Skip to main content
School of Business and Management
  1. School of business and management
  2. Staff
  3. Academic Staff
  4. Profiles

Dr Chris McLachlan

Chris

Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management; Programme Director for BSc Business Management (Year 2)

Email: c.mclachlan@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Roles:

  • Co-Director BSc Business Management Year 2
  • Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management
  • Academic Member CIPD

Biography:

Chris’ research explores the consequences of deindustrialization and organisational restructuring for affected workers and communities, along with the associated industrial relations processes. His research has focused on responsible approaches to restructuring in the UK steel industry, examining the different forms of institutional support aimed at ameliorating the negative effects for workers. This has generated insights into the experiences of displaced workers, the role of trade unions in restructuring processes and management strategies. He is currently part of a comparative international research project comparing the post-redundancy transitions of steelworkers in the UK, Sweden and Australia.

His research into restructuring processes has also involved an examination of the implications of the UK’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furloughing). This research generated insights into employers’ perceptions of the scheme, restructuring regimes and the nature of state regulation.

Chris has also been part of an international comparative project exploring the experiences of young precarious workers in the UK and Germany. This has generated insights into different conditions underpinning job insecurity and explanations for its apparent normalisation amongst young workers.

Teaching

Chris is the module leader for BUSM110 and BUS014 (Human Resource Management).

He is the module leader for ‘The Changing World of Work’ at QMUL’s Summer School.

Chris is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research

Research Interests:

Chris’ research explores the consequences of deindustrialization and organisational restructuring for affected workers and communities, along with the associated industrial relations processes. 

 

Publications

  • Garcia, R. and McLachlan, C.J. (forthcoming) Worker Cooperative ‘Regeneration’: Insights from the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement. Human Relations.
  • Ahlstrand, R., McLachlan, C. J., MacKenzie, R., Rydell, A., and Stuart, M. (2024). Restructuring regimes in and between two crises: A comparison of Sweden and the UK. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801241267113
  • MacKenzie, R., McLachlan, C.J., Ahlstrand, R., Rydell, A. and Hobbins, J. (2024). Strategic, episodic and truncated orientations to planning in post-redundancy career transitions. Human Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267241233494
  • Trappmann. V., Umney, C., McLachlan. C.J., Seehaus, A and Cartwright, L (2024) How do young workers perceive job insecurity? Legitimising frames for precarious work in England and Germany. Work, Employment and Society. 38(4), pp.998-1020
  • MacKenzie, R. and McLachlan C.J. (2023). Restructuring, redeployment and job churning within internal labour markets. Work, Employment and Society, 37(6), pp. 1480-1496 – Nominated for SAGE prize 2023.
  • Spencer, D.A., Stuart, M., Forde, C. and McLachlan, C.J. (2023). Furloughing and COVID-19: assessing regulatory reform of the state. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 16(1), pp.81-91.
  • McLachlan, C.J., MacKenzie, R., Rydell, A., Ahlstrand, R., Hobbins, J., O’Brien, M. and Frino, B. (2022). Restructuring, policy and practice: an international comparison of approaches. In, Martinez Lucio, M. and MacKenzie, R (eds) International Human Resource Management: The transformation of work in a global context (2nd edition). Sage.
  • McLachlan, C.J. (2022). Developing a framework for responsible downsizing through best fit: the importance of regulatory, procedural, communication and employment responsibilities. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(1), pp.16-44.
  • Stuart, M., Spencer, D.A., McLachlan, C.J. and Forde, C. (2021). COVID‐19 and the uncertain future of HRM: Furlough, job retention and reform. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(4), pp. 904-917.
  • McLachlan, C.J., MacKenzie, R. and Greenwood, I. (2021). Victims, survivors and the emergence of ‘endurers’ as a reflection of shifting goals in the management of redeployment. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(2), pp.438-453.
  • Smith, P.E., Yellowley, W. and McLachlan, C.J. (2020). Organizational Behaviour: Managing People in Dynamic Organizations. Routledge.
  • McLachlan, C.J., MacKenzie, R. and Greenwood, I. (2019). The role of the steelworker occupational community in the internalization of industrial restructuring: The ‘layering up’of collective proximal and distal experiences. Sociology, 53(5), pp.916-930
  • McLachlan, C.J. and Garcia, R.J. (2015). Philosophy in practice? Doctoral struggles with ontology and subjectivity in qualitative interviewing. Management Learning, 46(2), pp.195-210.

Supervision

Chris is open to supervising PhD students in the broad areas of employment relations, HRM and the sociology of work.

Back to top