Cardiff School of Management>Staff Profiles>Xiaoni Ren

Dr Xiaoni Ren

Department: Business, Management and Law

Office/Location: 1.41F, Ogmore Building, Cardiff School of Management, Llandaff Campus

Telephone: +44 (0)29 2020 5871

Email: xren@cardiffmet.ac.uk

Staff Overview

Dr Xiaoni Ren is a senior lecturer in Human Resource Management (HRM) and the MSc HRM Programme Director at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She has over 15 years experience of lecturing on the subject of HRM and international business-related subjects in both China and the UK. After she obtained her PhD degree in HRM at Cardiff Business School of Cardiff University in 2010 she worked at the University of Gloucestershire until August 2014 as a Lecturer in HRM, then the course leader for the MSc HRM course, and finally a senior lecturer in HRM. Between 2003 and 2006 she was a bilingual lecturer in business and HRM and the course leader for the HND programme at Sichuan University in China. She obtained her Masters degree in International Business and Management at Sheffield Business School in 2001.

Before moving into higher education, Dr Ren had accumulated considerable commercial experience in private sector organisations such as United Parcel Services (London). In addition, she has extensive experience of oral and written language translation and interpretation (English to Mandarin Chinese and vice versa) in a wide range of contexts.

Teaching

​Current teaching:

  • People Resourcing and Development (module tutor)
  • Global Human Resource Management (module tutor)
  • Research Skills (module tutor)
  • Research Dissertation (module tutor)

Postgraduate supervision:

  • Talent management and retention
  • Recruitment and selection
  • Flexible working
  • Work-life balance
  • Employee engagement

Research

​Dr Ren’s research focuses on work-family conflict/work-life balance, gender studies, emotional and aesthetic labour, and Chinese/international HRM in the context of the airline industry, higher education sectors, more recently in stated-owned organisations. She has published work in peer-refereed journals including International Journal of HRM, Studies in Higher Education, Gender in Management – an International Journal, and Asia Pacific Business Review.

Key Publications

​Ren, X. and Xu, H. (2021) ‘Flexible working during the Covid-19 pandemic: gains and strains in a Chinese state-owned organisation’. In: The British Academy of Management (BAM) 2021 Conference in the Cloud, August-September 2021, UK.

Ren, X. and Caudle, D. (2020) ‘Balancing academia and family life: The gendered strains and struggles between the UK and China compared’, Gender in Management: An International Journal 35(2), pp.141-165.

Ren, X. (2017), ‘Exploiting women’s aesthetic labour to fly high in the Chinese airline industry’, Gender in Management: An International Journal 32(6), pp.386-403.

Ren, X. (2016) ‘Exploiting women’s aesthetic labour to fly high in the Chinese airline industry’. In: The British Academy of Management (BAM) 2016 Conference, September 2016, Newcastle University, UK.

Foster, D. and Ren, X. (2015) ‘Work-family conflict and the commodification of women’s employment in three Chinese airlines’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management 26(12), pp. 1568-1585.

Ren, X. and Caudle, D. (2014) ‘Walking the tightrope between work and non-work life: strategies employed by British and Chinese academics and their implications’, Studies in Higher Education 41(4), pp.599-618.

Ren, X and Caudle, D. (2014) ‘Who’s the acrobat? Female academics’ strategies for balancing work and life in the British and Chinese contexts’. In: Gender, Work and Organisation (GWO) 8th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference, June 2014, Keel University, UK.

Ren, X. and Foster, D. (2011) ‘Women’s Experiences of Work and Family Conflict in a Chinese Airline’, Asia Pacific Business Review 17 (3), pp. 325-341.

Ren, X. (2009) ‘The prevalence and consequences of aesthetic and emotional labour in the Chinese airline industry’. In: The 24th Annual Employment Research Unit (ERU) Conference, September 2009, Cardiff Business School, UK.

Ren, X. and Foster, D. (2008) ‘Balancing Work and Life in the Chinese Airline Industry: Women’s Experience in the East and some Comparisons with the West’. In: The 9th International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM) Conference. July 2008, Fudan University, China.​

Other Projects and activities

​Dr Ren is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and an Academic Member of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (MCIPD). She is an External Examiner for the Bachelor (Honours) of Business in HRM programme of Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) University College in Malaysia.

Dr Ren Led a research project entitled ‘Work-life balance in Chinese and British academia’ and worked in partnership with colleagues.​ She is a peer reviewer of Gender in Management: An International Journal.

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