Biography
Maura is Professor of International Management, specialising in HRM, HRD and organizational performance. Maura’s work appears in journals such as British Journal of Industrial Relations; Cambridge Journal of Economics; Industrial and Corporate Change; International Journal of Human Resource Management; International Small Business Journal; Personnel Psychology. Before coming to Edinburgh Napier, Maura was Professor at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. Previous to this she was a Reader at the University of Brighton and an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Management, University of Dallas. From 1993-2000, Maura taught at the Queen's University of Belfast. She taught at St Catharine's College Cambridge, Birkbeck College, University of London, University of Graz, Austria (as an Erasmus exchange professor) and was a visiting research fellow at the ESRC Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge. Maura has a BSc in Economics from New York University and a PhD in Economics from the University of Notre Dame, USA. Maura recently completed an EU Marie Curie Fellowship (2009-2012). She investigated the determinants and performance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the emerging economies of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The project also compared how labour is managed and by whom in foreign and domestic subsidiaries of the same organisations. The relationships between strategy, HRM, devolvement of HR to line managers and subsidiary performance was examined. The importance of country and organisational culture in understanding differences in HRM and the delivery of HR was central to this investigation. This project represented a synthesis of Maura’s expertise in industrial and labour economics, human resource management and international management. Maura is currently involved in the collaborative research project STYLE – Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe (http://www.style-research.eu/) - which is funded under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for research. Maura co-heads the Work Package on youth self-employment. Maura is an Associate Editor of Human Resource Development Quarterly and Journal of Organization Effectiveness: People and Performance. Sample of Recent Publications: Sheehan, M; Saunders, M; Wang, CL (2015) 'Maximising Telephone Survey Participation in International HRD Research' In: Saunders, M; Tosey, P (eds). Handbook of Research Methods on Human Resource Development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (In Press). Sheehan, M (2014) 'Human Resource Management and Performance: Evidence from Small and Medium-Sized Firms'. International Small Business Journal, 32 (5):545-570. Sheehan, M; Garavan, TN; Carbery, R (2014) 'Innovation and human resource development (HRD)'. European Journal of Training and Development, 38 (1/2):2-14. McCarthy, A; Sheehan, M. (2014) 'Uncertainty and On-Going Economic Turbulence: Implications for HRD'. Advances In Developing Human Resources, 16 (1):3-12. Recipient of the ADHR ‘Outstanding Issue Award 2014. Sheehan, M (2014) 'Investment in Training and Development in Times of Uncertainty'. Advances In Developing Human Resources, 16 (1):13-33. Sheehan, M; Raspigliosi, A; Greener, S; Bourner, T (2014) 'Human Capital or Signalling, Unpacking the Graduate Premium'. International Journal of Social Economics, 41 (5):420-432.