Dr Matthew Davis

Profile

I am an Associate Professor at Leeds University Business School, a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. My research centres on how people interact with their environments, the impact of different office designs and how businesses engage in CSR, particularly to address sustainability and modern slavery. I believe that psychology offers valuable tools to help approach these and many other business problems. Socio-technical systems thinking underpins much of my research.

I have worked with partners such as Rolls-Royce, Marks and Spencer, Arup Consulting, Atkins and British Gas. I have led and contributed to a range of public and privately funded applied research projects, attracting in excess of £655,000 of funding.

I have published my research in international journals and high quality edited books. I have won international, national and university awards for my work. Most notably being awarded the 2010 US Academy of Management Making Connections award recognising contributions that cross-disciplinary, international and practitioner academic divides. I won the 2016 University of Leeds Building Knowledge and Capacity sustainability award. 

I am an Expert Member of the UK Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee (https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ministry-of-defence-research-ethics-committees). I am also the Business School's Director of CSR (leading CSR, sustainability and ethics related activities) and Incoming Chair of the AREA Faculty Research Ethics Committee (covering Social Sciences, Business and Environment).

I am involved in teaching relating to Corporate Social Responsibility and Socio-Technical Systems. I supervise dissertations and a number of PhD students. I have guest lectured at the University of Sheffield, UK and University of Fortaleza, Brazil.

PhD Applicants

I welcome applications for PhD students, particularly those who are interested in:

• Evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in particular pro-environmental / green behaviour change or addressing modern slavery in supply chains
• Design and evaluation of modern workspace in particular agile, activity based workspaces or flexible work arrangements
• Understanding the interactions between human, buildings and technology particularly regarding - energy use, automation or technology design

Current Leadership Roles

• Incoming Chair of Cross-Faculty (AREA) Research Ethics Committee - Committee reviews applications from Education, Social Sciences, Law, Business and Geography.
• Expert Member of the UK Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee  - This position is a formal Ministerial Appointment to a Public Body. The committee advises ministers and is established to provide independent advice across the MoD on the ethics of the involvement of human participants in research.
• Foundation Governor of All Saints Catholic High School, Sheffield - Member of the main Governing Body, in addition to the Personnel and Staffing sub-committee and role as the Link Governor for the Sixth Form.
• Leeds University Business School CSR Director - Leading CSR, sustainability and ethics related activities across the Business School for curriculum development, accreditation and engagement purposes.
• Member of the Management Committee for Energy Leeds - Business School representative for University of Leeds Research Theme
• Academic Steering Group Member for Leeds Institute of Teaching Excellence, Ethics Blended Learning Project - Project to develop online teaching materials/methods to engage students in research ethics
• Co-Convener LUBS CSR Group - Business School wide research group hosting research seminars and teaching meetings on CSR
• Management Division Budget Coordinator.
• Member of the Leeds Sustainable Curriculum Working Group - Group works to ensure sustainability is embedded into the curriculum across the University of Leeds

Awards

• 2017 - Leeds University Business School Partnership Award for Best Feedback
• 2016 - The University of Leeds Building Knowledge and Capacity sustainability award.
• 2016 - Leeds University Business School Management Division Award for Outstanding Teaching on a large module, in recognition of student feedback.
• 2013 - US Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division Outstanding Reviewer award
• 2010 - US Academy of Management Organizational Behavior Division Making Connections Award.
• 2008 - BPS POP Conference - Best Presented Paper
• 2007 - Division of Occupational Psychology Student Award (3rd prize)
• 2006 - The University of Sheffield John Frisby Prize

Research interests

My main main research interests are in the following areas:

• Evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives (e.g., pro-environmental behaviour change)
• Addressing modern slavery in supply chains
• Design and evaluation of modern workspace (e.g., agile or flexible spaces)
• Understanding the interactions between human, buildings and technology (e.g., in terms of energy use, wayfinding, technology design)
• Applying socio-technical principles and frameworks (e.g., disaster analysis, design, prediction)

Research funding

Recent Funding

• 2017 Voss, H. (PI), Sumner, M. (Co-I), Davis, M.C. (Co-I), & Waite, L. (Co-I). (2017). Modern Slavery in Fashion Supply Chains. British Academy. £191,903 100% FEC.
• 2017 Hughes, H.N. (PI), Davis, M.C. (CO-I), & Robinson, M.A. (CO-I). SUSSUDIO.  Rolls-Royce funded. Twelve month project, £141,049, 100% FEC.
• 2016 Davis, M. C. (PI), Unsworth, K.L. (CO-I), Robinson, M. A. (CO-I). Energy efficient behaviour change in schools. British Gas funded. Six month project, £59,974, 100% FEC.
• 2016 Davis, M. C. (PI). Engineering System Pilot Evaluation and System Development. Rolls-Royce funded. Six month project, £51,354, 100% FEC.
• 2015 Robinson, M. A. (PI), Davis, M. C. (CO-I), & Stott, C. (CO-I). Psycho-Social and Cross-cultural Theoretical Framework of Crowd Behaviour and Management. 20 month project, €207,387 (£172,823). Work package 1 of Impact of Cultural Aspects in the Management of Emergencies, IMPACT Consortium, Project 653383, EU Horizon 2020, €1,398,912 (£1,165760) overall, across eight partners.

PhD Supervision & Examination

Current PhD Students

• Katarzyna Cichomska (expected completion in 2022) exploring psychological wayfinding and environmental aspects of crowd behavior.
• Jose Ignacio Barrera Malagarriga (expected completion in 2021) developing dynamic systems models of pro-environmental transport behaviour.
• Afshan Iqbal (expected completion in 2022) exploring virtual team interactions and performance.
• Kevin Platt exploring techno stress in engineering environments.

Completed PhD Students

• Anna Viragos (2019). Investigating job crafting from a prosocial perspective. University of Leeds.
• Rebecca Pieniazek (2017). Organisational Resilience: An Investigation into Its Conceptualisation, Outcomes, and Boundary Conditions. University of Leeds. Winner of the 2017 Outstanding Academic Performance Prize, PhD in the Faculty of Business.
• Vedran Lesic (2017). Understanding and Informing Consumers' Perceptions of Their Electricity Use. University of Leeds. Winner of the 2018 Deans Prize for Research Community.

Qualifications

• 2012    PhD in Organizational Psychology University of Leeds
• 2007    MSc in Occupational Psychology (Distinction) University of Sheffield
• 2006    BSc in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience (1st Class Honours) University of Sheffield
• 2016    BPS Test User: Occupational, Personality & Ability

Professional memberships

• Chartered Psychologist, British Psychological Society
• Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
• Member of the US Academy of Management
• Member of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology

Student education

I have taught across under-graduate, post-graduate and executive programmes on modules concerning: Corporate Social Responsibility, Socio-Technical Systems Thinking, Research Design and Statistics, Dissertations. I have supervised under-graduate and post-graduate dissertations on Management, Organizational Psychology and Executive MBA programmes. I have also delivered sessions on Research Ethics on the Business School’s Doctoral Programme.

I have held the following student education roles at the University of Leeds:

• Steering Group Member for Leeds Institute of Teaching Excellence, Ethics Blended Learning Project.
• Member of the Scientific Committee for the University’s ‘Creating Sustainable Futures’ Discovery Theme (University wide introduction to sustainability).
• Deputy Chair of a Student Academic Experience Review team.  
• Programme Manager for MSc Organizational Psychology and MSc Business Psychology.
• Management Division Academic Integrity Representative.
• Undergraduate Work Placement Tutor.
• BA, BSc, MA, MBA, EMBA and MSc dissertation supervisor.
• Module Leader for Research Methods and Statistics modules at postgraduate level.
• Module Leader for two postgraduate Dissertation modules
• Module Leader for modules relating to Socio-Technical Systems at postgraduate level.
• Module Leader for modules relating to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Research groups and institutes

• Socio-Technical Centre
• Workplace Behaviour Research Centre