Susan Sayce

I am an Associate Professor  and researcher in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour .

•  Director of the  Employment, Systems and Institutions group 
• Chair of the NBS Extenuating Circumstances Panel
• H & S representative for UCU at UEA

My major research interests are diversity, labour and pension trusteeship and executive boards. I also am interested in feminism in academia and equal opportunities. My  doctoral research focused on workplace relationships subsequent to restructuring.  In 2006/2007 I published my findings in the highly regarded journal Work, Employment and Society, Industrial Relations Journal and Employee Relations.  

My current research interest is diversity, pensions and pension trusteeship, where I have explored  the meaning that individual pension trustees give to this complex and challenging role with the help of the TUC trustee network and the NAPF network. I have conducted interviews with a variety of trustees and policy-makers both in the UK and Canada to  explore diversity, expertise and recruitment selection of pension trustees. In July 2008 and 2011, I gained two Canadian Government Faculty Research Scholarship administered by the Canadian High Commission to investigate  the Canadian experience of pension trusteeship diversification and expertise. The first findings were published in Economy and Industrial Democracy Journal'  in 2011. In November 2013 I took part in an international plenary in Montreal Canada  to answer  labour and pension trusteeship in the UK and Canada from both a labour activists and academic audience and also was an advisor on a SSHRC pension projct in Canada from 2011-2014. In conjunction with Lucas Fettes I am also organising an event on pension trusteeship to take place at Norwich Business School. I particularly welcome working with practitioners involved in training and supporting pension trustees in the UK. Continue to engage with pension policy changes with the Pension Regulator. My work on pension trusteeship motivation has also been used by pension practitioners to help organisations understand the complexity of trustee motivations. More recently helped to design USS member nominated selection of its UCU trustee representatives. 

I am  on the editorial board for an international open access journal : Interdisciplinary perspectives on equality and diversity 

I have also contributed to a special edition on Joan Acker reviewing  her theoretical contribution and life in 2019. This was a result of editing with Joan a special edition of Equality, Work and Diversity Journal  to celebrate Joan Acker's contribution to gender and organisation theorising in equalities.

I contribute to engage with Bourdieu's work on capitals and fields, see recent publications.  I am part of a vibrant European network in respect of this. 

 I am also a member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Group and have been a member of their working party to formulate an equality policy for the association.

I have first supervised and examined  many PHD students. Topics range from executive board relationships, gender pay gap,  the transition economy and gender composition in Russia , gender and career advancement in academia in Pakistan and the UK and careers and social capital in Jordan and executive board composition in Nigeria as well as social entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia . I have examined a range of doctoral work  usually featuring complex theoretical perspective around identity including Bourdieu, Judith Butler and others. 

Academic Events

Founding Member and Co-editor of a  open-access journal  Interdisciplinary perspectives on equality and diversity; an International Journal

Workshop Coordinator for the Feminist Methods Conference (2011) on Reflexivity and Feminist Research

Coordinator: 'The Future Direction of Pension Provision' UEA London in conjunction with Lucas Fettes (March 2010)

Co-ordinated ‘Celebrating Feminism in Academia Conference' DECERe at University of East Anglia Sept 22nd 2010 in conjunction with Dr Kate Sang

I am interested in teaching HRM and employee relations to the students. I am course leader for the MSC in HR and I am responsible for two modules for the MSC Global Career Management and Managing People in Organisations to MSc students. I also teach on HRM for the second year undergraduate and for third years students I have designed a module which examine employee relations and contemporary workplace issues from which each student can choose and design their own coursework and project, here an interest in teaching research methods at all levels is used to support the student's development of their ideas.

I also teach and examine  PhD students and I have seen many through to completion . I  currently have  students currently researching social entrepreneurships and graduates  and women's perspectives and  the gender pay gap.