University of St Andrews

Knowledge and practice is an interdisciplinary research group that focuses on the relationship between knowledge and practice in various areas of work, including technical, creative, professional and policy settings.

Researchers working in diverse areas are linked by common interests in understanding knowledge and practice, informed by a range of theoretical approaches to knowledge in organisational settings.

Particular areas of focus include public policy and the sustainability agenda, education, the third sector, philanthropy and public good, healthcare, the music industry, careers and the professions. Members of the group also engage actively with practitioners, policy makers and the media.

Research staff:

• Dr Cinla Akinci: decision making; intuition; cognition; top management teams; organisational and managerial learning; organisational change and development.
• Professor Kirstie Ball: surveillance; privacy; employee monitoring.
• Dr Alina Baluch: employment relations in voluntary sector organisations; HRM and employee wellbeing; philanthropy and the voluntary sector.
• Professor Jan Bebbington: sustainable development: social and environmental accounting.
• Dr Ross Brown: entrepreneurship; high growth entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship and public policy; funding for SMEs (including alternative forms of funding such as crowdfunding); innovation policy; employee ownership.
• Dr Shiona Chillas: graduate labour market; employability; sociology of professions; knowedge work and workers.
• Professor Huw Davies: healthcare policy and management; policy design and implementation; organisational dynamics and performance; public accountability.
• Martin Dowling: organisational change and HR strategy; partnership working in organisations; skill development.
• Professor John Ferguson: accountability and corporate governance, with a particular focus on the social and organisational impact of corporate governance regimes.
• Dr Lisi Gordon: leadership; workplace learning; education; transitions (including educational, life and organisational transitions).
• Dr Gail Greig: how practices produce and reproduce our everyday world and us as practitioners; how organising practices relate to other practices, e.g. in medicine and healthcare, craft / making, and research; practice theory; activity theory; process theory.
• Professor Paul Hibbert: collaborative and relational processes of organising and learning; interpretive and interdisciplinary research; management and leadership education, in theory and practice.
• Professor Jeff Hyman: employee participation, the future of work and work-life balance.
• Dr Tobias Jung: philanthropy, especially foundations and trusts.
• Dr Laurence Lasselle: macroeconomics with imperfect competition; general equilibrium models; economic dynamics; heterogeneous beliefs; issues on globalisation and education.
• Charles Lovatt: social policy; practice of entrepreneurship; marketing; innovation; governance and enrichment.
• Professor Duncan Maclennan: development of cities, the renewal of neighbourhoods and the economics of housing.
• Professor Sandra Nutley: understanding and improving research use and impact in public policy and practice contexts; performance management systems, with a particular focus on public service audit and inspection regimes.
• Professor Kevin Orr‎: organisational theory; public administration; political studies.
• Dr Francoise-Regis Puyou: critical accounting; visualisation; phenomenology.
• Dr Sandra Romenska: leadership development; collaborative and shared leadership; leading virtual and distributed teams; innovation; complexity.
• Dr Shona Russell: governance, accountability and accounting technologies for natural resource management, particularly water; collaborative and interdisciplinary knowledge production in the domain of environmental science and policy; organising sustainability transitions.
• Lorna Stevenson: the social, environmental and economic consequences of accounting, and the implications of these for both wider forms of accountancy and accountants' and managers' education‎.
• Dr Juliette Summers: the intersection of work, identity and democracy, and in particular on employee ownership and participation, worker and community identity development, and political consultation and participation strategies.
• Dr Lucy Wishart: the governance of sustainable development within Scotland; waste and circular economy; policy processes.

Research within organisations and society focuses on the role of organisations in shaping society and the role of society in shaping organisations. This inter-relation is examined from a range of theoretical perspectives in a variety of empirical locations by adopting a range of qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches. Accepted ideas about organisation and orthodoxies of managerial practice are thoroughly interrogated.

At the heart of the group is a concern with the sociological and psychological nature of organisational behaviour, and with the ethical and political context and consequences of organisations.

Research staff:

• Dr Cinla Akinci: decision making; intuition; cognition; top management teams; organisational and managerial learning; organisational change and development.
• Professor Kirstie Ball: surveillance, privacy and security.
• Dr Alina Baluch: employment relations in voluntary organisations; HRM and performance in voluntary and public sector organisations; deviant workplace behaviour.
• William Barlow: creative marketing; advertising and marketing communications.
• Dr Boyka Bratanova: sustainability and the effects of economic conditions on psychology and behaviour; the effect of wealth and inequality on people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
• Dr Ross Brown: entrepreneurship; high growth entrepreneurship; entrepreneurship and public policy; funding for SMEs (including alternative forms of funding such as crowdfunding); innovation policy; employee ownership.
• Dr Eleanor Burt: charities in the 'Information Age'; charities as ethical institutions; charities and the regulation of campaigning; 'democratic voice'.
• Dr Shiona Chillas: graduate labour market; employability; sociology of professions; knowledge work and workers.
• Professor Huw Davies: healthcare policy and management; policy design and implementation; organisational dynamics and performance; public accountability.
• Martin Dowling: organisational change and HR strategy; partnership working in organisations; skill development.
• Professor John Ferguson: accountability and corporate governance, with a particular focus on the social and organisational impact of corporate governance regimes.
• Dr Lisi Gordon: leadership; workplace learning; education; transitions (including educational, life and organisational transitions).
• Professor Robert Gray: social and environmental accounting, accountability, auditing and reporting; sustainability; education.
• Dr Gail Greig: collective knowing and learning in work and organization; activity theory and practice-based approaches; relations between the dialectical and dialogical aspects of practice in musical work settings; craft and craft working practices.
• Professor Paul Hibbert: collaborative and relational processes of organising and learning; interpretive and interdisciplinary research; management and leadership education, in theory and practice.
• Dr Tobias Jung: philanthropy, especially foundations and trusts.
• Professor Brad MacKay: strategy development; execution and implementation; contingency planning; scenario planning; the political economy of strategy-making.
• Dr Samuel Mansell: business ethics and political philosophy.
• Diane McGoldrick: organisations, management and society.
• Rhona McLaren: sustainable development; community benefits; renewable energy; public policy; public participation.
• Professor Sandra Nutley: understanding and improving research use and impact in public policy and practice contexts; performance management systems, with a particular focus on public service audit and inspection regimes.
• Dr Juliette Summers: the intersection of work, identity and democracy, and in particular on employee ownership and participation, worker and community identity development, and political consultation and participation strategies.
• Professor Ruth Woodfield: gender differences and inequalities in the context of work and education.