Dr Karen Bilsland is a Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the Adam Smith Business School and is a three-time graduate of the University of Glasgow (MA Hons, Business and Management and Geography, 2013; MRes, Sociology and Research Methods, 2014; PhD, Management, 2018). Karen’s research interests broadly include work organisation, organisational change, employee engagement and participation, spatiality and architecture in organisations, and the application of visual and mobile methodologies in organisational research. Her PhD research involved a comparative study of work practices and employee relations in the UK and Sweden within a multinational retail firm.

Prior to re-joining the University in July 2022, Karen was a Lecturer in Management at the University of Aberdeen since October 2018. While completing her PhD, Karen also held a research position as a Research Assistant in Economic Democracy at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. In 2017, Karen was a Visiting Scholar at the Desautels Faculty of Management at Montreal’s McGill University.

Karen has published in journals such as New Technology, Work and Employment and Economic and Industrial Democracy. Karen has successfully secured funding for her research, including a full PhD scholarship in 2014, and as Co-investigator on an interdisciplinary KTP project in 2020, co-funded by Innovate UK and the Scottish Funding Council.

Karen is also a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE (FHEA).

Karen is a member of the School's Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour research cluster.

Areas of expertise:

• Work organisation
• Organisational change
• Employee engagement and participation
• Spatiality and architecture in organisations
• Application of visual and mobile methodologies in organisational research

List by: Type | Date

• Innovate UK/Scottish Funding Council, KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership), 2020-2022, Co-I (£115,779)
• Principal's Early Career Mobility Scheme, University of Glasgow, 2017 (£3,780)
• Adam Smith Business School PhD Scholarship, University of Glasgow, 2014

Current teaching:

• MGT5374 | Contemporary Issues in Work and Employment
• MGT4006 | Human Resource Management
• MGT2011 | Fundamentals of HRM

Other courses taught in the last 3 years:

• Human Resource Management (UG Honours)
• Managing Change (MSc IHRM)
• Managing Change (MBA)
• HR Essentials (MSc IHRM)
• Managing Human Resources (PGT)
• Research Practice (PGT)

Conference presentations

• Bilsland, K. (2020) Keeping p(l)ace with thoughts: the value of walking interviews in organizational research. In: 80th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2020), Vancouver, BC, 7-11 Aug 2020.
• Bilsland, K. (2019) 'Let's walk and talk shop': reflecting on the value of walking interviews in labour process research. In: 37th International Labour Process Conference, Vienna, Austria, 24-26 Apr 2019.
• Bilsland, K. and Cumbers, A. (2018) Organisational control and autonomy in retail work spaces: evidence from a UK IKEA store. In: 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2018), Chicago, IL, USA, 10-14 Aug 2018.
• Zyglidopoulos, S., Bilsland, K., Siebert, S. and Jorgensen, J. (2018) Repairing legitimacy and trustworthiness after a scandal: the case of SNC-Lavalin. In: 78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2018), Chicago, IL, USA, 10-14 Aug 2018.
• Zyglidopoulos, S., Bilsland, K., Siebert, S. and Jorgensen, J. (2017) A resource-dependency perspective on how organizations engage in trust repair: the case of SNC-Lavalin. In: 33rd EGOS Colloquium, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark, 6-8 Jul 2017.
• Bilsland, K. (2016) Maximising space and creativity on the shopfloor: strategic HRM and the space-organisation relationship in a multinational firm. In: 30th Annual British Academy of Management Conference (BAM 2016), Newcastle, UK, 6-9 Sep 2016.