More recently Valerie has researched and published widely in the field of Human Resource Management on a range of topics including the role of trade union learning representatives, the impact of digital technology on work intensification and measuring innovation competencies in the workforce.

She has completed research and evaluation in these areas with funding from the TUC, Research Councils and European funding agencies.   Valerie is currently working with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development to evaluate the People Skills pilot program offering HR advice and support to small businesses.

Key Recent and Current Research

FINCODA: Framework for Innovation Competencies Development and Assessment

Digital Technologies and Work Intensification among Professionals in the Digital Economy:  a case study of television news (2014) The study uses a single exploratory case study of a regional ITV newsroom, to explore the interactions between new digital technologies and working practices. The focus of the study is the process of news production, and whether this acts to enable or limit the ‘democratising effect of technology.   Funded by RCUK under the New Economic Models in the Digital Economy program

Exploring the impact of the Northwest’s small firms to drive forward the UK’s economic recovery   funded by Private Sector Partners (June – November 2013)  the study explored how small business owners conceptualise growth within their own business and what contribution they believe they can make to the North West economy.

Understanding the high growth mindset: an empirical study involving in-depth interviews and a survey with high growth entrepreneurs, in partnership with the Growth Accelerator Observatory and supported by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

Stimulating Learning for Ideas to Market (SLIM) is a two-year (Oct 2012-14) EU-funded project under the Lifelong Learning Programme (Leonardo Da Vinci).  SLIM  is led by MMU with three universities from Rijeka and Zagreb in Croatia and Warsaw in Poland.  Five private companies will also work with MMU on the project which aims to make transfer of innovation from one country to another easier within the European Union.  

Stand Up to Racism:  was funded by JISC  (June- Dec 2012) as part of its Business and Community Engagement Programme. It used a case study to examine and evaluate routes to enhancing impact for research with and for civil society. The case study was Schools Stand Up to Racism (SSU2R), a Big Lottery funded, three year research project undertaken by the Department for Interdisciplinary studies at MMU Crewe in partnership with Cheshire, Halton and Warrington Race and Equality Centre (CHAWREC). The case study offered the opportunity to explore innovative ways of identifying, capturing and analysing impact during the course of an on-going research project dealing with a subject that is complex and highly sensitive.   

Selected Recent Publications

• Jones, O., Ghobadian, A., O’Regan, N. & Antcliff, V (2013).   Dynamic Capabilities  in a Sixth Generation Family Firm: A Study of the Bibby Line  Business History. pp. 1-32. ISSN 0007-6791  
• Rae, David and Martin, L. and Ancliff, V. and Hannon, P. (2013) Enterprise and Entrepreneurship in English Higher Education: 2010 and Beyond.Journal Small Business & Enterprise Development, 19 . ISSN 1462-6004
• Saundry, R, Antcliff, V & Stuart, M  (2012)  “Social Capital and  Trade Union Revitalisation: An Examination of Worker Networks in the UK Audio-Visual  Industries"  British Journal of  Industrial Relations Vol 50 (2) 263-286
• Saundry, R, Jones, C, Antcliff, A (2011)     “ Discipline, representation and dispute resolution: exploring the role of trade unions and employee  companions in workplace discipline”     Industrial Relations Journal  Vol 42(2)  pp 195-211
• Saundry, R, Hollinrake, A, Antcliff, V (2010)  ‘Learning Works: Report of the 2009 Survey of Union Learning Representative and Their Managers’ London:UnionLearn
• Antcliff, V, Saundry R  (2009)  ‘Accompaniment, Workplace Representation and Disciplinary Outcomes in British Workplaces – Just a formality?’  British Journal of Industrial Relations  Vol 47(1)  pp100-121