Dr Frank Worthington
Senior Lecturer in Management and Programme Leader in MSc Human Resource Management

Profile

Biography

Dr Frank Worthington was appointed to the School for Business and Society in June 2019. Prior to this Frank held senior academic, administrative and leadership roles at Newcastle University Business School and The University of Liverpool Management School. Frank has 25 years experience of teaching and conducting research in behaviour in organizations, human resource management, leadership, employee relations and conflict management, and qualitative research methods at four leading UK Universities. He has a keen interest in ethnographic research and the lived-experience of work and organisations from a qualitative standpoint informed by labour process and critical management theories of people management methods and practice, human resourcing strategies and the employment relationship.

His current research interests include professional clinical team building for patient safety in the UK National Health Service, performance management policies in higher education and their impact on staff motivation, morale and professional working practices, leadership for change and people management and professional development planning in higher education, and Government-driven human resource management change initiatives designed to support ethno-national conflict resolution strategies in public and private sector organisations in Northern Ireland. Frank also played the central role with colleagues at The University of Liverpool Management School in leading, developing and chairing the Annual ULMS / Keele University International Symposium, ‘Current Trends in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences’, and the launch of the symposium’s house-journal: The Journal of Organizational Ethnography.

Departmental roles

Chair of Board of Studies

Publications

Selected publications

Lu Guan, Michael Cole and Frank Worthington (2016) University students’ unions: changing functions, a UK and comparative perspective. Studies in Higher Education. DOI: 10. 1080/03075079. 1010076. 

Brannan, M., Rowe, M. and Worthington, F. (2012) Time for a New Journal, a Journal for New Times. Journal of Organizational Ethnography. Vol 1 issue 1 pp 5-14

Ezzamel, M., Willmott, H. and Worthington, F. (2008) Manufacturing Shareholder Value: The Role of Accounting in Organizational Transformation’. Journal of Accounting, Organization and Society. Vol 33 (2-3): 107-140.

Brannan, M., Pearson, G. and Worthington, F. (2007). Current Trends in Ethnographic Research. Ethnography. Vol 8(4): 521-544.

Ferdinand, J., Pearson, G., Rowe, M. and Worthington, F. (2007). A different Kind of Ethics. Ethnography. Vol 8(4): 519-543

Worthington, F. and Hodgson, J. (2005). Academic Labour and the Politics of Quality in Higher Education: a critical evaluation of the conditions of possibility of resistance. Critical Quarterly, Spring / Summer. Vol: 47. No 1-2

Ezzamel, M., Willmott, H. and Worthington, F. (2004). Accounting for Management- Labour Relations in The New Workplace. Journal of Accounting, Organization and Society. Vol 29: 269-30

Ezzamel, M., Willmott, H. and Worthington, F. (2001). ‘Power, Control and Resistance in the Factory that Time Forgot’. Journal of Management Studies. Vol. 38, No 8, December, 2001pp. 1053-1080

Worthington, F. (2003). Management, Change and Culture in the NHS: Rhetoric or Reality? Clinicians in Management. Vol 12. No 2.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Employment Relations

Postgraduate

• Human Resource Management In Context
• Contemporary Issues in Management
• The Changing Nature of Work