Personal statement
I am a lecturer in International Management. I teach sujects that pertain to cross-cultural management, work and the global economy. I joined the University of Strathclyde after graduating from the University of Sunderland with a PhD in Culture. Alongside teaching, I am also actively engaged in research with interests in the UK/EU contexts and the global south such as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
My research in the UK/EU focuses on migrant work and the resulting mobilities and organisational transformations. My interest in sub-Saharan Africa stems from my PhD which was on Mauritius. I am particularly interested in management systems operating in these contexts and how they diverge and/or converge with existing models. Africa is undergoing major changes and one of these has been the increased movement of workers from countries of the global south such as China, India and Bangladesh. In this line, I have been exploring various dimensions of migrant work including the impact of migration on worker's capabilities to flourish. I am interested in migrants' health and wellbeing at work, aspects of dignity during the migration journey as well as any macro,meso and micro level process that complicates this movement of workers. 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 cooking, socialising with friends and family, long walks and travelling.
Teaching
I am the deputy programme director for the Intergrated Masters in International Business and Modern Languages (MIBML). I am also the programme director (Management) for the MSc Finance and Management degree.
I teach international Business Analysis; Managing accross Cultures and Frontiers; Contemporary Issues and Trends in International Business; People, Work and the Global Economy; Comparative Employment Relations; and Research Methods for Projects (MSc FM).
Research interests
I am interested in understanding the dynamics of employment and work accross cultures and more particularly in the global south contexts. I believe that there is an urgent need to understand the relationship between work and wellbeing; how the two intertwin in various contexts and how organisations and the global economy responds.
Professional activities
- EURAM Annual Conference
- Participant
- 4/6/2014
- University of Nottingham (External organisation)
- Member
- 4/2014
- Africa Research Group
- Participant
- 28/4/2014
- International Labour Process Conference 2023
- Organiser
- 12/4/2023
- Conference special stream: Reconnecting experiences of sexual harassment and workplace violence through intersectionality beyond borders
- Organiser
- 21/6/2022
- Strengthening the dialogue on slave like work, environmental degradation and globalised commodity chains
- Organiser
- 20/6/2022
More professional activities
Projects
- Communication of Labour Law
- Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
- During the Covid-19 pandemic, the applicant was able to secure an 18-month Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project funded by UKRI, looking at the impact of Covid-related changes to labour laws in Mauritius. The project ended in February 2022 and a key recommendation is to establish a better communication strategy for labour law at organisational and national level. In December 2021, the principal investigator (applicant) conducted a multistakeholder workshop in Mauritius to disseminate the main findings of the project and its recommendations. These were well received in general and there is currently a need to extend the dialogue and participation of specific stakeholders in order to take forward the recommendation on labour law communication strategy. Through the GCRF project, the applicant has established strong links with various local unions, with policymakers via the Ministry of Labour, with academics interested in employment law in Mauritius and with other governmental and non-governmental organisations. The proposed KE project will be used as a springboard to launch a series of conversation with public, private and third sector organisations in order to gauge into the actual communication strategies that are in place regarding labour law in Mauritius and conduct a needs analysis by evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies from a multistakeholder perspective.
The objectives of the project will be (1) to create awareness of the gaps within labour law communication for local and migrant workers (part of this will involve presenting key findings from the UKRI project), (2) to establish an initial framing of ideas on areas of improvement (needs analysis) and (3) obtain views on the idea of a toolkit that can be developed in the future to assist employers/unions with labour law/ workers’ rights dissemination.
Proposed activities:
Activities linked to this project will take place 27th March to 10th April 2023 (14 days). These will include four interactive workshops with unions, employers (or HR practitioners), and fieldworkers from the national productivity and competitiveness council (NPCC) respectively, one student-led brainstorming activity with final year law students from the University of Mauritius and a 2-day visit at the Ministry of Labour to meet with officers in charge of labour law administration. - 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2023
- GCRF_NF127 A capabilities assessment of Covid-19 changes to the Workers? Rights Act in Mauritius: implications for domestic and migrant workers
- Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator) McGuire, Darren (Co-investigator) Scholarios, Dora (Co-investigator) Yusof, Zatun Najahah (Researcher)
- 21-Jan-2020 - 20-Jan-2022
- Cities as mobility hubs: tackling social exclusion through ‘smart’ citizen engagement SMARTDEST
- Baum, Thomas (Principal Investigator) Briken, Kendra (Co-investigator) Sambajee, Pratima (Co-investigator)
- Cities as mobility hubs: tackling social exclusion through ‘smart’ citizen engagement(SMARTDEST) H2020-SC6-TRANSFORMATIONS-2018
- 01-Jan-2020 - 31-Jan-2022
- Health and well-being in south-south migration: a case study of Bangladeshi workers in Mauritius
- Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator) Scholarios, Dora (Co-investigator)
- Bangladesh relies heavily on remittance from migrant workers. Mauritius has become an attractive work destination for Bangladeshi workers due to its industrial and cultural similarities. These workers are uneducated, low skilled and cheap. For them Mauritius represents the opportunity to earn a better living and alleviate poverty back in Bangladesh. However they are subjected to lower wages, long working hours and poor housing. They face major integration problems including little social interaction and xenophobic sentiments. They are deprived of proper legal support, health care and occupational safety. These are often masked as general exploitation without specific consideration of impact on migrants' health and well-being. Nevertheless, the Bangladeshi government has renewed its bilateral agreement to send more workers to Mauritius. This project posits that there is an urgent need to address both policy and practice vis-à-vis the health and well-being of Bangladeshi workers in Mauritius. It is designed to firstly assess the current situation of Bangladeshi workers in relation to health and well-being and secondly to bring together a multidisciplinary and multifunctional set of stakeholders from private, public and third sectors who will be able to contribute to research and create policy-related impact for Bangladeshi workers in Mauritius.
- 08-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2019
- Policy Implementation in the Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector in Kenya since 2008
- Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator) Weston, Alia (Co-investigator)
- Research between 2008 and 2014 shows ongoing problems faced by MSEs in Kenya, much similar to those faced prior to 2008 despite the introduction of pro-MSE initiatives under Vision 2030. These include recurring problems around access to credit (Atieno, 2009a, 2009b; Mwangi, 2010; Odongo, 2013; Wanambisi & Bwisa, 2013; Kiboki et al, 2014), business skills development (Kimweli, 2009; Okumu, 2010; Messah & Wangai, 2011; Osanjo, 2012; Ngugi & Bwisa, 2013), marketing (Kimani et al, 2009; Kithae et al, 2012; Ruhiu et al, 2014), access to information and technology (Mosomi, 2011; Mon’gare, 2013; Kithae et al, 2013), growth and innovation (Daniels 2010; Kiraka et al, 2013), women entrepreneurs (Wawire & Nafukwo, 2010; Messah & Wangai, 2011; Mwangi, 2014) and internationalisation (Gitau & Otuya, 2014). These are evidence that MSE policy changes and initiatives in Vision 2030 have not started to reap the benefits anticipated. Recommendations by these researchers have been to advise for further policy amendments including increasing state economic support. Little is known about the problems around implementation of these pro-MSE policies to the exception of a recent work of Moyi (2014) on MSE associations. Exploring the process of policy implementation is well grounded in Western practice but rare in the African case (Juma & Clark, 1995). The seminal work of Pressman and Wildavsky on policy implementation identified implementation as crucial (Pressman & Wildavsky, 1973). Furthermore, Juma and Clark’s work on Policy Research in sub-Saharan Africa stated that ‘implementers interact with policy-makers by adapting new policies, co-opting the embodied project designs or simply ignoring new policies, hence underscoring the fact that implementers are crucial actors whose actions determine the success or failure of policy initiatives’ (p.126). This research thus proposes to adopt an implementation perspective in order to provide explanations for the observed underperformances of the MSE sector. This will contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics between policy and its beneficiaries by involving implementers.
- 01-Jan-2015 - 01-Jan-2016
- Practices and strategies leading to Formalisation of Informal Businesses in Mauritius
- Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2014 - 31-Jan-2015
More projects
Address
Work, Employment and Organisation
Duncan Wing
Duncan Wing
Location Map
View
University of Strathclyde
in a larger map