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Dr Melissa Carr

Associate Professor in International Human Resource Management

Melissa Carr

Specialisms

  • Equity, diversity and inclusion, 
  • Gender and organisations, 
  • Precarious work and the gig economy, 
  • International Human Resource Management

Location

Room 142, Henley Business School

Dr Melissa Carr is Associate Professor in International HRM at Henley Business School. Her research examines gender, precarious work and inequality, particularly in the gig economy.

Melissa is Associate Professor in International Human Resource Management at Henley Business School and a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. She holds a PhD in management and leadership from Cranfield School of Management, and her career has spanned consultancy, executive education and academia.

Her research examines gender, power and inequality in contemporary work, with a particular focus on precarious and platform-based labour, including multi-level marketing and the gig economy, and on women's leadership in the cultural and creative industries. She serves as an Associate Editor of Gender, Work & Organization, and her work has been published in journals including Human Relations, Journal of Business Ethics, Leadership, and Gender, Work & Organization.

Melissa teaches and supervises across postgraduate, MBA and doctoral programmes, and is a regular media commentator on workplace equity.

Reference: Carr, M. (2026) Belong, believe, and consume: from the prosperity gospel to new age spirituality in one MLM. In: Grant-Smith, D. and Groß, C. (eds.) Critical Perspectives in Multi-level Marketing. Future of Work series. Edward Elgar. (In Press)
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Carr, M. (2026) Moments of discomfort: rethinking reflexivity and researcher subjectivities through affect and poststructuralism. Gender, Work & Organization, 33 (2). pp. 483-494. ISSN 1468-0432 doi: 10.1111/gwao.70057
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Groß, C., Grant-Smith, D., Brooks, D. M., Carr, M. , Dixon, L. and O Sullivan, M. (2026) From the field to the field: bearing witness and creating change through critical MLM research. In: Grant-Smith, D. and Gross, C. (eds.) Critical Perspectives in Multi-level Marketing. Business 2026. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 191-209. ISBN 9781035344314 doi: 10.4337/9781035344321.00018
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Carr, M. and Van Raalte, C. (2025) Women and leadership in the creative industries: a commentary. Gender, Work & Organization, 32 (5). pp. 1709-1714. ISSN 1468-0432 doi: 10.1111/gwao.13264
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Carr, M. (2025) Bring your whole self to work: boundary conditions of subjectivity in diversity and inclusion discourse on investment bank websites. Journal of Business Ethics. ISSN 1573-0697 doi: 10.1007/s10551-025-06055-0
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Carr, M. and Kelan, E. K. (2024) Competing against oneself and others? Competition as gendered technologies of the self. Gender, Work & Organization, 32 (1). pp. 351-368. ISSN 1468-0432 doi: 10.1111/gwao.13154
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Carr, M. and Kelan, E. K. (2023) Between consumption, accumulation, and precarity: the psychic and affective practices of the female neoliberal spiritual subject. Human Relations, 76 (2). pp. 258-285. ISSN 1741-282X doi: 10.1177/00187267211058577
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Gilani, P., Rook, C. , Razeghi, Y. and Carr, M. (2022) Swimming against the current: negotiating leadership challenges for women in Iran. Leadership, 18 (1). pp. 162-185. ISSN 1742-7150 doi: 10.1177/17427150211047102
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Caroline Rook - Dr Melissa Carr
Reference: Carr, M. (2021) Moments of discomfort: poststructuralist reflexivity and researcher subjectivity. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2021 (1). 15531. ISSN 2151-6561 doi: 10.5465/ambpp.2021.15531abstract
Henley faculty authors:
Dr Melissa Carr

People Management

This module aims to explore the management of human resources for sustainable organisational success. The module focuses on aspects of recruitment and selection, learning and development, performance management, compensation and...

Module code: MQ2PEM

Managing key resources

The module aims to develop deeper knowledge and critical understanding of the strategic management of human resources. The module focuses on aspects of recruitment and selection, learning and development, performance...

Module code: MQM2AM08