CoSS PhD Scholarship - Transforming lives and cities through decent work? A comparative exploration from employee perspective on decent work, living wages and their impacts.

Information on the School/Research Group

This PhD is in the Management discipline of the Adam Smith Business School (ASBS). The supervison team is led by Professor Rosalind Searle, and includes Professor Andrew Cumbers and Dr Scott Hurrell. 

The PhD will reside in the Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour Research Cluster, which focuses on exploring the different needs and priorities of mulitiple stakeholders in and around the workplace. The PhD also involves collaboration with The Poverty Alliance and the successful candidate will be involved in supporting their annual living wage week (November), an opportunity to engage and disseminate with various industry bodies, government agencies, employers and other charitible organisations. 

The project also connects to a global living wage initiative - Project Glow.

Abstract

Decent work is a global sustainable development goal which, the UK has implemented mainly through 'living wage' initiatives.

Despite living wages adding costs to organisations, they offer substantial savings and benefits. This study advances inchoate theorising and adds multi-level empirical perspectives for employees', their families, and organisations. Through comparative study of living wage vs non living wage place, systematic insights are provided into policy interventions.

The goals are:

1. to explore intra-organisational employees' and their families' experiences on decent work and receiving a living wage;
2. organisational policy and practice to improve quality of work;
3. comparative examination of living wage spaces; and
4. deploy insight to improve awareness and understanding for employers and policy makers on decent work and living wages.

We examine the following potential research questions:

• What is the employee impact of receiving living wages? Are other decent work factors also important?
• What are the main psychological mechanisma affected (e.g. job/career satisfaction, work engagement, meaningful employment, commitment, organisational citizenship behaviours, and work-life balance)?
• How do these impact employee capability development, productivity, and resilience (rest and recovery from work)?
• What are their consequences for employees' households and families?
• What factors are important in organisation's decisions to adopt decent work policies?
• How do organisational preferences, strategic (re)framing and local influences affect these decisions?
• How can you influence employers' policy decisions to adopt decent work initiatives?
• How are their interests defined, and what evidence is there of successful policy interventions?

Addressing these questions will advance insight into employees' and their families' experiences of decent work, particularly examination of their psychological impacts. It identifies important drivers to employer engagement and decision regarding decent work and informs Scottish policy delivery and future policy design.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria

• Applicans will have a good Master's degree (or overseas equivalent).
• Applicants will have a demonstratable interest in the topic area under investigation.
• Applicants can study part-time or full-time.
• Applicants will have a broad social science background.

Please note that all applicants must also meet the entry requirements for the Management, PhD.

Application process

Applicants must apply via the Scholarships Application Portal, uploading the following documentation:

• Scholarship - Transforming lives and cities through decent work application form (in Word format)
• Academic transcripts (All relevant Undergraduate and Master’s level degree transcripts (and translations, if not originally in English) – provisional transcripts are sufficient if you are yet to complete your degree).
• Academic Prizes
• 2 written references (where possible your references should include an academic familiar with your work. Both references can be from academics but you may include a work reference, especially if you have been out of academia for more than 5 years).
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (academic where applicable).