Dr Pratima Sambajee

Senior Lecturer

Work, Employment and Organisation

Contact

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Personal statement

I am a Senior Lecturer in International Management, with a teaching focus on cross-cultural management, global employment, and work in the international economy. I joined the University of Strathclyde after completing my PhD in Culture from the University of Sunderland.

My research focuses on work and employment in Global South contexts, including sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, India, and Southeast and Central Asia. I explore pertinent issues through various lenses, such as the capabilities approach, social justice and rights-based frameworks, and health and wellbeing. I collaborate with academics, non-governmental organisations, policy-makers, employers, and trade unions to conduct research that aims to generate meaningful impact.

I welcome research ideas and collaborations on the above topics from fellow academics as well as students at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

Outside work, my personal hobbies include running, mountain hikes and cooking.

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Teaching

I am the deputy programme director for the Intergrated Masters in International Business and Modern Languages (MIBML), and the programme director (Management) for the MSc Finance and Management degree.

I teach Introduction to International Business; International Business Analysis; Organising and Managing accross Cultures; Contemporary Issues and Trends in International Business; People, Work and the Global Economy; Comparative Employment Relations; Labour and Diversity and Research Methods for Projects.

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Research Interests

My research is mainly international and twofold: first, I want to understand the dynamics of work in global south countries, from micro, meso and macro level perspectives; and second, I want to understand the experiences of workers from the global south who travel to more developed countries for work.

Work in the global economy is complex. The global south and migration patterns around it play an important part in deepening this complexity. Against this backgroumd, I am particularly interested in understanding the experiences of workers (domestic and migrant), employers and policy. This cuts accross themes such as social justice, rights, voice, dignity, , capabilities, health and wellbeing. 

 

Professional Activities

EURAM Annual Conference
Participant
4/6/2014
University of Nottingham (External organisation)
Member
4/2014
Africa Research Group
Participant
28/4/2014
BSA Work Employment & Society Conference
Participant
8/9/2025
Moral economy at the crossroads of history and social science: finding customs in common?
Participant
12/3/2025
Cultivating Sustainable Research Cultures Programme: a series of five workshops
Participant
1/1/2025

More professional activities

Projects

Transformative skills development among women and girls from Bangladesh’s coastal areas
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
The project is a collaboration between the University of Strathclyde and OKUP, a local NGO in Bangladesh, to understand how developing transformative skills can support climate adaptation for women and girls in Bangladesh's coastal regions. The project will consist of a 7-day data collection period where selected field officers from OKUP will travel to coastal areas and conduct between three and five focus group discussions (FGDs) with 8 women and girls in each. This data will be shared with the Strathclyde PI, who will also conduct interviews with relevant officials at OKUP who are responsible for implementing skills development programmes.
01-Jan-2026 - 31-Jan-2026
(Non) integration in the Irish Labour Market: A qualitative study on Irish labour integration policies and the labour market experiences of Black African migrants in Ireland.
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2024
Decent work in the face of climate change: understanding the experiences of fishing communities
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator) Sarkar, Kingshuk (Co-investigator)
The working lives of small-scale fishing communities are at risk due to climate change and lack of protection to their labour rights. Often overlooked in research due to their scale and limited voice, the study uses the pillars of sustainable development goal 8, decent work and economic growth, in order to understand the lived experiences of small-scale fishers in two fishing dependent locations, Goa and Mauritius. The study is led by two investigators who have experience in policy-lead research on labour rights at each location. The overarching aim and intended impact of the study is to provide a platform for these communities to voice how their working lives are being impacted by the double disadvantage of climate change and limited labour rights, and to use evidence-based data to inform policy, create social dialogue between small-scale fishers and local stakeholders, and advance the measurement of decent work in other global contexts
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026
Decent work in the face of climate change: understanding the experiences of fishing communities
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2026
Improving access to information on workers’ rights in a developing country
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator) Mohd Yusof, Zatun Najahah (Researcher)
03-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
ESRC IAA project: Improving access to information on workers’ rights in a developing country
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
The proposed project seeks to facilitate the communication of workers’ rights and general labour regulations in a diverse workforce. The idea originates from findings of an 18-months Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project funded by UKRI in 2020 (£199K), and a knowledge exchange (KE) activity (£2.2K) conducted in March/April 2023. Findings from the former project showed that both migrant and local workers had limited information on their rights, often leading to abuse and precarious working conditions (https://qlifeworkmauritius.com/). The 2023 internally funded KE project springboarded a series of workshops with public, private and third sector organisations, via the support of the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) and trade unions under the Confédération des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publique et Privé (CTSP). An important realisation was the need for better communication of workers’ rights and labour regulations to workers.Thus, the main knowledge exchange activity in the proposed project is a) to co-produce a series of approximately 8-10 multilingual audio-visual clips (the product) in partnership with CTSP, b) to pilot the product with 4 employers, c) to evaluate the outcomes for workers and managers, d) to disseminate the results using case studies, and e) to explore commercialisation opportunities of the product to be rolled out to unions and employers.
01-Jan-2024 - 28-Jan-2025

More projects

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Contact

Dr Pratima Sambajee
Senior Lecturer
Work, Employment and Organisation

Email: pratima.sambajee@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 553 6011