Professor Diane Burns
BSc, MSc, PGCE, PhD
Management School
Professor in Organisation Studies
Head of Organisation Studies Research Cluster
+44 114 222 3216
Full contact details
Management School
Room D52
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
- Profile
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Professor Diane Burns is a Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies and Head of the Organisation Studies Research Cluster (OSC).
Diane joined Sheffield University Management School in October 2012 as a Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. Prior to this, she was Research Fellow at the School of Allied Health Professions, University of East Anglia.
Diane's research focuses on the organisation and management of social care particularly how structures, processes and dynamics produce and affect care provision and the lives of people who work within or need the support of social care. She has published in a range of management & organisation journals examining temporality, digitalisation, corporate colonisation and instability in social care organising.
Dr Diane Burns currently holds a Joint Programme Initiative Many Years Better Lives open call award to investigate the potential of AI-driven technology to address workforce shortages and inequality in homecare in the UK, Finland and Sweden.
- Qualifications
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- PhD Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University
- MSc Organisational Psychology, Birkbeck University of London
- BSc Hons. Psychology Manchester Metropolitan University
- PGCert. Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, University of Sheffield
- Research interests
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Diane's research interests focus on power and relations of domination in the care space. She has four key research areas:
- Workforce issues, job and care quality
- AI, digitalisation and innovation
- Financialisation and marketisation
- Intersubjective epistemologies and participatory approaches in research
- Publications
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- Research group
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Work, Employment and Organisations (WEO), Organisation Studies Research Cluster
- Grants
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Date Funding body Title Grant Value Principal Investigator Co-investigators 2025 -2028 ESRC (JPI MYBL)
Al-driven platform care: Promoting equal and inclusive job quality in long-term care
£377,000 (1.2 million euro)
Diane Burns
Kate Hamblin, Grace Whitfield, Carole Elliot
2021 ESRC Centre for Care
£4.5 million
Kate Hamblin
Diane Burns, Nathen Hughes, Majella Kilkey, Liam Foster, Gwilym Pryce, Catherine Needham, Nadia Brookes, Shereen Hussain
2017 - 2021
ESRC Sustainable Care Research Programme
£2 million Sue Yeandle
Diane Burns, Jason Heyes, Majella Kilkey, Louise Ryan, Catherin Needham, John Glasby, Jill Manthorpe, Shereen Hussain
2016 - 2017 Wellcome Trust Doing Care Differently
£49,793
Diane Burns
Luke Cowie, Joe Earle, Peter Folkman, Julie Froud, Paula Hyde, Sukhdev Johal, Ian Rees Jones, Anne Killett, Karel Williams
2012 - 2013 Department of Health & Comic Relief
Care Home Organisations Implementing Cultures of Excellence - Implementation Project
£550,000
Anne Killett
Diane Burns, Dawn Brooker, Alison Bowers, Fiona Kelly, Jenny La Fontaine, Martin O’Neill
- Teaching interests
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Diane has a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Diane's learning and teaching practice is underpinned by constructivist and active learning approaches which she uses to inform course design, delivery and evaluation.
Diane is passionate about creating inclusive learning and teaching environments that fosters students' engagement, facilitates their learning and supports their development of critical thinking.
- Teaching activities
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Dr Diane Burns currently teaches on Managing People in Organisations and Performance Management at postgraduate level:
- MGT650 Manging People in Organisations
- MGT679 Employee Performance Management
Through Diane's approach to teaching, she aims to challenge students to think critically and to consider management practices in a range of industries and public service organisations.
Diane encourages engagement in critical thinking through the use of case studies and student-led discussions.
- Professional activities and memberships
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Diane is a Trustee of of the Learned Society of the Studies in Organizing Health Care.
- PhD Supervision
Diane is interested in supervising doctoral research in the following areas:
- Care work and the social care workforce.
- Dark side of organisation – abuse, mistreatment, exploitation and resistance.
- Social innovation in the organisation and delivery of social care.
- Ethnographic, participatory, action methodologies and approaches.
Diane currently supervises:
She has previously supervised:
Name Thesis title Year of completion Arbaz Kapadi For Whose Benefit? Service User Involvement, Co-Production and Healthcare Quality Improvement 2023 Juan Pablo Winter Power dynamics and subalterns' organising in an informal settlement: A Participatory Action Research in South Africa 2022 Rosie Westerveld Partnerships, power & privilege: A critical investigation of development partnerships between UK & Nepal civil society organisations 2021 Are you interested in applying for a PhD?
