Research Assistant (467869)
University of Strathclyde – Department of Work, Employment and Organisation (WEO)
Salary Range: £28,756 – £32,344
FTE: 1.0 (35 hours/week)
Term: Fixed Term (3 years)
Closing Date: 28/08/2022
A Research Assistant is required to work on an ESRC-funded project Amplifying employee voice and hearing the unheard: a multi-disciplinary study of contemporary working lives in the de-industrialised West of Scotland led by Dr Stewart Johnstone. The project is funded as part of the ESRC Transforming Working Lives programme, concerned with investigating changes in working lives and power in the workplace. The contract will run for 36 months from 1 October 2022.
The Research Assistant will be based in the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation (WEO) which is part of Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
The Research
The project is an innovative multidisciplinary investigation of employee voice and contemporary working lives in a deindustrialised community. The study will adopt a novel multi-level approach to investigate the extent to which contemporary workers feel they are kept informed at work, and whether they feel they have the means to express themselves, influence decisions, and improve their working lives. The research will involve a combination of methods including labour market analysis, stakeholder interviews, employer case studies, focus groups and surveys/worker diaries. The geographical focus will be the experiences of workers in Inverclyde, a deprived region on the west coast of Scotland. Legacies of de-industrialisation, economic crisis, austerity and Covid-19 mean the area has a long history of economic and social challenges. However, Inverclyde is also transitioned from traditional heavy industry to service and public sector employment. A particular emphasis is placed upon understanding the diversity of voice opportunities across work settings. These will include traditional trade union voice channels as well as emergent and informal voice mechanisms. The inclusion of ‘hard to reach’ workers and groups underemphasised in the mainstream voice literature is a priority.
The Research Assistant will join a team of Strathclyde researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, methodological expertise and sector knowledge. Working under the guidance of the Principal Investigator, you will support project management, research design, data collection, analysis and dissemination. You will conduct literature reviews, develop research instruments (ie longitudinal survey instruments, interview and focus group schedules), and contribute to the collection, collation and analysis of data. You will manage and prioritise your own workload and ensure that all activities are completed to deadlines. You will contribute to the production of research reports and publications, and support participant/partner engagement and research dissemination across the life of the project.
The Principal Investigator will provide a mentoring role throughout the project . You will also be a member of the wider project team. The postholder will have access to funding for conference attendance during the project.
You will be educated to a minimum of Degree level in a social science or related subject, and you will have sufficient breadth or depth of knowledge in the areas of one or more of the following subjects: employment relations, sociology of work, human resource management, work and organisational psychology. You will be able to demonstrate training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and a sound knowledge of specialist quantitative methods, including the use and analysis of longitudinal surveys. Whilst not essential for the role, a higher degree/PhD/PhD near completion is highly desirable.
You will have an ability to plan and prioritise you own workload, with general supervision and you will have an ability to work within a team environment. You will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to listen, engage and persuade, and to present complex information in an accessible way to a range of audiences.
Dr Stewart Johnstone
Reader & Principal Investigator
stewart.johnstone@strath.ac.uk
Formal interviews for this post will be held on 16/09/2022. For more information see https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CSG138/research-assistant-467869
Informal enquiries about the post can be directed to Dr Stewart Johnstone, Reader in Employment Relations (stewart.johnstone@strath.ac.uk.