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Michael Barrett

Director of Programmes
Reader in Information Technology and Innovation
Director of Studies in Management at Hughes Hall

BSc (Univ. of the West Indies), MSc (Univ. of Ottawa), MBA (McMaster Univ.), PhD (Univ. of Cambridge)

Professional Experience

Michael has worked closely in research and executive education for a number of organisations, including BT, IBM, HP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Coventry Building Society, Shell Exploration, and the World Health Organization. He has previously worked as an industrial engineer for Colgate Palmolive and in consulting and business development with Oracle Canada. He is an Associate Editor of MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research and a member of the Editorial Board of Organization Science, Information and Organization and the Journal of the Association of Information Systems. He has contributed to articles in The Economist, The Times, and The Financial Post. Michael has also served as an external assessor at Oxford University, the London School of Economics, and the Open University.

Previous Appointments

Michael has held visiting appointments at MIT (2006) and the London School of Economics (2000). Prior to joining Judge Business School, he was an assistant professor in information systems at the University of Alberta (1996-2001), and an Adjunct Professor at the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology (1999-2001), also at the University of Alberta.

Awards and Scholarships

• European Case Award in the category 'Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems Management', 2008
• IBM Faculty Award, 2003
• IBM Faculty Fellowship
• Best Paper Award, OCIS Division, Academy of Management, August 1999
• Mackenzie Undergraduate Teaching Award, University of Alberta, March 1998
• JD Muir Fellowship, University of Alberta, December 1998
• Centre for International Business Research Fellowship, University of Alberta, July 1998
• Xerox Research Fellowship, University of Alberta, December 1996
• Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar, 1992-1995
• Most Valuable Employee, Oracle Canada, 1991
• CIDA McMaster Scholarship, 1988-1989
• Canadian Information Processing Society Scholarship, 1989-1990
• Commonwealth Scholarship, 1985-1988

Research Interests

Information technology and service innovation; IT implementation and organisational change; IS services outsourcing and globalisation; knowledge management. Michael has studied the adoption and use of electronic trading in global financial markets, service innovation in professional service firms, knowledge sharing and relationship management in global sourcing arrangements, and the role of ICT's in restructuring healthcare service delivery.

Michael Barrett is a member of the Information Systems research group and the Operations, Information & Technology teaching group.

Selected Publications

Barrett, M. and Walsham, G. (1999) "Electronic trading and work transformation in the London Insurance Market." Information Systems Research, 10(1): 1-22

Heracleous, L. and Barrett, M. (2001) "Organizational change as discourse: communicative actions and deep structures in the context of information technology implementation." Academy of Management Journal, 44(4): 755-778

Gendron, Y. and Barrett, M. (2004) "Professionalization in action: accountants' attempt at building a network of support for the Webtrust Seal of Assurance." Contemporary Accounting Research, 21(3): 563-602

Barrett, M., Cooper, D.J. and Jamal, K. (2005) "Globalization and the coordinating of work in multinational audits." Accounting, Organizations and Society, 30(1): 1-24

Barrett, M., Grant, D. and Wailes, N. (2006) "ICT and organizational change: introduction to the special issue." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 42(1): 6-22

Barrett, M. and Gendron, Y. (2006) "WebTrust and the 'commercialistic auditor': the unrealized vision of developing auditor trustworthiness in cyberspace." Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 19(5): 631-662 (DOI: 10.1108/09513570610689640)

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