Senior Research Associate (Social Identity and Software Development in Organisations) (A3041)

The Psychology Department at Lancaster University has a vacancy for a 3-year Post Doctoral Research Associate position on a project exploring how Social Identity processes in organisations can help to understand the nature of collective resilience and the impact of automation on software engineers. The post is part of a multi-disciplinary research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) entitled STRIDE (Socio-Technical Resilience in Software Development). Over the course of the three-year project, STRIDE researchers will conduct workplace studies on two key groups: commercial developers, software engineers who work in corporate industries such as insurance and banking developing apps and new technology, and research software engineers, who are scientists by profession but develop software to support research. The multidisciplinary team will assess each group’s ability to adapt to change during the workplace studies and identify resilience markers, a method for overcoming a problem or limitation in a program or system. The team will also explore the impact of automation on the lived experience of software engineers, and on the way code is developed.

This post will suit a candidate with a Social Psychology  (or related) background and  some expertise in the Social Identity approach. Experience of research using Social Identity in an organisational context is desirable but not essential. Previous experience of research at the intersection of social psychology and technology is desirable but not essential. In this multidisciplinary project, both quantitative and qualitative methods will be deployed. Expertise in quantitative methods is essential and some experience of working with qualitative methods is desirable but not essential. The project partners include the SEAD (Software Engineering and Design) group at the Open University  (Prof Helen Sharp (PI)) and the Software Sustainability Institute at the University of Manchester (Dr Caroline Jay). 

The Department of Psychology at Lancaster has a core complement of over 40 members of academic staff and a thriving community of post-doctoral researchers and PhD students, based in four research groups (Infancy and Early Development, Language and Cognition, Perception and Action, Social Processes).

Informal enquiries are welcome and should be addressed to Prof Mark Levine  (email: mark.levine@lancaster.ac.uk). Applications should be accompanied by a cover letter outlining your suitability for the post and a full CV 

The Department of Psychology holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award, providing a work environment that strongly supports the women in academia and the individual needs of each employee.  We adopt policies that promote a healthy work-life balance (e.g., family-friendly and flexible working practices), and we particularly welcome applications from people in all diversity groups. 

Closing Date: 19 Jul 2020
Category: Research