Provost's Profile

PROFESSOR TIMOTHY CLARK
PROVOST OF SMU

EDUCATION

AREA OF SPECIALISATION

Organisational behaviour and the diffusion of management ideas.

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

Prior to becoming Provost of SMU, Timothy Clark was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Social Sciences and Health) at Durham University, United Kingdom, where he was also Executive Lead for Computer and Information Services (CIS) and Estates and Buildings.

Professor Clark joined Durham University as Professor of Organisational Behaviour (2002-19), becoming Chair of the Board of Studies (Head of Department) at Durham University Business School (2007-10). He was appointed Dean of Graduate School and Internationalisation at Durham University (2010-12), and Dean and Deputy to Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) (2012-15). He also served as Executive Lead for Computer and Information Services (CIS) and Estates and Buildings from 2018.

Before joining Durham University, he served as a Research Fellow in International Management at the Open University and a Reader in Management at King’s College London.

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS

Professor Clark is a past Chair (2009) and President (2011) of the British Academy of Management and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the British Academy of Management.

He was made an inaugural Academic Fellow of the International Council of Management Consultancy Institutes in 2013, and Principal Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy in 2015. He was appointed to the Register of Auditors of the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Council as an International Reviewer in 2014, and reappointed in 2016, and has been Vice-Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Training and Skills Committee.

Professor Clark was an Editor/General Editor of Journal of Management Studies (2000-2010).

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Professor Clark’s research focuses on understanding the role and nature of management consultants and management gurus in the diffusion of management knowledge. In recent years, he has conducted a series of research projects into different aspects of the management consultancy industry, including; the factors underpinning the selection and purchase of consultancy; the management of the client-consultant relationship; the role of consultants and management gurus in the diffusion of management ideas.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1. Greatbatch, D. and Clark, T. (2018) Using Conversation Analysis for Business and Management Students. London: Sage.
2. Clark, T., Wright, M. and Ketchen, D. (2016) How to Get Published in the Best Management Journals. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
3. Kipping, M. and Clark, T. (2012) The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. Guthey, E., Clark, T. and Jackson, B. (2009) Demystifying Business Celebrities. London: Routledge.
5. Sturdy, A., Handley, K. and Clark, T. Fincham, R. (2009) Management Consultancy in Action – Relationships, Knowledge and Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6. Greatbatch, D. and Clark, T. (2005) Management Speak: Why We Listen to What the Management Gurus Tell Us. London: Routledge.
7. Clark, T. and Fincham, R. (2002) Critical Consulting: New Perspectives on the Management Advice Industry. Oxford: Blackwell.
8. Clark, T. (1997) Advancement in Organisational Behaviour: Essays in Honour of Derek S. Pugh. Aldershot: Ashgate.
9. Clark, T. (1996) European Human Resource Management. Oxford: Blackwell.
10. Clark, T. (1995) Managing Consultants: Consultancy as Impression Management. Buckingham: The Open University Press.