After an early career in personnel and industrial relations management, he began teaching, researching, consulting in human resource management in 1978.   Graeme has a doctorate in Organizational Change and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Business and in Industrial Relations.  He has published widely in the fields of international human resource management, organizational change, human resource development, human resource management and more recently, in eLearning and e-HR.  Currently, he is editing a book series for Butterworth Heinemann on Advanced Human Resource Management Practice.

Current Research

Graemes current research is focused on four areas.  The first is on the relationship between corporate reputation, branding and HR, which has led to him writing a book with Susan Hetrick, a number of invited book chapters and academic articles.  On the basis of the work of this work he has presented at academic conferences and practitioner events in the UK, USA, Europe, China and Australia.  Connected with this stream of work is some research he is conducting with colleagues on employer branding following a report he wrote for the CIPD in 2003.  This new work has into the CIPDs current research agenda and into a new book he is writing with colleagues on employer branding.  He is currently conducting a major piece of research for NHS Scotland on reputation management and employer branding, related research work on retention and governance for Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board, and is a visiting professor at the Centre for Employer Branding and Reputation Management at  Peking University, a joint venture between CRMP, Zhaopin, a leading recruitment compnay and, CCTV, the national TV network.  He is also linking up with colleagues at Macquarie University in Sydney on a project on employer branding China. 

The second stream of research is on e-HR and the Future of the HR Function, which is the subject of a new book for Butterworth Heinemann on Technology, Outsourcing and HR Transformation and series of academic articles in international journals.  He has recently been keynote speaker at the first European Conference on e-HR in the Netherlands in Oct, 2006 and has presented his ideas and findings at a number of practitioner events for the CIPD and other professional organizations.  He is on the organizing committee for two conferences to be held in 2008 on e-HR in Aix-en-Provence and Barcelona.  Recently, he has begun research work for the CIPD with his colleague Martin Reddington on the impact of Web 2.0 on the HR function, which was published in January, 2009.

The third is a project on the strategic leadership role of HR directors in the NHS in Scotland, which has provided the basis for a conference and a development programme for this key group of health service managers.  Currently, Graeme and his co-researchers are writing with some papers based on data collected from interviews and surveys with health service HR directors, Chief Executives, Chairs and Medical Directors.  They are also in the process of establishing a system of knowledge exchange networks for HR directors in the Scottish public services, based on this research. Also linked to this stream of work, is a project on strategic HR and change for Getinge, a Swedish multinational.

The fourth are is a long term examination of the impact of investment in human capital on organizational learning and innovation in the public services in Scotland.  This has arisen from work he is doing with the Scottish Executive and is being part-funded by an ESRC/Scottish EXecutive PhD studentship grant for the next four years.  The aim of the project is to develop a system of metrics and predictive modelling to evaluate existing practice and improve future decision-making.

Consulting, Executive Education and Development

Graeme has consulted widely with a number of private and public sector organizations in the UK and Australia, including construction, manufacturing, oil-related services and financial services firms.  His most recent consulting work has been with Eversheds, a major firm of international lawyers and HR consultants, to design and run an executive education conference, working with directors of HR for NHS in Scotland on their leadership development needs, work with ADCORP in Australia on employer branding, and a project with Getinge, a Swedish multinational, on the development of the HR function.  Graeme was, until reently, a member of  advisory panel to the Scottish Executive on public services reform and human capital management and advises Scottish Government departments and NHS Boards on HR and leadership development.

Teaching

Graeme runs an action-research based masters in Leading Sustainable Change, is developing a masters in clinical leadership with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and an advanced practitioner masters in Strategic HR and Organizational Change.  He also teaches his courses on Managing People and Organizations and on Strategic HR in Scotland, Sweden, Italy and the USA.