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Research interests

Main research interests: job quality, skills, and labour market and labour process developments, trends and issues. Interested in supervising doctorate and masters research degrees in job quality, skills and aesthetic labour.

Academic profile

Chris Warhurst is an internationally recognised expert on job quality, skills and aesthetic labour. He is motivated by wanting to see better scientific and policymaker understanding of work and employment.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and an Associate Research Fellow of SKOPE at the University of Oxford. He was Co-Chair of the ESRC-funded Renewing Work Advisory Group of Experts (ReWAGE) and a member of the Productivity Institute. He was previously Professor of Work and Organisational Studies at the Sydney University Business School, Founding Director of the Scottish Centre for Employment Research (SCER) at Strathclyde University and a Trustee of the Tavistock Institute in London. He was Chair of the Management Committee for Human Relations and co-editor of Work, Employment and Society.

He uses mixed methods in his research, which ranges over small-scale qualitative case studies to national surveys. He has secured more than 90 research awards from national research councils, government, employers, trade unions and charities etc.. He has published 18 books including the Oxford Handbook of Job Quality (Oxford University Press) , Aesthetic Labour (Sage), The Skills That Matter (Palgrave), Are bad jobs inevitable? (Palgrave) and the Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training (Oxford University Press). He has published over 60 academic journal articles, over 70 book chapters and over 70 reports for government and practitioners.

He has been an expert advisor to the UK, Australian and Scottish Governments as well as the OECD, Oxfam Scotland and the Scottish Living Wage Campaign. He sat on the Measuring Job Quality Working Group co-chaired by the Carnegie Trust UK and the Royal Society of the Arts that was tasked with responding to the UK Government’s Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices recommendation to develop a measure of job quality for the UK. He is currently a member of the Education and Labour Market Research Group of the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

Current projects

• Improving older patient care though better flow from hospital to adult social careLink opens in a new window; with Derek Bosworth, Gianni Anelli-Lopez, Phil Taylor, Beate Baldauf, Jason Madan and Martin Whitehead; Funded by the Vivensa Foundation; Project Duration: August 2025 - May 2026

• Creating a new State of the Labour Market Index (SLMi) for the UK; with Peter Elias, Terence Hogarth, Trine Larsen, Katharina Sarter, Sangwoo Lee, Gill Dix and Ashwin Kumar; Funded by the Joseph Roundtree Foundation; Project duration: February 2025 - January 2026

• Creating Healthy Jobs; with Gill Dix, Sangwoo Lee, Katharina Sarter, Carla Toro & Jason Madan & Sophie Staniszewska, Mike Tildesley, Lena Al-Khudairy & Amy Grove, (University of Birmingham), Kevin Daniels (University of East Anglia), , Melanie Jones (Cardiff University), Funded by the National Institute for Health Research; Project duration October 2024 to September 2026

• Supporting the business case for good jobs; with Emily Erickson and Sangwoo Lee; Funded by the ÉñÂí¸£ÀûӰƬ, Project duration: August 2024 - March 2025

• New challenges for occupational safety and health in times of the digital transformation in Europe: the role of digital labour platforms, with Beate Baldauf and Sally Wright, Funded by CHANSE; Project duration: November 2022 - December 2025

• HE bridges 5.0 - Bridging risks to an inclusive digital and green future by enhancing workforce skills for industry 5.0, with Jeisson Cardenas-Rubio and Peter Dickinson, Funder: European Commission, Project Duration: June 2022 - May 2026

• Labour market information report; Funded by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority; with Peter Dickinson, Terence Hogarth and Jeisson Cardenas-Rubio; Project Duration: March 2022 - March 2023

• Labour market and skills demand horizon scanning and qualitative scenariosLink opens in a new window, with Sally Wright and Terence Hogarth; Funded by the Department for Education; Project Duration: March 2021 - July 2021
• Productivity instituteLink opens in a new window with ), Professor Janet Godsell (WMG); Funded by ESRC; Project Start Date: 01/09/2020 - Project End Date: 31/08/2025
• BEYOND 4.0 - Inclusive Futures for Europe BEYOND the impacts of Industrie 4.0 and Digital Disruption.

  With Sally Wright, Katharina Sarter and with Chris Mathieu (Lund University), led by Steven Dhondt (TNO). Project Duration: 01/01/2019 - 30/06/2023 [details]

All projects

Selected publications

• Anelli, G., Boothman, L., Bosworth, D., Madan, J., Whitehead, M. and Warhurst, C. (2026). .
• Knox, A., Lee, S., Warhurst, C., & Wright, S. (2026). . International Journal of Hospitality Management.
• Nickson, D. and Warhurst, C. (2026). . Cham: Springer. Giselinde Kuipers and Outi Sarpila (eds) Handbook of Beauty and Inequality, pp.309-322.
• Erickson, E., Buchanan, J., Sarter, E.K., Warhurst, C., and Tumurchudur Klok, B. (2025). . International Labour Office, Geneva. pp.: ; No named editor; Chapter 7 pp 151 - 180.
• Warhurst, C., Knox, A. and Wright, S. Date (2025). Work, Employment and Society. London: Sage.
• Warhurst, C., J. Harris, J. Cardenas Rubio and P. Anderson (2025). European Journal of Workplace Innovation 9(1 & 2):63-79.
• Warhurst, C., Toro, C., Harris, J., Dix. G. and Balogh, R. (2025). The case for creating healthy jobs: A review of the evidence Location and Publisher (Evidence paper). ReWAGE and Warwick Institute for Employment Research.
• Warhurst, C., Toro, C., Harris, J., Dix. G. and Balogh, R. (2025). Creating Healthy Jobs (Policy Brief). ReWAGE and Warwick Institute for Employment Research.
• Warhurst, C. (2024). . Organisation Studies. London, Sage.
• Balogh, R., De Moortel, D., Gadeyne, S., Vanderleyden, J., Warhurst, C. and Vanroelen, C. (2024). Is. International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services. London, SAGE.
• Oeij, P. , Lenaerts, K., Dhondt, S., Van Dijk, W. , Schartinger, D. , Sorko, S.R., and Warhurst, C. (2024). . Journal of Innovation Management, 12(1):205-233.
• Erickson, E., Atfield, G., Balogh, R., Harris, J., and Warhurst, C. (2024). Building a business case for good jobs: The links between Good Work and innovation, productivity and employee health/wellbeing. (Evidence paper). ReWAGE and Warwick Institute for Employment Research.
• Erickson, E., Atfield, G., Balogh, R., Harris, J., and Warhurst, C. (2024). Building a business case for good jobs: Links between Good Work and innovation, productivity and employee health/wellbeing (Policy Brief). ReWAGE and Warwick Institute for Employment Research.
• Erickson, E., and Warhurst, C. (2024). Building a business case for good jobs: Links between Good Work and innovation, productivity and employee health/wellbeing (Case Studies). ReWAGE and Warwick Institute for Employment Research.
• Dickinson, P., Erickson, E., and Warhurst, C. (2024). : The Productivity Institute.
• Yang, J., Warhurst, C. and Li, Y. (2023). .
  European Journal of Workplace Innovation, 8(1), 85-104.
• Warhurst, C. (2023). . In Broadbridge, A. (Ed.) (2023). Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xxv. ISBN: 978-1-80071-175-4 (Print) ISBN: 978-1-80071-174-7 (Online).
• Balogh, R., Gadeyne, S., Jonsson, J., Sarkar, S., Van Aerden, K., Warhurst, C. and Vanroelen, C. (2023) ‘Employment trajectories and mental health-related disability in Belgium’, International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 96: 285-302.
• Balogh, R., De Moortel, D., Gadeyne, S., Vanderleyden, J., Warhurst, C.& Vanroelen, C.(2023). (conference abstract). European Journal of Public Health, 33 (Issue Supplement_2),
• Cardenas Rubio, J., Harris, J., Warhurst, C., Day, R., and Bosworth, L. (2023). . Midlands Engine.
• Warhurst, C. and Dhondt, S. (2023). . Policy Brief #8.
• Bobillier Chaumon, M.-E., Delgoulet, C., Greenan, N., Lemonie, Y. & Warhurst, C.(2022). Cross-disciplinary perspectives on the duality of digital technologies. Industrial Relations, 77(3).
• Dickinson, P., Cardenas-Rubio, J., and Warhurst, C. (2022). Green Jobs and the Green Economy in York. IER, Coventry.
• Cardenas Rubio, J., Warhurst, C and Anderson, P. (2022). . Skills Development Scotland.
• Warhurst, C., Wright, S. and Mathieu, C. (2022) ‘Job Quality: A Family Affair?’ in C. Warhurst, C. Mathieu and R.E Dwyer (eds) Oxford Handbook of Job Quality, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Warhurst, C., Mathieu, C. and Dwyer, R. (2022). . Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198749790.
• Guest, D., A. Knox and C. Warhurst (2022). . Human Relations, 75(8), pp.1461-1482.
• Hunt, W., Sarkar, S. and Warhurst, C. (2022) ‘Measuring the impact of AI on jobs at the organizational level: Lessons from a survey of UK business leaders’, Research Policy, 51(2): XX.
• Warhurst, C. and Knox, A. (2022). . Human Relations. 75:2, pp 304-321.
• Totterdill, P., Pot, F., Dhondt, S. and Warhurst, C. (2022f) ‘Workplace Innovation: Europe's Competitive Edge: A Manifesto for Enhanced Performance and Working lives’, European Journal of Workplace Innovation.
• Warhurst, C., Mathieu, C., and Wright, S. (2021). Vorsprung durch Technik: the future of work, digital technology and the politics of the platform economy. In: P.A. Creticos, L. Bennett, L. Owen, C. Spirou and M. Morphis-Reibeck (eds) The Many Futures of Work: Chicago: Temple University Press, pp 179-195.
• Hunt, W., Sudipa, S. and Warhurst, C. (2021). . Research Policy, Volume 51, Issue 2, March 2022, 104425, Elsevier (online publication).
• Warhurst, C. and Knox, A. (2020). . Human Relations (online first)
• Warhurst,C. and D. Nickson (2020). . London Sage. ISBN: 9781847870858
• Warhurst, C. and S. Wright (2020) ‘’ in T. Dundon and A. Wilkinson (eds) Case Studies in Work, Employment and Human Resource Management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
• Warhurst, C, Muñoz de Bustillo, L.R., Antón Pérez, J-I., Grande Martín, R., Pinto, H.F., Wright, S. (2019). , Eurofound, ISBN: 978-92-897-1997-1.
• Knox, A. and Warhurst, C. (2018) 'Occupations, the missing link?: A new theoretical and methodological approach to product markets, skill and pay’, Work, Employment and Society, vol.32, no.1, pp.150-186.
• Findlay, P., Warhurst, C., Keep, E. and Lloyd, C. (2017) ‘Opportunity Knocks?: The Possibilities and Levers for Improving Job Quality’, Work and Occupations, vol. 44, no.1, pp.3-22.
• Warhurst, C., Wright, S. and Lyonette, C. (2017) , CIPD Research Services Job Quality Study, Report 1. London: CIPD.
• Warhurst, C. Mayhew, K., Finegold, D. and Buchanan, D. (2017) (eds) Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Knox, A. and Warhurst, C. (eds) (2015) Job quality in Australia: Perspectives, Problems and Proposals, Annandale, NSW: Federation Press.
• James, S., Warhurst, C., Tholen, G. and Commander, J. (2013) What We Know and What We Need to Know About Graduate Skills’, Work, Employment and Society, 27:6, 952-963.
• Warhurst, C., Carré, F., Findlay, P. and Tilly, C. (eds) (2012) , London: Palgrave.

All publications

All conference presentations

Doctoral supervision

• Jon Winfield, Understanding employer delivery of good work in the UK.
• Paul Quigley, Explaining employer engagement with apprenticeship policy.
• Rebeka Balogh, Investigating mechanisms between precarious employment and workers’ mental health. A longitudinal approach.
• Joanna Octavia, How informal workers organize in the platform economy .
• Mags Bexon, Young people NEET – how do they make their career decisions?