Chair in Strategic Management & Organisation
Background
John Amis joined the University of Edinburgh Business School in July 2013 as Chair in Strategic Management and Organisation. John received his PhD from the University of Alberta. Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, he was in the Department of Management at the University of Memphis. John has received a number of research, teaching and doctoral supervision awards including the University of Memphis’ Distinguished Teaching Award.
In addition to his research and teaching roles, John has held several senior administrative positions. He is Co-Director of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Strategic Leadership and has previously served as Head of the Strategy Group, Director of the Business School's Doctoral Programme, Chair of the Organization Development & Change division of the Academy of Management, and Chair of the Organising Committee for the 35th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Annual Colloquium held in 2019 in Edinburgh.
John has also carried out numerous consulting assignments, sponsored research projects, and Executive Leadership Development programmes with various organisations, including Scottish Enterprise, National Trust for Scotland, CALA Homes, and Fortune 500 US companies FedEx and AutoZone. He also co-designed and leads (with Judy Wagner of FWB Park Brown) the Non-Executive Director Programme.
Research Interests
John's research interests center on issues of organisational, institutional and social change. In addition to work on social and economic inequality, he is currently studying the migration of people from different countries, including Syria, Pakistan and Ukraine, investigating how a social enterprise is trying to alleviate problems of homelessness in Scotland, and major change in a Scottish charity. Previous published work include studies of the European migration crisis, innovation management at a Fortune 100 firm in the United States and a three-year project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Fund examining the development and implementation of policies designed to address childhood obesity in the US. These projects have led to insights into the ways in which new practices are adopted and how large-scale change processes are managed in public-, private- and voluntary-sector organisations.
In addition to three books, John has had over 80 journal articles and book chapters published, delivered over 80 refereed conference and invited presentations, and has organised several conferences, journal Special Issues, conference streams and symposia. John’s work has been published in journals that include Academy of Management Annals, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, American Journal of Public Health, Human Relations, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Organizational Research Methods.
John is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Organization Studies and was formerly an Associate Editor with Academy of Management Review. He also sits on several Editorial Boards, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organizational Research Methods, Strategic Organization, Journal of Management Inquiry and Journal of Change Management. He won the 2022 Organization & Management Theory Division Best Published Paper Award, has twice been runner-up for the annual Academy of Management Journal Best Paper award, and has won several other Best Paper awards.