Professor Damian Hodgson
BA, MA, PhD, FAcSS
Management School
Chair in Organisational Studies
d.hodgson@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 3273
+44 114 222 3273
B043, Sheffield University Management School
Full contact details
Professor Damian Hodgson
Management School
B043
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
Management School
B043
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
- Profile
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Damian is Professor of Organisation Studies, having joined the Management School in March 2020 from the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester where he was Director of the Institute for Health Policy and Organisation. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Leeds in 1999, and has worked at the University of Birmingham and University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He has spent time as visiting faculty at the University of Sydney, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He was visiting research fellow at CRISES Research Centre in Quebec, Canada, in 2009 and is currently honorary professor in Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care within the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester.
- Qualifications
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BA (Hons), MA, PhD - University of Leeds
- Research interests
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Damian's research focuses on the transformation of health and care and he has led a suite of research projects over the last 12 years examining skill-mix and workforce transformation, primary care and mental health reorganisation, access to care and continuity of care, the role of policy piloting, and the integration of health and care, in collaboration with a range of colleagues, as well as NIHR-funded research projects in healthcare, the growth of GP federations, digital capture of patient experience data, and leadership in healthcare.
He has a longstanding interest in work which seeks to open up project management and project-based organisation to critical examination, given the ongoing 'projectification' of society in recent decades. He co-founded the “Making Projects Critical” workshop series, organising 9 international workshops over 15 years and leading to the publication of several books, special issues and articles. In 2017 Damian and colleagues received the 2017 Project Management Institute Research Achievement Award for this work. Damian has also written extensively on projectification and the emergence of project management as a 'corporate profession'.
- Publications
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Books
- The Projectification of the Public Sector.
- Management knowledge and the new employee.
- Managing Modern Healthcare: Knowledge, Networks and Practice. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Making Projects Critical. Macmillan International Higher Education.
- Discourse, discipline and the subject: A foucauldian analysis of the UK financial services industry.
Journal articles
- General practice managers’ motivations for skill mix change in primary care: results from a cross-sectional survey in England. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 28(1), 5-13.
- Processes supporting effective skill-mix implementation in general practice: a qualitative study.. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 27(4), 269-277.
- Scale, scope and impact of skill mix change in primary care in England: a mixed-methods study. Health and Social Care Delivery Research, 10(9).
- The challenges of integrating signposting into general practice: qualitative stakeholder perspectives on care navigation and social prescribing in primary care. BMC Primary Care, 23(1).
- On the character of the new entrepreneurial National Health Service in England : reforming health care from within?. Public Administration, 100(2), 338-355.
- Co-designing new tools for collecting, analysing and presenting patient experience data in NHS services: working in partnership with patients and carers. Research Involvement and Engagement, 7(1).
- Ambiguous workarounds in policy piloting in the NHS : tensions, trade‐offs and legacies of organisational change projects. New Technology, Work and Employment, 36(1), 17-43.
- Managing death : navigating divergent logics in end-of-life care. Sociology of Health and Illness, 42(6), 1277-1295.
- Digital methods to enhance the usefulness of patient experience data in services for long-term conditions: the DEPEND mixed-methods study. Health Services and Delivery Research, 8(28).
- More that unites us than divides us? A qualitative study of integration of community health and social care services. BMC Family Practice, 21(1).
- Implementing a digital patient feedback system: an analysis using normalisation process theory. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1).
- Regional variation in practitioner employment in general practices in England: a comparative analysis. British Journal of General Practice, 70(692), e164-e171.
- Mobilizing management knowledge in healthcare : institutional imperatives and professional and organizational mediating effects. Management Learning, 48(5), 597-614.
- Investigation of the demand for a 7-day (extended access) primary care service : an observational study from pilot schemes in England. BMJ Open, 9(9).
- Hybrid managers, career narratives and identity work : a contextual analysis of UK healthcare organizations. Human Relations, 72(8), 1341-1368.
- Skill-mix change in general practice : a qualitative comparison of three ‘new’ non-medical roles in English primary care. British Journal of General Practice, 69(684), e489-e498.
- Not every public sector is a field : evidence from the recent overhaul of the English NHS. Public Management Review, 21(4), 559-580.
- Implementing new care models : learning from the Greater Manchester demonstrator pilot experience. BMC Family Practice, 19(1).
- GPs’ views of health policy changes : a qualitative ‘netnography’ study of UK general practice online magazine commentary. British Journal of General Practice, 68(671), e441-e448.
- Skill-mix change and the general practice workforce challenge. British Journal of General Practice, 68(667), 66-67.
- The policy work of piloting : mobilising and managing conflict and ambiguity in the English NHS. Social Science & Medicine, 179(-), 210-217.
- Associations between extending access to primary care and emergency department visits : a difference-in-differences analysis. PLoS Medicine, 13(9).
- Making projects critical 15 years on : a retrospective reflection (2001-2016). International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 9(4), 744-751.
- PROFESSIONALS AS KNOWLEDGE BROKERS: THE LIMITS OF AUTHORITY IN HEALTHCARE COLLABORATION. Public Administration, 94(2), 472-489.
- The Politics of Projects in Technology-Intensive Work. New Technology, Work and Employment, 31(1), 1-3.
- Project managers on the edge: liminality and identity in the management of technical work. New Technology, Work and Employment, 31(1), 26-40.
- Understanding the professional project manager: Cosmopolitans, locals and identity work. International Journal of Project Management, 34(2), 352-364.
- Something Old, Something New?: Competing Logics and the Hybrid Nature of New Corporate Professions. British Journal of Management, 26(4), 745-759.
- Damaged identities: Examining identity regulation and identity work of Gulf project managers. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), 1523-1533.
- Leadership talk: From managerialism to leaderism in health care after the crash. Leadership, 11(4), 451-470.
- The re-regulation of control in the context of project-based work. International Journal of Work Innovation, 1(3), 287-287.
- "Informal Networking in Healthcare Management: Motivations, Tensions and Challenges". Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014(1), 15525-15525.
- Learning from international development projects: Blending Critical Project Studies and Critical Development Studies. International Journal of Project Management, 32(7), 1182-1196.
- The price of corporate professionalisation: analysing the corporate capture of professions in the UK. New Technology, Work and Employment, 28(3), 227-240.
- Controlling the uncontrollable: ‘Agile’ teams and illusions of autonomy in creative work. Work, Employment and Society, 27(2), 308-325.
- ‘The ground beneath my feet’: projects, project management and the intensified control of R&D engineers. New Technology, Work and Employment, 27(3), 163-177.
- Great expectations and hard times: the paradoxical experience of the engineer as project manager. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 40(3), 74-87.
- Towards corporate professionalization: The case of project management, management consultancy and executive search. Current Sociology, 59(4), 443-464.
- Great expectations and hard times: The paradoxical experience of the engineer as project manager. International Journal of Project Management, 29(4), 374-382.
- Who am I and what am I doing here?. Journal of Management Development, 29(2), 157-166.
- Project management behind the façade. Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization, 9(2), 78-92.
- By any means necessary? Ethnographic access, ethics and the critical researcher. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 7(4), 127-146.
- The other side of projects: the case for critical project studies. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 1(1), 142-152.
- The politics of standards in modern management: Making 'the project' a reality. Journal of Management Studies, 44(3), 431-450.
- Rethinking Project Management: Researching the actuality of projects. International Journal of Project Management, 24(8), 675-686.
- From projectification to programmification. International Journal of Project Management, 24(8), 663-674.
- Exploring the role of formal bodies of knowledge in defining a profession – The case of project management. International Journal of Project Management, 24(8), 710-721.
- New Possibilities for Project Management Theory: A Critical Engagement. Project Management Journal, 37(3), 111-122.
- ‘Putting on a Professional Performance’: Performativity, Subversion and Project Management. Organization, 12(1), 51-68.
- Introduction: New Organizational Thinking. Organization, 12(1), 5-8.
- From the Editor. Project Management Journal, 36(3), 3-4.
- Project Work: The Legacy of Bureaucratic Control in the Post-Bureaucratic Organization. Organization, 11(1), 81-100.
- ‘Taking it Like a Man’: Masculinity, Subjection and Resistance in the Selling of Life Assurance. Gender, Work & Organization, 10(1), 1-21.
- DISCIPLINING THE PROFESSIONAL: THE CASE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT*. Journal of Management Studies, 39(6), 803-821.
- “Know your customer”: marketing, governmentality and the “new consumer” of financial services. Management Decision, 40(4), 318-328.
- Negotiating New Roles in General Practice: a qualitative study of Clinical Pharmacists. British Journal of General Practice.
- The patient experience of changes in skill mix in primary care: an in-depth study of patient ‘work’ when accessing primary care. Journal of Public Health.
- Being a manager, becoming a professional? A case study and interview-based exploration of the use of management knowledge across communities of practice in health-care organisations. Health Services and Delivery Research, 2(14), 1-138.
Chapters
- Changing organisational practices through the integration of health and social care : implications for boundary work and identity tactics In Kislov R, Burns D, Mørk BE & Montgomery K (Ed.), Managing Healthcare Organisations in Challenging Policy Contexts (pp. 151-173). Palgrave Macmillan
- The Contested Practice of Networking in Healthcare Management In Bevir M & Waring J (Ed.), Decentring Health and Care Networks: Reshaping the Organization and Delivery of Healthcare (pp. 17-42). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Introduction, The Projectification of the Public Sector (pp. 1-18). Routledge
- Pilots as Projects, The Projectification of the Public Sector (pp. 130-148). Routledge
- Institutional Work and Innovation in the NHS: The Role of Creating and Disrupting, Managing Improvement in Healthcare (pp. 237-254). Springer International Publishing
- Critical approaches to the conceptualization of management knowledge: Reconsidering Jacques, Management Knowledge and the New Employee (pp. 1-7).
- Problematizing discourse analysis: Can we talk about management knowledge?, Management Knowledge and the New Employee (pp. 56-67).
- Managing Healthcare Themes and Issues, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 1-+).
- Studying Management in Healthcare, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 25-52).
- Managing Healthcare Tensions and Prospects, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 157-183).
- Managers Networking, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 130-156).
- Managers Knowing, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 101-129).
- Contextualizing Healthcare Management, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 10-24).
- Becoming a Manager, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 78-100).
- Being a Manager, MANAGING MODERN HEALTHCARE: KNOWLEDGE, NETWORKS AND PRACTICE (pp. 53-77).
- Prospects for Professionalism in Project Management Oxford University Press
- Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour In Muzio D, Ackroyd S & Chanlat J-F (Ed.) Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Making projects critical: an introduction, Making Projects Critical (pp. 1-25). Macmillan Education UK
- Are projects real? The PMBOK and the legitimation of project management knowledge, Making Projects Critical (pp. 29-50). Macmillan Education UK
Book reviews
- Books. Management Learning, 29(2), 231-233.
Conference proceedings papers
- Motivating factors behind skill mix change: results from a practice managers’ survey in England. British Journal of General Practice, Vol. 70(suppl 1). London, UK, 12 March 2020 - 12 March 2020.
- Mobilizing management knowledge in healthcare: managerial hybridity and knowledge epistemes. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2018(1) (pp 16470-16470)
- Hybrid Careers and Managerial Identity in UK Healthcare Organizations. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2017(1) (pp 12116-12116)
- Management Knowledge and Learning in the UK Healthcare Context: Change and Continuity. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2016(1) (pp 13733-13733)
- Professionals as Knowledge Brokers: The Limits of Authority in Healthcare Collaboration. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2015(1) (pp 11099-11099)
- Leadership talk: Discourses of management and leadership in healthcare. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2014(1) (pp 13925-13925)
- CoPs and Robbers: Taking and Making Management in UK Healthcare. Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2013(1) (pp 15662-15662)
Presentations
Preprints
- More that unites us than divides us? A qualitative study of integration of community health and social care services, Research Square Platform LLC.
- More that unites us than divides us? A qualitative study of integration of community health and social care services, Research Square Platform LLC.
- More that unites us than divides us? A qualitative study of integration of community health and social care services, Research Square Platform LLC.
- The Projectification of the Public Sector.
- Research group
- Grants
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Grant Amount Funder Dates New Roles, New Challenges: Understanding boundary work to support the implementation of new roles in mental health Trusts £824,622 National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) 1/4/2023 to 31/5/2025 An investigation of the scale, scope and impact of skill mix change in primary care (17/08/25) £649,562 National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) 01/09/2018 to 31/12/2020 Evaluation of Buckinghamshire Community Mental Health Transformation Programme £138,600 Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust 1/7/2022 to 30/6/2024 Evaluation of Sheffield Primary and Community Mental Health Transformation Programme £99,437 NHS Sheffield CCG 1/3/2021 to 28/2/2022 Evaluation of the Increasing Continuity of Care in General Practice programme £250,000 Health Foundation 1/3/2019 to 31/9/2021
Awarded in partnership with Mott Macdonald
- Teaching interests
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Damian has taught at all levels, including undergraduate, postgraduate, MBA and Executive Education and to both management and non-management students. His approach is to encourage critical thinking on the part of students and reflection on the complexities of organisations and organising, informed by sociological, historical, political and philosophical insights. His teaching covers organisational theory/organisational behaviour and research methods.
His teaching style focuses on engaging students by making links between everyday experience and theory. The aim is to empower students to make informed, critical judgements when faced by complex challenges in public, professional and personal life.
Damian is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, has received over a dozen letters of commendation for his teaching and was nominated for Best Humanities Lecturer at the University of Manchester in 2013.
- Teaching activities
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Management and Organisation Theory (MGT6127)
Research Methods (MGT682)
- Professional activities and memberships
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Professor Hodgson is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Professions and Organization, the Scandinavian Journal of Management, and New Technology, Work and Employment.
- PhD supervision
Damian is currently supervising several PhD students. He is interested in supervising doctoral research in the following areas:
- Organisation and policy change in health and care
- The devolution of health and care
- Workforce challenges in health and care
- Professional and managerial identity work in healthcare
- Critical analyses of project management and project organising
- Power and identity in the workplace