Employment Research Unit
We aim to coordinate and develop employment relations and human resource management research.
The Employment Research Unit (ERU) aims to coordinate and develop employment relations, industrial relations and human resource management (HRM) research.
This includes organising research seminars and conferences, supporting PhD students, conducting joint research projects, managing the Montague Burton Visiting Fellowship and developing joint funding proposals.
ERU is based within the Management, Employment and Organisations section of Cardiff Business School, but also includes researchers with an interest in human resource management and employment relations from other areas.
Since 2017, ERU has been a member of the CRIMT (Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalisation and Work) network. ERU is also a participant in the CRIMT ‘Experimentation in Better Work’ project.
Forthcoming publications
Gooberman L and Hauptmeier H (eds) (forthcoming) Employer Organisations in the 21st Century. Routledge.
This edited volume, part of the Routledge Research in Employment Relations series, takes stock of different types of employer organisations in the 21st century, examining their activities, influence and varying roles across different country and international contexts.
Selected publications
- Musilek, K. , Jamie, K. and McKie, L. 2020. Cold winds and warm attachments: interrogating the personal attachment to neoliberal work and economy. Work, Employment and Society 34 (3), pp.-. (10.1177/0950017019856798)
- Preminger, J. 2020. ‘Ideational power’ as a resource in union struggle. Industrial Relations Journal 51 (3), pp.209-224. (10.1111/irj.12289)
- Hassard, J. and Morris, J. 2020. Corporate restructuring, work intensification and perceptual politics: exploring the ambiguity of managerial job insecurity. Economic and Industrial Democracy 41 (2), pp.323-350. (10.1177/0143831X17710733)
- Gooberman, L. , Hauptmeier, M. and Heery, E. 2020. A typology of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom. Economic and Industrial Democracy 41 (1), pp.229-248. (10.1177/0143831X17704499)
- Foster, D. and Hirst, N. 2020. Legally Disabled? The career experiences of disabled people working in the legal profession. Full report.
- Masso, M. et al., 2019. The influence of collective employment relations on work accommodation: case studies in Estonia, Hungary and Poland. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 25 (4), pp.451-464. (10.1177/1024258919828597)
- Morris, J. et al. 2019. Understanding managerial work in the modern Japanese firm: The influence of new organizational forms and changing human resource management practices. Economic and Industrial Democracy (10.1177/0143831X19875785)
- Foster, W. M. et al., 2019. The changing nature of managerial work: The effects of corporate restructuring on management jobs and careers. Human Relations 72 (3), pp.473-504. (10.1177/0018726719828439)
- Gooberman, L. , Hauptmeier, M. and Heery, E. 2019. The evolution of employers' organisations in the United Kingdom: extending countervailing power. Human Resource Management Journal 29 (1), pp.82-96. (10.1111/1748-8583.12193)
- Prosser, T. 2018. European labour movements in crisis: from indecision to indifference. Manchester University Press.
- Morris, J. , Delbridge, R. and Endo, T. 2018. The layering of meso-level institutional effects on employment systems in Japan. British Journal of Industrial Relations 56 (3), pp.603-630. (10.1111/bjir.12296)
- Hassard, J. and Morris, J. 2018. Contrived competition and manufactured uncertainty: understanding managerial job insecurity narritives in large corporations. Work, Employment and Society 32 (3), pp.564-580. (10.1177/0950017017751806)
- Leung, W. S. et al. 2018. Organization capital, labor market flexibility, and stock returns around the world. Journal of Banking and Finance 89 , pp.150-168. (10.1016/j.jbankfin.2018.02.008)
- Preminger, J. 2018. Labor in Israel: beyond nationalism and neoliberalism. Ithaca and London: ILR Press/Cornell University Press.
- Foster, D. 2018. The health and well-being at work agenda: good news for (disabled) workers or just a capital idea?. Work, Employment and Society 32 (1), pp.186-197. (10.1177/0950017016682458)
- Preminger, J. 2018. Creating a multilayered representational ‘package’ for subcontracted workers: the case of cleaners at Ben-Gurion University. Industrial Relations Journal 49 (1), pp.34-49. (10.1111/irj.12201)
- Jenkins, S. and Delbridge, R. 2017. Neo-normative control and value discretion in interactive service work: a case study. In: Vallas, S. P. ed. Emerging Conceptions of Work, Management and the Labor Market. Vol. 30, Research in the Sociology of Work Emerald Publishing Limited. , pp.59-85.
- Jenkins, S. and Delbridge, R. 2017. Trusted to deceive: A case study of 'strategic deception' and the normalization of lying at work. Organization Studies 38 (1), pp.53-76. (10.1177/0170840616655481)
- Gooberman, L. 2017. From depression to devolution: economy and government in Wales, 1934 to 2006. University of Wales Press.
- Preminger, J. 2016. Effective citizenship in the cracks of neocorporatism. Citizenship Studies 21 (1), pp.85-99. (10.1080/13621025.2016.1252719)
Interest representation of European Employers’ Organisations
Mona Aranea, Leon Gooberman, Marco Hauptmeier
This research project focusses on interest representation of European Employers’ Organisations (EEOs) in the European Union (EU). The project concentrates on those European collective bodies which represent employer interests, considering a wide range of issues in the areas of employment relations, labour and Human Resource Management (HRM).
The project inquires as to how EEOs advance the interests of employers on the European-level, analysing the joint regulation and policy-making with labour unions in the European social dialogues, political representation and lobbying in the EU political system, service provision to members and their role in standard-setting.
In addition, the project examines how EEOs develop their goals and policies, gauging the democratic influence by national member federations versus the autonomous decision making by the EEO leadership. Finally, the project aims to identify the population of EEOs, gather information on each organisation and compile their profiles in a new handbook of EEOs.
Gaining collaborative advantages: The changing role of employers' organisations in the British economy
This project ran from 20 June 2014 to 19 June 2017.
It was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led by Dr Marco Hauptmeier with Dr Leon Gooberman and Professor Edmund Heery.
Award type: Research, ESRC Future Research Leaders Fellowship
Director
Academic staff
Professor Rick Delbridge
Professor of Organizational Analysis
- delbridger@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6644
Professor Alan Felstead
Research Professor
- Welsh speaking
- alanfelstead@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44(0) 29 2087 9050
Professor Deborah Foster
Professor of Employment Relations and Diversity
- fosterd1@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5358
Professor Julian Gould-Williams
Pro Dean for Education and Students, Professor of Human Resource Management
- gouldwilliams@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6146
Dr Deborah Hann
Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Deputy Head of Section (Learning and Teaching)
- hanndj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5559
Professor Marco Hauptmeier
Professor of International Human Resource Management
- hauptmeierm@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 208 75080
Professor Aoife McDermott
Professor of Human Resource Management
- mcdermotta@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5065
Professor Jonathan Morris
Associate Dean for Research, Professor in Organisational Analysis
- morrisjl@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6392
Karel Musílek
Lecturer in Sociology of Work and Economic Life
- musilekk@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0059
Professor Keith Whitfield
Professor of Human Resource Management
- whitfield@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6870
Rachel Williams
Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Admissions Tutor - Undergraduate Business Management Programmes
- williamsr6@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5074
Postgraduate students
Associated staff
Seminars, conferences and other events
ERU holds regular seminars, conferences, discussion forums and other events, including presentations from ERU members and visiting scholars.
Past events
2020
In July, Professor Guy Mundlak (Tel Aviv University) talked about his new book, Organizing Matters: Two Logics of Trade Union Representation (ILO and Edward Elgar, 2020) (event held online due to Covid-19)
In June, Dr Stefano Gasparri (University of the West of England) presented his paper, “Workers of the world, unite and then divide! Ideological variation in trade union strategies towards zero-hours contracts in Italy” (event held online due to Covid-19)
In May, Dr Mona Aranea (Cardiff University) spoke about employers and the European social pillar, part of the Interest Representation by European Employer Organisations research project (event held online due to Covid-19)
In March, Daniel Nicholson (Cardiff University) presented his paper, “Which side are you on? Technological change, worker involvement and shopfloor patterns of class compromise in the aerospace sector” (event held online due to Covid-19)
2019
In November, Huw Thomas (Bristol University) presented his paper “From a ‘moral commentator’ to a ‘determined actor’? How the International Labour Organization is orchestrating a reframing of the international industrial relations field,” and Dr Fernando Ramalho Martins (Universidade Estadual Paulista) presented his paper, “The reconfiguration of automotive industry: The Iracemápolis’ (Brazil) Mercedes-Benz case”
October: Günter Hinken (VHS Essen) and Tracy Corley (Northeastern University)
In June, Professor Edward Webster (Wits University) presented “The South African inequality paradox”
May: Professor John Budd and Prof. Sarosh Kuruvilla
In May, ERU hosted a book launch for Thomas Prosser’s European Labour Movements in Crisis: from Indecision to Indifference (Manchester University Press, 2019), with Professor Guglielmo Meardi (Warwick University)
In March, ERU hosted a half-day’s workshop in partnership with the CRIMT network.
February: Dr Wil Chivers and Katy Huxley (WISERD, Cardiff University), and Dr David Nash and Dr Deborah Hann (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University)
In January, Dr Jonathan Preminger (Cardiff University) presented his paper, “Union revitalization through social partnership: potential and limitations,” and Dr Jean Jenkins (Cardiff University) presented her work on unionizing in the Indian garment industry.
2018
January: Cyntia Vilasboas Calixto Casnici (Fundação Getulio Vargas, EAESP) and Carolyn Graham (Seafarers International Research Centre, Cardiff University)
February: Mark Bergfeld (Queen Mary University of London)
May: Professor Lidia Greco (Università di Bari)
In November, Helen Blakely and Rhys Davies (WISERD, Cardiff University) presented their paper, “Family, community and the inter-generational transmission of union membership”
In May, ERU held the Global Value Chains and their Employment Relations Consequences conference and special issue
In May, ERU hosted a book launch for Jonathan Preminger’s Labor in Israel: Beyond Nationalism and Neoliberalism (Cornell University Press, 2018), with Professor Marco Hauptmeier (Cardiff Business School)
2017
In February, ERU hosted a book launch for Leon Gooberman’s From Depression to Devolution, Economy and Government in Wales, 1934-2006 (University of Wales Press, 2017).
In April, ERU hosted a special forum for discussion of the French Presidential election
2016
On 15-16 September, ERU held the Employers’ Organisations and Employers’ Collective Action Conference
Montague Burton visiting fellowship
Since 1990, the ERU has organised a regular visiting scholar programme based on the Montague Burton Fund.
The unit uses these funds to build up contacts with international researchers, to facilitate research collaboration between members and internationally renowned scholars and to enhance the international reputation of both the Employment Research Unit and Cardiff Business School.
Past visiting scholars
2019
- Professor John Budd (University of Minnesota)
- Dr Todd Dickey (Syracuse University)
- Professor Edward Webster (Wits University)
- Dr Tracy Corley (Northeastern University)
2018
- Professor Lidia Greco (Università di Bari)
2017
- Professor Peter Gahan (University of Melbourne)
- Dr Assaf Bondy (Tel Aviv University)
2016
- Mona Aranea Guillen (Oviedo University)
- Howard Gospel (Kings College)
- David Yeandle (former employer representative, EEF)
2014
- Rebecca Givan (Rutgers University, USA)
- Lise Lotte Hansen (Roskilde Universitet, Denmark)
- Cathie Jo Martin (Boston University, USA).
2013
- Kerstin Harmann (University of Central Florida, USA)
- Greg Bamber (Monash University, USA)
- Lowell Turner (Cornell University, USA).
2012
- Charles Heckscher (Rutgers University, USA)
- Sanford Jacoby (UCLA, USA)
- Christian Levesque (Montreal University, Canada).
2011
- Ed Carberry (Boston University, USA)
- Morris Kleiner (University of Minnesota, USA)
- Sarosh Kuruvilla (Cornell University, USA).
2010
- Janice Fine (Rutgers University, USA)
- Martin Behrens (Hans Böckler Foundation, Germany)
- Marian Baird (University of Sydney, Australia).
2009
- Luis Ortiz (Pompeiu Fabra)
- Nikola Smit (North West University, South-Africa)
2008
- Michael Burawoy (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
- Ruth Milkman (CUNY, USA)
- Bradon Ellem (University of Sydney, Australia).