My research interests revolve around critical understandings of contemporary work processes, working lives and management practices and their links with society.  I tend to specialise in qualitative and ethnographic methodologies.

CURRENT RESEARCH:  Interim Management: The Irish Perspective

As part of the contingent work project, I have just completed a study into the Irish interim management sector, the first of its kind in Ireland.

Interim Management (IM) - the practice of resourcing senior management positions without the use of permanant or necessarily full-time individuals is an interesting example of high-end knowledge work.  This study was carried out in association with Watershed Inteirm Management, and involved an online survey with interim managers, and in-depth interviews with both IMs and client organisations.

Interim management is growing strongly as a sector in Ireland and IMs are confident about their future relevance.  They emerge as individuals who have played important roles in their traditional professional careers, but who have decided that what is most valuable to them is to keep moving, keep learning, and keep applying their knowledge to new situations.  Key findings and full details of the report can be found at www.watershedinterim.com

I continue to study the experiences of all kinds of contingent workers and the dynamics of temporary employment arrangements (agency workers, independent contractors, temporary and seasonal staff).  If you work in this sort of arrangement, would like to know more, or would consider giving a confidential interview, please email maeve.a.houlihan@ucd.ie

Other ongoing projects include research on Fun at Work (with Sharon Bolton); the impact of new technologies on taxi work (with Carolin Grampp and Dr. Paul McGrath at UCD); and business and ongoing writing with Dr. Karla Duarte, and Dr. Anastasia von Mende.  Both recently completed their PhDs with me: Karla has undertaken an ethnographic study of HIV/AIDS initiatives among business organisations in South Africa, while Anastasia has examined the lived experiences of foreign workers in Ireland.

Area Coordinator:  Management and Organisation Studies MBS and MSc Programme

BMGT 10170: Inside Organisations.   This is an anchor first year module for the new undergraduate business programmes at Quinn School of Business, focusing on OB knowledge and developing group work literacy through experiential group projects. 

BMGT 40480: Organisational Behaviour and Work.   This is a core theory course for students on the Management and Organisation Studies Programme and aims to equip students with an advanced understanding of behaviour in organisations and contemporary management practice, and a questioning attitude. 

BMGT 10100: Introduction to Organisational Behaviour.  This foundation level module is delivered in association with Antonia Corrigan and Dolores Heffernan Smith. 

AH40010: Arts Management. This module strives to equip prospective arts managers with a reflective understanding of the dynamics of strategic management and the management of people.

AH 40010 Business Plan: This is a skills based module designed around team based concepualsiation, development and delivery of business palns for cultural sector related businesses or activities.  The module integrates the management skills of financing, marketing, staffing and strategic management.

AH 40230: Arts Management Lives.  Co-organised with Pat Cooke and held at the National Library of Ireland - this module is a chance to dialogue with practicing arts managers from varied artforms, each at different stages of career or role, learn about their careers and the challenges and pleasures of their job, while creating a detailed reflective journal to identify skill implications and chart a personal learning journey. 

BMGT 10100: Organisational Behaviour (Centre for Distance Learning).  This  module combines a substantial self-study folder with three full days of classroom based learning, and focuses on foundational theories of OB that can be actively used in the workplace.

MSc Management and Organisation Studies - Dissertation and Research Project 

Doctoral Supervision:

Dr. Karla Duarte: Corporate Social Responsibility in Action: The Case of HIV/AIDS initiatives in the South African Workplace (completed January 2009)
Dr. Anastasia von Mende: Becoming Different: How Foreign Workers in Ireland Experience Difference and Adapt to Conditions of Diversity (completed January 2009)