Category Archives: Business and Law

Publishing for real-world impact: helping engaged scholars navigating the publication process

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Dr Konstantinos Chalkias was a keynote speaker on impactful research at the Academy of Management Paper Development Workshop in August.

Dr Konstantinos Chalkias, Senior Lecturer in Birkbeck’s Department of Management was a keynote speaker at the Academy of Management Paper Development Workshop ‘Publishing for Real-World Impact: Helping Engaged Scholars Navigating the Publication Process’ on 6 August 2022.

The hybrid panel event, organised by the Impact Scholar Community, invited editor-author pairs to discuss the process of conducting and publishing research with impact.

Panellists were invited to comment on preparing a manuscript for submission with impact in mind; interacting with editors; and connecting published work with practice to maximise impact.

Reflecting on his 2019 paper ‘Exploring inter-organizational paradoxes: methodological lessons from a study of a grand challenge’, Konstantinos noted the synergies between writing papers and producing impactful work: “I believe that working on impact enables us to write better papers and working on papers enables us to have better impact.” Both Konstantinos and co-author Paula Jarzabkowski cautioned against producing work for the sake of impact, commenting instead that when research is high quality and answering important questions, it will inevitably involve generating impact in practice.

Konstantinos also commented on the value that editors bring to the paper development process. Editors can be instrumental in encouraging the authors to include more of the study’s context in the paper, bringing the grand challenge they explored to life.

The discussion was part of the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.

Further Information

Working with local council to reduce plastic waste

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Single-use plastic has become increasingly common in our news feeds, and not for good reason. Microplastics are now showing up in meat products and even in our blood. It will take a collaborative effort from government, business and individuals to tackle our plastic waste problem. We caught up with Dr Pamela Yeow, Reader in Management to discuss her research into ethical consumerism.

Image of a reuse logo

Tell us more about the Ethical Consumerism project

The project began in 2014 with my collaborators from the University of Essex and the University of Kent. We wanted to understand why households weren’t adopting certain ethical behaviors and what could be done about it. In our first paper on the topic, we explored the case study of bags for life and noted the role of both individuals and institutions in encouraging sustained behavioral change towards more ethical consumerism.

When the opportunity arose to further this research with funding from the Birkbeck COVID-19 Recovery fund, we decided to explore the role of the householder in tackling the reduction, recycling and reusing of plastics in a sustainable way. We chose to focus on householders because the decision as to what to do with single-use plastic waste in the home ultimately lies with individual consumers.

With the generous support of Haringey council, we were given the opportunity to interview a variety of stakeholders within their community. These included decision-makers at different levels and residents and householders living in that area. We found a few things:

  • Organisations and individuals have different and inconsistent views on waste

Our discussions with consumers and members of the council revealed different and sometimes conflicting prioriities when it comes to waste management, for example in the case of contaminated waste. Contamination results from the co-mingling of recyclable and non-recyclable products. This includes items that the processing facility cannot or will not accept or items that are acceptable but not clean. For the council, contaminated waste represents a loss of income, as it is no longer recyclable. For consumers, the co-mingling of waste at the point of recycling suggested that there was little commitment by the council to recycle.

  • Residents don’t agree on who is responsible for waste management

Our interviews uncovered that there was no clear line of responsibility for managing plastic waste. Opinions differed on whether responsibility rested with residents, many of whom were tenants, or landlords and housing agents. With a large, transient resident population in Haringey, there is also a need for continuous and consistent messaging to ensure recycling and waste disposal is done properly.

  • A collaborative approach is needed to bring together residents, local authorities and wider infrastructure

With many community champions who are keen to be ethical consumers who reduce or reuse single-use plastic, there are ample opportunities for the council to co-design campaigns and get whole neighbourhoods involved.

How will this research impact household recycling practices?

As a result of this research, Haringey council has pledged the following actions:

  • Put support in place to help all Haringey businesses reduce the sale and use of single use plastics.
  • Improve waste management infrastructure by auditing containers at street-based properties and properties with communal bins.
  • Review the council’s contamination policy and communications with residents to reduce contamination and ensure more waste can be recycled.
  • Encourage buy-in for recycling services from landlords and residents in Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) by ensuring representation of the waste team at the council’s HMO working group.
  • Gather up to date data on current use of waste and recycling services across the borough.

Councillor Chandwani, Cabinet Member for Tackling Inequality and Resident Services said:“We are determined to exceed the Mayor of London’s target of recycling 50% of our household waste, but this can only be achieved by working with our communities to find solutions that will enable us to reach our joint ambition. To help achieve this ambition we have recently launched ‘Destination 50%’; a strategic campaign to deliver a range of initiatives co-produced with local residents.“Our partnership with Birkbeck, University of London has been an invaluable tool in the Destination 50% programme. Through their research with residents we have really important insights, exploring the complexities that come in an urban borough with a mix of housing tenure, architecture, socio-economic conditions and diversity of culture and languages. All of these aspects make Haringey a wonderful place, but it also means that our recycling targets can only be met if we match the range of factors in our borough.We are grateful to the Birkbeck Research team for the opportunity to access their skills and expertise that have led to in-depth conversations with residents, Veolia and Council staff objectively and independently. Without them we could not have had the candid dialogue needed. The findings have enhanced the innovative transformational approach of the programme with some changes already being implemented. I would also like to thank all the residents who gave up their time to engage in the research. Sharing their experiences, perspectives and ideas has been at the heart of this project and we will continue to listen to their views.”

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From improving assessment centres to preventing match fixing: Birkbeck’s business and management research

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All Birkbeck’s REF 2021 impact case studies in business and management were rated ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Discover our research case studies below. Full details can be found on the REF website.

Reforming governance in the UK non-profit sport sector

Following a series of scandals in the UK sports sector, research completed since 2011 by Birkbeck’s Richard Tacon and Geoff Walters has shaped significant reforms to the country’s sports governance landscape.

In particular, their work underpins the Voluntary Code for Good Governance, published by the Sports and Recreation Alliance in 2011 and revised in 2014; and through this, the Code for Sports Governance introduced at the recommendation of the UK government by Sport England and UK Sport in 2016. All sports organisations applying for UK government funding must comply with this code, which has therefore not only influenced the distribution of over £500 million between 2016 and 2022, but has also brought about significant change in individual organisations, who have reformed their governance procedures in order to comply with this essential requirement.

Numerous smaller, unfunded organisations have additionally signed up to the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Principles of Good Governance, a voluntary code which is also based on Tacon and Walters’ research. Across the sector, governing boards are now better managed and more diverse. As such, this research can be seen to have shaped the entire UK sport sector and affected the lives and playing experiences of the millions of Britons who participate in organised sport each year.

Mobilizing the power of trade unions

John Kelly’s mobilization theory, first proposed in Rethinking Industrial Relations (1998) but refined and developed over the two decades since, offers an account of the conditions under which individual employees collectivise in response to problems at work (a sense of grievance, shared with fellow workers; a target to whom blame can be attached; and a belief that there are forms of collective action that will make a difference). The theory was taken up rapidly by trade union activists and has been widely used in trade union education programmes since 2004. In the period since 2014, major unions with a combined membership of over six million workers have drawn on Kelly’s work to educate union organisers and to inform the development of major campaigns.

In particular, Kelly ran and designed the ‘Leading Change’ programme for the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which ran between 2004 and 2018 and whose participants have gone on to become MPs, union general secretaries, and in one case the General Secretary of the Labour Party. Kelly’s work also underpins training programmes for the Public and Commercial Services Union, Universities and Colleges Union, and the NEU (National Education Union).

Kelly’s influence matters because unionized workplaces provide better terms and conditions, on average, than their non-union counterparts. The aggregated figures from the unions with which Kelly and his work have been associated tell us that between 2014 and 2020, millions of employees at thousands of workplaces received higher pay, longer holidays and better fringe benefits such as sick pay. Moreover, the achievement of collective bargaining over terms and conditions of employment means that these newly unionized workers now have more say in workplace decisions than would otherwise have been the case.

Don’t Fix It! Fighting match-fixing in European football

Match-fixing is a problem for professional sports because a perception of unfairness makes them less attractive to spectators, and because of the harm done to players (typically those who are younger, vulnerable, and less well-paid) who may be groomed or blackmailed into participating. It is also a wider social issue because match-fixing is typically orchestrated by criminal groups in order to fund their other activities. After a set of 2011-12 survey results revealed a worrying prevalence of match-fixing in the Eastern European football leagues in particular, Birkbeck researchers Sean Hamil, Andy Harvey, and Haim Levi were recruited in 2013-14 by FIFPro, the global football players’ union, to conduct research into football match fixing. Their work on the Don’t Fix It! project surveyed footballers from eight European countries and formed the basis for a code of conduct adopted by every key stakeholder organisation in European football, as well as a training programme that saw national associations develop and deliver anti-match-fixing initiatives in each of the countries concerned.

Don’t Fix It! also underpinned the development of the Red Button App for anonymously reporting match-fixing. Harvey and Hamil’s research identified the lack of a clear reporting avenue as a key impediment to reducing match-fixing and it is this that the app addresses. First developed with the Finnish football players’ union, this has now been adopted worldwide, with both FIFA and UEFA agreeing to recognise the app as a valid avenue for match-fixing reports. Another European project has seen the app expanded into sports beyond football, protecting both players and the sports they play.

Developing a co-creation model for innovation in the UK and EU

Working with major policy institutions such as the Big Innovation Centre, Innovate UK, the UK Intellectual Property Office, and the European Commission, Birkbeck researchers Brigitte Andersen, Federica Rossi, and Muthu De Silva have reshaped national and international approaches to the ways in which businesses and universities can best work together. Their research on knowledge co-creation has been a catalyst for major policy reform in the UK and EU. Andersen’s work as rapporteur for a 2012 European Commission expert group on open innovation fed directly into the delivery framework for the EU’s €80 billion Horizon 2020 programme, which has supported countless researchers and research projects across the continent. De Silva’s work with the Intellectual Property Office supported changes to the Lambert Toolkit, which is used by universities to set the terms for their engagement with business. Andersen and De Silva’s collaboration with HEFCE through the Big Innovation Centre (of which Andersen is CEO) helped to ensure the introduction of impact criteria into REF 2014, reforming the impact landscape in UKHE. And the Catapult to Success report, published in 2013, underpinned the development of the UK’s Catapult Centres and the distribution of over £1 billion in government funding.

Making assessment centres work for employers

The assessment centre process, in which candidates for a role or promotion are asked to perform a series of tasks under observation and evaluated on their performance, is widely used in employee selection, development, and promotion processes around the world. Work by Birkbeck researchers Duncan Jackson and Chris Dewberry has challenged received wisdom about assessment centre design, demonstrating that traditional dimension-based assessment (which seeks to measure candidates’ performance against specific skills or competencies) does not provide an accurate prediction of performance in-role. Instead, they propose a task-based model which replaces the abstract skill testing of a dimension-based assessment centre with a focus on candidate performance in specific, job-relevant tasks. This produces more consistent results which therefore allow employers to make better choices when it comes to promotion or recruitment.

Jackson and Dewberry’s work has been taken up by a variety of recruitment and HR consultants around the world, from America to Australasia to the Middle East. These consultancies have reshaped the tools they work with based on Birkbeck research and in doing so have improved their service to dozens of large-scale, multinational companies – providing economic benefits to the consultancies and their clients as well as benefiting the diverse customer-bases of these clients by ensuring that their service providers are run by the most competent candidates. Jackson and Dewberry have also worked directly with individual employers to improve their provision (including a London-based public service organisation which accounts for over 25% of the national budget for this service) and have helped to shape practice worldwide by contributing to the national and international guidance on assessment centres provided by British and international psychological societies.

Boost your Research by Overcoming Academic Isolation and Connecting with your Research Community

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Dr Olivier Sibai introduces a new series of workshops to support academics to integrate with their wider research community.

As academics, we develop our research within globalized research communities, also known as academic fields. Engaging with our research communities allows us to develop, publish and disseminate our research, but also to get a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment from doing research.

Yet, as academics, we often have difficulties engaging with our research communities, a phenomenon called academic isolation. With 40% of academics and more than half below the age of 35 feeling isolated in their research communities, academic isolation has become the norm, especially among early career researchers (ECRs) (The conversation, 2019).

Academic isolation reduces our productivity, promotes dissatisfaction with our research careers, and generates loneliness. Social distancing resulting from the covid pandemic has intensified the issue of isolation among ECRs, making it harder to integrate well in their research communities.

In order to support academics’ integration in their research community, we have developed a professional development workshop series that will address obstacles such as:

  • Experiences of isolation in their research field
  • Barriers to engagement with relevant researchers
  • Difficulties developing and demonstrating competencies valued in their research community

After this workshop series, you will be able to:

  • Develop creative solutions to research challenges and roadblocks
  • Establish new research networks that will help you attain your strategic research goals
  • Communicate about your research to gain recognition in your community
  • Build and engage with your own research collective
  • Leverage professional development initiatives offered in your research community

Who is this workshop for?

All interested Birkbeck faculty members will benefit from participating in this workshop. However, early career faculty and research staff who have completed their PhD holding post-doc positions or lectureships will particularly benefit from participating.

Overview of the workshop series

The series consists of six workshops focusing on the main strategies to integrate in a research community. Some workshops will take place face to face at Birkbeck, while others will take place online via Microsoft Teams. For more information on each workshop, click on the links below.

Facilitators

Headshots of the workshop facilitators listed below.

The workshop series is organized by Dr Olivier Sibai, lecturer in the Department of Management. Olivier has run a number of workshops on academic isolation. He has also co-authored research on which the proposed professional development workshop is based:

Belkhir, M., Brouard, M., Brunk, K. H., Dalmoro, M., Ferreira, M. C., Figueiredo, B., Huff A., Scaraboto D., Sibai O., & Smith A. N. (2019), Isolation in Globalizing Academic Fields: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Early Career Researchers. Academy of Management Learning and Education, Volume 18, No 2, pp. 261-285.

Olivier will be joined by guest speakers with substantive expertise and experience on specific strategies to integrate research communities. These are:

  • Amanda Cravens, Research Social Scientist at the Fort Collins Science Centre and founder of the Standford feedback research collective showcased by Nature
  • Markus Giesler, Marketing professor at Schulich School of business, nominated as part of the “40 under 40” professor by Poets & Quants and named “Young business school star professor on the rise,” by CNN.
  • Ieva Martinaitytė, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behavior at University of East Anglia, UK and the founder of Creativity Lab
  • Agnieszka Radziwon, Associate Professor of Innovation Management at Aarhus University, Denmark and Research Fellow at Berkeley, USA
  • Isabel Davis, Reader in Medieval Literature and Culture, and AD for Equalities, School of Arts
  • Elisa Ferre, Reader in Psychological Sciences, School of Science
  • Alex Poulovlassis, Emeritus Professor of computer science, School of BEI
  • Rebecca Whiting, Reader in Organisation studies, School of BEI

How do I register?

To register for individual workshops, click on the links of each individual workshop above.