I am currently Professor of HRM and Employment Relations. Between 2022 and 2025 I served as  Director of Research for the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation. Prior to my current appointment I worked at Newcastle University (2012-2020) and Loughborough University (2005-2012).  I hold degrees from the universities of Aberdeen, Manchester and Loughborough. 

A central concern of my research over the past 25 years has been the potential to develop good workplaces for the benefits of workers, organisations and society. My research takes a critical pluralist and contextual approach to human resource management and employment relations, with a particular focus on employee voice and participation (especially collective voice & labour management partnership), employment restructuring, and HRM in SMEs.   I have have various ongoing projects in each of these areas. In terms of methods, I am primarily a qualitiative researcher - with particular expertise  with interview based industrial relations case studies - but often collaborate with others on quantitative/mixed method research. 

I have published in various business and management journals including British Journal of Management, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Employee Relations, Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Industrial Relations International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Industrial Relations, Service Industries Journal. I have also coedited three books, notably Finding A Voice at Work (OUP, 2015), Developing Positive Employment Relations (Palgrave, 2016), and two editions Encylopedia of Human Resource Management (Elgar, 2016, 2023). In 2024, I was awarded Best Paper by the Human Resource Management Journal for my research in HRM in recession, and in 2025 I was recognised as one of the most cited authors in the same journal. 

I am PI of a major ESRC funded project Amplifying employee voice and hearing the unheard (2022-2025). The project brings together a diverse team of University of Strathclyde Business School researchers within the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation and Economics, with different methodological expertise and sector knowledge  to develop an innovative multi-level study of employee voice and contemporary working lives in the West of Scotland.

I am currently supervising four PhD students and always pleased to hear from potential doctoral students with interests in any of the above areas. Please contact me to discuss project ideas and funding opportunities before making a formal application.

I am former Co-Chair of the British Academy of Management HRM Special Interest Group (2016-2022) and former Executive Board Member and Communications Officer of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (2016-2019).  I am an Academic Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a member of the British Academy of Management HRM Steering Group and a Fellow of the British Academy of Management Peer Review College which supports all reviewing activity within BAM (BAM journals, conferences, and grants).  In 2023 I was awarded the BAM Leadership Medal for sustained and outstanding leadership to the academic community. 

Employee voice and participation

Trade unions

Employment relations

Labour management partnership

Employment restructuring

Layoffs

Downsizing

HRM in SMEs

I have experience of designing, delivering and managing programmes and modules concerned with the management of people and work at all levels. At Strathclyde I teach a range of undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA students. I am also the Editor of an Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, which contains over 400 entries on core HR areas and key concepts.  A popular and comprehensive resource for students, a fully revised 2nd edition was released in February 2023. 

My research activity has focused on:

Employee voice and participation in both unionised and non-union contexts, and especially issues of labour management partnership, a debate to which I have contributed extensively for over 20 years. See for example:

Never one size fits all: Mick Marchington's unique voice on voice, from micro-level informality to macro-level turbulence Human Resource Management Journal

The potential of labour management partnership: a longitudinal case analysis, British Journal of Management.

Developing positive employment relations: international experiences of labour management partnership, Palgrave.

Finding a Voice at Work: New Perspectives on Employment Relations, Oxford University Press.

Employment restructuring in times of crisis, and in particular HRM responses to turbulence at the organisational level including the 2008 financial crisis and 2020 coronavirus pandemic.  See for example:

Comparative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on work and employment - Why industrial relations institutions matter, Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society.

The Global Financial Crisis, Work and Employment Ten Years On,  Economic and Industrial Democracy

Downsizing, The Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management

Employment practices, laboour flexibility and the Great Recession: an automotive case study, Economic and Industrial Democracy

HRM in SMEs and the extent to which HRM challenges and practices are distinctive in smaller organisational settings.  See for example:

Training and performance in SMEs: Empirical evidence from large-scale data from the UK, Journal of Small Business Management

Are the responses of small firms different from large firms in times of recession? Journal of Business Venturing.

Human resource practices, employee attitudes and small firm performance, International Small Business Journal.

Academic Fellow, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Fellow, Higher Education Academy

PhD Loughborough University

MSc University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST)

MA(Hons) University of Aberdeen