Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations

Contact Details

• Tel: +44 (0)116 252 3500
• Email: j.grady@le.ac.uk
• Office: Room 512, Level 5, Ken Edwards Building
• Office Hours: Posted on office door

Biography

Jo joined the School of Management in 2009 having previously studied and taught at the University of Lancaster. Her BA (Hons) was in the area of Behaviour in Organisations, followed by an MA in Human Resource and Knowledge Management, and a PhD in Organisation, Work and Technology. Jo's PhD took a historical approach to the UK Pension Crisis, and argued that the crisis is not caused by inherent instabilities within particular types of pension schemes, as it is so often portrayed, but is connected more to the application of neoliberal policies and the acceptance of neoliberal ideology more broadly. Given this, Jo's thesis calls for a new understanding and interpretation of the UK Pension Crisis than the one currently accepted. The PhD was awarded in 2011, and was funded by the ESRC.

Research Interests

Jo's principal research interests are in the development of contemporary (neoliberal) capitalism and the impact this has had on pensions (and welfare structures associated with Keynesianism more generally), political economy, traditional trade unionism, and working class action. In addition to the work on the pension crisis outlined above, Jo's PhD also included interviews with leading UK trade union general secretaries in order to analyse how they understand the crisis, and what their unions role had been in the dominant portrayal of the crisis. Following on from the PhD, research currently being undertaken focuses on the current UK pension crisis, but also on the changing nature of capitalism and how this has in turn prompted a change in the composition of the ruling class. Given this, Jo's research calls into question the nature and extent of the current pension crisis (alongside other crises), and puts forward the argument that the current situation is not new, and is a continuation of a reoccurring crisis - not in pension provision - but in the willingness of the capitalist ruling elite to acquiesce to such welfare packages. With this in mind current research projects are connected to the nature of neoliberalism; not only as an ideology but as an economic and cultural project

As already outlined, Jo's research adopts a historical approach in order to question dominant (and often misleading) accounts of contemporary understandings, thus she is currently involved in writing a historically informed analysis of capitalist ideologies (Capitalist Ideologies in Europe and Beyond) for Palgrave Macmillan with co-author Dr Chris Grocott, due to be published in 2013.

PhD Supervision

I would be especially interested in supervising PhD study in the following areas:

• The pension crisis
• Crises of welfare states
• Keynesianism
• Neoliberalism; the development (history) of, and the culture and financial impact of
• The future of trade unionism
• New working class actions/agencies
• Ideology and Marxism
• Elite theory, class fractions and the changing nature of the ruling class
• Imperialism, neo-imperialism and informal economic imperialism
• Workplace inequality and discrimination
• HRM and feminism
• Women in the banking sector
• Global inequality and asymmetry of power in production processes
• The UK Miners Strike 1984-1985
• New Labour and the trade unions

Currently supervising: Yue Fei

Teaching

Full-time teaching
MN2102 - Human Resource Management
MN7306 - Managing Diversity
Distance learning teaching:
MN7333/D - Employee Relations

Administrative Responsibilities

Jo is Senior Tutor for full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Publications

Article

Grady, J. (2010), 'From Beveridge to Turner: Laissez-Faire to Neoliberalism', Capital and Class, 34(2): 163-180.

Book

Grady, J., & Grocott, C., (forthcoming 2013), Capitalist Ideologies in Europe and Beyond, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Book chapter

Grady, J., & Harvie, D., (2011) ‘Neoliberalism’, In  M. Tadajewski, L. Parsons, P. MacLaren, & M. Parker, (Eds.), Key Concepts in Critical Management Studies, London: Sage.

Book reviews

Grady, J. (2008), ‘Joint Book Review: Corporate Retirement Security: Social and Ethical Issues & Britain's Pensions Crisis: History and Policy’ Work, Employment & Society, 22: 749-751.

Grady, J., (2010), ‘The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives’, Work, Employmeny & Society, 24: 597-598.

Other

Jo is a member of BUIRA (British Universities Industrial Relations Association) and the BSA (British Sociological Society).

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