Senior Lecturer in Organisational Studies and Programme Director MSc Human Resource Management
Roles and Responsibilities
Lila joined the Business School in July 2020 as a Lecturer in Organisation Studies. Her teaching focuses on Business Ethics and Responsible Business at an undergraduate and postgraduate level, and her research interests include the sociology of work, the professions, and professional ethics. She has also done extensive research on the transnational healthcare market. Lila is a Fellow of the HEA.
Research Funding
- 'Integrating the SDGs into HEI degrees accredited by professional bodies: the case of CIPD TPG accredited degrees’ - UK and Ireland UN PRME Chapter, November 2018, seed funding
- 'Where does work belong anymore? The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on working in the UK' (co-investigator) - UKRI Ideas to Address Covid-19. For information please see: workingathome.org.uk
Background
Lila joined the Business School from the University of Stirling, where she was a Lecturer in Management and Sustainable Practice. She was also a member of the General University Ethics Panel and the faculty Lead on the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education. She obtained her PhD from the Department of Management, Strathclyde University Business School in 2014.
She studied Economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece (BSc) and the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (MSc). Before starting her PhD, Lila worked for Quality Control and Accounting Departments in the private sector in Germany and Greece.
Research Interests
Building on my previous work on medical professionals working in highly commercialised environments, I am currently focusing on experts working in large organisations, with a particular interest in the relation between professional and business ethics. This wider project started with a study of the professional aspirations of lobbyists in Brussels, often framed as ‘responsible lobbying’; extended to a comparative examination of HRM professionals (and the CIPD) with other corporate professions (e.g. project management), and most recently to the study of the ‘sexiest’ occupation in the 21st century, data science professionals. The broader research questions to be addressed relate to the work, legitimacy and power of expert/knowledge workers in organisations, and the relation between business and professional value claims and practice.
Since Spring 2020 I have been participating in and leading a number of research projects on working lives and flexible work, including remote work, hybrid work and the 4 day workweek.
In particular, I worked on a UKRI/ESRC funded project examining the experience of home working in the UK under the COVID-19 lockdown measures (April 2020 - Sep 2021). This study was based on rich qualitative and survey data and explored a number of aspects of homeworking, including the effect of socio-economic background, gender, organisational support and caring responsibilities on productivity and well being. For more information please see: workingathome.org.uk
Since December 2020, I am leading the Research Insights stream of the University of Edinburgh Hybrid Work Group. The Research Insights stream has so far offered rich insight to the development of the University's Hybrid Work Framework drawing on the analysis of two university-wide surveys and as well as rich qualitative data with members of staff from across the University (focus groups).
I am currently also leading a research partnership with a business organisation in the tech industry trialling the 4 day week. The research involves qualitative and quantitative data collection which are used to inform the organisation's decision making on the 4 day week.