Dr Andrew Boocock
Senior Lecturer
Organisational Behaviour And Human Resources
Department of Business Entrepreneurship & Finance , Royal Docks School Of Business And Law
Dr Andrew Boocock is a lecturer and researcher in leadership studies, organisational behaviour, and employee engagement. His specialist research interest is HR and organisational behaviour in the Further Education sector, embedded within the education market.
Qualifications
- PGCE from the Institute of Education, UCL
- Certificate in Higher Education Professional Practice from Coventry University (Distinction)
Areas Of Interest
Andrew has a specific interest in issues of HR and OB within the FE sector, shaped by current education policy and local governance of colleges (the product of neoliberal values and marketisation). These include contemporary HR/OB issues such as:
- How effective is the current transactional leadership style within Further Education. Would a more distributed leadership style be more effective?
- How might HRM within FE, in an era of austerity, be reformed to more effectively realise organisational goals through the utilisation of human and social capital?
- How might a greater regard for intrinsic motivation, altruism and lecturer professionalism be used to improve talent management strategies and staff engagement in the sector?
- To what extent might teaching and learning be improved in Further Education through a shift from a top-down model of change to an OD model based on humanistic values and action research?
- How might the current policy of localism in Further Education be best enacted to optimise the utilisation of human and social capital to meet organisational goals?
OVERVIEW
Dr Andrew Boocock has been a lecturer in Higher Education for eleven years. He joined UEL in 2015 from Coventry University, London campus where he was module leader and lecturer on undergraduate and postgraduate management courses in organisational behaviour, organisational development, international HRM, and research methods.
Before this, Andrew worked as a learning and development professional within the HRM department of a large Further Education college; in particular as a teacher trainer (and programme leader) responsible for developing the teaching and learning practice of FE lecturers studying PGCE and Cert Ed qualifications.
Andrew is also an academic member of the CIPD and has two teaching qualifications – a PGCE from the Institute of Education, UCL and a Certificate in Higher Education Professional Practice from Coventry University (Distinction).
Andrew's PhD at the Institute of Education, UCL focused on organisational behaviour within post-compulsory education. In particular, it addressed (through ethnographic research and an Economic Sociology conceptual framework) the impact of education policy and local governance on education leadership and HR practice and, in turn, on accountability, professionalism and teaching and learning.
Andrew's research has led to peer-reviewed articles on several key HR/OB issues relating to leadership, performance management, learning and development, and reward and motivation embedded within the wider policy context of marketisation in FE. In researching and analysing HR and organisational behaviour, within this context, Andrew is particularly influenced by economic sociology, behavioural economics, critical HRM studies and New Institutionalism.
At UEL Andrew is module leader for undergraduate modules focused on leadership and talent management, and for the final project undertaken by all undergraduate students within the Business part of the school. On the MA in HRM Andrew is also module leader for the Organisational Development and Consultancy module.
CURRENT RESEARCH
Andrew is currently researching the conservative government's planned policy of Localism in the Further Education sector as a means of meeting the human capital needs of businesses. Of particular interest to Andrew is the effectiveness of local governance, and leadership within this context and the extent to which localism truly values the local knowledge of managers and lecturers, relating to business and community needs, as a means of realising the policy's objectives..
He has written two papers on this recent reform in FE:
Boocock, A. (2016). Caveats for the New Localism in Further Education - Why the use of Principal-Agent solutions at the local level will not work. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, Forthcoming
Boocock, A. (2016). From heroic to distributed to embedded leadership in the Further Education sector. Dilemmas Conference, Northampton University, 13 -14 September, 2016
PUBLICATIONS
Journal articles
Quality self-assessment: a process of course team development or contrived collegiality and impression management?
Boocock A. 2011 . Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 16 (4). 413-433.Further Education performance indicators: a motivational or a performative tool? Research in Post-Compulsory Education
Boocock, A.. 2013. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 18 (3). . 309-325.Observation of teaching and learning: teacher development or micropolitics and neo-Fordism.
Boocock, A. 2013. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 37. (4) . 482-503.Increased success rates in an FE college: the product of a rational or a performative college culture?
Boocock, A.. 2014. Journal of Education and Work, 27 (4). 351-371.
Knaves, knights or networks: which assumption of lecturer and manager motivation should underlie further education policy?
Boocock, A.. 2015. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 20. (2) . 173-192.
Doctoral dissertation
To what extent did PIs and targets motivate further education lecturers and managers to meet the economic and social agenda of the New Labour Government between 2000 and 2005? (Doctoral dissertation, Institute of Education, University of London)
Boocock, A. 2010. Institute of Education.
MODULES
- HR5004 - Resources and Talent Planning
- HR6002 - Leadership in Organisations
- HR6004 - The Business Professional
- HR7XXX - Organisational Development and Consultancy
Publications
The last four years of publications can be viewed below.
Full publications list
Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications
- Meeting the Needs of Local Communities and Businesses: From Transactional to Eco-Leadership in the English Further Education Sector Educational Management Administration and Leadership. 47 (3), pp. 349-368. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143217739364
- Caveats for the new localism in further education – why the use of principal–agent solutions at the local level will not work Research in Post-Compulsory Education. 22 (2), pp. 289 -313. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2017.1314685
- Knaves, knights or networks: which assumption of lecturer and manager motivation should underlie further education policy? Research in Post-Compulsory Education. 20 (2), pp. 173-192