Dr Toma Pustelnikovaite

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

My research is in the area of sociology of work and professions. It focuses on the changing nature of professions and skilled work, and the implications of these changes for workers, organisations and society. My main specialism is international labour migration and the internationalisation of professions. However, my research agenda and interests have expanded, and my work at present revolves around two interlinked themes: (1) (in)equalities at work, and (2) (ir)responsible organising.

I am currently working on research projects that explore the working lives of migrant academics and migrant doctors, leaveism/working while off work, and the management of organisational identities in elite and ancient professional organisations such as the Russell Group and modern forms of medieval guilds. Articles from these projects have been published in highly-regarded international journals such as Higher Education, Human Resource Management Journal and Work, Employment and Society.

I am a member of the Editorial Board of the 'Work, Employment and Society' journal (2024-2028). In addition, I am co-chairing Academic Mobilities and Immobilities International Research Network (AMIIN), and am a member of the External Advisory Board for the “Academic Research Responsiveness to Ethnic Minorities and Migrants in Northern Ireland” project (Queen's University Belfast). 

Research interests

• Labour migration
• Academia and academic labour
• Professions
• Knowledge work
• Decent work and work-life integration
• (In)equalities
• Identities

Funding

• 2023-2024: University of St Andrews (Co-I). Research project: "Working in the NHS: a comparative study of UK- and foreign-born doctors' experiences"
• 2022: University of Glasgow (Co-I). Research project: "Boycotting behaviour and consumer dilemmas: The case of pro-Brexit brands"
• 2022: Swiss National Science Foundation travel grant
• 2019-2022: British Academy of Management (Co-I). Research project: "Investigating job quality and everyday working lives of highly-skilled and low-skilled migrant workers in the UK"
• 2021: Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School (Co-I). Research project: "Organisational identity in times of crisis: Higher education responses to the Covid-19 pandemic"
• 2018: British Council Researcher Links/Newton Fund travel grant
• 2017: British Sociological Association (Co-PI). Conference organisation: "Critical realism in practice: Applications in management and organisation studies" (Newcastle University)
• 2015: British Sociological Association (Co-PI). Conference organisation: "Examining normativity in consumer cultures and labour markets" (University of St Andrews)
• 2015: Teaching Development Fund, University of St Andrews (Co-I). Research project: "Specifying a system for the capture of assessed student presentations in audio with video"
• 2014: Research Innovation Grant, University of St Andrews (Co-I)
• 2013: Research Innovation Grant, University of St Andrews (Co-I)
• 2013-2016: University of St Andrews 600th Anniversary PhD Scholarship. Research project: "The working lives of migrant professionals: Exploring the case of migrant academics"

Teaching

I am the Programme Director for MSc Human Resource Management and MSc International Human Resource Management, as well as the CIPD Accreditation Lead. I am currently teaching Contemporary Issues in HR Research, and The HRM/IHRM Project modules to postgraduate students. Previously, I have also taught HRM, Context and Strategy.

Before joining CARBS, I taught and coordinated undergraduate, postgraduate and foundation degree courses on international HRM, change management, business ethics and contemporary issues in business among others. I have also acted as Programme Director for BA(Hons) Business and HRM programme and supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, including as External Supervisor at the University of York and the University of Glasgow.

I am delighted to have been nominated for several student-led teaching awards, such as 'Outstanding teaching' (2022, 2021), 'Above and Beyond During Covid' (2021) and 'Most engaging module' (2018). Additionally, I have given a number of guest lectures in the UK and abroad, for instance at the University of Warwick, University of St Andrews, University of Exeter and Kyiv National Economic University. I have also served as external examiner at Falmouth University's programme validation, and am currently a field external examiner at UWE Bristol.

Relevant training and qualifications

• 2019: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• 2019: PGCert, Higher Education Teaching (Abertay University)

Biography

I joined Cardiff Business School as a Lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation in August 2022. Prior to joining CARBS, I was a Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland. 

I completed my PhD in Management Studies at the University of St Andrews in 2018, with a doctoral thesis on the employment and inclusion of foreign-born academics in the UK.

Qualifications

• 2018: PhD in Management Studies, University of St Andrews
• 2012: MLitt in Human Resource Management, University of St Andrews
• 2011: BA in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation, University of Milan

Professional memberships

• British Sociological Association (member)
• European Group for Organizational Studies (member)
• UKRI Early Career Researcher Forum (member)
• Academic Mobilities and Immobilities Network (co-chair)
• Academic MCIPD

Academic positions

• 2022-present: Lecturer, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University
• 2021-present: Affiliate, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
• 2017-2022: Lecturer, School of Business, Law and Social Sciences, Abertay University
• 2018 (March): Visiting Lecturer, Kyiv National Economic University, Ukraine
• 2014-2017: Tutor, School of Management, University of St Andrews

Speaking engagements

Invited research presentations

• University of St Andrews (seminar; February 2023)
• Oxford Brookes University (webinar; March 2022)
• Chinese Association of UK University Employees (webinar; March 2022)
• University of Leeds (webinar; CERIC/LUBS PhD Conversation seminar series; October 2021)
• University of Monash/University of Warwick (webinar; Migration, Identity and Translation research network; January 2021)
• University of Warwick (seminar; March 2019)
• University of Exeter Business School (seminar; February 2019)
• Edinburgh Napier University Business School (seminar; March 2017)
• Heriot-Watt University (seminar; Intercultural Research Centre, School of Management and Languages; April 2016)

Public lectures, public research seminars

• Friends of Dundee City Archives, Glasite Hall, Dundee (April 2023; abstract)
• Blackness Community Library, Dundee (March 2023; abstract)
• Abertay Historical Society, University of Dundee (February 2023; abstract)
• ESRC Centre for Global Higher Education Research, University College London (October 2019; podcast)
• Kyiv National Economic University (March 2018)

Conference presentations (recent, selected)

• European Group for Organizational Studies conference (2023)
• Symposium "Is academic mobility gendered? Evidence, paradoxes, and implications for equality policies", University of Lausanne (2022)
• Academy of Management Conference (2022) [abstract]
• International Labour Process Conference (2022) [online]
• Work, Employment and Society Conference (2021) [online]
• Workshop “Migration and urban transformations in Latin America and the United Kingdom in the 21st century”, University of Brasilia (2018)

Committees and reviewing

Reviewer for:

• UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council
• OpenBook Publishers
• Kogan Page Publishers
• SRHE international conference
• Academy of Management international conference ('Critical Management Studies' and 'Gender and Diversity in Organizations' divisions)
• Social Sciences
• Gender in Management: an International Journal
• Journal of Managerial Psychology
• Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance
• Higher Education
• Work, Employment and Society

Supervisions

I am particularly interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

• Labour migration and migrants' inclusion
• The professions and changes to professional work
• Decent work and working conditions
• (In)equalities

My current PhD students are working on research projects on the role of affect and error in radiotherapy and on the application of AI in employee retention. Recently, I have also hosted a visiting final year PhD student from the University of Porto, whose thesis examines the inclusion of migrant academics in Portugal.

Current supervision

Paul Jenkins

Research student

Lu Yu

Research student