Staff Profile

Clare is Senior Lecturer in Work and Employment at Newcastle University Business School. Taking a sociological approach to the study of work, her research explores how norms and oughts are enacted, experienced and/or navigated at work; recent studies have considered professionalism and discrimination.

She has published articles in a range of journals, including Work, Employment and Society,  Accounting Education, International Journal of Educational Research, Sociology of Health and Illness, New Technology, Work and Employment and Social Science & Medicine.

Clare is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), member of the British Sociological Association (BSA) and British Academy of Management (BAM), and is Editor of the journal Work, Employment and Society (WES).

Research Interests

Clare's research interests focus on norms and oughts at work. Recent studies have considered professionalism and discrimination at work.  

Research Groups

Strategy, Organisations and Society (SOS)

Human Resource Management, Work and Employment (HRMWE)

Research Funding

Dominic Barker Trust - Feb 2020 to Jan 2022 - Principal Investigator, 'Stammering, women and work'

ESRC - Festival of Social Science 2019 - Menopause and the workplace

Dominic Barker Trust - Apr 2014 to Mar 2015 - Principal Investigator, 'The work of speech and language therapists'.

Higher Education Academy (HEA) Teaching Development Grant - Aug 2012 to Jul 2013 - Principal Investigator, 'The Probabilities of Communication' - see HEA blog 

Dominic Barker Trust - Jan 2012 to Sep 2012 - Principal Investigator, 'Stammering and the Workplace'

Research Engagement 

Jan 2021 and ongoing - Editor Work, Employment and Society journal 

Jan 2015 to Dec 2020 - Editorial Board Member of the journal Work, Employment and Society

Nominated for 2015 SAGE prize for Innovation/Excellence for paper: 'Wanted - straight talkers: stammering and aesthetic labour' 

Reviewer for British Journal of Management, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Policy & Politics, Local Government Studies, Studies in Higher Education, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Academy of Management, Employee Relations, British Journal of Sociology, European Management Journal, Public Management Review, Organization, Gender, Work & Organization, Public Administration, Human Relations

The British Sociological Association reported on Clare's work - 'employer's routinely discriminate against people who stammer' - click to download pdf 

Clare's research highlighting the challenges for people who stammer, both in the educational environment and at the workplace, has featured in The Guardian, The Independent and on BBC radio.    

Keywords: discrimination, norms, ought and oughts, professionalism, regulation, sociology of work

Academic Year 2020/2021 

BUS3005 - Advanced Business Topics (UG)

BUS3051 - Management Dissertation (UG)

NBS8289 - Research Methods (PG) - Module leader

NBS8327 - Research Methods for International Business Management (PG) - Module leader 

NBS8385 - Key Challenges in Global HRM (PG)

NBS8500 - Dissertation (PG)

• Butler C. Managing the menopause through 'abjection work': when boobs can become embarrassingly useful, again. Work, Employment and Society 2020, 34(4), 696-712.
• Butler C. Working the 'wise’ in speech and language therapy: Evidence-based practice, biopolitics and ‘pastoral labour’. Social Science & Medicine 2019, 230, 1-8.
• Butler C. 'The work of speech and language therapists'. Video abstract available via ->: https://vimeo.com/327420022, 2019.
• Butler C, Haynes K. ‘Passionate and professional’: reconciling logics in public service accounting. Public Money & Management 2018, 38(2), 121-131.
• Butler C. Being appropriately professional: the interaction between professionalism, ICT and knowledge transfer. New Technology, Work and Employment 2016, 31(2), 132-145.
• Butler C. The probability evaluation game: an instrument to highlight the skill of reflexive listening. Accounting Education 2016, 25(2), 107-123.
• Butler C. Making interview transcripts real: the reader's response. Work, Employment and Society 2015, 29(1), 166-176.
• Butler C, Harris J. Pills, ills and the ugly face of aesthetic labour: 'They should've discriminated against me'. Work, Employment and Society 2015, 29(3), 508-516.
• Butler C. Emotional labour. In: Wilkinson, A. and Johnstone, S, ed. Encyclopaedia of Human Resource Management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2015.
• Butler C, Doherty AM, Finniear J, Hill S. Alone in the back-office: the isolation of those who care to support public services. Work, Employment and Society 2015, 29(4), 624-640.
• Butler C. Wanted – straight talkers: stammering and aesthetic labour. Work, Employment and Society 2014, 28(5), 718-734.
• Butler C, Finniear J, Doherty AM, Hill S. Exploring identity: a figurative character image-elicitation approach. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management 2014, 9(2), 151-168.
• Butler C. Identity and stammering: negotiating hesitation, side-stepping repetition, and sometimes avoiding deviation. Sociology of Health & Illness 2013, 35(8), 1113-1127.
• Butler C. 'University?... hell no!': Stammering through education. International Journal of Educational Research 2013, 59, 57-65.
• Butler C, Finniear J, Hill S. How do we do public service? The socio-psychological status of public servants. Public Money & Management 2011, 31(6), 395-402.