Skip to main content
Joe O'Mahoney

Professor Joe O'Mahoney

Professor of Consulting

Cardiff Business School

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

Overview

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.

Publication

2023

2021

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2005

2004

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Monographs

Research

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

Teaching

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

Biography

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)