Dr Pratima Sambajee

Lecturer

Work, Employment and Organisation

Contact

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.

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Area of Expertise

  • Cross-cultural management
  • International Business
  • African management systems
  • Migrant workers
  • Postcolonial theory
  • Mobilities theory

Prize And Awards

From informal to small and medium enterprise sector: an analysis of management practices employed by SMEs in Mauritius
Recipient
2014

More prizes and awards

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Publications

Rethinking non-traditional resistance at work : the case of the Indian Diaspora in Mauritius
Sambajee Pratima
Culture and Organization Vol 21, pp. 386-408 (2015)
https://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2015.1060233
Migrant worker well-being as a struggle for meaningful work : evidence from Bangladeshi migrants in a developing country
Sambajee Pratima, Scholarios Dora
Organization Vol 30, pp. 528–550 (2023)
https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221145631
Quality of Life & Work in Mauritius and Covid-19
Sambajee Pratima, Scholarios Dora, McGuire Darren
(2023)
Strathclyde Pandemic Research Journeys : Personal Accounts of Research During the Covid Period
Sutter Jens, Morton Alec, Maguire Roma, Littlejohn David, Allan Grant, Cogan Nicola, Combe Malcolm, Corrigan Damion, Cooper Benjamin, Egan Kieren, Flowers Paul, Grez Hidalgo Pablo, Inns Tom, Janssen Xanne, Kleczkowski Adam, MacBryde Jillian, Reilly Grant, Megiddo Itamar, Mwaura Samuel, Sharpe Tim, Sambajee Pratima, Suckling Colin, Carver Mark
(2022)
https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00083221
The development of social and human capital on the employee retention aspect for the HRM in social enterprises in Thailand
Thammadee Naraporn, Nicolopoulou Katerina, Sambajee Pratima
36th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management (2022)
Undertaking research among marginalised tourism communities in Kenya : an important methodological lesson
Sambajee Pratima, Ndiuini Ann, Masila Peter Mutinda, Kieti Damiannah, Baum Tom, Nthiga Rita, Plimo Ng’oriarita Jonathan, Kiage Ezekiel Ondabu
Handbook of Innovation for Sustainable Tourism (2022) (2022)

More publications

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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).

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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
Developing collaboration and action between the Uzbek Forum for Human rights and Strathclyde University
Organiser
5/5/2023
What's next for human rights in Uzbekistan?
Organiser
3/5/2023
International Labour Process Conference 2023
Organiser
12/4/2023

More professional activities

Projects

Climate change and the rise of precarious work among agriculture and construction workers in a small island developing state.
Sambajee, Pratima (Academic) Garvey, Brian (Academic)
Small island developing states (SIDS) are among the first and worst affected by climate change despite making a very small contribution to the overall global emissions that cause climate change.. For over 20 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has played a key role in raising awareness of and implementing actions to manage the health risks of climate change, particularly global warming within SIDS (WHO, 2018) but the challenges remain. Risks can arise from direct exposures, indirect exposures and via economic and social disruptions (Smith et al., 2014). In this proposed research we focus on direct exposures to high atmospheric temperature extremes that are increasing in frequency and intensity in SIDS and are projected to continue along this trend (Hoegh-Guldberg, 2018). Specifically, we focus on Mauritius, an Indian Ocean-African SIDS, where there is an increasing trend of reported heat stress and heat-related injuries in the construction and agricultural sectors (ILO, 2019). We situate precarious work in the context of climate change, in this case extreme temperatures associated with global warming. We will examine climate change as a potential factor exacerbating experiences of precariousness among agriculture and construction workers, often migrants from global south countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The study will collect evidence to (a) explore the relevance of climate change as a contributor and multiplier of precarity at work, and (b) produce occupational health policy-relevant evidence for workers in the two sectors. Both outcomes are timely for improving the climate change preparedness of relevant sectors in SIDS.
01-Jan-2023 - 30-Jan-2027
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
Supporting the Strathclyde Cluster on Central Asia and Former Soviet States
McGuire, Darren (Principal Investigator) Sambajee, Pratima (Research Co-investigator) Lassalle, Paul (Research Co-investigator) Makhmadshoev, Dilshod (Research Co-investigator) Piacentini, Laura (Research Co-investigator) Remnant, Jennifer (Co-investigator)
This project aims to develop a new cross-department and cross-faculty research collaboration on societal and business transformations in Central Asia and former Soviet States.

09-Jan-2023 - 30-Jan-2024
An investigation of the impact of Covid-19 on the work-life balance of working parents in Mauritius
Sambajee, Pratima (Principal Investigator)
The main objective of the research will be to determine whether the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in changes in the work/life balance of working parents in Mauritius. The sub-objectives will be as follows:

(a) An assessment of the transformation brought about by work from home policies within the workplace in Mauritius;

(b) A study of the challenges faced by Mauritian working parents to adapt to new working conditions brought about by the pandemic;

(c) An evaluation of the support provided by Mauritian employers in helping employees transition to HR challenges as a result of the lockdown and restriction in mobility;

(d) The formulation of policy recommendations to drive legislative amendments to existing laws and regulations regarding current work practices for working parents; and

(e) The formulation of a list of strategies for employers of the private sector to support working parents working on site or from home

There does not exist any academic research about the subject-matter of the proposed study in Mauritius, and the findings will hopefully help to guide organisational changes within the workplace, and also pave the way for policy and legal transformation in this field.
01-Jan-2022 - 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

More projects

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Contact

Dr Pratima Sambajee
Lecturer
Work, Employment and Organisation

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