Harsh Kumar Jha

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Management, Employment & Organisation section at Cardiff Business School. My research interests include exploration of how actors construct meaning and seek legitimacy through discourse, and intersectionality of ethincity, race, gener and class in various social mobility relevant outcomes.My research has been published in academic journals such as Journal of Professions and Organization and Research in the Sociology of Organizations; was runner-up for the Best International Paper Award, OMT division at AOM 2021; and was nominated for the Carolyn B. Dexter Award by MOC division at AOM 2020. I am a member of the editorial board at the Journal of Management Studies and a regular reviewer for Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Studies, Human Relations and Journal of Professions and Organization. Before joining academia, I worked for over six years in sales, marketing and product management functions in telecom, consumer durables and social care industries in India and UK.

Research

My research interests can be broadly divided into two streams.

• How actors construct meaning and seek legitimacy – I am interested in exploring how actors communicate knowledge and participate in discursive struggles over contested issues in public media to legitimize their positions (discourse analysis, framing, sensemaking/sensegiving, translation and frame analysis).
• Social mobility and inclusion – I am interested in exploring intersectionality of ethnicity, race, class and gender with respect to various social mobility relevant outcomes, especially in higher education and school education fields.

I explore these interests in a variety of empirircal contexts, such as, professional occupations (especially law and health care), education, social enterpreneurship and CSR. Methodologically, I use both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Further, I also specialize in the application of machine learning tools (e.g. topic modeling) for analysing large media datasets.

Companies

• Lecturer (Assistant Professor) Cardiff Business School (2021)
• Lecturer (Assistant Professor) Newcastle University Business School (2016 — 2021)
• Graduate Research & Teaching Assistant University of California, Irvine - The Paul Merage School of Business (2011 — 2016)
• Marketing Director European Care Group (2009 — 2011)
• Manager Whirlpool India Ltd. (2006 — 2008)
• Assistant Manager Hutchison Essar Telecom (Currently Vodafone India) (2004 — 2006)
• Summer Intern GE Capital (2003 — 2003)

Education

• PhD in Management, University of California, Irvine, USA (2017)
• MSc in Management Research, University of Oxford, UK (2009)
• PGDM in Marketing & HRM, Symbiosis International University, India (2004)
• BA (Hons) in Sociology, Hindu College, University of Delhi, India (2001)