Professor Jo Brewis

Professor of People and Organisations

joanna.brewis@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

I joined the OU in April 2018, having worked previously at the Universities of Leicester, Essex and Portsmouth. I have a BSc and a PhD from UMIST. In my spare time I go to lots of gigs, watch far too much rubbish TV and read anything and everything as long as it's fiction. I am also a lifelong Newcastle United fan, which means I spend every football season crossing my fingers (although winning the 2024/5 Carabao Cup was a very special moment!).

Research interests

My research interests fall into two broad categories. First is the intersections between the body, sexuality, gender, emotions, identity, organizing and organizations, including publications on menopause transition and women’s economic participation and methodological considerations in organization studies deploying queer theory. The second is academic practices in organization studies research, including publications on research ethics and peer review.

Teaching interests

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and specialize in teaching research methodology, researcher development skills, organizational behaviour, organization studies and HRM at all levels.

Impact and engagement

I am the co-author of the 2017 government report The effects of menopause transition on women's economic participation in the UK. As an independent panel member for Menopause Friendly Accreditation amongst other activities, I am working to further the menopause in the workplace agenda. I am also a member of a team whose research focuses on early pregnancy endings as a workplace issue.

Projects

International Critical Management Studies Conference 2019

I was academic lead for this biennial conference which ran at our central Walton Hall campus in Milton Keynes. It attracted 500 plus delegates from all over the world.

Evaluation of Wellbeing of Women's project Menopause Xplored

This project was funded by a grant from the Health and Wellbeing Fund, a joint initiative between the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency. It entailed a focus on improving women’s mental and physical health by helping workplaces in the SME sector become more aware, and in turn more supportive, of the menopause and its impact in the workplace. The project was location-specific and targeted SMEs in Milton Keynes, Central Bedfordshire, Luton and Northampton. It was delivered in the form of workshops combining expert training and advice with an immersive VR film plus downloadable resource packs and toolkits. I acted as an external evaluator for the workshop programme, advising on its theory of change, the kind of feedback Wellbeing of Women asked for from participants and whether this aligned with the impact they wanted to achieve. I produced regular brief reports on the project to delineate progress and identify any issues as well as an end of project report based on pre- and post-workshop feedback.