About Matthew

How I think about work

The way we organise work is a matter of design, not inevitability.

Every organisation makes choices about how work gets done. Some are deliberate. Others develop over time through inherited structures, technologies, policies, workplaces, management practices and assumptions about how people should work.

These different elements interact. Changing one part of the system can have consequences elsewhere, sometimes in ways that are difficult to anticipate.

Socio-technical systems thinking provides a way of stepping back and looking at the whole. It asks us to consider how goals, people, culture, processes, technology and infrastructure interact, and to design with those relationships in mind.

This perspective runs through much of my research and practice. Whether the question is about hybrid work, a new workplace, AI, organisational change or the design of a job, I am interested in understanding the wider system and finding better ways of organising it.

Why organisational psychology?

I became interested in organisational psychology because I was fascinated by work as a human and organisational experience: what motivates people, how relationships and groups develop, and how decisions about the organisation of work shape what people are able to do.

My academic training began at the University of Sheffield, where I studied Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience before completing a Master’s in Occupational Psychology. I subsequently completed my PhD in Organisational Psychology at the University of Leeds. My doctoral research examined psychological and organisational issues in the design of workplaces.

Socio-technical systems thinking became an important influence early in that journey. It gave me a way to connect psychology with questions about technology, workplaces, processes and organisational design, rather than treating behaviour in isolation.

That whole-system perspective has stayed with me. It has subsequently taken my work into areas including workplace design, hybrid working, human-technology interaction, organisational change and the future of work.

Research and practice

I originally expected my career in organisational psychology to take me into consultancy. Instead, research gave me another way to work on the kinds of organisational problems that interested me.

Research provides the opportunity to stay with a problem, question assumptions and build evidence about what is actually happening. Much of my work has therefore been applied and collaborative, undertaken with organisations and multidisciplinary teams around practical problems.

That has included research into workplaces and hybrid working, organisational sustainability, human-robot teams, digital transformation and other complex work systems. My work increasingly focuses on what we can learn across these different settings about designing effective, responsible and human-centred ways of working.

I do not see research and practice as separate activities. Practice generates important questions. Research provides ways of examining them systematically. Each can make the other better.

Explore Research & Ideas →

Experience beyond research

My perspective has also been shaped by experience of organisational leadership, governance, executive education and working directly with professionals and organisations.

In university leadership roles, I have led work around organisational values and behaviours, culture and engagement, inclusion, wellbeing and staff development. I have also designed and delivered development and executive education for senior professionals.

Beyond the university, my professional service has included ethics and governance roles. I currently serve as an Expert Member of the UK Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee.

These experiences provide different perspectives on the same underlying challenge: how people make good decisions and organise effectively within complex systems.

The Business Psychologist

The Business Psychologist brings these different strands of my work together.

Through the practice, I undertake selected work where there is a strong fit between the question being explored and my expertise.

My academic role and independent practice are separate. Research and experience developed through my university career inform my perspective, while work commissioned through The Business Psychologist is undertaken independently through the practice.

Professional background

I am a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Professor of Organisational Psychology.

My professional background also includes:

• BPS Registered Test User, listed on the Register of Qualifications in Test Use (RQTU), with qualifications in occupational ability and personality testing.
• Psychometrics trainer, delivering Test User training in partnership with Aston Business Assessments.
• Expert Member, UK Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committee.
• Former Deputy Chair, British Psychological Society Ethics Committee.
• PhD in Organisational Psychology, University of Leeds.
• MSc Occupational Psychology (Distinction), University of Sheffield.
• BSc Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience (First Class Honours), University of Sheffield.