Professor Helen Francis
Director, People and Organisational Development Division
Edinburgh Institute
Contact details
Room: 1/22, Craiglockhart Campus
Tel: +44 (0) 131 455 4338
Email: h.francis@napier.ac.uk
Qualifications
PhD, BSc, FHEA, FCIPD.
Areas Of Expertise
People and organisational effectiveness, language and change, the design of employment value propositions, practice-based learning, employee engagement and the psychological contract.
Helen Francis talks about the power of language in business.
Brief Biography
Professor Helen Francis is Director of the People and Organisational Development (POD) Division with the Edinburgh Institute. A graduate of Edinburgh University, she started her career in personnel management before moving into academic work at Edinburgh Napier Business School. She has played key roles in research, teaching and commercial developments, including the creation of the Edinburgh HR Academy, and POD. This has included spearheading an approach to OD and HR consultancy that effectively blends consultancy and academic skill-sets and knowledge, and which underpins current projects within her Division.
Helen completed her PhD at De Montfort University based on the role of language in HR-based change and has published extensively in leading Management, Organisation and HR journals since then. She has also presented at a wide range of national and international conferences, and in her role as Professor, champions research-led commercial work, teaching and continuous professional development. Her contribution to the HR profession was recognised (lecturer of the year) at the HR Network (Scotland) National Awards in 2007.
Helen has been responsible for leading-edge strategies that allow for more critical reflection on the personal learning and development of students on programmes across the Institute, and as a Chartered Fellow Member of the CIPD, she champions this approach through strong links with the Institute and local business communities, and leads the CIPD East of Scotland ‘Knowledge into Practice’ group.
Research and Knowledge Transfer
Helen’s research and knowledge transfer activities are enhanced by the creation of an approach to Research Consultancy spearheaded by her, while establishing commercial activities within Edinburgh Napier Business School. She has built a high quality community of academics and practitioners specialising in people and organisational development, and made a significant contribution to theory development, research and knowledge exchange. This is reflected in her role as editor of a forthcoming CIPD-commissioned textbook on organisational effectiveness (with Dr Linda Holbeche and Dr Martin Reddington). Her most recent research/consultancy activities focus upon the changing nature of HR functions and the implications of this on the employment relationship, organisational effectiveness and the design of employment value propositions, practice-based learning, employee engagement and the psychological contract.
Selected Publications
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People and Organisational Development: A new Agenda for Organisational Effectiveness. (Published Year: 2012)
This book examines how employers, grappling with the continuing effects of the global financial crisis, can venture beyond short-term and primarily top-down management initiatives and find more effective and sustainable ways in which to re-build organisations and societies. It looks behind the issues, aims to stretch current thinking, and presents a ‘new organisational effectiveness’ concept and mindset. For more information contact Helen Francis. |
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Corporate Reputation: Managing Opportunities and Threats (Published Year: 2011)
Corporate Reputation contains both academic content along with practitioner contributions, developed by those serving as consultants or working in organisations in the area of corporate reputation and its management or recovery.
Martin Reddington and Helen Francis have written a chapter entitled: The impact of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 on Corporate Reputation |
Academic Journals
Keegan, A and Francis, H (2010) ‘Practitioner talk: The changing textscape of HRM and emergence of HR Business Partnership’, International Journal of Human Resource Management.
Francis, H. and Cowan J. (2008) ‘Fostering an action-reflection dynamic amongst students practitioners’, Journal of European Industrial Training, 32 5, pp 336-346.
Francis, H. (2007) ‘Discursive Struggle and the Ambiguous World of HRD’, Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol. 9, No. 1, PP. 83-96
Francis (2006) ‘A Critical Discourse Perspective on Managers Experiences of HRM’, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 1, 2, pp. 65-82
Francis, H. and Keegan, A. (2006) ‘The changing face of HR: in search of balance’, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.231- 249
Francis, H. and D’Annunzio-Green (2005) ‘HRM and the pursuit of a service culture: managerial encounters with competing discourses’, Employee Relations Journal, 27, 1, pp. 71-85.
D’Annunzio-Green and Francis, H. (2005) ‘Tuning into Tensions at times of change: the experiences of line and HR managers in a contract catering firm’, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 17, 4 pp.345-358.
D’Annunzio-Green and Francis, H. (2005) ‘Human Resource Development and the Psychological Contract: Great Expectations or False Hopes’, Human Resource Development International., 8, 3, pp 327-344.
Francis, H. (2003) ‘Teamworking: meanings and contradictions in the management of change’, Human Resource Management Journal, 13, 3, pp.71-90.
Francis, H. (2003) HRM and the beginnings of organizational change’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16, 3, 309-328.
Francis, H and Sinclair, J. (2003) ‘A processual analysis of HRM-based change’, Organization, 10, 4, 685-706.
Francis, H. (2002) ‘The Power of ‘talk’ in HRM-based change’, Personnel Review, 31 ,4, pp 432-448.
Professional Journals
Holbeche, L. and Francis, H. (2010) Strategy: A wealth of ideas for lean times, People Management magazine: 22
Keegan, A. and Francis H. ‘Facing Facts’ (2006), People Management, February, p 9-10.
Francis, H. and Keegan, A. (2005) , ‘Slippery Slope’, People Management, June 30, pp.26-31 (Cover Story).
Text Book and Book Chapters
Francis, H., Reddington and Holbeche, L (in press) New OE: Future Prospects and Possibilities, in Francis, H., Holbeche, L. and Reddington, R. (eds) People and Organisational Development, A New Agenda for Organisational Effectiveness, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London
Francis, H., and Reddington (in press) Employer Branding and Organisational Effectiveness, in Francis, H., Holbeche, L. and Reddington, R. (eds) People and Organisational Development, A New Agenda for Organisational Effectiveness, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London
Reddington, M. and Francis H. (2011), ‘Deployment of Web 2.0 in re-architecting EVP to enhance the Employer Brand’. In Martin, G and Cooper, C, Corporate reputation: Managing threats and opportunities, pp. 217-244, Gower.
Keegan A. and Francis, H (2008) ‘Technology and Strategic Roles: Considering the Social Implications’, In Martin, G., Reddington ,M. and Alexander, H. (eds.) Technology, Outsourcing and Transforming HR: Potential, Problems and Guidance for Practitioners, Butterworth-Heineman, Oxford, pp. 345-362.
Francis, H. and D’Annunzio-Green (2007). The impact of emotion management training on the ‘shifting sands’ of the psychological contract, In Hill, R. and Stewart, J. (eds.), Management Development: Perspectives from Research and Practice, 177-195. Routledge Publishers & The Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development
Francis (2006) The mutation of HRD and strategic change: a discourse perspective. In Rigg, C., Stewart, J. and Trehan, K. (eds.) Behind and Beyond Critical Human, pp. 107-128, Resource Development, Pearson.
Selected Conference Papers
Francis, H. And Reddington, M. (2011 forthcoming) HR Transformation and Technology: Why Language Matters’, 7th Biannual International Conference of the Dutch HRM network, “Evidence based HRM” , 10 & 11 November 2011, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Francis, H. And Reddington, M. (2010) ‘Redirecting and reconnecting theory- Employer Branding and the Employment 'Deal‘, BSA Work, Employment & Society Conference.
Francis, H. and Keegan, A. (2007) Structural transformation of HR and the shrinking employee champion role, Work, Employment and Society Conference, Aberdeen University.
Keegan, A. and Francis, H. (2007) Contemporary discourses of HRM: Searching for balance or tipping the scales? 5th International Critical Management Studies Conference, Manchester University Business School, Manchester.
Francis, H. and Keegan, A. (2006) The Framing of Leadership and Management Development for HR professionals: Are ‘employee champions’ facing a bleak future? Seventh International Conference on HRD Research and Practice Across Europe, Tilburg University 22-24 May *
D’Annunzio-Green N and Francis (2005) HRD and the Shifting Sands of the Psychological Contract, Academy of Human Resource Development International Research Conference, Colorado, February.*
Francis, H. (2005) Face-to-face mentoring and student continued professional development: some reflections, Napier University Staff Conference, June 11.
Francis (2004) The mutation of HRM and strategic change: a case analysis, 6th International Conference on Organizational Discourse, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, July 2004. *
Francis, H. and D’Annunzio-Green, N. (2004) A discourse-based approach to analysing the complexity and uncertainty of organisational change and management learning, Fifth International Conference on HRD Research and Practice Across Europe, University of Limerick, 27-28 May. *
Francis, H. D’Annunzio-Green, N. (2004) Unleashing expectations through emotional intelligence training – what next? Fifth International Conference on HRD Research and Practice Across Europe, University of Limerick, 27-28 May.*
Francis, H. and D’Annunzio-Green, N. (2003) Managers as active sense-makers of HRM. Dutch HRM Nework Conference, Enschede, 7/8th November 2003.
Francis, H. and D’Annunzio-Green, N. (2003) Strategic tensions around HRM-based change: choices and constraints facing managers in a contract catering firm. 3rd International Conference on Critical Management Studies, Lancaster University, 7th-9th July 2003. *
Francis, H. (2002) Teamworking : meanings and contradictions in the management of change, Third Conference on HRD Research and Practice Across Europe, Napier University, Edinburgh, January.*