Vaughan Ellis is a Lecturer at the Business School of Edinburgh Napier University, focusing on employment studies, human resource management, and labor process theory. His work intersects with trade unionism, overwork trends in academia, and the Scottish craft beer industry. Research Areas: Human Resources, Employment, Public Health Key Themes: Health, Culture and Communities His research explores leaveism —a phenomenon where employees use allocated leave to work—while examining work intensification and ideal worker norms. He has contributed to understanding labor practices in academia and the craft brewing sector through multiple conference presentations and publications. Recent articles address union strategies under the Trade Union Act 2016, overwork normalization, and craft beer industry labor dynamics. Collaborations include researchers like Jennifer Saxena, Jesus Canduela, and Holly Patrick Thomson. As a Business School lecturer, Ellis engages in projects related to market entry strategies, job quality assessment, and organizational tactics during crises. His work appears in journals like Human Resource Management Journal and Personnel Review.
Professor James Richards is a full-time Professor of Human Resource Management at Heriot-Watt University’s Edinburgh Business School, Deputy Director of the Centre for the Transformation of Work, and Co-Director of Engagement for the School of Social Sciences. A labour-process scholar, he uses qualitative methods to improve employment prospects for marginalised groups—especially disabled and neurodivergent workers—through trade-union organising, sustainable HRM and inclusive policy design. Education & Qualifications: PhD, University of Stirling (2007) PG Cert Asperger Syndrome, Sheffield Hallam (2012) PGCAP, Heriot-Watt (2005) BA (Hons) HRM, University of Stirling (2000) FHEA (2007) | Academic MCIPD (2013) Research Interests: Richards’ work sits at the intersection of Human Resource Management , Disability & Neurodiversity Studies and Employment Relations . He deploys labour-process analysis and the social model of disability to explore how seemingly neutral HRM practices reproduce exclusion, and how trade unions can reverse these dynamics through innovative organising—particularly under the restrictive UK Trade Union Act 2016. Current strands include leaveism (work spilling into sick leave, vacations and commutes), sustainable HRM , autism & employment , and inclusive doctoral training . Recent Publications Trend: Between 2023-2025 Richards published intensively on COVID-19’s amplification of existing disadvantages for disabled communities, producing a cluster of policy-oriented reports and peer-reviewed papers that fuse health-policy, disability-studies and HRM lenses. Parallel streams develop theory around employee resistance/misbehaviour and extend Scotland’s Fair Work Framework to neurodivergent workers. Scientific Awards & Recognition: Scottish TUC Organising Award 2019 Heriot-Watt PRIME Awards 2021 Graduate Teaching Prize 2012 Long-service recognition, CIPD 2019 ‘Our Values Champion’ nomination 2020 Grants & Doctoral Supervision: He is Principal Investigator on Work Stream 3 of the £4.2 m UKRI EDI Caucus grant (2023-26) and was Co-I on the EPSRC DISC project (£494 k, 2018-22). He currently supervises twelve PhD/DBA students on topics from autism employment to Nigerian trade-union organising and has successfully graduated ten doctorates. Labs, Centres & External Roles: Richards co-leads the Centre for the Transformation of Work , acts as REF2029 Impact Case-Study Champion for Edinburgh Business School, and serves as Engagement-Champion (Neurodiversity) for the EPSRC EDI Hub+ (Leeds). External examiner roles span Cardiff, Stirling, Napier and Bradford, while advisory positions include the Scottish Government Labour Market Evidence Network and Lancaster’s Disability-Inclusive Remote & Hybrid Working project.
