David Sims

David started his working life 400 yards from Cass in what was then Britannic House, headquarters of BP (now City Point), working on simulation and data retrieval projects. He became fascinated by the way in which political factors dominated the technical factors with which these projects purported to deal. He followed this interest with an MA in Organization Studies at Leeds, and a PhD at Bath on problem construction in teams. For the next 20 years at Bath he developed research, teaching and consulting interests on the organizational implications of problem construction, managing complex situations, cognitive mapping, mental rehearsal, management learning and finally agenda reformation. He was Editor for five years of Management Learning, one of the most highly cited of all non-American management journals. He had one year's remission from Bath for good behaviour, as Senior Visiting Fellow at the National University of Singapore.

He has been a consultant in organizations in the oil, power, computer, publishing, airline, hotel, public relations, aircraft manufacturing and engineering industries, as well as to public sector organizations in the UK and abroad. He moved to Brunel University in 1995 as Professor of Management, and became founding Head of the School of Business and Management there in 1996. His recent research interests have been in management as storytelling, on understanding the identity and learning of managers as storytellers, and on developing the implications of this for leadership in organizations.

In Bayes Business School he has been Associate Dean for the MBA Programmes and was then for three years Head of the Faculty of Management as well as Director of the Centre for Leadership, Learning and Change. He was for seven years a member of the Executive Committee of Bayes Business School, during which time the School gained triple accreditation and was often ranked within the top 10 in the world for Executive MBA programmes, on which he regularly taught. He took early retirement at the end of 2010 to expand his horizons, and is now Emeritus Professor.

Qualifications

BA (CNAA), MA (Leeds) and PhD (Bath).

Memberships of Professional Organisations

Fellow, The Windsor Leadership Trust, Mar 2009 – present

Award

• The Ignobel Prize Committee (2008) Ignobel prize for Literature
• Awarded the Ignobel prize for Literature, for the paper, 'You Bastard: a study of indignation in organizations'.

Expertise

Primary Topics

• Change Management
• Critical Management Studies
• Leadership
• Management
• Organizational Behaviour

Additional Topics

• Gender & Diversity Management
• Management Development

Industries/Professions

• financial services
• non-profit & voluntary sector
• professional services

Research

• Leadership by AHPs in the Health Service
• Improvisation in music and organizations

Research Topics

• Improvisation in music and organizations
• Research collaboration with colleagues at St. Andrew's University
• Narrative understandings of leadership
• Position paper currently being written for MCC, Budapest

Books (5)

• Fineman, S., Gabriel, Y. and Sims, D. (2010). Organizing and organizations. London: SAGE. ISBN 978-1-84860-086-7.
• Sims, D., Pullen, A. and Beech, N. (2007). Exploring identity: concepts and methods. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-8983-3.
• Fineman, S., Sims, D. and Gabriel, Y. (2005). Organizing and Organizations. SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4129-0130-7.
• Gabriel, Y., Fineman, S. and Sims, D. (2000). Organizing and organizations: an introduction. Sage. ISBN 978-0-7619-6280-9.
• Sims, D., Fineman, S. and Gabriel, Y. (1993). Organizing and organizations: an introduction. Sage Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-0-8039-8702-9.

Chapters (15)

• Sims, D. (2015). Organising and storytelling. In Beech, N. and Gilmore, C. (Eds.), Organising Music Theory, Practice, Performance (pp. 39–51). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-24003-8.
• Sims, D. (2014). Storying as the Meaning, and the Evasion, of Life: Reflections on When Stories Might Be Better Left Untold. In Izak, M., Hitchin, L. and Anderson, D. (Eds.), Untold Stories in Organizations (pp. 13–23). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-65445-2.
• Sims, D. (2008). Merging the Myths: A Study of the Effect of Organizational Mythmaking in an Organizational Merger. In Kostera, M. (Ed.), Organizational Epics and Sagas: Tales of Organizations (pp. 118–130). London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-349-35414-6.
• Sims, D. and Beech, N. (2007). Narrative methods for identity research. In Pullen, A., Beech, N. and Sims, D. (Eds.), Exploring identity: concepts and methods London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-8983-3.
• Sims, D. (2005). Living a story and storying a life: a narrative understanding of the distributed self. In Pullen, A. and Linstead, S. (Eds.), Organization and identity (pp. 86–104). Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32231-6.
• Sims, D. (2004). Management learning as a critical process: the practice of storying. In Jeffcutt, P. (Ed.), The foundations of management knowledge (pp. 152–166). Routledge.
• Sims, D. (2004). The Velveteen Rabbit and passionate feelings for organizations. In Gabriel, Y. (Ed.), Myths, Stories, and Organizations: Premodern Narratives for our Times (pp. 209–222). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926448-1.
• Sims, D. and Doyle, J. (2002). Enabling strategic metaphor in conversation: a technique of cognitive sculpting for explicating knowledge. In Huff, A. and Jenkins, M. (Eds.), Mapping strategic knowledge. (pp. 63–85). London: Sage..
• Sims, D. (2001). Thinking in organizations to Management in the thought-full enterprise: an historical projection. In Hellgren, B. and Lowestedt, J. (Eds.), Management in the thought-full enterprise European ideas on organizing. (pp. 281–293). Oslo: Fagbokforlaget.
• Sims, D., Dowds, N., McAulay, L. and Pitt, M. (2001). Understanding agenda formation as organizational cognition: a reversible butterfly model. In Hellgren, B. and Lowestedt, J. (Eds.), Management in the thought-full enterprise: European ideas on organizing. (pp. 179–194). Oslo: Fagbokforlaget..
• Sims, D. and Eden, C. (1999). Futures Research - Working with Management Teams. In Bryson, J.M. (Ed.), Strategic Management in Public and Voluntary Services: A Reader. (pp. 173–186). Oxford: Pergamon.
• Sims, D. and Galpin, S. (1999). Narratives and identity in flexible working and teleworking organizations. In Jackson, P. (Ed.), Virtual Working: social and organizational dynamics (pp. 76–94). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-20088-2.
• Sims, D. (1999). Organizational learning as the development of stories: canons, apocryphas and pious myths. In Easterby Smith, M., Burgoyne, J. and Araujo, L. (Eds.), Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization (pp. 44–58). London: Sage.
• Sims, D. and Wallemacq, A. (1998). The struggle with sense. In Grant, D., Keenoy, T. and Oswick, C. (Eds.), Discourse and Organization (pp. 119–133).
• Sims, D., Fineman, S. and Gabriel, Y. (1996). Sex. In Billsberry, J. (Ed.), The effective manager: perspectives and illustrations. (pp. 295–304). London: Sage.

Journal Articles (31)

• MacIntosh, R., Beech, N., Antonacopoulou, E. and Sims, D. (2012). Practising and knowing management: A dialogic perspective. Management Learning, 43(4), pp. 373–383. doi:10.1177/1350507612452521.
• Xing, Y. and Sims, D. (2012). Leadership, Daoist Wu Wei and reflexivity: Flow, self-protection and excuse in Chinese bank managers' leadership practice. MANAGEMENT LEARNING, 43(1), pp. 97–112. doi:10.1177/1350507611409659.
• Xing, Y. and Sims, D. (2011). How different Chinese cultural traditions affect leadership. Leadership .
• Xing, Y. and Sims, D. (2011). The Varieties of Guanxi for Chinese Banking Managers. International Business Review .
• Sims, D. (2010). Looking for the key to leadership under the lamp post. European Management Journal, 28(4), pp. 253–259. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2010.05.004.
• McAulay, L. and Sims, D. (2009). A celebration: Reflections on management learning and the humanities. Management Learning, 40(4), pp. 357–362. doi:10.1177/1350507609335842.
• Sims, D., Huxham, C. and Beech, N. (2009). On telling stories but hearing snippets: Sense-taking from presentations of practice. Organization, 16(3), pp. 371–388. doi:10.1177/1350508409102301.
• Murakami, K., Murray, L., Sims, D. and Chedzey, K. (2009). Learning on work placement: The narrative development of social competence. Journal of Adult Development, 16(1), pp. 13–24. doi:10.1007/s10804-008-9044-9.
• Sims, D. (2008). Managerial identity formation in a public sector professional: An autobiographical account. International Journal of Public Administration, 31(9), pp. 988–1002. doi:10.1080/01900690801920825.
• Sims, D., Murray, L., Murakami, K. and Chedzey, K. (2006). Work placements as narrative learning: Stories for learning and for counterpoint. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 3(5), pp. 468–487.
• Sims, D. (2005). You bastard: A narrative exploration of the experience of indignation within organizations. Organization Studies, 26(11), pp. 1625–1640. doi:10.1177/0170840605054625.
• Sims, D. and Newman, D. (2005). Encouraging low visibility leadership. Critical Eye Review, 38596(September - November), pp. 30–33.
• Sims, D. (2003). Between the millstones: A narrative account of the vulnerability of middle managers' storying. Human Relations, 56(10), pp. 1195–1211. doi:10.1177/00187267035610002.
• Sims, D. (2003). The organization of hypocrisy: Talk, decisions, actions in organizations, 2nd edition. ORGANIZATION STUDIES, 24(6), pp. 995–998. doi:10.1177/0170840603024006010.
• Pitt, M., McAulay, L. and Sims, D. (2002). Promoting strategic change: ?playmaker? roles in organizational agenda formation. Strategic Change, 11(3), pp. 155–172. doi:10.1002/jsc.586.
• Pitt, M. and Sims, D. (1998). Preparing for Novel Situations: Evoking Managerial Role Identities. Journal of Management Education, 22(6), pp. 682–706. doi:10.1177/105256299802200602.
• Pitt, M., McAulay, L., Dowds, N. and Sims, D. (1997). Horse Races, Governance and the Chance to Fight: On the Formation of Organizational Agendas. British Journal of Management, 8(s1), pp. 19–30. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.8.s1.3.
• Birts, A., McAulay, L., Pitt, M., Saren, M. and Sims, D. (1997). The Expertise of Finance and Accountancy: an Interdisciplinary Study. British Journal of Management, 8(1), pp. 75–83. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.00041.
• Sims, D.B.P. and Doyle, J.R. (1995). Cognitive sculpting as a means of working with managers' metaphors. Omega, 23(2), pp. 117–124. doi:10.1016/0305-0483(94)00066-J.
• Sims, D. and McAulay, L. (1995). Management Learning as a Learning Process: An Invitation. Management Learning, 26(1), pp. 5–20. doi:10.1177/135050769502600101.
• Sims, D. (1995). Cognitive mapping for today's managers. Business North West, 28(9), pp. 8–9.
• Sims, D., Morgan, E., Nicholls, J., Clarke, K. and Harris, J. (1994). Between Experience and Knowledge. Management Learning, 25(2), pp. 275–287. doi:10.1177/1350507694252007.
• Sims, D. (1994). Cognitive mapping for managers. Network: the Government Training and Personnel Journal, 1994(Summer), pp. 12–13.
• Sims, D. and Siew-Kim, J.L. (1993). Discovering an Alternative View of Managing: A Study with Singaporean Women Managers. Applied Psychology, 42(4), pp. 365–377. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.1993.tb00751.x.
• Sims, D. and Sims, A. (1993). Managing Professionals in Multidisciplinary Teams: A Case Study from Psychiatry. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 14(6), pp. 12–16. doi:10.1108/01437739310047056.
• Sims, D. (1993). Coping with Misinformation. Management Decision, 31(5) . doi:10.1108/00251749310041779.
• Sims, D.B.P. (1993). The Formation of Top Managers: a Discourse Analysis of Five Managerial Autobiographies. British Journal of Management, 4(1), pp. 57–68. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1993.tb00162.x.
• Sims, D. and Sims, A. (1993). Clinical Management: The Case of the Consultant Psychiatrist. Health Manpower Management, 19(3), pp. 20–24.
• Sims, D. and Sims, A. (1993). Top teams. Health Service Journal, 103(5357), pp. 28–30.
• Sims, D. (1992). Information Systems and Constructing Problems. Management Decision, 30(5) . doi:10.1108/00251749210015625.
• Sims, D., Harris, J., Clarke, K., Morgan, E. and Nicholls, J. (1992). MBA courses: learning from diversity and similarity. Management Education and Development (Management Learning), 23(4), pp. 335–344.

Editorial Activities (7)

• International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Member of Editorial Board, 2009 – present.
• International Journal of Work, Organisation and Emotion, Member of Editorial Board, 2006 – present.
• Organisation Studies, Member of Editorial Board, 2006 – present.
• Strategic Change, Member of Editorial Board, 2003 – 2009.
• Management Learning, Member of Editorial Board, 2000 – present.
• Journal of Management Inquiry, Member of Editorial Board, 1996 – 2005.
• Management Learning, Editor, 1995 – 1999.