I have been working at UEA since 1993 and I am a Professor in Personnel Economics.  

I am currently involved in three externally funded projects: ESRC Practices and Combinations of Practices for Health and Wellbeing at Work, 2019-2021; ESRC PROPEL Hub - Productivity Outcomes of workplace Practice, Engagement and Learning, 2019-2022; and European Institute for Gender Equality, Eligibility for parental leave in the EU Member States, 2019-20.  

Practices and Combinations of Practices for Health and Wellbeing at Work.  Kevin Daniels (PI),  Sara Connolly, Roberta Fida, Rachel Nayani, Jana Patey, Olga Tregaskis and Dave Watson (UEA), and Christian van Stolk, Cloé Gendronneau, Marco Hefner, Jack Pollard, Nadja Koch and Michael Whitmore (RAND Europe) Economic and Social Research Council 2019-21.  This project will focus on identifying health and wellbeing practices that work together best in particular organisational contexts, which improve health and wellbeing across the workforce and are cost-effective.

The European Commission: Where now? Where next? Hussein Kassim (PI), Sara Connolly and Pierre Bocquillon (UEA), Michael W. Bauer (German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer), Renaud Dehousse and Brigid Laffan (European University Institute), and Professor Andrew Thompson (University of Edinburgh).  This project examines the impact and implications of the reshaping of the College and the new ways of working introduced by the Juncker Commission. Like the two earlier studies conducted by the team, The European Commission in Question, and The European Commission: Facing the Future, it investigates leadership, coordination and the internal operation of the institution, and also profiles the backgrounds, beliefs, and experience of the people who work for it. With data of unique scale and scope collected over three Commissions, the project is able to track changes in the organisation, as well as evolution in the values and attitudes of its staff.

Eligibility for parental leave in the EU Member States.. Matthew Aldrich and Sara Connolly (UEA), Margaret O'Brien and Merve Uzunalioglu (UCL), European Institute for Gender Equality 2019-20.

Work, Learning and Wellbeing.  Kevin Daniels (PI), Mark Bryan, Sara Connolly, Lee Hooper, Simonetta Longhi, Alita Nandi, Karina Nielsen, Chidi Ogbonnaya, Anna Robinson-Pant, Fujian Song, John Street, Gareth Thomas and Olga Tregaskis (joint CIs), Economic and Social Research Council 2015-19.  The Work, Learning and Wellbeing evidence programme is a collaboration between the University of East Anglia, the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield. The programme seeks to find practical answers to questions such as:

-       is it possible to change working practices so that workers are happier, more productive and absent less often?

-       how can growing numbers of older workers best adapt to working later in life and find new jobs in changing labour markets?

-       what lifelong learning opportunities do adults require in order to thrive in globalised and technologically advanced economy?

-       what are the societal costs of ignoring worker wellbeing

The evidence programme consists of three major themes: Work – focused on those already in work; Transitions – focused on those moving between jobs and in or out of the labour market; and Learning – focused the formal and informal learning of adults across the lifespan.

http://whatworkswellbeing.org/evidence-program/work-learning-and-wellbeing/ 

Understanding the EU Civil Service: the General Secretariat of the Council.  Hussein Kassim (PI) and Sara Connolly (UEA), Michael W. Bauer (German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer), Renaud Dehousse and Brigid Laffan (European University Institute), and Professor Andrew Thompson (University of Edinburgh)

Serving both the European Council and the Council of the European Union, the Council Secretariat plays a pivotal role in the EU system, but is also the most secretive and reclusive part of the administration. The first project undertaken by external researchers to be informed by systematic data collected within the organisation, this study gathered insights from staff at all levels and in all roles about the operation of the Council Secretariat and the people who work for it. As well as organisational issues of leadership, coordination, and administrative culture, it looks at the backgrounds, careers and values of staff. Using the same approach of online survey, interviews and focus groups as in its projects on the European Commission, the team is able to compare the different parts of the EU administration

European Commission: Facing the Future.  Kassim (PI) and Connolly (CI), private donation 2013-15. The project team includes Michael W. Bauer, University of Speyer, Renaud Dehousse, Sciences Po Paris, and Andrew Thompson, University of Edinburgh.  This project addresses key questions about the European Commission and its staff. Drawing on the largest dataset ever collected by an independent team of researchers on a public bureaucracy (achieved sample for online survey n=5800; 230 interviews and five focus groups completed), the project examines:

-      how staff within and across different categories of employees experience the Commission as a workplace 

-      attitudes to and experience of management across the organization

-      career progression and career ambitions across the Commission

-      staff attitudes to the 2014 reform of the Staff Regulation to provisions relating to pay and working conditions, and career structure, change management, and its political consequences

Fatherhood in the 21^st Century. Sveta Speight (PI), Sara Connolly and Margaret O’Brien (joint CIs), Economic and Social Research Council, 2012-14.  We sought to address the gaps in the literature by producing a comprehensive profiling of fathers in 21^st Century Britain, exploring factors associated with fathers’ work patterns and family life (this included trends in working hours and experience during the recent recession) and examining the experience of work-family conflict, in both the UK and selected EU countries.  New insights into the definition and measurement of fatherhood are embedded in the findings. We achieved a balance between a simple reductive approach (e.g. ‘fathers’ and ‘non-fathers’) and an overly elaborated set reliant on too many dimensions. We took an extended notion of fatherhood – beyond biological to include step, adoptive and foster parenting – and reflected the current household composition.  The resulting four-fold typology: father in couple household with dependent children, father in couple household without dependent children, lone father and non-father, contributes to concept-driven analysis of men’s economic and family behavior in large-scale data sets.  Our novel ‘father-centric’ analysis of non-residential fatherhood has enabled us to outline four different ‘types’ of non-resident fathers, which could be a useful analytical tool and inform policy on separated families. These are ‘Engaged’ fathers, ‘Less Engaged’ fathers, ‘Disengaged’ fathers and ‘Distance’ fathers.

 http://www.modernfatherhood.org

Gender differences in the professions.  Claartje Vinkenburg (PI), Sara Connolly and Stefan Fuchs (joint CIs), European Research Council, 2012-14.  There is a noticeable gender gap in applicant and funding rates across disciplines but especially in the life sciences. The ERC has a strong focus on excellence (publications, income generation, patents) and are seeking to fund dedicated and innovative researchers but there are often perceptions of the type of career which deliver these – long hours, uninterrupted and often international employment. Our particular interest is in how non-standard careers (with career breaks or spells of part-time employment) are represented by the applicants and treated within the review process and whether limited geographical mobility (due to family commitments) plays a role in success rates.  We use optimal matching analysis as a method to identify career patterns and conventions in science, using full career histories of applicants to the European Research Council frontier research grant scheme.  We identify four distinct patterns or dances for each of the Starting and Advanced grant applicants and find excellence – in terms of ERC grant success - within each.

In recent years I have taught modules in human resource management, microeconomics, econometrics, public economics and labour economics.  I have also successfully supervised many PhD students.

These have mainly been in the field of equality, education or applied economics, topics include: age discrimination in the UK; returns to education in the UK; the impact of environmental legislation on economic efficiency in Egypt; taxation and inequality in Mexico; the modern labour market in China; careers in science in Thailand; tobacco taxation in Mexico and high performance management in the UK; remuneration and corporate performance; employer and employee perceptions of negotiation and consultation in the workplace.

I am currently supervising students, researching the following topics: how parents negotiate work commitments and childcare; female employment and entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia; widening participation in UK higher education.

I am happy to supervise projects in the general areas of equality in the labour market; well-being in the workplace; education and skills; work and family balance.

I have successfully supervised many PhD students.

These have mainly been in the field of equality, education or applied economics, topics include: age discrimination in the UK; returns to education in the UK; the impact of environmental legislation on economic efficiency in Egypt; taxation and inequality in Mexico; the modern labour market in China; careers in science in Thailand; tobacco taxation in Mexico and high performance management in the UK; remuneration and corporate performance; employer and employee perceptions of negotiation and consultation in the workplace.

I am currently supervising students, researching the following topics: the impact of social and cultural capital on participation in Higher Education; gender equality in Turkey; how parents negotiate work commitments and childcare; the glass ceiling in Nigeria and social enterprises in the UK.

I am happy to supervise projects in the general areas of equality in the labour market; education and skills; work and family balance.