Ian Kessler

Ian Kessler is a Professor of International HRM at King's Business School. He joined King’s College London in September 2012, after almost twenty-five years at the University of Oxford.

He has been involved in various research projects, funded by such bodies as the ESRC, the National Institute of Health Research and the European Union. These projects have explored employee voice, dimensions of pay and reward, and different aspects of employment relations in the British public services.

Over the last decade he has been researching nurse support roles in a variety of health care settings, and the general re-structuring of the nursing workforce. He has co-authored two books: one on healthcare support roles, the other on employment relations in the public sector under New Labour.

In 2005, he was a commissioner on the Local Government Pay Commission. In 2014 he acted as special adviser to the House of Commons Local Government and Communities Select Committee inquiry of senior management pay. In 2018 he was a member of the Health Education England scrutiny committee on the nursing associate role.

He has also advised the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the Staff Side of the NHS Staff Council, the Police Federation, the Audit Commission and the National Audit Office. He is a deputy director of the Department of Health and Social Care Policy Research Unit on the Health and Social Care workforce, commencing work at the beginning of 2019.

Publications

• The Construction of Career Aspirations among Healthcare Support Workers: Beyond the Rational and the Mundane? 18 February 2019
• Re-evaluating the assistant practitioner role in NHS England: Survey Findings 22 November 2018
• The Construction of Assistant Practitioner Role in a Community Children's Team 10 August 2018
• Exploring the relationship between human resource management and organizational performance in the healthcare sector 01 April 2017
• Human resource management innovation in health care: the institutionalisation of new support roles 06 April 2017
• Managing patient emotions as skilled work and being 'one of us' 01 January 2015
• Managing Patient Emotions as a Skill and Being 'One of Us' 19 February 2015
• Professionalization and Expertise in Care Work: The Hoarding and Discarding of Tasks in Nursing 01 October 2015
• Human Resource Management Innovation in Healthcare: The Institutionalisation of New Support Roles 25 March 2016
• Financial Participation 01 January 2010