Philip Stiles

Co-Director of the Centre for International Human Resource Management (CIHRM)
University Senior Lecturer in Corporate Governance

BA (Univ. of Kent), MPhil, PhD (Univ. of London)

Professional experience

Philip developed the Global Human Resource Research Alliance, a research group involving 30 companies worldwide - American Express, BAE Systems, BT, EDF, GE, General Mills, IBM, IKEA, Infosys, Matsushita, Oracle, Procter and Gamble, Rolls-Royce, SANYO, Sealed Air, Shell, Siemens, TCL, TNT, and Unilever. The project represents the most comprehensive worldwide research study in the subject. The contribution to knowledge has been to identify both innovative and best HR practices within companies, and to show how human capital integrates with key dimensions of social and organisational capital.

Philip is also engaged in work on corporate governance, focusing primarily on the dynamics of boards of directors. He was involved in research for the Higgs Review on the Effectiveness of Non-Executive Directors, and he is also involved in examining the nature of succession within companies, carried out in collaboration with an international headhunting organisation. He consults to a number of organisations in both the private and public sector, and is a member of the Cambridge Corporate Governance Network (CCGN).

Awards and scholarships

• IBM Faculty Fellowship
• Pilkington Teaching Prize for Excellence in Teaching, 2006

Research interests

Human resource management; leadership; high performance working; organisational culture; change management; corporate governance; the dynamics of boards of directors; chief executive succession; the influence of self-conscious emotions such as shame, pride and guilt on work motivation.

Philip Stiles is a member of the Organisational Behaviour subject group.

Selected publications

Stiles, P. and Taylor, B. (2001) Boards at work: how directors view their roles and responsiblities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Roberts, J., McNulty, T. and Stiles, P. (2005) "Beyond agency conceptions of the work of the non-executive director: creating accountability in the boardroom." British Journal of Management, 16(Special Issue): S5-S26

McNulty, T., Roberts, J. and Stiles, P. (2005) "Undertaking governance reform and research: further reflections on the Higgs review." British Journal of Management, 16(Special Issue): S99-S107

Morris, S.S., Wright, P.M., Trevor, J., Stiles, P., Stahl, G.K., Snell, S., Paauwe, J. and Farndale, E. (2009) "Global challenges to replicating HR: the role of people, processes, and systems." Human Resource Management, 48(6): 973-995 (DOI: 10.1002/hrm.20325)

Farndale, E., Paauwe, J., Morris, S.S., Stahl, G.K., Stiles, P., Trevor, J. and Wright, P.M. (2010) "Context-bound configurations of corporate HR functions in multinational corporations." Human Resource Management, 49(1): 45-66 (DOI: 10.1002/hrm.20333)

Stahl, G.K., Björkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S.S., Paauwe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J. and Wright, P. (2012) "Six principles of effective global talent management." MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(2): 25-32

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