Professor Dennis Nickson
Work, Employment and Organisation
Personal statement
I joined the University in 1996 and I’m currently Professor in Service Work and Employment. I have held a variety of jobs within the Department, including co-directing the Scottish Centre for Employment Research (SCER) (2004-2008) and Head of Department (2008-2014).
My primary research interests centre on work and employment issues in interactive service work, with a particular concentration on the retail and hospitality industries. More specifically, I have extensively researched labour market, skills, employability and human resource issues in entry-level work in these industries. I am one of the team – along with Professor Chris Warhurst and the late Professor Anne Witz – who originated and developed the concept of aesthetic labour. My work has been published in journals such as Work, Employment and Society, Human Resource Management (US), the Human Resource Management Journal, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations Journal, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Gender, Work and Organization and Employee Relations. Sole and co-authored books include Aesthetic Labour (Sage, 2020) and Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2013). My published work has over 7500 citations on Google Scholar. I am also the Editor in Chief of Employee Relations.
Area of Expertise
- Aesthetic and emotional labour in interactive service work
- Skills and employability
- People management in retail and hospitality
- Labour markets
Prize And Awards
- Award of Academic Fellow designation
- Recipient
- 2013
Publications
- Affective labour, blurred work–leisure boundaries, and intensity of exploitation in the hospitality sector
- García-Catena Diana, Hadjisolomou Tasos, Nickson Dennis
- The Sociological Review (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261251391544
- "Still the white man’s world?" Exploring visible and invisible intersectional dynamics and aesthetic labour related inequalities among english language teachers in the UAE education sector
- Tekeste Milena, Nickson Dennis, Hadjisolomou Tasos
- Gender, Work and Organisation Vol 32, pp. 2197-2210 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13274
- The Fair Work Framework: Its future and evolution
- Gjerald Olga, Larkin Adele, Nickson Dennis
- Unpacking Hospitality Work Realities Insights and Advocacy from the Global Hospitality Research Alliance (2025) (2025)
- The paradox of workplace abuse and dignity in the Scottish hospitality sector
- Hadjisolomou Anastasios, Cunningham Tayler, Booyens Irma, Nickson Dennis, Baum Tom
- Unpacking Hospitality Work Realities Insights and Advocacy from the Global Hospitality Research Alliance (2025) (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.23912/978-1-917433204-5836
- Socially irresponsible HRM : findings from the UK hotel sector
- Walker Victoria, Nickson Dennis
- Journal of Business Ethics Vol 197, pp. 581-595 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05761-5
- Aesthetic labour outcome and experience of individuals with tribal marks in Nigeria
- Adisa Toyin Ajibade, Nickson Dennis, Ogbonnaya Chidiebere, Mordi Chima
- International Journal of Human Resource Management Vol 35, pp. 425-453 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2023.2243209
Teaching
I am responsible for the Managing Human Resources in Multinationals module on the MSc in International HRM. I also contribute across a range of other modules in the Department on both the undergraduate and postgradute programmes. Additionally, I teach on a range of Faculty-level programmes.
Research Interests
My primary research interests centre on work and employment issues in interactive service work, with a particular concentration on the retail and hospitality industries. More specifically, I have extensively researched labour market, skills and employability and human resource issues in entry-level work in these industries. I am one of the team – along with Professor Chris Warhurst and the late Professor Anne Wtiz – who developed the concept of aesthetic labour. My work has been published in journals such as Work, Employment and Society, Human Resource Management (US), the Human Resource Management Journal, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, Industrial Relations Journal, Economic and Industrial Democracy and Employee Relations. Sole and co-authored books include Aesthetic Labour (Sage, 2020) and Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2013). My published work has over 5000 citations on Google Scholar. I am also the Editor in Chief for Employee Relations.
In my role as co-Director of SCER I led a number of research projects working closely with a variety of funding organisations in developing and disseminating findings to a wide range of stakeholders. Projects which I led included an analysis of the relationship between product market strategies and HRM in the hospitality industry; a review of recruitment issues in the Scottish voluntary sector; and a major project examining equal pay issues for classroom assistants in Scottish schools.
Professional Activities
- Assessing Fair Hospitality Work: Scotland in a Multi-Country Comparative Perspective
- Contributor
- 1/5/2025
- Meet the editors- a session for Early Career Researchers to publish
- Speaker
- 28/4/2025
- Enhancing Hospitality Workplace Culture in Scotland
- Contributor
- 2024
- Conference special stream: Reconnecting experiences of sexual harassment and workplace violence through intersectionality beyond borders
- Organiser
- 21/6/2022
- The impact of Covid-19 on employment experiences in the Scottish hospitality and tourism sector
- Chair
- 13/5/2021
- External examiner for PhD Thesis, Psychological Safety and Employee Innovation in Four and Five Star Hotels in the UK
- Examiner
- 2019
Projects
- Confronting customer abuse and harassment during the Covid-19 crisis? Evidence from Scotland’s hospitality industry
- Hadjisolomou, Tasos (Principal Investigator) Baum, Thomas (Co-investigator) Booyens, Irma (Co-investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2022
- Employment Experience of Hospitality Workers in Scotland - 2020 Survey
- Booyens, Irma (Principal Investigator) Hadjisolomou, Tasos (Co-investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Academic) Baum, Thomas (Academic) Cunningham, Tayler (Researcher)
- Employee survey - Scottish hospitality workers
- 01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2021
- Employment and Human Capacity Development as a Critical Dimension of Sustainable Tourism
- Baum, Thomas (Principal Investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2017 - 31-Jan-2018
- Scottish ESRC Doctoral Training Centre DTG 2011 | Latina, Daniela
- Lindsay, Colin (Principal Investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator) Latina, Daniela (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2014 - 01-Jan-2018
- BTG: Navigating the multilingual city: a case study of Glasgow past, present and future
- Cooke, Philip (Academic) Fantoni, Gianluca (Academic) Nickson, Dennis (Academic) Sime, Daniela (Academic) Smyth, Geri (Academic)
- The project advocates and fosters ‘multilingualism’ as a fundamental part of the ‘Future Cities’ the University of Strathclyde aspires to help design and implement. By bringing together academics at Strathclyde, public institutions, the private sector and ordinary citizens, the project aims to create synergies conducive to the goal of a general advancement in social cohesion and community engagement in Glasgow (and potentially in other cities), mainly by making use of the opportunities offered by multilingualism. To achieve this goal, the project uses a range of tools: a documentary film, a report, a workshop, conference papers.
- 01-Jan-2014 - 31-Jan-2014
- Personalisation and the voluntary sector workforce 2
- Cunningham, Ian (Principal Investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator)
- 30-Jan-2011 - 31-Jan-2012
Contact
Professor
Dennis
Nickson
Work, Employment and Organisation
Email: d.p.nickson@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3970