Professor Rita Fontinha
Professor in Strategic Human Resource Management
Director of Flexible Work in the World of Work Institute
Specialisms
- The Four Day Working Week,
- Future of Work and AI,
- Flexible Working Arrangements,
- Job Insecurity, Individual and Organisational Performance,
- Research Methods
Location
HBS 136, Whiteknights
Rita Fontinha is Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at Henley Business School and Director of Flexible Working. Her research focuses on flexible work, working-time reduction, employee well-being and organisational performance.
Rita Fontinha is Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at Henley Business School, University of Reading, and Director of Flexible Working at the World of Work Institute.
Her research examines how human resource management practices and different ways of organising work influence employee attitudes, behaviours and well-being, and ultimately organisational performance. Her research interests include workplace flexibility, remote and hybrid working, alternative work arrangements, working-time reduction, job insecurity, perceived employability, the psychological contract, workforce analytics, artificial intelligence in HRM, and international HRM and expatriation.
Rita co-coordinated the Portuguese private-sector four-day-week pilot with Professor Pedro Gomes and is scientific coordinator of the four-day-week pilot in the Azores Regional Public Administration, leading its research design, evaluation and analysis. She is also involved in Four4All, a Horizon Europe project examining the feasibility and implications of working-time reduction across Europe.
Rita has published in journals including Research Policy, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, Nature Human Behaviour and the British Medical Journal. She has published book chapters and co-authored Research Methods in Human Resource Management. Her four-day-week research has attracted international academic, policy and media attention.
Reference: Fontinha, R. , Hassan, F., Al Ariss, A., Brewster, C. and Hoteit, A. (2026) Expatriates' assessment of the business implications of cross-cultural issues: a comparison of five Arab Middle Eastern countries. In: Wilmot, N. V. and Gaibrois, C. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Cross-Cultural Management. Routledge, New York, pp. 327-340. ISBN 9781032759456 doi: 10.4324/9781003477723-34
Reference: Fontinha, R. , Hutchings, K., Haak-Saheem, W. , Morley, M. J. and Brewster, C. (2026) The psychological contracts of self-initiated expatriate women: contract type, expatriate status and intention to stay. Journal of Global Mobility. ISSN 2049-8802 doi: 10.1108/JGM-04-2025-0038 (In Press)
Reference: Vandoros, S., Barros, P. P., Skordis, J., Burchell, B., Fontinha, R. and Gomes, P. (2025) How the four-day working week could affect health. Nature Human Behaviour, 9 (10). pp. 1997-1998. ISSN 2397-3374 doi: 10.1038/s41562-025-02262-x
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Haak-Saheem, W. , Fontinha, R. , Brewster, C. , Jastram, S. M. and Ahmady, A. Z. (2025) Exploring pre- and in-employment experiences of refugees in Germany: a Bourdieusian approach. European Management Review. ISSN 1740-4762 doi: 10.1111/emre.12704
Reference: Fontinha, R. , Hassan, F., Al Ariss, A. , Brewster, C. and Hoteit, A. (2025) A latent profile analysis of expatriate’s assessment of the local business environment: cross country comparisons. Thunderbird International Business Review, 67 (5). pp. 553-565. ISSN 1520-6874 doi: 10.1002/tie.22441
Reference: Gomes, P., Fontinha, R. , Burchell, B., Morin, A., Skordis, J., Pita Barros, P. and Vandoros, S. (2025) Is the NHS ready for a four-day week? British Medical Journal, 391. e085261. ISSN 1468-5833 doi: 10.1136/bmj-2025-085261
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Lee, J., Chae, C., Lee, J. M. and Fontinha, R. (2024) Understanding the evolution of international human resource management research: a bibliometric review over the past 25 years (1995-2019). Journal of Global Mobility, 12 (4). pp. 691-714. ISSN 2049-8799 doi: 10.1108/JGM-09-2023-0062
Reference: Laker, B. , Fontinha, R. and Walker, J. (2024) Balancing health and work: employees demand more flexibility in when, where, and how they work. BMJ Leader, 8. pp. 354-357. ISSN 2398-631X doi: 10.1136/leader-2023-000869
Reference: Fontinha, R. and Brewster, C. (2024) A history of research on expatriates. In: Hutchings, K. (ed.) The Authoritative Research Guide To Expatriates. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham. (In Press)
Reference: Gomes, P. and Fontinha, R. , (2024) Four-day week: results from the Portuguese trial. Report. IEFP
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Brewster, C. , Fontinha, R. , Haak-Saheem, W. , Lamperti, F. and Walker, J. (2023) Linking embeddedness to physical career mobility: How Brexit affected the preference of business, economics and management academics for leaving the UK. Research Policy, 52 (9). 104855. ISSN 0048-7333 doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2023.104855
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Chris Brewster - Professor Rita Fontinha - Dr Washika Haak-Saheem - Prof James T Walker
Reference: Mostafa, R., Fontinha, R. and Lages, C. (2023) Turning bad into good: the role of service recovery journey in healing the pain of psychological contract violation. International Journal of Business and Economics. ISSN 2545-4137 doi: 10.1504/IJBEX.2023.10061248 (In Press)
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Kinsella, P., Williams, S., Scott, P. and Fontinha, R. (2022) Varying degrees of boundarylessness? The careers of self-employed and directly employed ICT professionals in the UK and Germany. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33 (8). pp. 1696-1717. ISSN 1466-4399 doi: 10.1080/09585192.2020.1841815
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Walker, J. , Brewster, C. , Fontinha, R. , Haak-Saheem, W. , Benigni, S. , Lamperti, F. and Ribaudo, D. (2022) The unintended consequences of the pandemic on non-pandemic research activities. Research Policy, 51 (1). 104369. ISSN 0048-7333 doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2021.104369
Henley faculty authors:
Prof James T Walker - Professor Chris Brewster - Professor Rita Fontinha - Dr Washika Haak-Saheem
Reference: Walker, J. T. , Fontinha, R. , Haak-Saheem, W. and Brewster, C. (2022) The effects of the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ on teaching and engagement in UK business schools. In: Machado, C. and Davim, J. P. (eds.) Organizational Management in Post Pandemic Crisis. Springer, pp. 1-28. ISBN 9783030980528 doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-98052-8_1
Henley faculty authors:
Prof James T Walker - Professor Rita Fontinha - Dr Washika Haak-Saheem - Professor Chris Brewster
Reference: Yusuf, R. , Fontinha, R. and Haak-Saheem, W. (2022) The dynamics of workplace relationships among expatriates and host country nationals in international development organisations. Journal of Global Mobility, 10 (4). pp. 476-495. ISSN 2049-8799 doi: 10.1108/JGM-03-2022-0011
Reference: Kinsella, P., Williams, S., Scott, P. and Fontinha, R. (2021) Varieties of flexibilisation? The working lives of information and communications technology professionals in the UK and Germany. New Technology, Work and Employment, 36 (3). pp. 409-428. ISSN 1468-005X doi: 10.1111/ntwe.12204
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Walker, J. , Brewster, C. , Fontinha, R. , Haak-Saheem, W. and Lamberti, F., (2021) Examining the impact of Brexit & COVID-19 on the working lives of business, management and economics’ academics in the UK. Report. Henley Business School pp16.
Henley faculty authors:
Prof James T Walker - Professor Chris Brewster - Professor Rita Fontinha - Dr Washika Haak-Saheem
Reference: Walker, J. , Della Giusta, M. and Fontinha, R. , (2020) Initial findings from the consultation on the impact of research metrics on the work of academic economists 2020. Report. University of Reading, Reading. pp19.
Reference: Fontinha, R. and Brewster, C. (2020) Self-initiated expatriate adjustment over time. In: Andresen, M., Brewster, C. and Suutari, V. (eds.) Self-Initiated Expatriates in Context: Recognizing Space, Time, and Institutions. Routledge, New York. ISBN 9780429352690 doi: 10.4324/9780429352690-10
Reference: Anderson, V., Fontinha, R. and Robson, F. (2019) Research Methods in Human Resource Management. Investigating a Business Issue. Kogan Page, pp456. ISBN 9780749483876
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Walker, J. , Salter, A., Fontinha, R. and Salandra, R. (2019) The impact of journal re-grading on perception of ranking systems: exploring the case of the academic journal guide and business and management scholars in the UK. Research Evaluation, 28 (3). pp. 218-231. ISSN 1471-5449 doi: 10.1093/reseval/rvz010
Reference: De Cuyper, N., Piccoli, B., Fontinha, R. and De Witte, H. (2019) Job insecurity, employability and satisfaction among temporary and permanent employees in post-crisis Europe. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 40 (2). pp. 173-192. ISSN 1461-7099 doi: 10.1177/0143831X18804655
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Fontinha, R. , Easton, S. and Van Laar, D. (2019) Overtime and quality of working life in academics and non-academics: the role of perceived work-life balance. International Journal of Stress Management, 26 (2). pp. 173-183. ISSN 1072-5245 doi: 10.1037/str0000067
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Pereira, V., Fontinha, R. , Pawan, B. and Arora, B. (2018) Human resource management and performance at the Indian railway. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 31 (1). pp. 47-61. ISSN 0953-4814 doi: 10.1108/JOCM-04-2017-0157
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Fontinha, R. , De Cuyper, N., Williams, S. and Scott, P. (2018) The impact of HRM, perceived employability and job insecurity on self-initiated expatriates’ adjustment to the host country. Thunderbird International Business Review, 60 (6). pp. 861-871. ISSN 1520-6874 doi: 10.1002/tie.21919
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Fontinha, R. , Van Laar, D. and Easton, S. (2018) Quality of working life of academics and researchers in the UK: the roles of contract type, tenure and university ranking. Studies in Higher Education, 43 (4). pp. 786-806. ISSN 0307-5079 doi: 10.1080/03075079.2016.1203890
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: De Cuyper, N., Fontinha, R. and De Witt, H. (2018) Nontraditional employment: the careers of temporary workers. In: Klehe, U.-C. and van Hooft, E. A.J. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Job Loss and Job Search. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 9780199764921 doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199764921.013.016
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Pereira, V. and Fontinha, R. (2016) An exploration of the role duality experienced by HR professionals as both implementers and recipients of HR practices: evidence from the Indian railways. Human Resource Management, 55 (1). pp. 127-142. ISSN 1099-050X doi: 10.1002/hrm.21717
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Pereira, V. and Fontinha, R. (2014) Global talent management in knowledge intensive firms in and between Western Europe and India: future research directions. In: Al Ariss, A. (ed.) Global talent management: Challenges, strategies, and opportunities. Management for Professionals. Springer, Berlin, pp. 183-196. ISBN 9783319051246 doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-05125-3
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Fontinha, R. , Chambel, M. J. and Cuyper, N. D. (2014) Training and the commitment of outsourced information technologies' workers: psychological contract fulfillment as a mediator. Journal of Career Development, 41 (4). pp. 321-340. ISSN 0894-8453 doi: 10.1177/0894845313495587
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Fontinha, R. , José Chambel, M. and De Cuyper, N. (2012) HR attributions and the dual commitment of outsourced IT workers. Personnel Review, 41 (6). pp. 832-848. ISSN 0048-3486 doi: 10.1108/00483481211263773
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Fontinha, R. and Chambel, M. J. (2011) A dupla relação de emprego dos trabalhadores temporários: A agencia e a empresa utilizadora [The dual employment relationship of temporary workers: The agency and the client organization]. In: Chambel, M. J. (ed.) Novos desafios para a gestão de recursos humanos: O caso dos trabalhadores temporários [New challenges for human resource management: The temporary workers]. RH Editoria, Lisbon. ISBN 9789728871390
Henley faculty authors:
Professor Rita Fontinha
Reference: Chambel, M. J. and Fontinha, R. (2009) Contingencies of contingent employment: psychological contract, job insecurity and employability of contracted workers. Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones (Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology), 25 (3). pp. 207-217. ISSN 1576‐5962
Henley faculty authors:
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Specialisms
- The Four Day Working Week
- Future of Work and AI
- Flexible Working Arrangements
- Job Insecurity, Individual and Organisational Performance
- Research Methods
Location
HBS 136, Whiteknights