Chris F Wright

Chris F Wright

Associate Professor of Work and Organisational Studies
The University of Sydney Business School

Chris F Wright is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies. He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Prior joining the University of Sydney Business School in 2014, Chris held positions at the University of Cambridge, Goldsmiths, University of London and Macquarie University.

Chris’s research examines the institutional drivers of and barriers to the attainment of decent work. He has written commissioned research reports for the UK, Dutch and Australian governments, the International Labour Organization, the Lowy Institute for International Policy, and various trade union and business organisations. Chris is the author of 70 scholarly publications, including articles in British Journal of Industrial Relations, ILR Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics. He is Co-Editor of International and Comparative Employment Relations (Sage), an Editor of the Journal of Industrial Relations, and Associate Editor of Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society.

Chris has received several prestigious grants and fellowships including an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for research on employer strategies for developing a skilled workforce, a University of Sydney Fellowship on the business and labour market impact of skilled immigration, and a UK Economic and Social Research Council Placement Fellowship on innovations in worker representation and labour market regulation. In 2015 the International Labour and Employment Relations Association awarded Chris the Luis Aparicio Prize for best emerging scholar.

From this author

Inclusive and workplace acceptance of refugees
Partnering for refugee employment

When considering their talent pipelines, few companies think outside-of-the-box. Most refugees flourish in the workplace, and so do the businesses that hire them.

SDG 16
Institutional investors demand a more sustainable capitalism

Honey gathering is a solitary job in Indigenous communities. The collector then shares the honey with their community but refrains from joining in the honey feast themself. The idea is that the gathering is not about their gratification, it’s about their contribution to the collective.  

SDG15 Bushfires
Optimisation model as a guide to burning forests to save forests

Setting fire to parts of a forest to save it might seem counterintuitive to urban communities. There is no equivalent of torching a few streets to protect a suburb. However, amongst First Nations people in Australia, hazard reduction burning is a well-established practice.

SDG13 - coal mining
Net zero now – it’s the economy AND the planet

In Australia, as elsewhere, the climate wars have focused on the climate versus jobs dichotomy. Yet while Australia remains highly dependent on fossil fuel extraction for its national economic prosperity it has also become increasingly unequal in its distribution of that wealth.