Alumni Spotlight: Mark Williams, Professor of Human Resource Management

What inspired you to study sociology?

My interest in sociology specifically started with A-level sociology, but my interest in the social sciences more generally started in early secondary school when we were taught about regional inequality in the UK in a geography class.

I was completely ignorant of, and (as a resident Northerner) somewhat dismayed by, the striking GDP per capita disparities in the UK - I wanted to understand why.

What attracted you to the University of Oxford?

The Department of Sociology at Oxford provides a solid quantitative training coupled with exposure to a trademark tradition of doing sociology.

What sets Oxford apart is its vibrant intellectual environment: from the endless streams of interesting research seminars (more often than not from top researchers in whatever field you do) to the general buzz of daily college life.

Oxford is not just a university town but is its own city as well, with its own fascinating history and traditions, and lot else going on besides—all quite separate from the university.

Tell us about your research while at Oxford:

My thesis was on the changing structure of occupations and earnings in the UK, from the 1970s to 2000s.

Wage inequality rapidly grew in the 1980s and 1990s and several theories existed as to why this was the case, pointing mainly to structural shifts in the mix of jobs people were doing and noting that people doing similar jobs were getting increasingly dissimilar wages.

My research showed that these aspects were important, but of greater significance was that those already doing high-paying jobs were getting proportionately richer.

My DPhil was published in the European Sociological Review in 2013.

What do you do now?

As I was finishing my DPhil, I got my first job at the London School of Economics in the Department of Management. After a few years, I left there for the University of Surrey where I remained for six years, until I joined Queen Mary University of London as a Reader.

I was promoted to Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Business and Management the following year, and I still hold that position today.

My work focuses on the socio-economic disparities in the quality of jobs in the United Kingdom, particularly looking at pay disparities, job insecurity and job satisfaction.

My latest project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, explores disparities in the quality of jobs and careers across occupational groups in the United Kingdom. The main findings are summarised at qualityofworkinglife.org.

What's next in your career journey?

My research is on the UK and I collaborate mainly with UK-based researchers so I hope to research some other countries a bit more and perhaps collaborate with more researchers based overseas.

What lessons did you learn from studying sociology at Oxford?

A DPhil is such a formative time so it is difficult to summarise in a few sentences!

If I had to pick one thing, it would be learning how to do serious research: having clear and meaningful research questions, being motivated by the establishing facts, caring about data quality as much as methodological sophistication, and having clearly-defined concepts.

What piece of advice would you give to prospective students?

For taught programmes, research the programme you are applying to and have clear reasons for picking one programme over another.

For research degrees, read your potential supervisor’s research before approaching them and think how their expertise could be extended to the topic you’re interested in—and let them know this when contacting them.

Alumni Spotlight: Mark Williams, Professor of Human Resource Management