Areas of Interest and Expertise

Alina's research relates chiefly to labour market flexibility and workplace flexibility practices (WFPs).  The main focus of research is the British labour market, but other national and international avenues may also be explored.

This research evaluates the flexibilisation of working life, both when initiatives are intended to provide improved benefits for employees, and where the stimulus rather arises from the intention to promote more efficient working patterns, enhanced productivity and higher rates of economic expansion for the benefit of the business / employer.

At individual employee level, research outcomes advanced to improve the employee work situation may be expected to modify the “time squeeze” experienced by a growing number of professional and/or managerial employees, helping to support many employees with their work-life balance, being more productive and increasing their well-being, job satisfaction and general happiness.

At corporate level, superior business performance can lead to greater labour market flexibility through better matching of production / supply to fluctuating demand, promoting productivity through more efficient reorganisation of working conditions and facilitating macroeconomic sustainable development goals.

Flexible work is assessed in great detail, be it:

- numerical or temporal (part-time working; the gig economy; zero-hours contracts; flexitime),

- functional (training, job sharing; job autonomy);

- or cost flexibility (pay-related-to performance, merit pay, bonus pay).

In a more general view, Alina's research interests include all of the following: 

Labour Economics

  • flexible working practices
  • job satisfaction and employee well-being
  • worker, company and economy-wide performance such as related to high-performance work, absenteeism and redundancies
  • training and promotion linkages
  • labour market trends inclusive of social mobility, skills mismatch, inequalty
  • (im)migraton 

Management

  • business resilience and growth
    • the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
    • the economic impact of Brexit
    • regional growth and development
    • the economic impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis
    • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); scale-ups; start-ups; high-growth firms
  • the European Union as an economic area and its role as part of the global economy
  • HRM practices and their impact on company and employee performance
  • historical and cross-country comparisons of development in management science and evolution of managerial techniques

Organisational Behaviour

  • cross-disciplinary insights derived from Sociology and Psychology e.g. the role of attitudinal variables in understanding organisational and worker behaviour
  • the impact of technology on organisational and societal evolution

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