Dr Des Williamson
Lecturer in Business Strategy

Profile

Biography

Following a long and successful career in the UK Fire and Rescue Service, commencing as a frontline firefighter and serving in all ranks and roles across a number of fire and rescue authorities and culminating in the role of Director of Fire and Rescue Service Operations, I joined the School for Business and Society in October 2017 after completing my PhD at the University of Surrey Business School.

This year I will be involved in teaching and supporting the Modules: Introduction to Strategic Management (PGT), Contemporary Issues in Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (PGT), Strategic Management (2nd year UG) and Management and the Business Environment (1st year UG), as well as supervising a number of Masters’ dissertation students.

Subject Group

Work Management and Organisation

Research

Overview

My PhD research involved the epistemological problematization of decision and reconceptualised the conditions of possibility for knowledge, behaviours and practice in relation to a research case involving the tragic loss of life of firefighters at a fire. The research specifically problematized extant decision theory and decision making models and suggested an alternative conceptualization of institutional decision/nondecision, subsequently examined through deconstructive genealogical interrogation of archival texts in relation to the research case. My research interests therefore, concern the philosophy and ethics of decision/nondecision, particularly in relation to institutional behaviours and practice, and especially those involving life or death, or quality of life, consequences; questions of knowledge and institutional, social and managerial discourse, with a particular interest in knowledge and discourse/s of heroism; research practice and methodological debates, especially those concerning the purpose, framing, practice and praxis of research; and empirical research involving the engagement of archival texts.

Conference Stream Co-Convener

‘Heroes and Heroism’ paper presentations stream, Critical Management Studies Conference, Liverpool, July 2017 (with Professor Leo McCann and Dr Ed Granter of Manchester Business School)

Publications

Selected publications

Conference Paper Presentations

Critical Management Studies Conference, Leicester, July 2015

International Organizational Discourse Conference, Amsterdam, July 2016

Technical Panel, Management History Research Group, Sheffield, July 2016

Academy of Management (AoM), Anaheim, USA, August 2016

British Academy of Management (BAM), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, September 2016