Professor Kirsty Newsome
BA, MA, PGDip, PhD
Management School
Associate Dean Research
+44 114 222 3469
Full contact details
Management School
Room A018
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
- Profile
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Kirsty is a Professor in Employment Relations. She joined the Management School in September 2014 having previously been Senior Lecturer in the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of Strathclyde.
She is a member of the Centre for Decent Work (CDW) located within the Management School.
Kirsty is Visiting Research Affiliate, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UCLA, USA and was recently appointed a Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Sustainable Work and Employment Futures, University of Leicester.
- Research interests
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Kirsty’s research interests are focussed around three interconnected core themes:
- the changing character of employment regulation
- the shifts and transformations in the politics of production
- and the dynamic interplay of global value chains and the labour process.
In recent years the empirical focus of her research has been two-fold. First with Professor Paul Thompson and Johanna Commander (University of Strathclyde), she has been concerned with exploring labour process change in the supermarket supply chain.
Second, funded in part by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation, Kirsty has focussed on examining the interplay of internal and external forces in the restructuring of the employment relationship, the labour process and value chains in retail distribution and logistics.
She is currently co-editing a book entitled ‘Putting Labour in its Place’: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains with Professor Phil Taylor, Dr. Jennifer Bair and Professor Al Rainnie published by Palgrave Macmillan. Kirsty’s current research focus is to explore changing work and employment within the logistics sector.
Kirsty is a member of the team (with Professor Paul Stewart, Professor Dora Scholarios and Ms Claire Scott, University of Strathclyde) which co-ordinates the research network "The changing nature of employment in Europe in the context of challenges, threats and opportunities for employees and employers".
This is an international comparative European FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) and Experienced Researchers (ERs).
It is amongst a small number of multi-disciplinary social science programmes to be awarded funding in the current Marie Curie awards under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7).
The ITN, brings together new and recent post graduate researchers working on an international post graduate research programme supervised by internationally renowned senior academics.
- Publications
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Edited books
- Putting Labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains. london: Palgrave.
Journal articles
- Work in the Global Economy: Editorial Introduction. Work in the Global Economy, 1(1-2), 3-12.
- Management by exception? The Taylor Review and workforce management. New Technology Work and Employment. View this article in WRRO
- Living with uncertain work. Industrial Relations Journal, 49(5-6), 430-437. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Fits and fancies’: the Taylor Review, the construction of preference and labour market segmentation. Industrial Relations Journal, 49(5-6), 403-419. View this article in WRRO
- Paying for Free Delivery: Dependent Self-Employment as a Measure of Precarity in Parcel Delivery. Work, Employment and Society, 32(3), 475-492. View this article in WRRO
- (De) regulation of working time, employer capture, and ‘forced availability’: a comparison between the UK and Cyprus food retail sector. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(21), 3047-3064. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Contemporary work and employment and the productivity puzzle, Productivity Perspectives (pp. 224-242). Edward Elgar Publishing
- ‘Supply chain capitalism’: exploring job quality for delivery workers in the UK In Isidorsson T & Kubisa J (Ed.), Job Quality in an Era of Flexibility: Experiences in a European Context (pp. 81-98). London: Routledge. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Supply Chain Capitalism’, Parcel Delivery Workers and the Degradation of Work: Exploring Job Quality for Remote Delivery Workers, In Isidorsson T & Kubisa J (Ed.), Job Quality in an Era of Flexibility: Experiences of Job Quality in a European Context. 2018: Routledge.
- The Dynamics of Dignity at Work Abstract, A Gedenkschrift to Randy Hodson: Working with Dignity (pp. 79-100).
- The Dynamics of Dignity at Work In Keister L & Roscigno V (Ed.), A Gedenkschrift to Randy Hodson: Working with Dignity (pp. 79-100). Emerald Group Publishing Limited
- Value in Motion: Labour and Logistics in the Contemporary Political Economy In Newsome K, Taylor P, Bair J & Rainnie A (Ed.), Putting labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains Palgrave
- Putting Labour in its Place’: The Labour Process and Global Value Chains In Newsome K, Taylor P, Bair J & Rainnie A (Ed.), Putting Labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains: Palgrave
Reports
- The Impact of the National Living Wage on Businesses: Retail and Hospitality in Two English Cities
- Living On The Edge: The Experiences Of Insecure Work in The UK.
- New Developments and Trends in Undeclared Work within the Sharing/Collaborative Economy
- The Experiences Of Workers On Non-Standard Contracts And The National Minimum Wage
- Putting Labour in its Place: Labour Process Analysis and Global Value Chains. london: Palgrave.
- Research group
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- Grants
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Title: The changing nature of employment in Europe in the context of challenges, threats and opportunities for employees and employers
- Awarding body: Marie Curie ITN
- Date: December 2012-2016
- People involved: The ChangingEmployment network comprises 9 Full Academic Partners and 9 Associate Partners. The ChangingEmployment network currently employs two Experienced Researchers (post-doctoral level) and 12 Early Stage Researchers (doctoral level). The project is co-ordinated by the University of Strathclyde
- Amount: Euro 4,060,000
Title: The ‘Politics of Distribution’: Understanding Employment Change in Grocery Distribution and Warehousing
- Awarding body: Carnegie Trust
- Date: May 2010
- People involved: Kirsty Newsome
- Amount: £2,500
Title: Supermarkets, Systematic Rationalisation and Work Restructuring in Grocery Distribution and Warehousing.
- Awarding body: Nuffield Foundation
- Date: March 2008-2009
- People involved: Kirsty Newsome
- Amount: £5,850
- Teaching interests
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Kirsty's approach to ‘Teaching and Learning’ is to provide students with a critical and engaging understanding of work and employment which is both theoretically embedded and empirically driven.
Kirsty is concerned to ensure that students are able to critically evaluate and interrogate current trends within the management of the employment relationship.
In recent years she has developed a strategy in all her teaching to draw closer connections between her own research and teaching provision.
Kirsty was presented with a University of Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Award in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
- Teaching activities
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She is currently teaching on the following modules:
- MGT309 Industrial Relations (final year undergraduate module)
- MGT3003 Work and Employment in the 21st Century
- MGT659 Industrial Relations (MSc HRM module)
- MGT6157 Social Theory for Management Students.
- Professional activities and memberships
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Kirsty is a member of the Editorial Board of the Industrial Relations Journal (IRJ) and Work, Employment and Society (Jan 2015-18).
She was previously Associate Editor of Employee Relations (2004-12).
She is external examiner for PG People Management subjects at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University.
Kirsty has recently been appointed external assessor the HRM Doctoral programme at the University of Strathclyde.
Kirsty was recently a steward of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) 2010-2013 at the University of Strathclyde.
- PhD Supervision
Kirsty is currently supervising a number of PhD students. She is interested in supervising doctoral research in the following areas:
- Factory work and the politics of production
- Labour process change in retail and retail supply chains
- Work and Employment in the logistics sector
- Labour and Global Value Chains.
Professor Kirsty Newsome supervises:
- PhD student Gwilym Evans
- PhD student Joe Morris
- PhD student Luke Neal