Debra Howcroft is Professor of Technology and Organisation in the People, Management and Organisation Division of Alliance Manchester Business School.  She is (co) Editor-in-Chief of New Technology, Work and Employment (2012-present) and has served the editorial boards of Information Systems Journal, Information Technology and People, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and the Qualitative Review of Accounting and Management.

Broadly, Debra’s research interests cover the area of ICTs and organising, particularly in relation to work and employment.   There is a focus on three main areas.  Firstly, how technology is influencing and shaping working practices, changing skills and reframing occupational identities. Secondly, research investigates technology workers, as a distinct category of employees, and their response to workplace change, labour markets, and technological developments. This interest extends to how social and cultural influences affect technology work, asking questions such as how technology is gendered.  The final area concerns digital labour and includes issues such as how virtual work is monetised, the use of platforms to coordinate distributed labour, and the implications of crowdsourcing for our understanding of work and employment.