Lila Skountridaki

Lila joined the Business School in July 2020. She is Programme Director of the MSc Human Resource Management and the Academic Director of the Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability Committee of the Business School. Her teaching focuses on Business Ethics and Responsible Business at an undergraduate and postgraduate level, and her research interests include flexible work, 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

Academic Journal Articles & Selected book chapters

• Skountridaki, L., Lee, W. V., & Rouhani, L. (2024). Missing voices: Office space discontent as a driving force in employee hybrid work preferences. Industrial Relations Journal, 55, pp.54–77  http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12415
• Marks A, Mallett O & Skountridaki L (2024) The increasing burden of work. In: Proctor S (ed.) A Research Agenda for Work and Employment. Cheltenham. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-research-agenda-for-work-and-employment-9781803929965.html
• Marks A, Mallett O, Skountridaki L & Zschomler D (2024) Future of working at home. In: Forson C, Healy G, Ozturk MB & Tatli A (eds.) Research Handbook on Inequalities and Work. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-inequalities-and-work-9781800886599.html
• Skountridaki L, Zschomler D, Marks A & Mallett O (2020) Organisational support for the work-life balance of home-based workers. The Work-Life Balance Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 2. 01.12.2020, pp. 16-22.
• Mallett O, Marks A & Skountridaki L (2020) Where does work belong anymore? The implications of intensive homebased working. Gender in Management: An International Journal. 35 (7/8) pp. 657-665.
• Barron A. and Skountridaki L. (2020) The Role of Professionalism in Corporate Political Activity – Towards a Professions-Based Understanding of Ethical and Responsible lobbying, Business & Society, pp.1–32.
• Skountridaki L (2019) The Patient-Doctor Relationship in the Transnational Healthcare Context, Sociology of Health and Illness, 41(8), pp.1685-1705
• Bolton S, Charalampopoulos V, and Skountridaki L (2019) Selective Consent and Dissent: Professional Response to Reform in the Post-crisis Greek NHS, Work, Employment and Society, 33(2), pp. 262-279.
• Skountridaki L (2017) Barriers to Business Relations between Medical Tourism Facilitators and Medical Professionals, Tourism Management, 59, pp. 254-266.
• Bolton S and Skountridaki L (2017) The Medical Tourist and a Political Economy of Care, Antipode,  49 (2), pp. 499-516.
• Skountridaki L (2015) The Internationalisation of Healthcare and Business Aspirations of Medical Professionals, Sociology, 49 (3), pp. 471-487.

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.

My research focuses on the work experiences of expert labour and most recently home-based workers (skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled). I have undertaken research on the working lives of Medical Doctors in Greece and Turkey, Lobbyists in Brussels, Data Scientists in Scotland and most recently home-based and hybrid workers in the UK. I generally take a sociological approach (sociology of work, the sociology of the professions, or medical sociology) often blended with organisation studies’ theories (such as institutional theory) and ethics (such as the ethics of care, business and professional ethics). I have published across organisation and management studies, sociology and employment relations, medical sociology, radical geography and business ethics. Whilst trained as an economist and with a strong quantitative background, I am fascinated by qualitative research. As such, I mostly design qualitative research studies and when deemed most suitable I engage in mixed-methods research, combining qualitative and quantitative data.

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

Between December 2020 and 2022, I led the Research Insights stream of the University of Edinburgh Hybrid Work Group. The Research Insights stream 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 have also recently completed a research partnership with a business organisation in the tech industry trialling the 4 day week. The research involved qualitative and quantitative data collection which are used to inform the organisation's decision making on the 4 day week.