This thesis presents an examination of the historical developments of vicarious liability law in the English legal system over the past 200 years. The developments considered date from the principles laid down in Joel v Morison [1834] EWHC KB J39 to the most recent case of Bellman v Northampton Recruitment Ltd [2017] IRLR 124. The various tests for employment status and the course of employment are discussed, with specific analysis into why the tests have changed and developed. Case law and academic criticism is presented to emphasise how the changes have had a positive or negative impact on the clarity and fairness of the area of law.

Purpose – This research will examine the relationship between leadership and employee retention. It will examine the styles of leadership currently used within the Irish service sector. It will then determine if the managers consciously work on retaining staff.

Methodology – A qualitative research approach was used in the form of interviews of leaders in several Irish companies. The leaders range from middle to top management positions with various levels of experience. Previous research has often asked the employees about their managers while this paper bridges the research gap by examining the leaders themselves. Themes were then examined to recognise if there are any patterns present within the current leadership style.

Findings –The findings of this paper reveal that the leaders perceived that they had effective styles that proved to have a positive effect on employee retention. Also uncovered was that HR’s presence in Irish companies is disconnected, either there was not a department, or the leaders discussed remaining extremely separate. Three leaders admitted to not consciously working on retention as they believed it was not within their responsibility.

Practical implications – The paper brings to light that organisations need to examine how managers should be supported by the HR department, and how retention should be tackled by both parties for the good of the companies.

Research Limitations – Time constraints due to a worldwide pandemic. Covid-19 restraints as employees were now working from home. The normal environment in which the premise of the thesis was embedded was altered. Further to this, the restrictions imposed for Public Health made it difficult to research libraries as they were closed. Overall, it limited the sources from which data could possibly be harvested from. Limited participants could be accessed through the medium of a phone interview.

Originality/value – Expanding on linking employee retention with (in) effective leadership from the perspective of the managers.

Keywords – Retention, leadership, management, job stress, job satisfaction, Irish workplace, trust, communication

In the last few decades, the immigration of the workforce to more developed countries has noted a significant increase. That trend did not avoid Ireland as well. The increased levels of immigration to Ireland has followed the strong economic growth in the 1990s. In 2019, there were 622,700 non-Irish national residents in Ireland accounting for 12.7% of the total population with many of them starting their employment in Ireland through jobs in hospitality. In light of these numbers, it is relevant to examine immigrant’s job satisfaction within the industry. There have been numerous studies on job satisfaction of immigrants, as well as on the overall workforce in the hospitality sector. However, the literature did not compare job satisfaction levels between host nationals and immigrants employed in nonsupervisory positions in pub, bars and restaurants.

The aim of this research was to examine whether differences in job satisfaction between Irish-born and immigrant employees existed in positions which are already recognised for low levels of job satisfaction and to define the categories which made up the biggest difference between the two groups of employees.

A quantitative approach was used for this research with 78 questionnaires completed in full. In the survey, the author has used the well-established Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire which is known for its reliability. The sample was taken by the convenience sampling method. The gathered information was analysed by using IBM SPSS 26 software.

The research has found that immigrant’s job satisfaction is significantly lower compared to their Irish-born employees. The biggest difference between the two groups is shown in the categories of co-workers, responsibility, and supervision−human relations.

The findings will help to fill the above-mentioned gap in existing research and can be used by hospitality managers in order to recognise and reduce the gap in job satisfaction between their immigrant and Irish-born employees.

There has been an abundance of studies that have adopted positivist approaches, employing quantitative methods, to research OCD ‘symptoms’ and their underlying neurobiology and neurochemistry. There appears to be a lack of research investigating how OCD is experienced by those living with the diagnosis, and in particular the experiences of young people diagnosed with OCD. Ten young people, aged 14-17 years old, with a diagnosis of OCD were recruited from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The young people were interviewed and a Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to analyse data. Four themes were developed through the analysis. The first theme ‘Traumatic and stressful life events’ found that 9 out of the 10 participants experienced at least one of the following three life events just prior to the development of their OCD: ‘Hostility in the family’, ‘Illness and death’, ‘Bullying and friendlessness’. Four subthemes, ‘Lack of understanding of the behaviour’, ‘Being secretive’, ‘I thought I was going crazy’, and ‘Feeling different’, provided a richer understanding to the theme ‘Responses to signs of OCD’. The four subthemes ‘Feeling “right”‘, ‘I was taking on all the responsibility’, ‘It’s ruined everything’, ‘Everyday life is now in my bedroom’ explored the third theme ‘The battle of living with OCD’. The last theme ‘Ambivalent relationship to help’ described the conflict that most participants had over exposure therapy and accommodation of their OCD. Lastly, most participants felt the long waiting time for help was frustrating. The theme is fully explored by the following three subthemes: ‘Conflicts of exposure therapy’, ‘Conflicts about accommodation of the OCD’, and ‘Frustrations of long waiting lists’. The themes that emerged may provide important information for clinicians and the implications of the research findings are discussed. The strengths and limitations of the study are noted and there are suggestions for future research.