Portsmouth Business School

Profile

David McConville

David McConville joined the University of Portsmouth as Lecturer in 2011. He holds a first class BA (Hons) Business Studies degree and a Ph.D. in Organisational Psychology.

Before completing his doctorate at Loughborough University, David was employed in industry as a researcher, where he took responsibility (designing and conducting various studies) for publically funded policy-based research remits – most of which dealt with the impact of undergraduate/graduate employment in SMEs. During this time, David worked on a number of projects, including work for: the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) – exploring Ph.D. graduate skills and their impact; Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Executive - exploring work placement and employment issues among electronic engineering graduates (across Scotland); and from 2006-08, a major piece of work funded by the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) measuring the impact of student and graduate work placements on the regional economy over a two year period.

Research areas and expertise

David's main research interests are in Organisational Behaviour/Psychology. He is interested in psychological factors affecting employees' attitudes and behaviours at work.

Most recently (as part of his doctorate) David completed a research study (sponsored by ifs Proshare) exploring with employees how they explain for themselves their experiences of and reactions to employee share ownership (ESO). This qualitative study explored how, if at all, ESO plans can impact the ways in which employees who participate in them, think, feel and behave at work. In particular, the study explored the role feelings of ownership (psychological ownership) may play in this process.

David's academic work on employee share ownership and psychological ownership, co-authored with Professor John Arnold (Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield) and Alison Smith (Loughborough University), has been presented internationally at a number of different academic and industry conferences, including: The European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2011); The British Academy of Management (Brighton, UK, 2009); International Congress of Applied Psychology (Melbourne, Australia, 2010) and the ifs Proshare Annual Conference (London, UK, 2008, 09, 10).

David has experience of conducting both qualitative (an area of particular interest) and quantitative research and is keen to work with colleagues from other academic disciplines to develop research interests.

Broadly, David's current research interests relate to:

• Attitudes and behaviours at work

• The human impact of employee share ownership schemes

• Psychological ownership at work

Teaching interests

David has experience of undergraduate teaching at Loughborough University and at the University of Portsmouth, predominantly in the areas of organisational behaviour, human resource management and research methods. From 2012 David will be coordinating a 40 credit final year undergraduate unit - the Business Research Project.

David believes that research and teaching are activities that can be mutually beneficial. When teaching, he is committed to helping students develop and utilise their critical faculties - and is focused on helping and encouraging students to understand, think critically, question and reason.

Engagement with Industry

David has experience of balancing industry and academic priorities when conducting research and has presented to both academic and practitioner audiences. He has presented on the same platform as high profile figures on issues relating to employee share ownership, and maintains good contact with industry. David has conducted funded research on behalf of numerous different organisations on projects exploring different aspects of human and organisational impact (including: BT, East Midlands Development Agency, ESRC, Scottish Enterprise/Scottish Executive, ifs Proshare, Pricewaterhouse Coopers) and welcomes enquiries regarding future research projects.  

(E-mail: david.mcconville@port.ac.uk).