Dr Matthew Davis and Dr Helen Hughes, Associate Professors at Leeds University Business School, talk about what social networks at work are, and why they matter. They discuss how office space affects networks, if there's an optimum number of days to be in the office to make your networks effective, and offer some top tips for employers. 

For further information: 

Read the report.

Visit the website.

Listen to the podcast series.

This project - Adapting offices to support COVID-19 secure workplaces and emerging work patterns - is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to Covid-19. Visit the webpage.

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in November 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available.  

About the speakers: Dr Matthew Davis is an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His research centres on how people interact with their environments, office design, hybrid working and future workplaces. He also researches how businesses engage in CSR, particularly to address sustainability and modern slavery. 

Dr Helen Hughes is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, and Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School. She specialises in the social dynamics of workplace relationships, as well as graduate employability and early career transitions to the workplace. She is passionate about translating high-quality research into usable insights and strategies, working with partners such as Rolls-Royce, The National Health Service and KPMG.

Dr Marketa Dolezalova is joined by Ewa Jamroz and Ewa Lelontko from Migration Yorkshire. Following on from the previous episode with Migration Yorkshire, Marketa, Ewa and Ewa talk about the main barriers for migrants entering the UK workforce, as well as examples of good practice from organisations.  

Visit the project webpage. This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

This episode was recorded on Wednesday 10th August 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers: Dr Marketa Dolezalova is a Research Fellow in Labour Migration at Leeds University Business School. Her research interests revolve around migration, mobility, and the economic strategies of migrants, including mobility as both an economic strategy and as migrants’ social capital. 

Ewa Jamroz is a policy, data and development officer at Migration Yorkshire. She is the project lead for the Hong Kong Welcome Programme for BN(O) status holders coming to the UK through a new BN(O) visa route and policy lead for EU nationals (including Roma communities). 

Ewa Lelontko is an employer engagement manager at Migration Yorkshire. Her role focuses on the economic integration of refugees and other migrants in Yorkshire & Humber.  

Marketa Dolezalova is joined by Ewa Jamroz from Migration Yorkshire to find out more about the work Migration Yorkshire does. They discuss how recent immigration changes have impacted the ability of migrants to enter the workforce, the consequences of digitalizing the immigration system, and Migration Yorkshire’s plan for social inclusion in the region. 

Visit the project webpage. This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

This episode was recorded on Wednesday 13th July 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers: Dr Marketa Dolezalova is a Research Fellow in Labour Migration at Leeds University Business School. Her research interests revolve around migration, mobility, and the economic strategies of migrants, including mobility as both an economic strategy and as migrants’ social capital. 

Ewa Jamroz is a policy, data and development officer at Migration Yorkshire. She is the project lead for the Hong Kong Welcome Programme for BN(O) status holders coming to the UK through a new BN(O) visa route and policy lead for EU nationals (including Roma communities).

The danger of making assumptions about digital equality based on binary digital inclusion data.

Professor Chris Forde (Leeds University Business School) speaks to Dr Becky Faith and Kevin Hernandez (Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex) about their research on digital inequalities. They discuss the problematic assumption that most people now have access, and the right skills, to use the internet and why we need better data to understand the nature of digital exclusion. 

This is part of a special series of podcasts in conjunction with the Digit Data Observatory, part of the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre.  

Read the Data Commentary. 

Visit the Digit Data Observatory. 

The Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) is jointly led by the Universities of Sussex and Leeds Business Schools with partners from Aberdeen, Cambridge, Manchester and Monash Universities. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in June 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available.   

About the speakers: Chris Forde is Professor of Employment Studies and Co-Director of the Centre of Employment Relations Innovation and Change at the University of Leeds, and co-ordinator of the Q Step Programme at the University of Leeds, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the ESRC. He is also Deputy Director of Digit and co-lead of the Digit Data Observatory. His principal research interest is in temporary agency working, but he also conducts research into migration. 

Becky Faith is a Research Fellow and Co-Leader of Digit Research Theme 4 ‘Reconnecting the disconnected: new channels of voice and representation’. Her professional experience and research interests encompass gender and technology, mobile communication studies, human computer interaction and technology for social change. 

Kevin Hernandez is a Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and a Researcher working on Digit Research Theme 4 ‘Reconnecting the disconnected: new channels of voice and representation’. His research interests include digital inequalities, sustainable development, and political economy of automation. 

In this introductory episode of the Data Observatory podcast series, Professor Chris Forde (Leeds University Business School) and Dr Emma Russell (University of Sussex) talk about the ESRC-funded Digital Futures at Work (Digit) Research Centre and its main research themes, what the Data Observatory is for, and how it can benefit other researchers, policymakers and wider society. 

Visit the Digit Data Observatory. 

Digit is jointly led by the Universities of Sussex and Leeds Business Schools with partners from Aberdeen, Cambridge, Manchester and Monash Universities. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available.   

About the speakers: Chris Forde is Professor of Employment Studies and Co-Director of the Centre of Employment Relations Innovation and Change at the University of Leeds, and co-ordinator of the Q Step Programme at the University of Leeds, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the ESRC. He is also Deputy Director of Digit and co-lead of the Digit Data Observatory. His principal research interest is in temporary agency working, but he also conducts research into migration. 

Dr Emma Russell is a Chartered and Registered Occupational Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sussex, in addition to being the co-lead of the Data Observatory. Her research focuses on how people manage their e-communications (specifically email) and how this impacts and is impacted by well-being, goal achievement and personality. 

Dr Danat Valizade and Dr Manhal Ali discuss their paper on the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for global inequalities in work and employment. 

This podcast episode was recorded remotely in May 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this podcast, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

Read the paper: “Inequalities in the disruption of paid work during the Covid-19 pandemic: A world systems analysis of core, semi-periphery, and periphery states.” Industrial Relations: A journal of Economy and Society. Danat Valizade, Manhal Ali, Mark Stuart https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12310  

About the speakers:  

Dr Danat Valizade is an Associate Professor in Quantitative Methods in the Work and Employment Relations Department. His research interests coalesce around the changing nature of work with a specific focus on the quality of working lives, inequalities and digital futures at work. 

Dr Manhal Ali is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management in the same department. His areas of expertise include Organisational Economics; Managerial Economics; Health Economics; Digital Economy; Data Science. 

In this introductory episode, Dr Gabriella Alberti and Dr Jo Cutter talk about their three-year research project investigating the impact of the post-Brexit regulation migration for work on the UK labour market. The project looks at how employers and workers shape these mobility transitions and how they engage in dialogue with each other and with other stakeholders. It also considers how COVID-19 has impacted these transitions and dialogue.  

Visit the project webpage. This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

This episode was recorded on Monday 30 May 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact [email protected]. A transcript of this episode is available. 

About the speakers: 

Dr Gabriella Alberti is an Associate Professor in Work and Employment Relations. Her research interests revolve around the conditions of workers at the bottom end of the labour market, whether on non-standard contracts, engaged in gig/platform work, excluded from social protections, migrants and minorities workers facing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination and exclusion. 

Dr Jo Cutter is a lecturer in Work and Employment Relations. Her research focuses on the employment relations, social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on skills, education and training. 

Dr Charles Umney and Dr Dario Azzellini discuss the limits to the platform economy, and why many occupations are unlikely to be ‘Uberized’, using the live music industry as an example. 

Dr Umney and Dr Azzellini, along with other CERIC members, presented at the 40th International Labour Process Conference held on 21-23 April 2022 in Padua, Italy. This podcast episode focuses on the presentation they gave at the conference, with Dr Ian Greer - “Why most occupations won’t be ‘Uberized’”.  

This episode was recorded in May 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this research, contact [email protected]. A transcript of this recording is available.  

Read the journal article: “Why isn’t there an Uber for live music? The digitalisation of intermediaries and the limits of the platform economy.” Dario Azzellini, Ian Greer, Charles Umney. New Technology, Work and Employment. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12213 

About the speakers: 

Dr Charles Umney is an Associate Professor in the Work and Employment Relations Division at Leeds University Business School. He has various research interests including platform worker protest; the social effects of market-centric policy in public services; and working life in arts and culture. 

Dr Dario Azzellini is an Assistant Professor and researcher at the Unidad Académica de Estudios del Desarrollo (PhD program in Development Studies) at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas (Autonomous University of Zacatecas), Zacatecas, México. His research interests are: Labor studies, unions and new forms of worker organisation, workers’ and local self-management, sustainable work, social movements and collective action, Latin American studies.

Professor Vera Trappmann and Dr Charles Umney talk about their research on how emotional factors in a person’s past can influence their work orientation and different expectations of working life. 

Professor Trappmann and Dr Umney, along with other CERIC members, presented at the 40th International Labour Process Conference held on 21-23 April 2022 in Padua, Italy.

This episode was recorded in May 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this research, contact [email protected]. A transcript of this recording is available. 

About the speakers: 

Professor Vera Trappmann is Professor of Comparative Employment Relations in the Work and Employment Relations Department. Her main research interests focus on the dynamics of organisational restructuring and its impact on working biographies, and organised labour.  

Dr Charles Umney is an Associate Professor in the Work and Employment Relations Division at Leeds University Business School. He has various research interests including platform worker protest; the social effects of market-centric policy in public services; and working life in arts and culture. 

Professor Chris Forde speaks to Professor Jonathan Winterton about Jonathan’s work exploring Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in Malaysia. They discuss the motives for Filipinos to become migrant workers, the role of the regulatory framework and agents, and the multiple trajectories of exploitation.  

Professor Winterton is one of the many CERIC members who presented at the 40th International Labour Process Conference held on 21-23 April 2022 in Padua, Italy. This podcast episode focuses on the presentation he gave at the conference on his work with Lizel Nacua. 

This episode was recorded in May 2022. If you would like to get in touch regarding this research, contact [email protected]. A transcript of this recording is available. 

About the speakers: 

Chris Forde is Professor of Employment Studies and Co-Director of the Centre of Employment Relations Innovation and Change at the University of Leeds, and co-ordinator of the Q Step Programme at the University of Leeds, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the ESRC. He is also Deputy Director of Digit and co-lead of the Digit Data Observatory. His principal research interest is in temporary agency working, but he also conducts research into migration. 

Jonathan Winterton is Professor of Work and Employment and Head of the Work and Employment Relations Department. His principal research interests centre on human capital, including work along two axes: one concerned with the quality of work and the other with how human capital is developed, deployed, and retained.