Cardiff Business School

CBS Faculty

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Identities and Organisations
• Managerial identity
• Organisational Theory
• Public Sector Management
• Gender, Organisations and Management

TEACHING PROFILE

• Organisational Behaviour (MBA)
• Organisational Analysis and Change (Year 3, UG)

VISITING POSITIONS

2005 & 2007:
Academic Visitor, Management School, University of Melbourne, Australia.

2005 & 2007:
Academic Visitor, School of Business, University of Sydney, Australia.

2003 – 2006:
Visiting Senior Research Fellow. Department of Economics and Business Administration, Lund University,Sweden.

2002 – 2003:     
Visiting Senior Research Fellow. Department of Economics and Business Administration, Lund University, Sweden: (12 month sabbatical).

1999:                  
Visiting Research Fellow, Bryant College, Smithfield, Providence, New England, USA.

CURRENT RESEARCH

2005 to 2006.

(1) Managerial Identities in Complex Organisations Appointed ‘Ghoshal Fellow’, Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM/ESRC). Project entitled: Analyzing Managerial Identities, £89,000 (award no. RES-331-25-3009). Large-scale, international qualitative research project on managerial ‘identity work’ and its relationship with the adoption and implementation of management practices.

2000 – 2007

(2) Public Service Change and the Professions Range of research projects analysing change in the UK public services. Including: - Ongoing research evaluating organisational change in the police service, with the introduction of collaborative policing. - Two year ESRC funded research (£38,992 - award no. R000223078), “Gender and Restructuring: Managerial Roles and Identities in the Public Sector” (Principal Investigator/ Joint Fund-holder, with A. Davies, Cardiff Business School), involving analysis of public sector change in the Police, Social Services and Secondary Education and the implications for professionals/managers.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

a) Journal Articles

Thomas, R., Hardy, C. and Sargent, L (forthcoming) 'Managing Organizational Change: Negotiating Meaning and Power-Resistance Relations', Organization Science.

Thomas, R., Tienari, J., Davies, A. and Merilainen, S. (2009) 'Let's talk about "Us": A Reflexive Account of a Cross-Cultural Research Collaboration', Journal of Management Inquiry, 19/ 4 (in press).

Alvesson, M., Ashcraft, A. and Thomas, R. (2008) ‘Identity Matters: Reflections of the Construction of Identity Scholarship in Organization Studies’, Organization, 15,1. [Introduction to Special Issue]

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2008) ‘Dixon of Dock Green Got Shot! Policing Identity Work and Organizational Change’, Public Administration, 86, 1

Tienari, J., Merilainen, S., Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2008) ‘Hegemonic Academic Practices: Experiences of Publishing From The Periphery’, Organization.

Tienari, J. and Thomas, R. (2006) ‘Penetrating the Academic Publishing Machine: A Rough Guide’, The Finnish Journal of Business Economics, 55, 3, 369-80 [Best paper prize awarded].

Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2005) 'Theorising the Micro-politics of Resistance: Discourses of Change and Professional Identities in the UK Public Services', Organization Studies, 26,5, 683-706.

Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2005) ‘What Have the Feminists Done For Us? Feminist Theory and Organizational Resistance’, Organization, 12, 5, 711-740.

Merilianen, S., Tienari, J., Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2004) 'Management Consultant Talk: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Normalising Discourse and Resistance', Organization, 11, 2, 539-64.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2003) ‘Talking COP: Discourses of Change and Policing Identities’, Public Administration, 81, 4, 681-99.

Thomas, R. and Linstead, A. (2002) 'Losing the Plot? Middle Managers and Identity', Organization, 9, 1, 71-93.

Linstead, A. and Thomas, R. (2002) 'What Do You Want From Me? A Poststructuralist Feminist Reading of Middle Managers' Identities', Culture and Organization, 8,1, 1-21.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2002) 'The Costs to Academic Service: Managerialism, Accountability and Women Academics', Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 13, 2, 179-203.

Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2002) 'Gender and New Public Management: Reconstituting Academic Subjectivities', Gender, Work and Organization, 9, 4, 372-96.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2002) 'Gendering and Gender in Public Service Organizations', Public Management Review, 4, 4, 461-484.

Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2002) 'Restructuring the 'Old Bill': Policing Identities and Commitment’, Women in Management Review, 17, 3-4, 180-89.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R (2000) ‘Gender and Human Resource Management: A Critical Review’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11, 6, 1125-36.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2000) 'Researching Public Sector Change: The Argument for a Gender Inclusive Framework', Public Management Review, 2, 4, 548-54.

Thomas, R. and Pullen, A. (2000) ‘Middle Management Identities in Modern Organizations’, International Journal of Applied Management, 1, 1, 19-36.

Thomas, R. and Dunkerley, D. (1999) 'Careering Downwards? Middle Management in the Downsized Organization', British Journal of Management, 10, 2, 157-69.

Thomas, R. and Dunkerley, D. (1999) 'Janus and the Bureaucrats: Middle Management in the Public Sector', Public Policy and Administration, 14, 1, 28-41.

Thomas, R. (1996) 'Gendered Cultures and Performance Appraisal: The Experience of Women Academics', Gender, Work and Organization, 3, 3,143-55.

 

b) Books

Thomas, R, Mills, A. and Helms Mills, J. (Eds.) (2004) Identity Politics at Work. Routledge: London.

 

c) Book Chapters

Thomas, R. and Davies, A. (2010) Theorizing the Micro-Politics of Resistance: New Public Management and Managerial Identities in the UK Public Services. In G. Boyne and R. Ashworth (Eds.) Organizing Government. SAGE Publications, London. ISBN: 978-1-84860-121-5

Thomas, R. and Davies, A (2009) Theorizing the Micro-Politics of Resistance: New Public Management and Managerial Identities in the UK Public Services. In S. Clegg (Ed.) SAGE Directions in Organization Studies, SAGE Publications, London. ISBN: 978-1-84860-868-9

Thomas, R. (2009) 'Critical Management Studies on Identity: Mapping the Terrain'. In Alvesson, M.,
Willmott, H. and Bridgman, T. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2004) 'Gender and Restructuring: Changing professional identities under New Public Management'. In Stewart, P. (Ed.) Organizational Change and Emerging Patterns of Work and Employment. Macmillan-Palgrave: London.

Davies, A. and Thomas, R. (2004) 'Gendered Identities and Resistance in Public Service Organisations'. In Thomas, R, Mills, A. and Helms Mills, J. (Eds) Identity Politics at Work. Routledge: London

Thomas, R. (1998) ‘Opting in and Losing Out: Resisting the Gendered Discourses of Academic Appraisal’. In Malina, D. and Maslin-Prothero, S. (Eds.) Surviving the Academy: Feminist Perspectives. Taylor and Frances: London.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

• Co-Director of the International member of the International Centre for Research on Organizational Discourse, Strategy and Change (ICRODSC)

           (see: www.managementmarketing.unimelb.edu.au/icrodsc/home.cfm).

• Member of editorial board for: Organization Studies, Organization, Human Relations; Associate Editor for the Scandinavian Journal of Management.

 

• Ghoshal Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research (AIM/ESRC)