Education
Tech Dip. Mech Eng (Singapore Polytechnic)
Dip Training and Development Management (ITD, UK)
MA Organisational Analysis (distinction) (Lancaster)
PhD Organisation Studies (Lancaster)
Prior to entering academia, Robert worked for 6 years in aircraft maintenance engineering followed by 10 years in manufacturing management and human resource management for a large multinational corporation based in the Asia Pacific where he accredited himself with distinction through a number of significant achievements in productivity improvement, industrial relations and human resource management. During this period, he was also on the advisory panel for the National Productivity Board, Singapore and was actively involved in management training and running consultancy clinics for SMEs on productivity improvements initiatives.
He subsequently left industry in 1988 to pursue his studies at Lancaster University where he took his first academic appointment as a teaching fellow/lecturer and was directly involved in teaching on the British Airways Global MBA programme as well as several other post-experience/executive programmes run by Lancaster University Management School. Since then he has held various other positions including professorial appointments at the universities of Essex, Exeter, St Andrews and Aberdeen prior to joining Strathclyde Business School in November 2008.
Robert is an elected Fellow (by invitation) of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, United Kingdom (FRSA) as well as an invited member of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), UK. 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 and the Journal of Chinese Management. He is the author/editor of three books and a significant number of international journal articles as well as book chapters in a variety of management sub-fields. His latest book Strategy without Design (with Robin Holt), published by Cambridge University Press, is scheduled to appear in the Summer of 2009.
Robert has consulted extensively with well-known international organisations and institutions such as the International Federation of Red Cross (Geneva), British Airways, BNFL, British Aerospace, Ciba-Geigy and Cathay Pacific Airlines. He has a wide-range of postgraduate teaching experiences and specialises in company-based Executive-type programmes. For several years he was a regular contributor to a leading-edge International Masters in Practice Management (IMPM) programme chaired by the renowned organizational strategist Henry Mintzberg. He has recently contributed a module entitled Strategic Foresight to a web-based educational initiative launched by Mintzberg entitled 'Coaching Ourselves' which is targeted at practising managers.
His current research interests revolve around a variety of the issues including: strategy emergence; foresight and peripheral awareness; complex thinking and creativity; the educational role of university business schools; the relationship between forms of knowledge and effective action; and the significance of contrasting East-West mentalities and their implications for business practice. As an ex-management practitioner-turned-academic Robert is especially keen to contribute to innovative executive and postgraduate education programmes where he is able to more fruitfully synthesis his substantial work experience with the insights he has developed from the world of ideas. Through these postgraduate/post-experience programmes he hopes to be able to make a useful contribution to enhancing the world of management practice.
