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Dr Christina Niforou

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Senior Lecturer

Faculty:
Faculty of Business and Law
School:
Management
Location:
Chelmsford
Areas of Expertise:
Business Management , Business, management and leadership , Research methodology , Human Resources Management
Research Supervision:
Yes
Dr Christina Niforou is a part-time Senior Lecturer in the School of Management at ARU and a freelance consultant in Employee Relations and Human Resource Management. Email Dr Christina Niforou

Background

Christina has held academic positions in the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham and her core research is in the area of employment/Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and labour standards in MNCs and Global Value Chains. It largely focuses on issues of ethics, compliance and accountability adopting an international and comparative/regional governance perspective. She is a supporter of interdisciplinary research borrowing conceptually from political science, economic geographers and development studies scholars in order to explain empirical finding and hence contribute both within and outside the fields of HRM and employment relations. To that end, she has published articles in leading journals and some of her most significant contributions to the field appear in the British Journal of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management (both ABS4). She has also developed a growing interest in how new forms of work, economics and technological developments and crises affect the employment relationship at both macro and micro levels.

Christina has been teaching in higher education since 2008 having successfully designed, led and delivered modules on HRM, organisational behaviour, employment relations, cross-cultural management, global environment of business and research methods for business while engaging with different student levels and audiences (UG, MSc, MBA, DBA, international students, mature students, professionals and non-professionals). She is committed to bringing her own research into the curriculum, for example, with regards to the role of institutional and cultural influences and the impact of international regulation on the transfer of employment practices in multinational companies. She has also design apprenticeship and bespoke training programmes for businesses in the UK and abroad.

Research interests

  • Labour standards/Global labour governance
  • International, comparative employee relations/HRM
  • Employee relations and crises-driven institutional change
  • 'Gig/platform economy' and the employment relationship

Areas of research supervision

  • International, comparative employee relations and human resource practices
  • Employee relations and crises-driven institutional change
  • Labour standards and corporate social responsibility governance
  • Industry 4.0 and the employment relationship at the workplace level

Teaching

Doctoral School, DBA Programme

  • Advanced research methods in a business context
  • Understanding management theory
  • Current approaches to management research

Qualifications

  • PhD: Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK, 2011
  • MA: European Industrial Relations, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK, 2006
  • BSc: Economics, University of Piraeus, Greece, 2006
  • Postgraduate Certificate of Academic Practice (PCAP), University of Birmingham, UK, 2016
  • Prince2 Certificate in Project Management, 2016

Memberships, editorial boards

  • Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD), Academic Member, 2015
  • Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA), 2015

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

Christina has received awards and funds by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESBC), Hans-Bockler Foundation, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham. She has also undertaken a number of consultancy projects with SMEs, MNCs and membership organisations in telecoms and maritime sectors in the UK and abroad.

Selected recent publications

  • Niforou, C. and Hodder, A. (2020) ‘Trade Union Pedagogy and Cross Border Action’, Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, 20: 3-24. 
  • Voskeritsian, H., Kapotas, P. and Niforou, C., eds. (2019) The Greek Labour Market in Crisis: Problems, Challenges, and Prospects. Routledge Studies in the European Economy. London, UK: Routledge.
  • Voskeritsian, Horen and Kapotas, P. and Niforou, C. (2019) Conclusion. In: Voskeritsian, Horen and Kapotas, P. and Niforou, C. (eds.) Greek Employment Relations in Crisis: Problems, Challenges, and Prospects. Routledge Studies in the European Economy. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 206-212. ISBN 9781138207356.
  • Voskeritsian, Horen and Kapotas, P. and Niforou, C. (2019) Introduction. In: Voskeritsian, Horen and Kapotas, P. and Niforou, C. (eds.) Greek Employment Relations in Crisis: Problems, Challenges, and Prospects. Routledge Studies in the European Economy. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 1-13. ISBN 9781138207356.
  • Niforou, C. (2017) Global Labour Governance and Core Labour Standards. In D. Wintersberger, ed., International Human Resource Management: A Case Study Approach, 1st ed. London: Kogan Page.
  • Niforou, C. (2015) ‘Labour Leverage in Global Value Chains: The Role of Interdependencies and Multi-level Dynamics’, Journal of Business Ethics, 130:301–311.
  • Donaghey J., Reinecke, J. Niforou C., and Lawson B. (2014) ‘From employment relations to consumption relations: balancing labor in global supply chains’, Human Resource Management, 53: 229-252.
  • Niforou, C. (2014) ‘International Framework Agreements and the democratic deficit of global labour governance’, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 35:2, 367-386
  • Niforou, C. (2013) 'Shaping Global Industrial Relations: The Impact of International Framework Agreements'. Edited by Konstantinos Papadakis, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 66: 725-726
  • Niforou, C. (2012) ‘International Framework Agreements and industrial relations governance: global rhetoric versus local realities’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 50: 352-373.
  • Niforou, C. (2012) ‘International framework agreements: enforcement of compliance and policy implications’, Paper published in the Proceedings of the 16th World Congress of the International Labour & Employment Relations Association, Philadelphia, 2nd-5th July 2012.
  • Niforou, C. (2011) International Framework Agreements: addressing the democratic deficit of global industrial relations governance? PhD Thesis, University of Warwick.
  • Niforou, C. (2008) ‘The role of trade unions in the implementation of autonomous framework agreements’, Warwick Papers in Industrial Relations, No 87, Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick. 
  • Niforou, C. (2006) ‘El papel de los sindicatos españoles en la reglamentación del teletrabajo – Un estudio basado en un examen preliminar de la efectividad del acuerdo marco europeo sobre teletrabajo’, en Teletrabajo: dimensión social y laboral, Fundación Estudios Sindicales CC.OO.A (ISBN: 84-690-1114).