Tim Morris

Tim’s research and teaching activities mainly focus on the increasingly important field of professional service firms (PSFs). He is acknowledged as a leading international expert in this area.

PSFs are hugely significant in the global economy. They support financial markets, facilitate complex international transactions and offering advice and solutions to the world’s largest corporations, governments and other international organisations. They ‘sell’ expertise – that most intangible of products – providing customised solutions to demanding clients.

His other research, conducted with colleagues at Said Business School, has been concerned with the role and development of CEOs in large corporations based on data from interviews with a large sample of CEOs around the world. The results were presented at the World Economic Forum.

Tim is actively engaged in executive education, where he teaches on a number of the School’s open programmes, including the High Performance Leadership Programme and Diploma in Organisational Leadership. He also teaches on a wide range of custom programmes that help firms and executives grapple with the complex and pressing organisational and leadership challenges they face. In addition to his immediate teaching and research activities, Morris also pursues a variety of projects with business practitioners and is actively engaged with academic colleagues internationally.

Tim has a BA from Cambridge and a Masters and Doctorate from the London School of Economics. Before taking up his chair at Oxford, he was a professor at Imperial College, London, and at London Business School.

Research

Tim is a highly active researcher and he has published widely in leading scholarly journals as well as contributing to many edited collections.

His work is notable for its pioneering analysis of many areas of professional service firms and his fusion of practical engagement with firms with the creation of new, groundbreaking frameworks and models.

He pursues research at the intersection of four key areas within PSFs:

• Careers patterns and innovation
• Decision-making, leadership and power
• The creation and management of reputation
• Competitive advantage

Teaching

Tim teaches on a number of postgraduate and executive programmes at the School.

MBA and EMBA Programmes

Tim teaches the core course, Leadership Fundamentals, on the EMBA. The course is designed to help executives address their organisational challenges by providing a framework for managing individual and group performance, tying concrete organisational situations – as reflected in cases, simulations, and field projects – to essential theories and effective management practices.

Doctoral Programme

In addition to supervising a range of doctoral students, Tim contributes to a foundation doctoral programme on Organisational Theory.

Diploma in Organisational Leadership

Tim co-teaches a module on leadership and change on this diploma programme which offers participants a unique opportunity to undertake a rigorous academic programme, requiring thought and reflection, on the twin topics of leadership and the organisational landscape in which leaders operate.

High Performance Leadership

Tim also teaches on this highly-regarded programme, which has helped hundreds of managers from different sectors, regions and backgrounds lead their teams to organisational success. Underpinning the programme is Tim’s distinctive view of leadership, one that is both derived from his research and is at the same time highly practical.

Custom Programmes

Tim has contributed to custom programmes for over forty leading organisations during his career, including more recently, Aviva, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, the Qatar Foundation and Royal Mail.

Online Programmes

Tim is the Programme Director for the online Oxford Executive Leadership Programme, and his extensive research forms the platform to the learning modules. He also contributes to programmes across the online portfolio, including Leading Strategic Projects, Artificial Intelligence, and Leading Professional Service Firms.