Dr Robin Burrow
Senior Lecturer in Organization Studies

Profile

Biography

Prior to joining University of York, Robin worked at Cardiff University. He completed his PhD at the University of Warwick, where he also gained an MSc in Organization Studies. His thesis examined the practiced realities of (medical) work, and was partly completed during a visiting scholarship at the Department of Sociology at the University of California (Los Angeles).

Robin has taught organization studies extensively on a range of different academic programmes. He has also researched and published widely on the lived realities of extreme forms of work, developing specific expertise in relation to the connection between emotions and organizational behaviour. Robin’s work has been covered extensively in the print media, on radio and television.Notable examples of Robin’s research include:

(1) Analysis of the role of fear in sustaining extreme institutional regimes 

(2) How identities are constructed through suffering 

(3) How socio-spatial relations can facilitate the proliferation and entrenchment of nonreality-based beliefs in organizations (e.g. the belief in being ‘free from’ moral and legal constraint) 

Outside of the University, Robin holds/has held visiting research positions at the University of Technology (Sydney) and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). He has held visiting teaching positions at University of Birmingham and Audencia School of Management (France). He also consults widely for a range of large, high-profile public, private and charitable organizations in the UK and abroad.

Research

Overview

Robin’s research is concerned with the lived realities of work in extreme(ly challenging) organizational contexts. His work in this area has four main elements:

(1) The relationship between emotions (e.g. fear, guilt, shame, anxiety, pride, euphoria and enrapture) and organisational behaviour, particularly in highly pressurised, safety critical environments.

(2) The emergence, transmission and management of ‘emotional climates’ – e.g. shared tensions and climates of fear – and their impact on human performance.

(3) The lived, practiced realities of morally complex forms of labour at the extreme peripheries of society.

(4) The spread and entrenchment of nonreality-based beliefs in organizations and society.

Currently Robin is interviewing extensively for a major new book on the fine dining industry. He is also finalizing a second book (commissioned by Oxford University Press) on key innovations in organization studies, which will be published in 2025.

Publications

Selected publications

Journal articles and books (inc. forthcoming):  

Burrow, R. (2025). Discovering Organizations: Concepts, Relevance and Reality. Oxford University Press.   

Burrow, R., Scott, R., Courpasson, D. (2024). Bloody suffering and durability: How chefs forge embodied identities in elite kitchens. Human Relations 77(1). 113-139

Burrow, R., Scott, R., Courpasson, D. (2022) Where “rules don’t apply”: Organizational isolation and misbehaviour in elite kitchens. Journal of Management Studies. 59(5). 1103-1131 (**Best Paper Award runner up**)   

Llewellyn, N., Hindmarsh, J., Burrow, R. (2022) Coalitions of touch: Exploring the embodied work of ‘client-as-assistant’ in veterinary clinics. Sociology of Health and Illness. 44(4-5), pp. 725-744. 

Olagundoye, V., Quinlan, M., Burrow, R. (2022) Stress, anxiety, and the erosion of trust: Maternity staffs’ experiences of incident management. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology  

Burrow, R. and Williams, R. (2021) Stressed, depressed and exhausted: Six years as a teacher in UK state education. Work, Employment and Society. 34(5). 949-958 

 Gill, M. and Burrow, R. (2018) Fear in haute cuisine: The interplay of emotions and institutions. Organization Studies. 39(4), 445–465. 

 Burrow, R., Smith, J. and Yakinthou, C. (2015) “Yes Chef”: Life at the vanguard of culinary excellence. Work, Employment and Society. 29(4). 673-681 

 Burrow, R., O’Donoghue, D., Spurgeon, P., Desai, K. and Situnayake, D. (2013). Non-Executive Directors and mortality assurance in the NHS – Are they fit for purpose? Occupational Medicine and Health Affairs. 1:4  

 Llewellyn, N. and Burrow, R. (2008) Streetwise sales and the social order of city streets: A video study of big issue vending, British Journal of Sociology, 59(3): 561-583. (** MSc Dissertation **)  

Book chapters and reviews:  

Burrow, R. (2023). Book review: The Paramedic at Work: A Sociology of a New Profession. BMJ: Medical Humanities Online.  

 Burrow, R. (2017). The discursive accomplishment of identity during veterinary medical consultations: Professionals, lay-persons and animal-patients. In Schnur, S. and Van de Mieroop, D. Identity Struggles: Evidence from Workplaces around the World. Benjamins: UK. 

 Burrow, R. (2015). Book review: The leading edge: Extraordinary stories, resilient policing and a critical perspective on leadership. Organization. 22(4). 606-610 

 Burrow, R. (2015). Standard Essays. In Burns, V. 53 Interesting ways to assess your students. Technical & Educational Services Ltd: UK 

Burrow, R. (2015). Note-Form Essays. In Burns, V. 53 Interesting ways to assess your students. Technical & Educational Services Ltd: UK 

Burrow, R., Morrell, K. (2014). Aphorisms and leaders’ rhetoric: A new analytical approach in Turnbull, N. Rhetoric in Britain, Palgrave McMillian  

 Burrow, R. (2013). Book Review: Creating the good death: How vets put our pets to sleep. Symbolic Interaction. 36(1): 107-109  

 Llewellyn, N. and Burrow, R. (2013). Streetwise sales and the social order of city streets: A video study of big issue vending in Drew, P. and Heritage, J. Conversation Analysis. SAGE: London.   

 Llewellyn, N., Burrow, R. (2007). Negotiating identities of consumption: Insights from conversation analysis, in Pullen, A., Beech, N. and Sims, D. Exploring Identity: Concepts and Methods. Palgrave MacMillan, London.