Dr Diane Burns
BSc, MSc, PGCE, PhD
Management School
Senior Lecturer 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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Dr 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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Edited books
- . Springer International Publishing.
Journal articles
- . Frontiers in Sociology, 10.
- . Journal of Social Policy, 54(2), 412-428.
- . Sociology of Health & Illness.
- . Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(6), e3447-e3458.
- . Organization Studies, 39(10), 1403-1424.
- . Health and Place, 43, 8-16.
- . Industrial Labor Relations Review.
- . Ageing and Society, 36(01), 160-188.
- . Ageing and Society, 36(1), 224-224.
- . Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, 15(4), 197-209.
- . Organization Studies, 35(11), 1699-1717.
- . British Journal of Management, 25(1), 133-144.
- . Sociology of Health and Illness: a journal of medical sociology, 35(4), 514-528.
- . Aging and Mental Health.
- . Nursing and Residential Care, 15(10), 676-679.
- . Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, 18(Suppl 1), 14-22.
- . FEMINISM & PSYCHOLOGY, 10(3), 367-380.
- . Community, Work & Family, 3(3), 261-277.
- . Capital and Class, 22(1), 1-11.
Book chapters
- , Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare (pp. 1-22). Springer International Publishing
- , Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare (pp. 301-313). Springer International Publishing
- In Keaton M, McDermott AM & Montgomery K (Ed.), Patient-Centred Health Care. Organizational Behaviour in Health Care London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Theory and Methods in Social Research In Lewin C & Somekh B (Ed.), Theory and Methods in Social Research Sage Publications Limited
- Feminist methodologies In Lewin C & Somekh B (Ed.), Research Methods in the Social Sciences (pp. 66-73). Sage Publications Limited
Conference proceedings
- When is abuse not abuse? A communication as constitutive of organization perspective (CCO). Academy of Management Proceedings, Vol. 2025(1), 25 July 2025 - 29 August 2025.
- Where does the money go? Financialised chains the crisis in elder care. Proceedings of ILPN International Conference 2016. London School of Economics, 4 September 2016 - 4 September 2016.
- Examining the relationship between organisation culture and the quality of care: Early findings from the CHOICE project. https://www.ilpnetwork.org/event/ilpn-international-conference-2012/. London School of Economics, London.
- Identifying and conceptualising organizational boundaries between further and higher education in dual sector institutions: What are they and what do they do?. Paper presented at the 4th CRLL International Conference: The Times They Are A-Changing: Researching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/165378.htm, 22 June 2007 - 24 June 2007.
- . Academy of Management Proceedings, Meeting Abstract Supplement (pp 10066). Anaheim, USA, 5 August 2016 - 5 August 2016.
Reports
- Report on the Social Innovation in Care in Wales at the Foundational Economy Colloquiuim
- Why we need social innovation in home care for older people
- Where does the money go? Financialised chains and the crisis in adult residential care
- What makes a real difference to resident experience? Digging deep into care home culture: The CHOICE (Care Home Organisations Implementing Cultures of Excellence). Report prepared for the Preventing Abuse and Neglect in Institutional Care of Older Adults Programme
- Organizational Dynamics of Respect and Elder Care: Report prepared for the Preventing Abuse and Neglect in Institutional Care of Older Adults
Presentations
- Innovating Home Care Models and the Innovation-bias. Queens University Belfast.
- Burns, D. Innovation in Social Care National Social Care Conference, Social Care Wales & ADASS 12th September. Cardiff.
- What we can learn about social care by thinking about the money. Foundational Economy Colloquium on Social Innovation in the Foundational Economy.
- Innovating Social Care- The Sheffield Experiment. Cardiff Health and Organisation Ploicy Studies Seminar.
- 'Unmasking or reproducing abuse? Elaborating truth-telling processes through dark-side field research'. Centre Mont Royal (2200 Rue Mansfield, Montr矇al, QC H3A 3R8.
- Radical social innovation: Experimenting with Doing Care Differently.. Queen Marys University of London.
- Financialised innovation and long-term residential elder care. . International Labour Process Conference 2017, Sheffield.
- The state of the social care sector and where the money goes. Winter Gardens, Blackpool.
- 'Speaking out in residential care'. Rutgers, New Jersey.
- What's wrong with this picture? Film as a Catalyst for Organisational Change - Five years on. Professional Development Workshop, Academy of Management, Vancouver Canada.
- Speaking out in a climate of silence: Fear, courage and reprimand. European Organisation Studies, Athens Greece.
- Capturing and (re)presenting subjectives: Examining soundscapes of voice/silence in organisational life. Qualitative Research Methods in Management and Business Research, New Mexico, USA.
- Caring in crisis: Mediating job quality and care quality in the provision of elder care. ILR Review Special Conference on Employment Relations in Health Care, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
- Respectful care of older people and organizational dynamics - what can health services learn from the care home sector?. Health Service Research Network, Manchester Central.
- Care home organisations implementing cultures of excellence (CHOICE): The final study of the Comic Relief/Department of Health PANICOA research programme. Brighton.
- Fragile systems: Recurrent features of elder abuse. London School of Economics, London..
- Re-Writing 'otherness' through participatory methods with older people. Qualitive Research in Management and Organisations Conference, University of New Mexico, USA.
- Financialised innovation and long-term residential elder care.
- Radical social innovation: Experimenting with Doing Care Differently.
- What is collaboration? Discursive struggles for meaning in English health and social care organizations. Santiago de Compestala, Spain.
- Wicked people or wicked problems? Reconceptualising institutional abuse.. Dublin, Ireland.
Other
- Sustainable Care Policy Perspective - Reimagining Care: Ageing well at home: emergent models of home care provision and the professionalisation of the home care workforce.
- Reframing the funding crisis crisis in adult residential care.
- 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
瞿377,000 (1.2 million euro)
Diane Burns
Kate Hamblin, Grace Whitfield, Carole Elliot
2021 ESRC Centre for Care
瞿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
瞿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
瞿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
瞿550,000
Anne Killett
Diane Burns, Dawn Brooker, Alison Bowers, Fiona Kelly, Jenny La Fontaine, Martin ONeill
- 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?
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