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

Evaluation of Wellbeing of Women's government funded project

Wellbeing of Women was recently awarded 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. The grant is to carry out a project focused on increasing 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 on women in the workplace. The project is location specific and will target SMEs in Milton Keynes, Central Bedfordshire and Bedford Borough. In addition to face-to-face training, the project will create an online resource that will provide appropriate guidance and signpost managers and employees to evidence-based advice on providing workplace specific support to their colleagues. We would like to request Jo Brewis to act as an external evaluator for our programme. We want her to advise us on the design of our theory of change, the kind of questions we are asking our participants and whether they align with measuring the impact we hope to achieve. We would request a brief report from her every six months to delineate progress and identify any issues as well as reading the analysis they put together from the pre- and post-workshop feedback as well as the two case studies they are required to write as part of the project.

CONFERENCE: International Critical Management Studies Conference 2019

tbc Hosting the International Critical Management Studies biennial conference. 500 delegates expected.

Doctoral and Early Career Symposium on Academic Creativity and Openness

tbc The symposium will take place on Wednesday the 26th of June 2019 at the Open University Business School (OUBS). The symposium will be targeted specifically at doctoral students and early-career academics (ECAs) working in the field of management around the world. The symposium will take place on the day prior to the commencement of the International Critical Management Studies conference (also at the OUBS in Milton Keynes). We aim to accommodate about 50 people, most of whom will be PhD students and early-career academics (the others will be internationally-known guest speakers and facilitators). The purpose of the symposium will be to help foster the development of doctoral students and ECAs, who are ‘both the current underbelly and the future of the academic profession’ (Bristow et al, 2017).