University of St Andrews

Introduction to Research and Research Subject Groups

Introduction

The School of Management is research intensive and underpinned by a strong grounding in the social sciences.

Research is overseen within the School by the Research Committee.  This Committee is chaired by the Directors of Research and comprises a selection of the School's leading researchers. Its task is:

To identify, nurture and communicate the School's key research areas, specialisms, and unique characteristics and, in so doing, to identify, nurture and communicate a unique vision both of and for the scholarship and research within the University of St Andrews School of Management.

Research is organised around individual researchers, subject groups, research centres and institutes and research students.

SOCIAL ACCOUNTING GROUP

The core members of this group are Professor Jan Bebbington, Professor Rob Gray, and Professor Tom Lee. Visiting faculty member Professor Lee Parker is also a member of this group. Much of the work of the group takes place within the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) and St Andrews Sustainability Institute (SASI).

The social accounting group is principally concerned with accountability, sustainability, social responsibility and critical theory. These concerns are articulated in a range of empirical settings and current work includes explorations of corporate reporting; regulatory processes and regimes; engagement and organisational change in both commercial and third sectors; and education in the widest sense. The central tension that is explored through the group is the degree to which essential substantive change is possible at the levels of organisations, policy makers or systems.

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FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND MARKETS GROUP

The core membership of this group comprises: Mr Andreas Hoepner, Professor David McMillan, Mr Ken Scislaw, Dr Manouche Tavakoli and Professor John Wilson. Professor Rob Gray also participates in this group.

The Financial Institutions and Markets group was created in 2005 and is headed by McMillan and Wilson. The group has developed its research around two themes: first, Competition and performance of financial institutions (especially banks and credit unions) following the de-regulation of the financial services industry; and, second, the information and efficiency of financial markets (captured in research carried out on volatility forecasting, momentum, analyst forecasts and responsible investments).

Members of the group have held grants from the Institute of Chartered Accountant Scotland, Inquire Europe, and the Carnegie and Leverhulme Trusts.

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ORGANIZATIONS, ACCOUNTABILITY AND DISCOURSE GROUP

The core membership of this group comprises Professor Nic Beech, Professor Chris Carter, Dr Anne Fearfull, Dr Martin Kornberger, Professor Alan McKinlay, Professor Frank Mueller, and Professor Barbara Townley. The group is augmented by Professor Eric Pezet (Ecole Des Mines, Paris) and Professor Max Alvesson ( University of Lund), who are visiting faculty members.

The group's research has strong roots within organizational sociology and critical management studies. Themes pursued by the group are: managerialism (Beech, Carter, Kornberger, McKinlay, Mueller, and Townley), which includes Beech's cutting-edge research into identity formation among strategists in top management teams, and Carter and Mueller's comprehensive study of the changes in a privatised utility; the changing nature of work (Fearfull, Littler, McKinlay and Mueller), exampled by studies on discrimination (Fearfull), on downsizing (Littler), careers and social capital in television (McKinlay), nursing in the context of NHS Direct (Mueller); and, the contribution of Michel Foucault to the study of management (Kornberger, McKinlay and Townley).

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION GROUP

The core membership of this group comprises Dr Eleanor Burt, Professor Huw Davies, Professor Peter McKiernan and Dr Tim Scott; also Professor Emeritus Peter Grinyer, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow Adam Scott. Other members of the School including Nic Beech, Frank Mueller, Manouche Tavakoli, Barbara Townley and John Wilson augment this group.

Two key themes are prominent in the work of this group: an exploration of the issues underpinning organisational excellence in service delivery; and an examination of the key role that research-based evidence can play in shaping public policy and service delivery. Research underpinning these themes covers a combination of desk-based research and large scale empirical studies in health care organisations and the voluntary sector.

Much of the research of this group is carried out within the Research Unit for Research Utilisation (RURU).

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