Adam Smith Business School

Professor Robert Chia

Research Professor in Management (Management)

ORCID iD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9728-0517

Biography

Robert Chia is Research Professor of Management at the University of Glasgow Adam Smith Business School. He holds a PhD in Organization Studies (Lancaster), an MA with distinction in Organizational Analysis, a Diploma in Training and Development Management, and a Technical Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Singapore Polytechnic. He is an elected Fellow (by invitation) of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, (FRSA) United Kingdom, as well as a former invited member of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), UK.

Prior to entering academia, Robert worked for 16 years in aircraft maintenance engineering, manufacturing management and human resource management for a large multinational corporation based in the Asia Pacific. As an academic, he has held various positions including professorial appointments at the universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen and Strathclyde prior to taking up his research professorship at the University of Glasgow. Robert has consulted extensively with well-known international organizations and institutions such as the International Federation of Red Cross (Geneva), British Airways, BNFL, British Aerospace, Ciba-Geigy and Cathay Pacific Airlines. He has been invited to give numerous keynote presentations at major academic conferences as well as in practitioner conferences.

Research interests

Robert is a member of the Strategy and Technology Management research cluster.

Areas of expertise:

Decision-Making & Unintended Consequences;
Strategic Capabilities, Action & Practice;
Organizing/Organizational Functions/Dysfunctions;
The Aim of University Business Schools;
East-West Mentalities & Predispositions and their Implications for Business Practices.

Supervision

Qijun Zhou
Co supervisor: Dr Rob Dekkers

Teaching

Executive Education: Strategic Thinking/Practice
MBA: Scenarios Thinking

Additional information

Recent keynotes

EGOS 2015 Symposium, Athens
Strategy Process Sub-Plenary EGOS 2014 Symposium, Rotterdam
Strategy AS Practice Sub-Plenary EGOS 2016, Naples
Strategy Conference: ‘Practices, Processes, Governance’, Edinburgh Business School, April 2015
East-West Conference: Rebuilding Management Theory with Inspiration from China, Stockholm Business School, Aug 2014.

Publications

Robert has published extensively in top international management and organization journals including:

Organization Science
Organization Studies
Organization
Human Relations
Long Range Planning
British Journal of Management
Academy of Management Journal
Journal of Management Studies
Management Learning
Academy of Management Learning and Education
Journal of Management Inquiry and Revue Française de Gestion.

He is the author/editor of five books as well as book chapters in a variety of management sub-fields. His latest books include Strategy without Design: The Silent Efficacy of Indirect Action (with Robin Holt), published by Cambridge University Press, 2009 and Philosophy and Organization Theory: Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Emerald Group Publishing. He has been a senior editor with the international journal Organization Studies and is on the international advisory board of several established management journals including Journal of Management Studies, Management Learning, European Management Journal, Journal of Change Management and the Journal of Chinese Management.

External PhD examiner

Cambridge University
Warwick University
Cranfield University
Exeter University
University of Lund (Sweden)
University of Limburg (Belgium)
Norwegian BI Business School (Oslo)
University of Bristol
University of Lancaster
University of East Anglia

External assessor - professorial appointments

University of Nottingham,
Strathclyde University
Queens University Belfast

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1991

Number of items: 79.

2019

Bouty, I., Gomez, M.-L. and Chia, R. (2019) Strategy emergence as wayfinding. Management, (Accepted for Publication)

Nayak, A., Chia, R. and Canales, I. (2019) Non-cognitive microfoundations: understanding dynamic capabilities as idiosyncratically refined sensitivities and predispositions. Academy of Management Review, (doi:10.5465/amr.2016.0253) (Early Online Publication)

Chia, R. (2019) Becoming a learning organisation: A process-philosophical perspective. In: Ortenblad, A. (ed.) The Learning Organization: A Handbook. Oxford University Press. (Accepted for Publication)

Chia, R. (2019) Before and beyond paradigms in organization studies: back to the ‘rough ground’. Studi di Sociologia, 2019(1), pp. 57-68. (doi:10.26350/000309_000051)

2018

Zhou, Q., Dekkers, R. and Chia, R. (2018) How Ambidextrous Are They Actually? An Empirical Test of Exploration and Exploitation as Innovation Capabilities Using Data Envelopment Analysis. 25th Innovation and Product Development Management Conference, Porto, Portugal, 10-13 Jun 2018.

2017

Chia, R. and Nayak, A. (2017) Circumventing the logic and limits of representation: Otherness in east-west approaches to paradox approaches. In: Smith, W. K., Lewis, M. W., Jarzabkowski, P. and Langley, A. (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox: Approaches to Plurality, Tensions, and Contradictions. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780198754428

Chia, R. (2017) A process-philosophical understanding of organizational learning as 'wayfinding': process, practices and sensitivity to environmental affordances. Learning Organization, 24(2), pp. 107-118. (doi:10.1108/TLO-11-2016-0083)

2016

Chia, R. and Nayak, A. (2016) The art of relevation/revelation: a Whiteheadian approach to management education. In: Steyaert, C., Beyes, T. and Parker, M. (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Reinventing Management Education. Series: Routledge companions in business, management and accounting. Routledge: London, pp. 120-132. ISBN 9780415727372

Bosma, B., Chia, R. and Fouweather, I. (2016) Radical learning through semantic transformation capitalizing on novelty. Management Learning, 47(1), pp. 14-27. (doi:10.1177/1350507615602480)

Chia, R. (2016) Process, practices, and organizational competitiveness: understanding dynamic capabilities through a process philosophical worldview. In: Langley, A. and Tsoukas, H. (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies. SAGE Publications: London. ISBN 9781446297018

Zhou, Q., Dekkers, R. and Chia, R. (2016) Exploration and Exploitation: Separable? A Critical Study of This Assumption in The Context of Innovation Management. In: Forum Innovation VII, Paris, France, 9-11 June 2016,

Zhou, Q., Dekkers, R. and Chia, R. (2016) Exploration and Exploitation: Separable? A Critical Study of This Assumption in The Context of Innovation Management. In: R&D Management Conference 2016, Cambridge, UK, 3-7 July 2016,

2014

Chia, R. (2014) Reflections on the distinctiveness of European management scholarship. European Management Journal, 32(5), pp. 683-688. (doi:10.1016/j.emj.2014.06.002)

Nonaka, I., Chia, R. , Holt, R. and Peltokorpi, V. (2014) Wisdom, management and organization. Management Learning, 45(4), pp. 365-376. (doi:10.1177/1350507614542901)

Paton, S., Chia, R. and Burt, G. (2014) Relevance or 'relevate'? How university business schools can add value through reflexively learning from strategic partnerships with business. Management Learning, 45(3), pp. 267-288. (doi:10.1177/1350507613479541)

Chia, R. (2014) From relevance to relevate: how university-based business school can remain seats of “higher” learning and still contribute effectively to business. Journal of Management Development, 33(5), pp. 443-455. (doi:10.1108/JMD-02-2014-0013)

Chia, R. (2014) Reflections: In praise of silent transformation: Allowing change through ‘letting happen’. Journal of Change Management, 14(1), pp. 8-27. (doi:10.1080/14697017.2013.841006)

2013

MacKay, B. and Chia, R. (2013) Choice, chance and unintended consequences in strategic change: a process understanding of the rise and fall of Northco Automotive. Academy of Management Journal, 56(1), pp. 208-230. (doi:10.5465/amj.2010.0734)

Chia, R. (2013) Paradigms and perspectives in organizational project management research: implications for knowledge-creation. In: Drouin, N., Müller, R. and Shankar, S. (eds.) Novel Approaches to Organizational Project Management Research: Translational and Transformational. Series: Advances in organisation studies. Copenhagen Business Press: Copenhagen, Denmark, pp. 33-55. ISBN 9788763002493

Chia, R. , Holt, R. and Li, Y. (2013) In praise of strategic indirection: Towards a non-instrumental understanding of phronésis as practical wisdom. In: Thompson, M. and Bevan, D. (eds.) Wise Management in Organizational Complexity. Palgrave Macmillan: Houndmills, Basingstoke, pp. 53-67. (In Press)

2012

Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Chia, R. (2012) Reflexive practice and the making of elite business careers. Management Learning, 43(4), pp. 385-404. (doi:10.1177/1350507612449680)

Chia, R. and Nayak, A. (2012) Décisions dramatiques ou incisions imperceptibles? Vers une théorie de la prise de décision en devenir. Revue Française de Gestion, 225(June), pp. 147-166.

Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Chia, R. (2012) Sensemaking, storytelling and the legitimization of elite business careers. Human Relations, 65(1), pp. 17-40. (doi:10.1177/0018726711425616)

2011

Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (Eds.) (2011) Philosophy and Organization Theory. Series: Research in the sociology of organizations. Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.: Bingley, UK. ISBN 9780857245953

Chia, R. (2011) Complex thinking: Towards an oblique strategy for dealing with the complex. In: Allen, P., Maguire, S. and McKelvey, B. (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Complexity and Management. SAGE Publications: Los Angeles, CA, USA, pp. 182-198. ISBN 9781847875693

Nayak, A. and Chia, R. (2011) Thinking becoming and emergence: Process philosophy and organization theory. In: Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (eds.) Philosophy and Organization Theory. Series: Research in the sociology of organizations (32). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.: Bingley, UK, pp. 281-309. ISBN 9780857245953

Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (2011) Introduction: Why philosophy matters to organization theory. In: Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (eds.) Philosophy and Organization Theory. Series: Research in the sociology of organizations (32). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.: Bingley, UK, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780857245953

Yuan, L. and Chia, R. (2011) The effect of traditional Chinese fuzzy thinking on human resource practices in mainland China. Chinese Management Studies, 5(4), pp. 431-449. (doi:10.1108/17506141111183479)

2010

Chia, R. (2010) Rediscovering becoming: Insights from an Oriental perspective on process organization studies. In: Hernes, S. and Maitlis, S. (eds.) Process, Sensemaking, and Organizing. Series: Perspectives on process organization studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, pp. 112-139. ISBN 9780199594566

Chia, R. (2010) Shifting paradigms through "letting go": On allowing oneself to become a management education scholar. In: Wankel, C. and DeFillippi, B. (eds.) Being and Becoming a Management Education Scholar. Series: Research in management education and development. Information Age Publishing: Charlotte, NC, USA, pp. 11-41. ISBN 9781607523475

Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Chia, R. (2010) Dominant corporate agents and the power elite in France and Britain. Organization Studies, 31(3), pp. 327-348. (doi:10.1177/0170840609357377)

Rasche, A. and Chia, R. (2010) Epistemological alternatives for researching strategy-as-practice: Building and dwelling worldviews. In: Golsorkhi, D., Rouleau, L., Seidl, D. and Vaara, E. (eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 34-46. ISBN 9780521517287

2009

Rasche, A. and Chia, R. (2009) Researching strategy practices: A genealogical social theory perspective. Organization Studies, 30(7), pp. 713-734. (doi:10.1177/0170840609104809)

Chia, R. (2009) The nature of knowledge and knowing in the context of management learning, education and development. In: Armstrong, S. and Fukami, C. (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Management Learning, Education and Development. SAGE: London, UK, pp. 23-41. ISBN 9781412935395

Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2009) Strategy without Design: The Silent Efficacy of Indirect Action. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. ISBN 9780521189859

Pavlovich, K. and Chia, R. (2009) Perplexity, process and practice. In: Lowe, S. (ed.) Managing in Changing Times: A Guide for the Perplexed Manager. Response Books: Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, pp. 113-134. ISBN 9788132102335

2008

Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2008) The nature of knowledge in business schools. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 7(4), pp. 471-486. (doi:10.5465/AMLE.2008.35882188)

Chia, R. (2008) Enhancing entrepreneurial learning through peripheral vision. In: Harrison, R. and Leitch, C. (eds.) Entrepreneurial Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Applications. Series: Routledge studies in entrepreneurship. Routledge: London, UK, pp. 27-43. ISBN 9780415394161

Chia, R. (2008) Feeding marshmallows to alligators: The inherent fragility of human organization. In: Barry, D. and Hansen, H. (eds.) Sage Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization. SAGE Publications: Los Angeles, CA, USA. ISBN 9781412912181

Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2008) On managerial knowledge. Management Learning, 39(2), pp. 141-158. (doi:10.1177/1350507607087579)

2007

O'Leary, M. and Chia, R. (2007) Epistemes and structures of sensemaking in organizational life. Journal of Management Inquiry, 16(4), pp. 392-406. (doi:10.1177/1056492607310976)

Harrison, R.T., Leitch, C.M. and Chia, R. (2007) Developing paradigmatic awareness in University Business Schools: The challenge for executive education. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 6(3), pp. 332-343. (doi:10.5465/AMLE.2007.26361624)

Chia, R. (2007) Ontology. In: Clegg, S.R. and Bailey, J.R. (eds.) International Encyclopaedia of Organization Studies. SAGE: London, UK. ISBN 9781412915151

Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2007) Wisdom as learning ignorance: Integrating East-West persepectives. In: Kessler, E.H. and Bailey, J.R. (eds.) Handbook of Organizational and Managerial Wisdom. SAGE Publications: Los Angeles, CA, USA, pp. 505-526. ISBN 9781412915618

Chia, R. and MacKay, B. (2007) Post-processual challenges for the emerging strategy-as-practice perspective: Discovering strategy in the logic of practice. Human Relations, 60(1), pp. 217-242. (doi:10.1177/0018726707075291)

Nayak, A., Maclean, M., Harvey, C. and Chia, R. (2007) Entrepreneurship, corporate governance, and Indian business elites. International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 1(1/2), p. 9. (doi:10.1504/IJICBM.2007.014468)

Pina e Cunha, M. and Chia, R. (2007) Using teams to avoid peripheral blindness. Long Range Planning, 40(6), pp. 559-573. (doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2007.08.004)

2006

Chia, R. and Holt, R. (2006) Strategy as practical coping: A Heideggerian perspective. Organization Studies, 27(5), pp. 635-655. (doi:10.1177/0170840606064102)

2005

Chia, R. (2005) Book Review: The Aim of Management Education: Reflections on Mintzberg’s Managers not MBAs. Organization Studies, 26(7), pp. 1090-1092. (doi:10.1177/017084060502600707) [Book Review]

Chia, R. (2005) A Whiteheadian approach to management education. In: Riffert, F. G. (ed.) Alfred North Whitehead on Learning and Education. Cambridge Scholars Press: Newcastle, pp. 215-235. ISBN 9781904303572

2004

Chia, R. (2004) Re-educating attention: what is foresight and how is it cultivated? In: Tsoukas, H. and Shepherd, J. (eds.) Managing the Future: Strategic Foresight in the Knowledge Economy. Blackwell: Oxford, pp. 21-37. ISBN 9781405116145

Chia, R. (2004) Strategy-as-practice: reflections on the research agenda. European Management Review, 1(1), pp. 29-34. (doi:10.1057/palgrave.emr.1500012)

Chia, R. (2004) The shaping of dominant modes of thought: rediscovering the foundations of management knowledge. In: Jeffcutt, P. (ed.) The Foundations of Management Knowledge. Series: Routledge advances in management and business studies (23). Routledge: London ; New York, pp. 169-187. ISBN 9780415207782

2003

Chia, R. (2003) From knowledge-creation to the perfecting of action: Tao, Basho and pure experience as the ultimate ground of knowing. Human Relations, 56(8), pp. 953-981. (doi:10.1177/00187267030568003)

Chia, R. (2003) Organization theory as postmodern science. In: Tsoukas, H. and Knudsen, C. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory. Oxford University Press: Oxford ; New York, pp. 113-140. ISBN 9780199258321

Chia, R. and Tsoukas, H. (2003) Everything changes and nothing endures... Process Studies, 32(2), pp. 196-224.

Chia, R. (2003) Ontology: organization as World-making. In: Westwood, R. and Clegg, S. (eds.) Debating Organization: Point/Counterpoint in Organization Studies. Blackwell Publishing: Malden, Mass ; Oxford, pp. 98-113. ISBN 9780631216926

2002

Chia, R. (2002) Time, duration and simultaneity: rethinking process and change in organizational analysis. Organization Studies, 23(6), pp. 863-868. (doi:10.1177/0170840602236007)

Tsoukas, H. and Chia, R. (2002) On organizational becoming: rethinking organizational change. Organization Science, 13(5), pp. 567-582. (doi:10.1287/orsc.13.5.567.7810)

Chia, R. (2002) Postmodernism and management. In: Warner, M. (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Business and Management [2nd Edition]. Thomson Learning: London, pp. 5360-5368. ISBN 9781861521613

Chia, R. (2002) The production of management knowledge: philosophical underpinnings of research design. In: Partington, D. (ed.) Essential Skills for Management Research. SAGE Publications: London, pp. 1-20. ISBN 9780761970071

2001

Chia, R. and King, I. (2001) The language of organization theory. In: Westwood, R. and Linstead, S. (eds.) The Language of Organization. SAGE: London ; Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 310-328. ISBN 9780761953340

2000

Chia, R. (2000) Discourse analysis as organizational analysis. Organization, 7(3), pp. 513-518. (doi:10.1177/135050840073009)

1999

Chia, R. (1999) A 'rhizomic' model of organizational change and transformation: perspective from a metaphysics of change. British Journal of Management, 10(3), pp. 209-227. (doi:10.1111/1467-8551.00128)

1998

Chia, R. and King, I. W. (1998) The organizational structuring of novelty. Organization, 5(4), pp. 461-478. (doi:10.1177/135050849854002)

Chia, R. (1998) From complexity science to complex thinking: organization as simple location. Organization, 5(3), pp. 341-369. (doi:10.1177/135050849853003)

Chia, R. (Ed.) (1998) In the Realm of Organization: Essays for Robert Cooper. Routledge: London ; New York. ISBN 9780415126991

Chia, R. (Ed.) (1998) Organized Worlds: Explorations in Technology and Organization with Robert Cooper. Routledge: London ; New York. ISBN 9780415127561

Chia, R. (1998) Exploring the expanded Realm of Technology, Organization and Modernity. In: Chia, R. (ed.) Organized Words: Explorations in Technology and Organization with Robert Cooper. Routledge: London ; New York, pp. 1-19. ISBN 9780415127561

1997

Chia, R. (1997) Thirty years on: from organizational structures to the organization of thought. Organization Studies, 18(4), pp. 685-707. (doi:10.1177/017084069701800406)

Chia, R. (1997) Process philosophy and management learning: the role of foresight in management education. In: Burgoyne, J. and Reynolds, M. (eds.) Management Learning: Integrating Perspectives in Theory and Practice. SAGE: London, pp. 71-88. ISBN 9780803976436

1996

Chia, R. (1996) Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: university business schools and the entrepreneurial imagination. Journal of Management Studies, 33(4), pp. 409-428. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1996.tb00162.x)

Chia, R. and Morgan, S. (1996) Educating the philosopher-manager: de-signing the times. Management Learning, 27(1), pp. 37-64. (doi:10.1177/1350507696271004)

Chia, R. (1996) The problem of reflexivity in organizational research: towards a postmodern science of organization. Organization, 3(1), pp. 31-59. (doi:10.1177/135050849631003)

Chia, R. (1996) Metaphors and metaphorization in organizational analysis: thinking the unthinkable. In: Grant, D. and Oswick, C. (eds.) Metaphor and Organizations. SAGE Publications: London ; Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 127-145. ISBN 9780803976290

Chia, R. (1996) Organizational Analysis as Deconstructive Practice. Series: De Gruyter studies in organization (77). Walter de Gruyter: Berlin ; New York. ISBN 9783110145595

1995

Chia, R. (1995) From modern to postmodern organizational analysis. Organization Studies, 16(4), pp. 579-604. (doi:10.1177/017084069501600406)

1994

Chia, R. (1994) The concept of decision: a deconstructive analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 31(6), pp. 781-806. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00639.x)

1991

Chia, R. (1991) The management development process: puzzle solving or paradigm shifting? Management Research News, 14(7/8/9), pp. 57-60. (doi:10.1108/eb028156)

This list was generated on Thu Sep 19 20:06:39 2019 BST.