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 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 6000 citations on Google Scholar. I am also the Editor in Chief of Employee Relations.

Expertise

Has expertise in:

Aesthetic and emotional labour in interactive service work
Skills and employability
People management in retail and hospitality
Labour markets

Prizes and awards

Award of Academic Fellow designation: Recipient; 2013

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Publications

'It's not a big deal' : customer misbehaviour and social washing in hospitality: Booyens Irma, Hadjisolomou Anastasios, Nickson Dennis, Cunningham Tayler, Baum Tom; International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management Vol 34, pp. 4123-4141 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2021-1310
Aesthetic labour and discrimination: Nickson Dennis; Prejudice and Discrimination in Hotels, Restaurants and Bars (2022) (2022); https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003186403-3
Social washing and customer misbehaviour in the hospitality sector : a problem that remains unreported: Hadjisolomou Tasos, Baum Tom, Nickson Dennis, Booyens Irma; 29th Annual Council for Hospitality Management (2021)
Aesthetic Labour: Warhurst Chris, Nickson Dennis; (2020)
'The way he looks' : Bears, wolfs and cubs Sexualized aesthetic labour in the gay tourism industry. An empirical analysis: Hadjisolomou Anastasios, Nickson Dennis; International Labour Process Conference (2019)
The importance of how you look for getting in and getting on in the workplace: Nickson Dennis; Research Handbook of Diversity and Careers (2018) (2018)

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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

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, To investigate the applicability of Belbin’s Team Roles model within a multi-cultural team context in the contemporary hospitality industry: Examiner; 2019
External examiner for PhD Thesis, Psychological Safety and Employee Innovation in Four and Five Star Hotels in the UK: Examiner; 2019
External Examiner for PhD Thesis, High Involvement Human Resource Practices as Antecedents of Innovative Work Behaviour in Software Companies in Pakistan: An Ability-Motivation-Opportunity Framework Perspective: Examiner; 2018
External examiner for PhD Thesis, Work adjustment amongst expatriate and local nurses in Kuwait, a comparative investigation using the JD-R model: Examiner; 2018

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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 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
Workforce Development and Personalisation in the Voluntary Sector: Cunningham, Ian (Principal Investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2010 - 30-Jan-2010

More projects

Address

Work, Employment and Organisation
Duncan Wing

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