Assoc ProfessorMaeve Houlihan

My research focuses on work, working lives and management practices in a societal context. I tend to specialise in qualitative, interpretive methodologies and have a background and interest in ethnography dating back to my PhD. Together with Sharon Bolton, I have written and researched for more than a decade on contemporary front line work, exploring thick and thin employment relationships and give and take between organisations and the people who work in them. Our edited books Searching for the Human in Human Resource Management (Palgrave, 2007) and Work Matters: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) plus a series of journal publications capture much of this thinking focusing primarily on front line customer service work (from call centres, to retail, to taxi work) and managerial labour processes. Our work is strongly influenced by the Labour Process Tradition, but takes a social and moral economy turn. As part of my role in Teaching and Learning, I am currently championing a Future of Learning project for the Business School and am enjoying working with colleagues to help imagine the needs of future workplaces and learning spaces. I hold a special interest in groups and group skills literacy, and am also developing some papers on the work of writing itself, with Dr Megan McGurk of our Academic Writing Centre. I have a growing research interest in the unconscious and psychodynamic dimensions of organisations and working life, reflecting ongoing professional training in group analytic psychotherapy (with IGAS, UCD School of Medicine and SVUH). An example is a recent paper on tasks that don't get done, with Dr Belinda Moller. I am part of the team led by Dr Annette Clancy hosting the forthcoming European International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations ( ISPSO ) European regional meeting in Dublin, from April 1-3 2016. ISPSO provides a forum for academics, clinicians, consultants and others interested in working in and with organisations utilising psychoanalytic concepts and insights and we have entitled the forthcoming meeting 'Working from the Periphery: Leading from the Edge '. In a related field, I am delighted to be working with PhD student Catherine McElhinney as she completes her research on intergenerational transitions and family business A further significant research strand is arts management with projects on creative working lives and on the space between enterprise and creativity (and questions about cultural entrepreneurship) underway with Dr Niamh NicGhabhann of University of Limerick's World Academy of Music and Dance, and IADT's Kerry McCall. I have worked closely with the MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy together with Pat Cooke and colleagues over many years, and principally now on the arts management lives project. Some other recent projects include research on Irish Interim Managers, Fun at Work (with Sharon Bolton), the impact of new technologies on taxi work (with Carolin Grampp and Dr. Paul McGrath at UCD) and the experience of the Proudly Made in Africa initiative at UCD (with Siobhan McGee and Dr Penelope Muzanenhamo). Dr. Karla Duarte, and Dr. Anastasia von Mende each completed their PhDs with me: Karla completed an ethnographic study of HIV/AIDS initiatives among business organisations in South Africa, while Anastasia examined the lived experiences of foreign workers in Ireland.