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.
Selected publications
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Operationalising Labour Rights ESRC GCRF Project
Jean Jenkins, Rhys Davies, Helen Blakely, Catriona Dickson
This is an international research project funded by the ESRC under the remit of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). It is a collaboration between researchers at Cardiff Business School and WISERD and our partners at Cividep-India.
The research is distinctive in being a longitudinal, workplace-centred study of access to remedy at the grass roots of the labour-intensive value chain in garments. The project commenced in 2018 and will end in 2021.
Operationalising Labour Rights: Access to Remedy at the Workplace
ES/S000542/1 ESRC GCRF
Urgent Appeals: Data and Shared Learning ESRC GCRF Project
Jean Jenkins, Katy Huxley
This is a project that commenced on 05 November 2019. It is being undertaken by colleagues in Cardiff Business School and WISERD in collaboration with the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC). It builds on an earlier ESRC IAA Award which was completed in March 2019. The focus of our work is to improve and develop the database used by CCC to record and monitor its Urgent Appeals mechanism.
Established in 1989, CCC is an international NGO which works in close cooperation with a range of civil society partners as a global alliance dedicated to improving working conditions and empowering workers in the global garment and sportswear industries.
Its Urgent Appeals system is an independent mechanism through which human rights defenders (HRDs) at the grass roots can appeal for assistance when in need of international lobbying and advocacy in support of their actions, or as a source of urgent remedy at the local level.
Urgent Appeals: Data and Shared Learning ESRC GCRF Project
ES/T009918/1
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
Dr Jonathan Preminger
Senior Lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation
- premingerj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4000 ext 77243
Academic staff
Professor Rick Delbridge
Professor of Organizational Analysis
- delbridger@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6644
Dr Heike Doering
Senior Lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation
- doeringh@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0805
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
Dr Anna Galazka
Lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation
- galazkaa@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6736
Dr Leon Gooberman
Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations
- Welsh speaking
- goobermanlm@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6563
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
Reader in Employment Relations, Deputy Head of Section (Learning and Teaching)
- hanndj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5559
Professor Jean Jenkins
Head of Management, Employment and Organisation Section
Professor of Employment Relations
- jenkinsj1@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5338
Professor Aoife McDermott
Professor of Human Resource Management
- mcdermotta@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5065
Professor Jonathan Morris
Professor of Organisational Analysis
- morrisjl@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6392
Dr Karel Musílek
Lecturer in Sociology of Work and Economic Life
- musilekk@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0059
Dr Thomas Prosser
Reader in European Social Policy
- Welsh speaking
- prossertj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6796
Dr Dimitrinka Stoyanova Russell
Senior Lecturer in Management, Employment and Organisation
- stoyanovarusselld@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44(0)29 2087 7697
Professor Keith Whitfield
Professor of Human Resource Management
- whitfield@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 6870
Rachel Williams
Senior 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
2022
In February, ERU collaborated with CORGies and the Centre for Researching Education and Labour at the University of the Witwatersrand, for an online symposium titled, Critical Perspectives on the 4th Industrial Revolution. Speakers included Ian Moll (University of the Witwatersrand), Paul Thompson (Stirling University) and Ivor Baatjes (Nelson Mandela University), with Irena Grugulis (Leeds University) and Rick Delbridge (Cardiff Business School) commentating on the speakers’ presentations.
In January, ERU hosted the Cardiff Business School MEO section PhD conference, organized jointly with CORGies, in which the section’s PhD students presented their research.
2021
In October, Arianna Marcolin (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa) discussed how digitalisation affects industrial relations in the retail sector, using evidence from Italy and Spain.
In June, Luciana Zorzoli (Cardiff Business School) presented her research on employment relations and gig workers’ expectations, interests and experiences, focusing on Buenos Aires (Argentina), São Paulo (Brazil) and Santiago de Chile (Chile).
In March, Bradon Ellem (University of Sydney Business School) presented his research into productivity and industrial relations policy in Australian ‘megaprojects’.
In February, Sarah Pickard (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) discussed the reasons for low rates of trade union membership and activism among the young precariat in Britain.
In January, ERU hosted the Cardiff Business School MEO section PhD conference, organised jointly with CORGies, in which the section’s PhD students presented their research.
In January, Dr Søren Kaj Andersen (University of Copenhagen), Professor Russell Lansbury (University of Sydney) and Dr Chris F. Wright (University of Sydney) presented their work on actors’ perspectives of low growth in Australia and Denmark (event held online due to Covid-19)
In January, Dr Johannes Kiess (University of Siegen and University of Leipzig) talked about participation, solidarity and recognition in the workplace, and the possibility of strengthening democratic attitudes through industrial citizenship (event held online due to Covid-19)
2020
In November, Cardiff University’s Professor Alan Felstead talked about his research into homeworking during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Cardiff Business School’s Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna talked about the impact of the pandemic on BAME communities (event held online due to Covid-19)
In November, Dr Paolo Tomassetti (University of Bergamo) talked about the main findings of the EU project ‘Agreenment: A Green Mentality for Collective Bargaining’, which investigates the role of social dialogue and collective bargaining in promoting sustainable development and a just transition (event held online due to Covid-19)
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).