Tim Morris
Emeritus Professor
- tim.morris@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Saïd Business School
University of Oxford
Park End Street
Oxford
OX1 1HP
Profile
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
Publications
Professional Service Firms(opens in new window)
- Chapter
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Services
Professional service firms
- Chapter
- Elgar Encyclopedia of Services
Resolving the individual helping and objective job performance dilemma: the moderating effect of team reflexivity(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Journal of Business Research
Creating space for religious diversity at work(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Harvard Business Review
Handling resistance to change when societal and workplace logics conflict(opens in new window)
- Journal article
- Administrative Science Quarterly
Engagement
Tim’s work has a deep impact on practitioners and academics alike.
He has provided consulting advice to a wide range of leading professional service firms in the UK and internationally.
He was Principle Investigator on the CEO project between Saïd Business School and Heidrick & Struggles and has presented insights from the research to a range of practitioner audiences.
He has served as the Expert Member of the Management Consultants Association (MCA) Panel on the Value of Management Consulting.
He has participated in recent grant-sponsored projects ranging from a study of reputation and performance in labour markets to the privatisation of British Nuclear Fuels.
He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Management Studies.
He has been a visiting scholar and professor at a number of universities around the world.
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.
