Dr Smirti Kutaula
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Faculty of Business and Social Sciences
- Department of Management
- Kingston Business School
- Kingston Hill
Associate Professor in Human Resource Management
- Email:
- s.kutaula@kingston.ac.uk
About
I have sixteen years of teaching and practitioner experience in the UK and overseas. I am currently an Associate Professor in HRM and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Lead for the Kingston Business School. Prior to joining KBS, I was a Lecturer in HRM and Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London.
I completed my PhD (Scholarship) from Cardiff Business School examining psychological contract and HRM practices. I have developed a solid research leadership portfolio in areas of, psychological contract and sustainability. I have published in leading management journals and practitioner magazines; British Journal of Management, Human Resource Management Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Business Ethics and HR Magazine and, have won several awards at conferences worldwide.
I have a successful track record of winning internal and external grants. I received the First Grants Scheme funding for £8579 in 2015-16. I secured a combined grant from the Society for Advancement in Management Studies, KU, BAM and Surrey Business School, worth £10,800 in 2017. I won and led an EU-funded Designscapes project worth €5000 in 2018-19.
I have sustained editorial experience, having successfully guest edited a Special Issue for Management Decision (2016-2018) and leading a Special Issue for Journal of Business Ethics (2020- ongoing). I am an Editorial Board Member for Human Relations (2020-23), and I regularly review for leading academic journals such as; British Journal of Management, Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research a Human Resource Management Review.
For my research and teaching initiatives, I have received several awards such as; the Staff Social Entrepreneur Award 2017, Celebrate Enterprise and the Finalist for the Green Gown Awards, UK & Ireland, 2018 in the Staff Sustainability Champion category, organised by the Environmental Association for Universities & Colleges (EAUC).
Qualifications
- Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- PhD, Cardiff Business School
- Postgraduate Diploma Social Sciences Research Methods (Merit), Cardiff University
- Masters, Gold Medallist
- BA Economics Hons, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University
- Certified Management Business Educator
Domains
Over the last 10 years, I have developed an award-winning learning and teaching (L&T) profile, grounded in research-led and inclusive curriculum pedagogy, recognised as an exemplar at university-wide accreditations and through several internal and external awards. The key aim of embedding sustainability in the curriculum is to increase sustainability literacy amongst students, which plays a pivotal role in employability, as most employers seek sustainability literate graduates. I received the highly commended award at the annual British Academy of Management (BAM) Education Practice Awards 2021 in the Experienced Teaching Practitioner category. This was for the development of the ‘Decolonising Business School Curriculum: Embedding race-ethnicity in learning and teaching practices' initiative.
Qualifications
- Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- External Examiner, PG Diploma HRM, MSc Strategic HRM, MA HRM (Top up), Huddersfield Business School, 2015-2020
Course director
Courses taught
Research Interests:
- Psychological Contract
- Strategic Human Resource Management
- Sustainability and Fairtrade
- HRM in Emerging Markets
I welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers interested in these areas.
External awards: My research has been consistently recognised by the scientific community through several awards:
- Winner, Best Paper Award, AIB-MENA Conference, 2022
- Finalist, Carolyn Dexter Award for best International paper, Academy of Management Conference, Boston, USA, 2019
- Finalist, Green Gown Awards, UK & Ireland, 2018
- Distinguished Paper award in the doctoral thesis competition of the European Doctoral Programmes Association in Management and Business Administration (EDAMBA), 2016.
- Runners-up prize at the British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference, Newcastle 2016.
- Best track paper award at the Fair Trade International Symposium, 2015, Milan, UK, Italy.
- Best proposal award at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad Doctoral Colloquium, 2011.
I have been invited as a guest speaker at many universities across the UK.
Research Supervision:
Reshma Prakash
Scholarly affiliations
- Editorial Board Member, Human Relations (2020-2023)
- Commitee Member, HRM SIG, British Academy of Management
- Track Chair, HRM SIG, British Academy of Management (2016-2019)
- Member, Academy of Management
For my research activities, I collaborate with a number of policymakers and social enterprises. I secured external funding as a lead investigator. March-May 2019. €5000 European Union-funded project entitled Designscapes - Design-Enabled Innovation in Urban Environments. The main aim of the project was to conduct a feasibility study on developing a mobile app which will connect people to information pertaining to FT products available in shops, cafes and supermarkets. This benefitted local businesses selling FT products as it would provide an opportunity to promote their products and ethical ethos.
I have extensive academic experience in leading and managing course teams as a BSc Business Management Year 5 Leader (2020-2022), Course Director (CD) for BSc Human Resource Management (2015-19), Assistant CD for BSc Business Management (2015-19) and Department Quality Assurance and Enhancement representative (2019-20).
University responsibilities
- BSc Business Management Year 5 Leader (2020-2022)
Publications
Linking HRM with sustainability performance through sustainability practices : unlocking the black box
Kutaula, Smirti, Chowdhury, Soumyadeb, Gillani, Alvina, Budhwar, Pawan S. and Dey, Prasanta Kumar, 2024, British Journal of Management
Ethical consumerism in emerging markets : opportunities and challenges
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina, Gregory-Smith, Diana and Bartikowski, Boris, 2024, Journal of Business Ethics (191), pp 651-673
Heading home? Reshoring and sustainability connectedness from a home‐country consumer perspective
Gillani, Alvina, Kutaula, Smirti and Budhwar, Pawan S., 2022, British Journal of Management
Integrating fair trade with circular economy : personality traits, consumer engagement, and ethically-minded behavior
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina, Leonidou, Leonidas C. and Christodoulides, Paul, 2022, Journal of Business Research (144), pp 1087-1102
Exploring frontline employee-customer linkages : a psychological contract perspective
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina, Leonidou, Leonidas C. and Palihawadana, Dayananda, 2022, International Journal of Human Resource Management (33), 9, pp 1848-1885
Psychological contract breach : unraveling the dark side of business-to-business relationships
Gillani, Alvina, Kutaula, Smirti and Budhwar, Pawan S., 2021, Journal of Business Research (134), pp 631-641
The impact of proximity on consumer fair trade engagement and purchasing behavior : the moderating role of empathic concern and hypocrisy
Gillani, Alvina, Kutaula, Smirti, Leonidou, Leonidas C. and Christodoulides, Paul, 2021, Journal of Business Ethics (169), 3, pp 557-577
BAME leadership : sensitising leaders early on
Kutaula, Smirti, 2021, HR Magazine
An analysis of employment relationships in Asia using psychological contract theory : a review and research agenda
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina and Budhwar, Pawan. S., 2020, Human Resource Management Review (30), 4, pp 100707
Towards sustainable pro-poor development? A critical assessment of Fair Trade gold
Hilson, Gavin, Gillani, Alvina and Kutaula, Smirti, 2018, Journal of Cleaner Production (186), pp 894-904
An introduction to special issue: sustainability and ethical consumerism
Gillani, Alvina and Kutaula, Smirti, 2018, Management Decision (56), 3, pp 511-514
Using storytelling to teach sampling techniques
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina and Saunders, Mark N K (2016). In: Remenyi, Dan, (ed.), Innovation in the teaching of research methodology excellence awards : an anthology of case histories 2016. Reading, U.K.: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, pp 88-98
Integrating psychological contract and service-related outcomes in emerging economies: a proposed conceptual framework
Kutaula, Smirti and Talwar, Vishal (2014). In: Goyal, Anita, (ed.), Innovations in services marketing and management: strategies for emerging economies. Hershey, U.S.: IGI Global, pp 291-306
Feasibility study : FairFinder : using mobile app technology for sustainable cities
Kutaula, Smirti and Gillani, Alvina (2019). (Kingston University)
Personality as a driver of consumer fair trade engagement and ethically-minded behavior
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina, Leonidou, Leonidas C. and Christodoulides, Paul(2019). In: 2019 Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting : Understanding the Inclusive Organization, 09 - 13 Aug 2019 :Boston, U.S.
Reward now or reward later: discounting in the context of fairtrade consumer behaviour
Gillani, Alvina, Kutaula, Smirti and Foxall, Gordon(2017). In: British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference 2017: Re-Connecting Management Research with the Disciplines: Shaping the Research Agenda for the Social Sciences, 05 -07 Sep 2017 :Coventry, U.K.
Using storytelling to teach sampling techniques
Kutaula, Smirti, Gillani, Alvina and Saunders, Mark N.K.(2016). In: 1st Innovation in Teaching Research Methodology Awards at 15th European Conference on Research Methodology (ECRM) for Business and Management Studies, 09-10 Jun 2016 :Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
Exploring behavioural changeability in fair trade consumption
Gillani, Alvina and Kutaula, Smirti(2016). In: British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference 2016: Thriving in Turbulent Times, 6-8 Sep 2016 :Newcastle, U.K.
Facet-based organization support, psychological contract and intention to quit: an empirical study
Kutaula, Smirti and Gould-Williams, Julian Seymour(2013). In: 2013 Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting: Capitalism in Question, 9-13 Aug 2013 :Orlando, U.S.