Work Futures

The focus of Work Futures is on understanding workplace regulation and employment and the role that stakeholders play. Our academics explore the condition of the contemporary workplace and its impact on working people.

Our research examines contemporary developments in the organisation of work, job quality, people management practices and the exercise of power within organisations. We are interested in the respective roles of employers, trade unions, national governments, international organisations and other stakeholders in regulating work and employment and influencing the extent to which working people can experience decent and sustainable work.

A young adult working in hospitality.

The Transitions of Young Workers in the UK Labour Market

In this ESRC-funded project, Jason Heyes and Edward Yates (both Centre for Decent Work) are investigating the ability of younger workers living in the UK to make successful transitions in the labour market and the barriers that might prevent them from making progress in their careers.

Learn more about Jason and Edward's work

An open plan work place with employees working on computers.

Productivity of Outcomes of Workplace Practice, Engagement & Learning (PrOPEL)

The PrOPEL Hub, that Paul Latreille (Centre for Decent Work) is involved in, brings together leading academics from 7 institutions across the UK and the CIPD to explore workplace practices that deliver high quality, engaging work and and enhance business performance and productivity.

Learn more about the PrOPEL Hub

Four people holding hands in solidarity.

UNISON-funded project on public sector employment and union organising

This research, led by Katy Fox-Hodess and Andrew Smith (both Centre for Decent Work) aims to support UNISON in understanding long-term workforce and management trends in public services, across the public, private and voluntary sectors of the UK economy.

Learn more about this UNISON-funded project

Four fists put in the centre of a circle on top of a desk covered in notebooks, documents, stationery and handheld electrical devices

Supply Chain Accounting and Employment Practices (SCA-Emp)

Funded by the ESRC, the SCA-Emp project is led by Pauline Dibben (Centre for Decent Work), alongside John Cullen and Juliana Matos De Meira (both Centre for Research into Accounting and Finance in Context), and focuses on utilising supply chain accounting to improve employment practices across the supply chain.

Learn more about SCA-Emp

The words work and life unbalanced on a seesaw

Women’s careers: Beyond organizational boundaries

This British Academy/Leverhumle funded research project, led by Penny Dick (Organisation Studies Research Cluster) and conducted in collaboration with Women to Work, a local business with social aims, challenges conventional assumptions about how women's career paths differ to those of men.

Learn more about Penny's work

Two people working together in a coworking space.

EU-CoWork: Developing Compassionate Workplaces in Europe for the digital and green work environment to protect employees’ mental and physical health and wellbeing

Karina Nielsen (Institute of Work Psychology) is the work package leader on the evaluation and will develop and validate measures for evaluation the interventions according to the principles of realist evaluation.

Learn more about EU-CoWork