Anne McBride

Professor of Employment Studies

A defining theme of Anne McBride's work is researching how and why people can be both included and excluded in the workplace. Such interest stems right back to her initial PhD studies which looked at how union roles have evolved to encourage women's greater participation in workplace representation.

A particular focus of research has been translating health research into practice, and the start of her career at Alliance Manchester Business School 21 years ago coincided with a determined policy emphasis to introduce new ways of working across the NHS.

As Anne explains: "In the 2000s, attempts were made to encourage NHS staff to actively step up the career ladder and seek new work opportunities and skills development, such as through the skills escalator drive."

"As well as focusing minds on developing new, intermediate roles that span the gap between regulated and non-regulated jobs, the escalator also supported a more inclusive approach to encouraging and developing latent talent outside and within organisations."

Long-term view

However, she says the evidence indicated that employers shied away from taking a more holistic, longer-term view of workforce development.

For instance, research with colleague Stephen Mustchin into seven different healthcare settings found that such an approach towards employee betterment and organisational development was only truly implemented in one organisation.

"The pressure to meet short-term targets was a component of this reticence. The latter point shows the considerable challenges around translating health research into practice."

Meanwhile she adds that there has been a lot of change across the health service in terms of roles, responsibilities and management over the past 20 years.

"The work of myself and others has consistently shown how any change needs to be managed carefully and understood in the context of how healthcare practitioners work closely together."

Primary care

She says this can be seen in more recent studies in primary care. For instance, one study looked at skill mix changes in general practice and was funded by CLAHRC (Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care) Greater Manchester.

It revealed ambiguity about the purpose and place of newly introduced roles in general practice, and the tensions that arise around role definition and professional boundaries. A further study with colleagues across The University of Manchester indicated that a key challenge was preparing trainees and practitioners to work in a clinical setting characterised by a higher level of uncertainty, pace, and responsibility.

The study showed that new practitioners needed to adjust to a more autonomous style of working and this required a greater level of active risk management. "It also showed that without carefully managing the long-term planning of the funding, training and integration of all associated workers, you risk undermining the spread and sustainability of that change."

Recruitment and retention

Anne continues to have a strong interest in healthcare research, particularly in the context of recruitment and retention issues of GPs and other healthcare practitioners.

She adds: "One of the questions we are working on is can we find a way of helping primary care staff work in a more sustainable way in these challenging times, especially in the wake of the pandemic?"

"Working in primary care is intensive and very stressful, and staff are asked to do things that appear to be contradictory. Are there ways of better understanding the work they do, and ways of supporting them with the everyday complexity of primary care?"

Collaboration

As the CLAHRC example shows, a strong theme of Anne's work is collaborating with practitioners. She says CLAHRC Greater Manchester was an excellent collaboration between providers and commissioners from the NHS, industry and the third sector, which looked at specific programmes such as end-of-life care, wound care, and helping stroke survivors.

"This collaboration also enabled myself and colleagues to work with others across The University of Manchester on these important research areas."

Another example of collaboration is how she worked with colleague Professor Helge Hoel and industry specialists on making recommendations for a practical approach to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The team used examples, such as the Skills Escalator approach, to indicate how decisions about recruitment and promotion could widen participation, and incorporated these findings into a new BSI workplace standard.

Intersectionality

Meanwhile, a strong focus of Anne's current research is around intersectionality, the term given to the analytical framework for understanding how structural inequalities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege.

Working with colleague Jenny Rodriguez she is looking at how intersectionality is used to understand structures of power that marginalise and facilitate social inequalities.

"We were invited to give a keynote to the Industrial Relations annual conference (BUIRA) last year and we stressed the importance of strengthening dialogue between intersectionality and industrial relations. We are now working with Maria Hudson at Essex University to develop a BUIRA webinar in the autumn to take this further."