John Amis

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 and teaching 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 Chair of the Organising Committee for the 35th European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Annual Colloquium to be held in 2019 in Edinburgh. He has served as the Director of University of Edinburgh Business School's Doctoral Programme and as Chair of the Organization Development & Change division of the Academy of Management.

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. He is currently studying how a social enterprise is trying to alleviate problems of homelessness in Scotland, reforms to the Scottish civil justice system, and major change in a Scottish charity. Previous published work include studies of 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 70 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 Journal, Academy of Management Review, American Journal of Public Health, Human Relations, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Organizational Research Methods.

John is an Associate Editor with Academy of Management Review and sits on several other Editorial Boards, including Organization Studies, Organizational Research Methods, Strategic Organization, Journal of Management Inquiry and Journal of Change Management. He has won several awards for his research, including being runner-up for the annual Academy of Management Journal ‘Best Paper’ award, and winner of several Best Paper awards at the annual meetings of the Academy of Management (Organizational Development & Change division), Western Academy of Management, and Southern Management Association.

Research Area

Strategy