Professor Joe O'Mahoney

Professor of Consulting

Prof. O'Mahoney is an expert on growth in the consulting industry. He has worked as a corporate management consultant, an independent consultant and as an internal consultant. Now working primarily at Cardiff University, Joe has become a leading authority on the sector - having researched, taught and written about the consulting industry for over fifteen years. Joe has a number of resources for consultancies that wish to grow successfully at joeomahoney.com.

Joe's textbook on Management Consulting, with Oxford University Press, was the best-selling text on this topic in the world, and his academic work in this area has been published in leading international journals, including the British Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies (another here), Human Relations, Management Learning, Organization, and the International Journal of Management Reviews. Joe has edited special issues on consulting and critical realism in management and philosophy journals and contributed several chapters to hand-books and edited collections, including an edited collection about Researching Organizations using Critical Realism.

Joe's teaching on consultancy has won three University ‘teaching excellence’ prizes, and a ‘Highly Commended’ award from the British Academy of Management. He has advised several large consultancies on innovation, including KPMG and IBM, and has helped dozens of small consultancies improve their revenues. He guest lectures in leading Universities to help students land jobs in consulting companies.

He was the first academic Fellow of the International Council of Management Consultancy Institutes, is a Fellow of the CIPD and the Advanced Institute of Management, and a Member of the Institute of Consulting. He has won over £450,000 of research awards including three prestigious ESRC awards to study innovation in the consulting industry. Joe is currently CEO of Consulting Mastered Ltd.

2023

Galazka, A. and O'Mahoney, J. 2023. The socio-materiality of dirty work: a critical realist perspective. Work, Employment and Society 37(2), pp. 432-448. (10.1177/09500170211011321)

2021

O'Mahoney, J. 2021. Growth: Building a consultancy in the digital age. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
O'Mahoney, J., Sturdy, A. and Galazka, A. 2021. Acquiring knowledge through management consultancy: national culture perspective. Journal of Management and Organization (10.1017/jmo.2021.46)
O'Mahoney, J. 2021. How small consultancies grow: Challenging problem-based theorising. Management Consulting Journal 4(1), pp. 5-20. (10.2478/mcj-2021-0002)

2020

Mavridopoulou, I. and O'Mahoney, J. 2020. Elitism in strategy consulting. Management Consulting Journal 5, pp. 6-10.

2019

O'Mahoney, J. 2019. The philosophy of management ideas. In: Sturdy, A. et al. eds. Oxford Handbook of Management Ideas. Oxford University Press, pp. 68–85., (10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794219.013.9)

2018

Sturdy, A. and O'Mahoney, J. 2018. National Drivers of Management Consulting use - a note on new research. Management Consulting Journal 2, pp. 6.
Sturdy, A. and O'Mahoney, J. 2018. Explaining national variation in the use of management consulting knowledge: a framework. Management Learning 49(5), pp. 537-558. (10.1177/1350507618788993)
O'Mahoney, J., Vincent, S. and Harley, B. 2018. Realist studies of oppression,emancipation and resistance. Organization 25(5), pp. 575-584. (10.1177/1350508418789686)
Visscher, K., Heusinkveld, S. and O'Mahoney, J. 2018. Bricolage and identity work. British Journal of Management 29(2), pp. 356-372. (10.1111/1467-8551.12220)

2017

Vincent, S. and O'Mahoney, J. 2017. Critical realism and qualitative research: an introductory overview. In: Grandy, G., Cassell, C. and Cunliffe, A. L. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods: History and Traditions. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 201-216., (10.4135/9781526430212)
Brannan, M. J., Fleetwood, S., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. 2017. Critical essay: meta-analysis: a critical realist critique and alternative. Human Relations 70(1), pp. 11-39. (10.1177/0018726716674063)
Al-Amoudi, I., Edwards, T., O'Mahoney, H. and O'Mahoney, J. 2017. Introduction: de/humanisation and critical realism. Journal of Critical Realism 16(4), pp. 349-352. (10.1080/14767430.2017.1348713)

2016

O'Mahoney, J. 2016. Archetypes of translation: recommendations for dialogue. International Journal of Management Reviews 18(3), pp. 333-350. (10.1111/ijmr.12103)
O'Mahoney, J. and Sturdy, A. 2016. Power and the diffusion of management ideas: the case of McKinsey & Co. Management Learning 47(3), pp. 247-265. (10.1177/1350507615591756)
O'Mahoney, J. 2016. Management consultancy. In: Wilkinson, A. and Johnstone, S. eds. Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management. Cheltenham: Elgar, pp. 99-100.

2015

Al-Amoudi, I. and O'Mahoney, J. 2015. Ontology: philosophical discussions and implications for organization studies. In: Greenwood, M., Mir, R. and Willmott, H. eds. Routledge Companion of Philosophy in Organization Studies. Routledge Companions in Business, Management and Accounting Routledge, pp. 15-32.

2014

Edwards, P. K., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. eds. 2014. Studying organizations using critical realism: A practical guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665525.001.0001)
Edwards, P. K., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. 2014. Concluding comments.. In: Edwards, P. K., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. eds. Studying Organizations Using Critical Realism: A Practical Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 318-326.
Vincent, S. and O'Mahoney, J. 2014. Critical realism as an empirical project: a beginner's guide. In: Edwards, P., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. eds. Putting Critical Realism into Practice: A Guide to Research Methods in Organization Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Edwards, P., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. 2014. Future directions for critical realist research. In: Edwards, P., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. eds. Putting Critical Realism into Practice: A Guide to Research Methods in Organization Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press
O'Mahoney, J. and Marks, A. 2014. Researching identity: a critical realist approach. In: Edwards, P., O'Mahoney, J. and Vincent, S. eds. Putting Critical Realism into Practice: A Guide to Research Methods in Organization Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 66-85.

2013

O'Mahoney, J. 2013. Management innovation in the UK consulting industry. In: Haynes, K. and Grugulis, I. eds. Managing Services: Challenges and Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 83-104.
Radnor, Z. J. and O'Mahoney, J. 2013. The role of management consultancy in implementing operations management in the public sector. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 33(11/12), pp. 1555-1578. (10.1108/IJOPM-07-2010-0202)
O'Mahoney, J., Heusinkveld, S. and Wright, C. 2013. Commodifying the commodifiers: the impact of procurement on management knowledge. Journal of Management Studies 50(2), pp. 204-235. (10.1111/joms.12008)
O'Mahoney, J. and Markham, C. 2013. Management consultancy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2012

O'Mahoney, J. 2012. Embracing essentialism: a realist critique of resistance to discursive power. Organization 19(6), pp. 723-741. (10.1177/1350508411420901)
Cuimara, T. and O'Mahoney, J. 2012. The environmental contingencies of knowledge dissemination: the case of consultancies in international development. Revista Economică: Journal of Economic-Financial Theory and Practice 4-5(63), pp. 172-187.

2011

O'Mahoney, J. 2011. Embracing essentialism. Presented at: 25th Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) 2011 Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 6 December 2011.
O'Mahoney, J. 2011. Management Innovation in the UK Consulting Industry. Technical Report.
O'Mahoney, J. 2011. Advisory anxieties: ethical individualisation in the UK consulting industry. Journal of Business Ethics 104(1), pp. 101-113. (10.1007/s10551-011-0892-z)
O'Mahoney, J. 2011. Critical realism and the self. Journal of Critical Realism 10(1), pp. 122-129.
O'Mahoney, J. and Adams, R. 2011. Critically exploring business engagement in academia: the case of the UK consulting industry. In: Buono, A. F. et al. eds. The Changing Paradigm of Consulting: Adjusting to the Fast-Paced World. Research in Management Consulting Vol. 13. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 259-278.

2010

Radnor, Z. J. and O'Mahoney, J. 2010. Process management in the public sector: the role of management consultancies. Presented at: 24th Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) 2010 Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 7-10 December 2010.
O'Mahoney, J. 2010. Management consultancy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2009

O'Mahoney, J. and Adams, R. 2009. Critically exploring business engagement in academia: the case of the UK consulting industry. Presented at: 4th International Conference on Management Consulting (MCD 2009), Vienna, Austria, 11-13 June 2009.

2008

O'Mahoney, J., Adams, R., Antonacopoulou, E. and Neely, A. 2008. ESRC Business Engagement Project: A Scoping Study of Contemporary and Future Challenges in the UK Management Consulting Industry. Technical Report.

2007

O'Mahoney, J. 2007. The diffusion of management innovations: the possibilities and limitations of memetics. Journal of Management Studies 44(8), pp. 1324-1348. (10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00734.x)
O'Mahoney, J. 2007. Constructing habitus: the negotiation of moral encounters at Telekom. Work Employment & Society 21(3), pp. 479-496. (10.1177/0950017007080009)
O'Mahoney, J. 2007. Disrupting identity: trust and angst in management consulting. In: Bolton, S. C. and Houlihan, M. eds. Searching for the Human in Human Resource Management: Theory, Practice and Workplace Contexts. Management, Work and Organisations Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 281-302.
O'Mahoney, J. 2007. Trust, distrust and anxiety: the new manufacturing philosophy at GearCo. Working paper. Cardiff: Cardiff Business School.
O'Mahoney, J. 2007. The diffusion of management innovations: the possibilities and limitations of memetics. Working paper. Cardiff, UK: Cardiff University.

2005

Ferdinand, J., Muzio, D. and O'Mahoney, J. 2005. Book Review: Muddling with CMS: A Reply [Letter]. Organization Studies 26(11), pp. 1714-1716. (10.1177/017084060502601109)

2004

Ferdinand, J., Daniel, M. and O'Mahoney, J. 2004. Book Review: Studying Management Critically [Book Review]. Organization Studies 25(8), pp. 1455-1465. (10.1177/0170840604046352)
O'Mahoney, J. and Crouch, C. 2004. Machine tooling in the United Kingdom. In: Crouch, C. et al. eds. Changing Governance of Local Economies in Europe: Responses on European Local Production Systems. Oxford: Open University Press, pp. 74-98., (10.1093/0199259402.003.0005)

Research funding

2016 Cardiff University, Impact / Engagement Funding (Tax Evasion) £10,000

2016 IACR conference grant (SAMS) (co-applicant) £5,500

2016 IACR conference grant from Organization (co-applicant) £1,000.

2015 ESRC / Olympus Type 2 Funding for Doctoral Student £80,000

2014 Visiting Scholar Grant, University of Sydney £5,500

2014 Cardiff University International Travel Award & research leave £6,000

2013 Visiting Scholar, University of Butler, USA (for summer 2014) £7,000

2012 Cardiff University CUROP scheme £3,000

2011 ESRC / AIM Innovation Survey Grant £3,500

2011 Cardiff Business School Seedcorn Funding: Innovation Survey Grant £2,500

2010 ESRC / AIM Open Access Teaching Material Grant £6,500

2009 ESRC/AIM Management Practices Fellowship £170,000

2009 ESRC / AIM Scholarship £20,000

2009 ESRC Seminar Series: Critical Realism in Practice £3,000

2007 CARBS Seedcorn Funding: Ethics in the UK Consulting industry. £1,500

1996 ESRC funding: PhD in Organisational Change. £45,000

Interests

critical realism
internal consultants
management consulting/consultancy
management innovations
management knowledge
business environment
innovation
organisational behaviour

Level / Course	Role	Years	Location
Executive Education / Various	Module Leader	2005-Present	Cardiff
Business Environment	Module Leader	2015-Present	Cardiff
Exec. MBA / Mngt. Consulting	Module Leader	2012-Present	Cardiff
MSc / Intl. Mngt. Consulting	Module Leader	2014-Present	Cardiff
MBA / Management Consulting	Module Leader	2008-Present	Cardiff
MBA / Management of Change	Module Leader	2005-2009	Cardiff
Exec. Ed. / Leadership	Module Leader	2010-2012	Cardiff
BA / Organisational Behaviour	Lecturer	2004-2009	Cardiff
MBA / HRM	Lecturer	2003-2004	Lancaster
Exec. Ed / Leadership & Change	Module Leader	2003-2004	Lancaster
Exec. Ed. / IT Strategy	Module Leader	2003-2004	Lancaster
BA / Organisational Behaviour	Module Leader	1999-2000	Aston
MSc CIPD / Employment Law	Module Leader	1997-1999	Coventry
MSc CIPD / Industrial Relations	Module Leader	1997-1999	Coventry
Organisational Behaviour	Tutor	1996-1998	Warwick

Qualifications

PhD (2000) Organisational Change: ESRC Funded (University of Warwick)
MA (1996) Industrial Relations: Unilever Prize (University of Warwick)
BA (1995) Ancient and Modern History, hons. (University of Oxford)

Additional activities

After gaining a patent on one of his inventions, Joe started up a telco manufacturing company StayMobile Techology Ltd. with a childhood friend.

Joe worked in the consulting industry for several years, working in a variety of roles around organisational change. Now, Joe performs consultancy work in the area of organisational change and leadership and has given talks on a number of subjects at conferences, industry meetings and general meetings. In recent years clients have included the board of Hoover, IBM, the British Computing Society, and several Management Consultancies.

Media contributions

Joe has appeared on both BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 2 as an industry expert on the telecoms and gaming industry. In 2007 he appeared on BBC 2's Dragon's Den.

Honours and awards

2016 BAM Educational Practice Award (Highly Commended)

2015 First Academic Fellow of the International Council of Consultancies Institutes

2014 Runner-up: Best Paper Award, AOM MCD.

2014 Invited to join Board of Intl. Critical Realism Centre by Prof. Roy Bhaskar

2013 Research leave from CARBS and Research Fellowship from University.

2010-16 Visiting Research Fellowships / Scholarships to Universities of Yale, Butler, Sydney, Vienna, & Geneva

2013 Certificate for Excellence in Teaching (Cardiff Business School)

2011 Certificate for Excellence in Teaching (Cardiff Business School)

2008 Certificate for Excellence in Teaching (Cardiff Business School)

2010 Invited board member for the Centre for Critical Realism, London.

2010 Invited board member for the Management Consultancies Association.

2005 Outstanding Teaching Award (University of Lancaster)

1997 The Hugh Clegg Award for Industrial Relations (Warwick PhD Programme).

1996 IBM Award for First Placed Student (MA Industrial Relations).

Professional memberships

Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (1996)

Fellow of the ICMCI

Member of the Institute of Directors

Fellow, Advanced Institute of Management

Academic positions

2017- Present Professor in Organisation Studies, Cardiff Business School

2014- 2017 Reader, Cardiff University, Business School

2012-2014 Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University, Business School

2005-2012 Lecturer, Cardiff University, Business School

2004-2005 Lecturer, Lancaster University, Management School

2002-2006 Managing Director and Co-Founder: StayMobile Technology Ltd.

2001-2004 Head of Business Analysis, Three

1999-2001 Senior Change Management Consultant, Xansa

1996-2000 Independent Management Consultant / Researcher

1996-2000 Part-time lecturer / tutor (Warwick, Aston & Coventry Universities)

Contact Details

OMahoneyJ@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 29208 76164
Aberconway Building, Room D12, Colum Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3EU