News

DCU Business School lecturer receives LERA Best Dissertation Award

18 January 2011

Dr Brian Harney has been chosen as a recipient of the 2010 Labour, Employment Relations Association (LERA) Thomas A. Kochan and Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Honorable Mention Award. Brian is a lecturer in HRM at DCU Business School and Deputy Director (Knowledge) at the Leadership, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre (LinK). He completed his PhD thesis entitled ‘HRM in Smaller Firms: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration of Practices, Patterns and Determinants’ at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr Philip Stiles and Professor William Brown.

LERA is a global organisation of academics and professionals interested in all aspects of labour and employment relations. The award was accepted on Brian’s behalf by Professor Jody Hoffer Gittell, Brandeis University at the LERA annual conference in Denver, January 2011. Professor Hoffer Gittell is also an Associate Member of the Leadership, Innovation and Knowledge (LinK) Research Centre at DCU.

Brian’s research examined the key factors impacting the way people are managed in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on a national survey of HR practices, and a series of in-depth qualitative case studies Brian’s thesis moves beyond simplistic formal vs. informal, small vs. large comparisons to provide a more fruitful basis for analysis. The policy implications are that smaller firms are more likely to find value in local and sector specific learning networks, and via targeted advice or tools which enable them to diagnose their own specific requirements. This exposes the flaws of universal blanket solutions which are drawn exclusively from large firms and/or assume small firms to constitute an homogenous sector.

According to Brian’s letter of recommendation his PhD thesis “combines originality and cross disciplinary insights with a rigorous and considered approach to execution. Of equal significance is that this occurs in a domain of considerable economic importance and where employment relations contributions have been hitherto severely lacking”.