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 7000 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
- Socially irresponsible HRM : findings from the UK hotel sector
- Walker Victoria, Nickson Dennis
- Journal of Business Ethics (2024)
- 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
- 'Boys will be boys'? Submissive masculinity and sexual harassment in the gay tourism industry
- Hadjisolomou Tasos, Walters Kyla, Nickson Dennis, Baum Tom
- Hospitality and Society Vol 13, pp. 173 - 200 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1386/hosp_00068_1
- 'He is the customer, I will say yes' : notions of power, precarity and consent to sexual harassment by customers in the gay tourism industry
- Hadjisolomou Anastasios, Nickson Dennis, Baum Tom
- Gender, Work and Organisation Vol 30, pp. 1407-1428 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12998
- Exploring the case the dark side of gay tourism : (half-)naked bodies, race, precarity and sexual harassment
- Hadjisolomou Anastasios, Nickson Dennis, Baum Tom
- Tourism Cases (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1079/tourismetc.2023.0018
- Fair Work for All? A Review of Employment Practices in the Scottish Hospitality Industry
- Hadjisolomou Tasos, Booyens Irma, Nickson Dennis, Cunningham Tayler, Baum Tom
- (2022)
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
- 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, 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, Work adjustment amongst expatriate and local nurses in Kuwait, a comparative investigation using the JD-R model
- Examiner
- 2018
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
- 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
- Re-tendering and the Voluntary Sector Social Services Workforce: Implications for Policy
- Cunningham, Ian (Principal Investigator) Nickson, Dennis (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2008 - 28-Jan-2009
Contact
Professor
Dennis
Nickson
Work, Employment and Organisation
Email: d.p.nickson@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3970