Dr Andrew Smith

BA (Hons), MA, PhD

Management School

Head of Work, Employment and Organisations Subject Group

Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations and Human Resource

Andrew Smith wearing a white shirt, blue patterned tie and black jacket.

Andrew.John.Smith@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 3270

Room AO17, Sheffield University Management School, Sheffield University Management School

Full contact details

Dr Andrew Smith
Management School
Room AO17, Sheffield University Management School
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL

Profile

Andrew Smith is Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management in the School of Management at the University of Sheffield.

He is a member of the Centre for Decent Work (CDW) located within the Management School. Before joining the University of Sheffield in September 2021, Andrew worked at the Universities of Bradford, East London and Glasgow Caledonian. Prior to entering academia, Andrew worked for many years in the civil service and was an elected trade union representative of the PCS and CPSA unions.

Andrew's research focuses on low-paid multiple employment, the complexities of work-life 'balance', working time and public sector employment change. His research has been cited in both the Houses of Commons and Lords. Andrew has engaged with Kirklees Council, Leeds City Council, the Trades Union Congress and the USDAW union to influence policies to protect precarious workers. He has been interviewed on Radio 4 and has articles published in The Conversation.

Qualifications

PhD Sociology – Durham University

MA Policy Studies – University of Sunderland

BA Sociology – University of Sunderland

Research interests

Andrew's research focuses on the contemporary experiences of work, in particular, low-paid precarious work, the complexities and challenges of work-life 'balance', working time and the temporalities of work, and public sector employment change.

'The Forgotten Workers' project, with Professor Jo McBride (Durham University), is the first UK study to examine low-paid multiple employment in the UK. The research critically explores the economic and temporal dimensions of precarious work, zero hours contracts and in-work poverty. This research has been impactful and influenced organisational and trade union policies to protect precarious workers.

Andrew has researched workers’ experiences of the largest Public-Private Partnership in the civil service. He has also worked with a team of academics critically examining the application of ‘lean’ working methods in the public sector.

His research also explores the practicalities and challenges of articulating work-life ‘balance’. Andrew is interested in the transforming temporalities of work and the implications on domestic life and familial care responsibilities.

Publications

Journal articles

Smith A & McBride J (2022) ‘It was doing my head in’ : low‐paid multiple employment and zero hours work. British Journal of Industrial Relations.
Smith A & McBride J (2021) ‘Working to live, not living to work’: low-paid multiple employment and work–life articulation. Work, Employment and Society, 35(2), 256-276.
Smith A (2019) Introduction to review articles on ‘Good work: the Taylor Review of modern working practices’, introduction by Andrew Smith. New Technology, Work and Employment, 34(2), 91-94. View this article in WRRO
Smith A, McBride J & Mbala M (2017) ‘’You end up with nothing’: the experience of being a statistic of ‘in work poverty’ in the UK’. Work, Employment and Society, 32(1), 210-218.
Carter B, Danford A, Howcroft D, Richardson H, Smith A & Taylor P (2017) Uncomfortable truths – teamworking under lean in the UK. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(3), 449-467.
Smith A (2016) ‘The Magnificent 7[am]?’ Work-life articulation beyond the 9[am] to 5[pm] ‘norm’. New Technology, Work and Employment, 31(3), 209-222.
Carter B, Danford A, Howcroft D, Richardson H, Smith A & Taylor P (2014) ‘They can’t be the buffer any longer’: Front-line managers and class relations under white-collar lean production. Capital & Class, 38(2), 323-343.
Carter B, Danford A, Howcroft D, Richardson H, Smith A & Taylor P (2013) ‘Stressed out of my box’: employee experience of lean working and occupational ill-health in clerical work in the UK public sector. Work, Employment and Society, 27(5), 747-767.
Smith A, Carter B, Danford A, Richardson H, Howcroft D & Taylor P (2013) ‘‘Nothing gets done and no one knows why’: PCS and workplace control of lean in HM Revenue and Customs’. Industrial Relations Journal, 43(5), 416-432.
CARTER BOB, DANFORD A, HOWCROFT D, RICHARDSON H, SMITH A & TAYLOR P (2013) TAXING TIMES: LEAN WORKING AND THE CREATION OF (IN)EFFICIENCIES IN HM REVENUE AND CUSTOMS. Public Administration, 91(1), 83-97.
Smith A & Elliott F (2012) ‘“The Demands and Challenges of Being a Retail Store Manager: “Handcuffed to the Front Doors”’. Work, Employment and Society, 26(4), 476-484.
Smith A & Elliott F (2012) The demands and challenges of being a retail store manager: ‘Handcuffed to the front doors’. Work, Employment and Society, 26(4), 676-684.
Smith A (2012) ‘Monday Will Never be the Same Again’: The Transformation of Employment and Work in a Public-Private Partnership’. Work, Employment and Society, 26(1), 95-110.
Carter B, Danford A, Howcroft D, Richardson H, Smith A & Taylor P (2011) ‘All they lack is a chain’: lean and the new performance management in the British civil service. New Technology, Work and Employment, 26(2), 83-97.
Smith A, Carter B, Danford A, Howcroft D, Richardson H & Taylor P (2011) ‘‘All They Lack is a Chain’: Lean and the New Performance Management in the British Civil Service’. New Technology, Work and Employment, 26(2), 83-97.
Carter B, Danford A, Howcroft D, Richardson H, Smith A & Taylor P (2011) Lean and mean in the civil service: the case of processing in HMRC. Public Money & Management, 31(2), 115-122.
Smith A (2009) ‘Worky Tickets’: Exploring Dissent at ‘Work’. Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 6(1), 14-15.
Smith A & McKie L (2009) ‘Researching ‘Care’ In and Around the Workplace’. Sociological Research Online, 14(4).
Smith A () Collective and individual forms of resistance in a public-private partnership: a case study of National Savings and Investments. New Technology, Work and Employment, 23(3), 197-212.
Smith A & McBride J () ‘’I feel like I’m in poverty. I don’t do much outside of work other than survive’: In-work poverty and multiple employment in the UK’. Economic and Industrial Democracy.

Chapters

McBride J & Smith A (2024) Precarious work and employment, A Research Agenda for Work and Employment (pp. 173-187). Edward Elgar Publishing
Smith A & McBride J (2024) Labour process theory, A Guide to Key Theories for Human Resource Management Research (pp. 133-138).
Smith A & McBride J (2019) Accessing ‘Hard to Reach Groups’ and Emotions in the Research Process: ‘Work an Honest Day and Get the Usual Raw Deal’ In Wheatley D (Ed.), Handbook of research methods on the quality of working lives (pp. 95-108). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Research group: Centre for Decent Work

Teaching interests

Andrew has extensive teaching experience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His specialist areas of teaching include: industrial relations, research methods, international and comparative employment relations and human resource management.

Andrew's approach to teaching focuses on developing critical thinking skills in examining and understanding the transformations of work and employment. He motivates and inspires students through intellectually challenging content and stimulating student-led discussions. Andrew utilises research-led teaching to theoretically and empirically address contemporary developments in work and employment relations.

Teaching activities

MGT309 – Industrial Relations

MGT6060 – Human Resource Management

MGT659 – Industrial Relations (MSc)

MGT670 – International Human Resource Studies

Professional activities and memberships: Andrew is the Editor for Review Articles at the journal ‘New Technology, Work and Employment’. Between 2016 and 2020, Andrew was an Executive Committee Member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association He was previously a Board Member of the journal ‘New Technology, Work and Employment’ (2014-2018).

PhD Supervision

Andrew has successfully supervised a number of PhD and DBA students to completion. Prospective PhD applications are encouraged in the broad fields of employment relations, the sociology of work and HRM. In particular, covering:

The complexities and challenges of work-life ‘balance’
Low-paid and precarious work
Working time and the temporalities of work
Public sector employment change
Workers experiences of privatisation and Public-Private Partnerships
Trade unionism and employee representation

Andrew Smith supervises:

PhD student Karen Wise
PhD student Akanni Mc Dowall