Dr. Margaret Heffernan

Margaret Heffernan (BBS, MBS, MCIPD, PhD) is Associate Professor in HRM at Dublin City University Business School and Chair of Irish Academy of Management. Her primary research area is decent and sustainable work with a focus onwell-being, employee experiences of SHRM, human-technology interactions,  sustainable careers and psychosocial risks at work.

She is Principal Investigator and Co-PI on several EU funded projects worth over €1.5m. Her current projects include TRUE Europe with partners in Sweden, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania and Slovakia. This project explores the mechanisms and outcomes of trust in industrial relations across different sectors and countries. She is also PI on IncreMe(n)tal Increasing Metalworkers' Representatives' Awareness and Skills on Mental Health Protection & Promotion in the Workplace. The project aims to increase awareness of emerging psychosocial risks at work and the strategic role of social dialogue and collective bargaining initiatives in protecting and promoting workers' mental health.  She is currently co-lead of WG2.1 for COST Action HUMAN-IT exploring the impact of exponential technologies on organisations, work and employees. 

She was previously involved in a 6 country EU project REWIR: Negotiating return to work in the age of demographic change through industrial relations which explored the role of key social partners at EU, national, sector and company level in supporting works in returning to work with a chronic illness (2022).

She is currently Associate Editor of Employee Relations and on the International Journal of Human Resource Management. She has presented at numerous academic and professional conferences and published book chapters and academic journal articles in such journals as Human Resource Management Journal, Human Resource Management Review and International Journal of Human Resource Management. 

She was awarded the Advance HE Senior Teaching Fellowship award in 2021 for teaching excellence. She was programme director of the MSc in Strategic Learning and Development programme developed in collaboration with L&DI (2022-2024) and MSc in Human Resource Management (2007-20214). She led CIPD accrediations for HR programmes from 2009-2015.

Prior to joining DCU, she lectured at University of Galway and worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Limerick. Margaret is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.