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Marc Thompson

Senior Fellow in Strategy and Organisation

  • marc.thompson@sbs.ox.ac.uk

Saïd Business School,
University of Oxford,
Park End Street,
Oxford
OX1 1HP

Profile

Marc Thompson is an expert on organisational change and is Academic Director of the Oxford-HEC Executive MSc Change Leadership.

He holds a BA (Hons) from Trinity College, Dublin, an MSc (Econ) from London School of Economics and a DSc from Aalto University.

He is a Governing Body Fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford.

Marc’s research focuses on organisational change and how to develop more sustainable models of organising. He provides consultation to organisations and leadership teams undergoing change.

Expertise

  • organising for sustainability and planetary health
  • meaningful work
  • strategic innovation and renewal
  • leadership, ethics and change
  • leadership development
  • institutional change
  • organisation theory
  • pragmatist theory
  • social science of change
  • future of work
  • high performance work systems
  • systems change.

Marc is co-editor and contributor to the Oxford Handbook on Meaningful Work. His latest book, Opening Change: Organising for a Sustainable Future, will be published in 2024 by Bristol University Press.

A chapter on the ‘Laboratisation of Change’ won an award for outstanding scholarly contribution.

He presents a podcast series on change, The Change Pod.

Research

Marc's research activities are focused on:

  • sustainable models of organising
  • developing socio-ecological mindsets
  • negotiating change in complex multi-stakeholder contexts
  • experimental spaces for change
  • purpose, practices and organisational change
  • democratising organisations
  • commoning practices and organisational change
  • cooperation and conflict in change.

Publications

The Laboratization of change: what is it with labs and change these days?

  • Chapter
  • Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol. 29
  • MARC THOMPSON
Organisation Studies

A Review of the Empirical Literature on Meaningful Work: Progress and Research Agenda

  • Journal article
  • Human Resource Development Review
  • Catherine Bailey,
  • Ruth Yeoman,
  • Adrian Madden,
  • Marc Thompson,
  • Gary Kerridge
Organisation Studies

Bringing political economy back in: A comparative institutionalist perspective on meaningful work

  • Chapter
  • The Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work
  • M Thompson
Organisation Studies

The five paradoxes of meaningful work: introduction to the special issue ‘meaningful work: prospects for the 21st century’

  • Journal article
  • Journal of Management Studies
  • C Bailey,
  • M Lips-Wiersma,
  • A Madden,
  • Ruth Yeoman,
  • Marc Thompson,
  • N Chalofsky
Organisation Studies

Common Knowledge: The Missing Link in Hybrid Value Chains?

  • Chapter
  • Working Relationally in and across Practices
  • Marc Thompson,
  • Catherine Dolan,
  • Colin Mayer,
  • Kate Roll,
  • Ruth Yeoman
Finance
Organisation Studies
See more publications

Engagement

Marc engages with practitioners and policy makers through public speaking, seminars, press articles, workshops and teaching through executive education. He has worked with a range of international organisations on complex challenges such as UNWomen and UN Development Programme (UNDP) and supports leadership teams working through strategic change processes.

Teaching

At the School, Marc teaches on:

  • DPhil programmes
  • Executive MBA
  • MBA
  • MSc Change Leadership
  • MSc Global Healthcare Leadership

He designs, directs and teaches on executive education programmes and has won awards for programme design. His teaching focuses on negotiation, organisational change and leadership.

Oxford Answers

Thought-leadership and insights for business leaders written by our Faculty and Associate Fellows.

View articles by Marc.

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