Publications

Evaluating Employee Voice in Social Care: Time 3 Qualitative Findings : Report for Scottish Government and Inspiring Scotland

Nikolova Marina, Briken Kendra, Cunningham Ian, Scholarios Dora, McCarthy Tony

(2025)

Evaluating Employee Voice in Social Care : Findings from Staff Survey & Implementation of the Effective Voice Framework

Nikolova Marina, Scholarios Dora, McCarthy Tony, Briken Kendra, Cunningham Ian

(2025)

Technology and the labour process : insights from Indian e-commerce warehouses

Nataraj Manikantha, Taylor Philip, Briken Kendra

The Indian Journal of Labour Economics Vol 68, pp. 627-646 (2025)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41027-024-00540-2

Unemployment

Briken Kendra, MacLean Gavin

Elgar Encyclopedia of Critical Management Studies (2025) (2025)

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800377721.000120

Care

Maclean Gavin, Briken Kendra

Elgar Encyclopedia of Critical Management Studies (2025) (2025)

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800377721.00018

Evaluating Employee Voice in Social Care: Time 2 Qualitative Findings : Report for Scottish Government and Inspiring Scotland

Nikolova Marina, Briken Kendra, Cunningham Ian, McCarthy Tony, Scholarios Dora

(2025)

More publications

Teaching

My teaching covers the broad range of sociology of work. 

 My core areas are:

• Sociology of Work
• Social Theory
• HRM and Public Sector
• (International) Employee Relations
• Surveillance Studies

Research Interests

My reserach interests are in the broad area of changing work and employment structures, with a focus on new technologies and re-roganisation. I did research the impact of the implementation of New Public Management on public servants in different nations and sectors (police, waste collection, energy). More recently, I started to investigate in the effects robotics-led workplaces have on job quality. I am also interested in reseraching trade unions, particularly in terms of their representational and oragnisational capacities. My research relies on inter-disciplinary as well as international collaborations.

Professional Activities

How should we be thinking about collective voice in 2025?

Speaker

27/8/2025

BBC Radio Scotland Mornings

Interviewee

22/7/2025

10th Ethnography and Qualitative Research International Conference

Participant

9/7/2025

BBC Radio Paulette Edwards' Show

Interviewee

29/6/2025

BBC Radio 5 live Naga Munchetty Show

Interviewee

27/5/2025

22nd European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology Congress

Speaker

22/5/2025

More professional activities

Projects

STUC Our rights in action

Briken, Kendra (Principal Investigator) Taylor, Philip (Co-investigator) Nataraj, Manikantha (Researcher) Rani, Misbah (Researcher)

Previously RKES 251033

01-Jan-2025 - 08-Jan-2025

Research Excellence Award: Sorry we missed you: The unheard voices of parcel delivery workers £101,388

Johnstone, Stewart (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Principal Investigator)

Freedom of association and worker representation are key tenets of international labour standards, the International Labour Organisation Decent Work Agenda, and UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth. Though precise definitions of ‘decent work’ vary, employee voice has long been recognised as a central dimension of fair work and good jobs (Wilkinson and Fay, 2011), while limited voice opportunities can have a detrimental impact on employee health and wellbeing (Johnstone and Ackers, 2015).

Yet while the value of employee voice is well-established, most research assumes a ‘standard’ employment relationship, where a job is continuous, full time and with a direct relationship between employer and employee (ILO, 2023). Less attention has been paid to employee voice in the ‘gig economy’, now estimated to employ up to 5 million people in the UK (Shenker, 2019). Though several studies have explored collective action and self-organisation in ride hailing and food delivery (e.g. Uber,Deliveroo), little is known about voice in a broader sense i.e. “the potential to influence organisational affairs through a variety of means including formal/informal and individual/collective opportunities” (Wilkinson et.al, 2022). This is important as gig workers typically have fewer employment rights and limited face to face interaction with managers/co-workers, and are often subject to intense technological surveillance and performance management.

The study will explore the working lives of parcel delivery workers - who frequently attract attention in the media because of exploitative working conditions (Guardian 2017, 2018, 2021) - but who whose voices remain unheard in the literature.

01-Jan-2024 - 01-Jan-2027

Effective Voice in Scottish Social Care Workplaces – A Mixed Methods Study

Scholarios, Dora (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Co-investigator) Cunningham, Ian (Co-investigator) Johnstone, Stewart (Co-investigator) McCarthy, Tony (Research Co-investigator) Nikolova, Marina (Researcher)

19-Jan-2024 - 18-Jan-2025

ESRC IAA 2023 / R220785-172

Briken, Kendra (Co-investigator)

01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2028

Fair Work in Scottish HEI's

Remnant, Jennifer (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Co-investigator)

18-Jan-2023 - 01-Jan-2023

Amplifying Employee Voice and Hearing the Unheard: A Multidisciplinary Study of Contemporary Working Lives in Deindustrialised Communities

Johnstone, Stewart (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Co-investigator) Cunningham, Ian (Co-investigator) Hadjisolomou, Tasos (Co-investigator) McCarthy, Tony (Co-investigator) McIntyre, Stuart (Co-investigator) Scholarios, Dora (Co-investigator) Taylor, Philip (Co-investigator)

01-Jan-2022 - 31-Jan-2026

More projects