Dr Beatrice Piccoli

Biography

Dr Beatrice Piccoli is a Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour at Essex Business School whose research examines job insecurity and precarious work, with a particular focus on their individual and organisational consequences across countries. Her research is based on advanced quantitative methods and multi-level, cross-national analyses to inform evidence-based practice and policy. Beatrice has published several peer-reviewed articles in leading academic journals such as Work & Stress (ABS 4), Journal of Experimental Psychology (ABS 4), Economic and Industrial Democracy (ABS 3), Journal of Business Research (ABS 3), Journal of Career Development, Personnel Review, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, and others. Her contributions are widely cited in the most important reviews and meta-analyses on the topic of job insecurity (Google Scholar: https://tinyurl.com/BPICCO). She has also established a strong track record of securing competitive external research funding, obtaining grants from both international and national bodies. Beatrice held the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme (EUR 160,800) to study the micro- and macro-level determinants and consequences of job insecurity across Europe. Earlier, she led a project on ageing and well-being at work, funded by the Italian bank Banco Popolare (EUR 144,000) and a COOPERINT internationalisation grant from the University of Verona (EUR 7,500), which supported her visiting scholarship at St. John’s University, New York. Most recently, she was awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (£8,955.80) for research on “Enhancing Collective Creativity in Contexts of Job Insecurity” (2023–2025). She has also secured a SeNSS Collaborative Studentship from the ESRC for a fully funded PhD project titled “The Changing Landscape of Workplace Rights for Workers with Caring Responsibilities”, starting in October 2026. In terms of research leadership, her roles include, among others, serving as co‑editor of the Handbook on Precarious Work (Edward Elgar, March 2026), which brings together 22 chapters authored by contributors from five continents. She has also been active in major international conferences (such as the Academy of Management, the European Association of Work and Organisational Psychology, the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology, and the International Society for Justice Research), where she has presented her research, organised symposia, and chaired sessions. Beatrice’s work has received recognition within and beyond academia. For example, she received the Best ECR Publication Award from the Association of Organizational Psychology for her article in Work & Stress. She also earned the Best Poster and Best Paper Awards at the EAWOP Conference (2021). Moreover, her research has been featured by prestigious outlets such as the World Economic Forum (https://tinyurl.com/yr3f6kp8), Business Insider Australia, and The Conversation (https://routledge.altmetric.com/details/15932276/news).

Qualifications

• Postdoctoral researcher (funded by the European Commission, Horizon 2020, Individual Fellowship) University of Leuven (KU Leuven),

• PhD in Work and Organizational Psychology, joint PhD awarded by the University of Verona (Italy) and KU Leuven (Belgium),

• MSc in Management of Training Services, University of Verona (Italy),