Thomas Roulet

Professor of Organisational Sociology and Leadership

Fellow, Director of Studies in Psychology & Behavioural Science, and Co-Director of the King’s Entrepreneurship Lab at King’s College

MSc (Audencia), MPhil (SciencesPo Paris), MA (University of Cambridge), PhD (HEC Paris)

I am a social scientist researching and teaching how individuals and organisations can lead social change, and adapt to a changing workplace, especially around wellbeing. I also consult for and advise policy makers, public and private organisations on those issues. My work has appeared regularly in outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, Review, Organization Science, Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Management Review, and been featured in the Economist and the Financial Times.

In the current era of uncertainty, and fast-paced changes, we need more than ever to revisit managerial and leadership approaches.

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Contact details

Academic area

Organisational Theory and Information Systems

Professional experience

Prior to starting an academic career, Thomas worked in Debt Capital Markets on a trading floor in London, and for the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) in Paris.

His research focuses on negative social evaluations (stigma, disapproval) and their antecedents (misconducts, scandals), and more recently on wellbeing and mental health in the context of work. He was made a Mid-Career Fellow of the British Academy in 2023. His work has appeared in a variety of scientific outlets in management, including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Annals, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management), ethics (Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Business & Society), and more broadly in social sciences and sociology (Human Relations, Work, Employment & Society, Journal of Vocational Behavior). His work on covert research received the Best Paper Award in Organizational Research Methods in 2017. He also published in practitioner outlets such as Harvard Business Review, and MIT Sloan Management Review, and has been regularly featured in media outlets such as the Financial Times, The Economist, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Telegraph, The Guardian, ITV, Die Zeit, Le Monde, France 24 and BBC Radio London, in addition to writing a column for Forbes.

His book ‘The Power of Being Divisive: Understanding Negative Social Evaluations’ (Stanford University Press) was the runner-up for the George Terry book award of the Academy of Management in 2021, an award recognising the book having made the most important contribution to the field of management. The Financial Times described the book as “a fascinating study of the social-media fuelled and fast-changing landscape of public opinion, and the possible ways in which that might be beneficial”.

Since 2020, Thomas is a trustee of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), a UK charity encouraging research in management and governing the Journal of Management Studies. He sits on the board of various journals including Organization Studies, Organization Science, the Journal of Management and the Journal of Management Studies. He is associate editor at Business & Society. From 2017 to 2019 he acted as co-editor in chief of M@n@gement – the first open access journal in the field of management, supported by the French National Science Foundation and the French Academy of Strategic Management. He previously sat on the editorial board of Work, Employment & Society, the journal of the British Sociological Association.

Thomas’ teaching received the 2023 Pilkington Prize, awarded to the best teachers at the University of Cambridge, and he was recognised by Poets & Quants (listed among the “40 under 40 best business school professors” in 2020) and Business Because (“Business school professors to look for in 2020”). He received the Cambridge Judge teaching award for his leadership teaching in the MBA in 2021. In parallel to his teaching in the Business School, he teaches social psychology and sociology in College, which earned him a honourable mention for the Supervisory Award attributed by the Cambridge Department of Sociology in 2020. Before joining Cambridge, he received a university-wide teaching award at King’s College London in 2018.

Thomas consults on a regular basis for a variety of clients around questions of diversity, uncertainty management, and wellbeing at work. Most recently, he was involved in questions of organisational culture in a major M&A operation in France. He has also given talks and run seminars in ministries and in the public sectors on the return to work and the hybrid office.

Previous appointments

Before joining the University of Cambridge, Thomas was a Senior Lecturer and MSc Director at King’s College London. He has also taught at various levels from undergraduate to executives in a number of universities, including Oxford, SciencesPo, HEC Paris, Dauphine-PSL, and RMUTP in Bangkok.

In 2011-2012, he was a Chazen Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York. Thomas also holds a faculty affiliation with the Society & Organizations (SnO) Research Centre at HEC Paris, where he got his PhD, and with Audencia Nantes.

Publications

Selected publications

Lander, M.W., Roulet, T.J. and Heugens, P.P.M.A.R. (2023) “Tempering temperance? A contingency approach to social movements’ entry deterrence in Scottish whisky distilling, 1823-1921.” Academy of Management Journal, 66(5): 1384-1410 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2019.1411)
Roulet, T.J. and Bothello, J. (2023) “An event-system perspective on disruption: theorizing the pandemic and other discontinuities through historical and fictional accounts of the Plague.” Academy of Management Review, 48(4): 772-789 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2021.0206)
Shymko, Y., Roulet, T.J. and Pimentel, B.M. (2022) “The façade, the face, and the sympathies: opening the black box of symbolic capital as a source of philanthropic attractiveness.” Organization Science, 34(2): 870-893 (DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2022.1603)
Rodner, V., Roulet, T.J., Kerrigan, F. and Vom Lehn, D. (2020) “Making space for art: a spatial perspective of disruptive and defensive institutional work in Venezuela’s art world.” Academy of Management Journal, 63(4): 1054-1081 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2016.1030)
Shymko, Y. and Roulet, T. (2017) “When does Medici hurt Da Vinci? Mitigating the signaling effect of extraneous stakeholder relationships in the field of cultural production.” Academy of Management Journal, 60(4): 1307-1338 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0464)
Clemente, M. and Roulet T.J. (2015) “Public opinion as a source of deinstitutionalization: a ‘spiral of silence’ approach.” Academy of Management Review, 40(1): 96-114 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2013.0279)

Journal articles

Bapuji, H., Gupta, K., Chrispal, S. and Roulet, T. (2024) “What managers everywhere must know about caste.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 65(2): 60-65
Debnath, R., Ebanks, D., Mohaddes, K., Roulet, T. and Alvarez, R.M. (2024) “Do fossil fuel firms reframe online climate and sustainability communication? A data-driven analysis.” npj Climate Action, 2(1): 47 (DOI: 10.1038/s44168-023-00086-x)
Zou, T., Ertug, G. and Roulet, T. (2024) “Learning from machines: how negative feedback from machines improves learning between humans.” Journal of Business Research, 172: 114417 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114417)
Aranda, A.M., Helms, W.S., Patterson, K.D.W., Roulet, T.J. and Hudson, B.A. (2023) “Standing on the shoulders of Goffman: advancing a relational research agenda on stigma.” Business and Society, 62(7): 1339-1377 (DOI: 10.1177/00076503221148441)
Bapuji, H., Gupta, K., Chrispal, S. and Roulet, T. (2023) “What managers everywhere must know about caste.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 65(2): 60-65
Bardon, T., Frémeaux, S., Letierce, C. and Roulet, T. (2023) “Making sense of renouncing: a typology of types, motives, and approaches to renouncing at work.” European Management Review, 20(3): 576-590 (DOI: 10.1111/emre.12557)
Bhatti, K. and Roulet, T. (2023) “Helping an employee in distress.” Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct
Lander, M.W., Roulet, T.J. and Heugens, P.P.M.A.R. (2023) “Tempering temperance? A contingency approach to social movements’ entry deterrence in Scottish whisky distilling, 1823-1921.” Academy of Management Journal, 66(5): 1384-1410 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2019.1411)
Pichler, R., Roulet, T. and Paolella, L. (2023) “A bailout for the outlaws: interactions between social control agents and the perception of organizational misconduct.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 84: 31-50 (DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20230000084002)
Roulet, T. and Bhatti, K. (2023) “Well-being intelligence: a skill set for the new world of work.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 13 April 2023
Roulet, T.J. and Bothello, J. (2023) “An event-system perspective on disruption: theorizing the pandemic and other discontinuities through historical and fictional accounts of the Plague.” Academy of Management Review, 48(4): 772-789 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2021.0206)

Shymko, Y., Roulet, T.J. and Pimentel, B.M. (2023) “The façade, the face, and the sympathies: opening the black box of symbolic capital as a source of philanthropic attractiveness.” Organization Science, 34(2): 870-893 (DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2022.1603)
Gümüsay, A.A., Raynard, M., Albu, A., Etter, M. and Roulet, T. (2022) “Digital technology and voice: how platforms shape institutional processes through visibilization.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 83: 57-85 (DOI: 10.1108/S0733-558X20220000083003)
Hudson, B.A., Patterson, K.D.W., Roulet T.J., Helms, W.S. and Elsbach, K. (2022) “Organizational stigma: taking stock and opening new areas for research.” Journal of Management Studies, 59(8): 1899-1914 (DOI: 10.1111/joms.12875)
Jaser, Z. and Roulet, T. (2022) “How hyperflexibility can benefit – or burn out – your team.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 5 Jan 2022
Roulet, T. and Bothello, J. (2022) “Tackling grand challenges beyond dyads and networks: developing a stakeholder systems view using the metaphor of ballet.” Business Ethics Quarterly, 32(4): 573-603 (DOI: 10.1017/beq.2021.36)
Roulet, T. and Laker, B. (2022) “Your career needs a little luck. Here’s how to cultivate it.” Harvard Business Review, 19 January 2022
Subel, S., Stepanek, M. and Roulet, T. (2022) “How shifts in remote behavior affect employee well-being.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 18 April 2022
Laker, B. and Roulet, T. (2021) “How organizations can promote employee wellness, now and post-pandemic.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 26 April 2021
Lebrument, N., Zumbo-Lebrument, C., Rochette, C. and Roulet, T.J. (2021) “Triggering participation in smart cities: political efficacy, public administration satisfaction and sense of belonging as drivers of citizens’ intention.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 171 (DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120938)
Okazaki, S., Plangger, K., Roulet, T. and Menénde, H.D. (2021) “Assessing stakeholder network engagement.” European Journal of Marketing, 55(5): 1359-1384 (DOI: 10.1108/EJM-12-2018-0842)
Roulet, T.J. and Pichler, R. (2021) “Blame game theory: scapegoating, whistleblowing and discursive struggles following accusations of organizational misconduct.” Organization Theory, 1(4) (DOI: 10.1177/2631787720975192)
Cristofini, O. and Roulet, T. (2020) “Playing with trash: how gamification contributed to the bottom-up institutionalization of zero waste practices.” Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, 2020(1) (DOI: 10.5465/AMBPP.2020.39)
Daudigeos, T., Roulet, T. and Valiorgue, B. (2020) “How scandals act as catalysts of fringe stakeholders’ contentious actions against multinational corporations.” Business and Society, 59(3): 387-418 (DOI: 10.1177/0007650318756982)
Rodner, V., Roulet, T.J., Kerrigan, F. and Vom Lehn, D. (2020) “Making space for art: a spatial perspective of disruptive and defensive institutional work in Venezuela’s art world.” Academy of Management Journal, 63(4): 1054-1081 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2016.1030)
Roulet, T. and Bothello, J. (2020) “Why ‘de-growth’ shouldn’t scare businesses.” Harvard Business Review, 14 February 2020
Roulet, T. and Laker, B. (2020) “Now is the time to reconnect with your dormant social network.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 22 April 2020
Harmon, D.J., Haack, P. and Roulet, T.J. (2019) “Microfoundations of institutions: a matter of structure versus agency or level of analysis?” Academy of Management Review, 44(2): 464-467 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2018.0080)
Royer, I., Garreau, L. and Roulet, T. (2019) “La quantification des données qualitatives: intérêts et difficultés en sciences de gestion.” Finance, Contrôle, Stratégie, NS6: 1-12 (DOI: 10.4000/fcs.3312)
Gill, M. and Roulet, T. (2019) “Stressed at work? Mentoring a colleague could help.” Harvard Business Review, 1 March 2019
Laker, B. and Roulet, T. (2019) “How companies can adapt during times of political uncertainty.” Harvard Business Review, 22 February 2019
Laker, B. and Roulet, T. (2019) “Will the 4-day workweek take hold in Europe?” Harvard Business Review, 5 August 2019
Roulet, T.J. (2019) “Sins for some, virtues for others: media coverage of investment banks’ misconduct and adherence to professional norms during the financial crisis.” Human Relations, 72(9): 1436-1463 (DOI: 10.1177/0018726718799404)
Bothello, J. and Roulet, T.J. (2019) “The imposter syndrome, or the mis-representation of self in academic life.” Journal of Management Studies, 56(4): 854-861 (DOI: 10.1111/joms.12344)
Dahlin, K., Chuang Y.-T. and Roulet T. (2018) “Opportunities, motivation and ability to learn from failure and errors: review, synthesis, and ways to move forward.” Academy of Management Annals, 12(1): 252–277 (DOI: 10.5465/annals.2016.0049)
Gill, M.J., Gill, D.J. and Roulet, T.J. (2018) “Constructing trustworthy historical narratives: criteria, principles and techniques.” British Journal of Management, 29(1): 191-205 (DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12262)
Gill, M.J., Roulet, T.J.V. and Kerridge S.P. (2018) “Mentoring for mental health: a mixed-method study of the benefits of formal mentoring programmes in the English police force.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, 108: 201-213 (DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.08.005)
Daudigeos, T. and Roulet, T.J. (2018) “Open-access management research at a turning point: giving relevance to a stigmatized object.” M@n@gement, 21(4), 1178-1185
Roulet, T.J. and Clemente, M. (2018) “Let’s open the media’s black box: the media as a set of heterogeneous actors and not only as a homogenous ensemble.” Academy of Management Review, 43(2): 327-329 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2016.0537)
Stenger, S. and Roulet, T.J. (2018) “Pride against prejudice? The stakes of concealment and disclosure of a stigmatized identity for gay and lesbian auditors.” Work, Employment and Society, 32(2): 257-273 (DOI: 10.1177/0950017016682459)
Clemente, M., Durand, R. and Roulet, T. (2017) “The recursive nature of institutional change.” Journal of Management Inquiry, 26(1): 17-31 (DOI: 10.1177/1056492616656408)
Roulet, T.J. (2017) “Good to be disliked? Exploring the relationship between disapproval of organizations and job satisfaction in the French context.” Journal of General Management, 42(4): 68-79 (DOI: 10.1177/0306307017702998)
Roulet, T.J., Gill, M.J., Stenger, S. and Gill, D.J. (2017) “Reconsidering the value of covert research: the role of ambiguous consent in participant observation.” Organizational Research Methods, 20(3): 487-517 (DOI: 10.1177/1094428117698745) (Winner of the ORM Best Paper Award in 2017)
Roulet, T.J.V. and Stenger, S. (2017) “What a study of French auditors tells us about homophobia at work.” Harvard Business Review, 29 March 2017
Shymko, Y. and Roulet, T. (2017) “When does Medici hurt Da Vinci? Mitigating the signaling effect of extraneous stakeholder relationships in the field of cultural production.” Academy of Management Journal, 60(4): 1307-1338 (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2015.0464)
Roulet, T.J., Gill, M.J. and Stenger, S. (2016) “Cloak-and-dagger organization research: benefits, costs and ethics of covert participant observation.” Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016(1): 12336-12336 (DOI: 10.5465/ambpp.2016.25)
Shymko, Y. and Roulet, T.J.V. (2016) “When corporate philanthropy makes the recipients look bad.” Harvard Business Review, 24 August 2016
Clemente, M. and Roulet T.J. (2015) “Public opinion as a source of deinstitutionalization: a ‘spiral of silence’ approach.” Academy of Management Review, 40(1): 96-114 (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2013.0279)
Roulet, T. (2015) “‘What good is Wall Street?’: institutional contradiction and the diffusion of the stigma over the finance industry.” Journal of Business Ethics, 130(2): 389-402 (DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2237-1)
Roulet, T.J. and Touboul, S. (2015) “The intentions with which the road is paved: attitudes to liberalism as determinants of greenwashing.” Journal of Business Ethics, 128(2): 305-320 (DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8)

Books, monographs, reports and case studies

Roulet, T.J. (2020) The power of being divisive: understanding negative social evaluations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Book chapters

Roulet, T.J., Paolella, L., Gabbionneta, C. and Muzio, D. (2019) “Micro-foundations of institutional change in the career structure of UK elite law firms.” In: Haack, P., Sieweke, J. and Wessel, L. (eds.) Research in the sociology of organizations: vol.65(A): microfoundations of institutions. Bingley: Emerald Publishing, pp.251-268 (available online)

Awards and honours

Mid-Career Fellow, British Academy, 2023
Pilkington Prize for Excellence in Teaching, University of Cambridge, 2023
Runner-Up, George R. Terry Book Award, Academy of Management, 2021
Cambridge Judge Business School Teaching Award, 2021
Listed among the “40 under 40 Business School Professors”, Poets & Quants, 2020
Listed among the “Business School Professors to Look for”, Business Because, 2020
Honorable Mention, Supervisor Award, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, 2020.
Runner-up, Best Paper on Environmental and Social Practices, Organization & Management Theory Division, Academy of Management, 2020
Runner-up, Responsible Research Award, Organization & Management Theory Division, Academy of Management, 2020
Shortlisted, Bracken Bower Prize for the Best Business Book Proposal by an Author under 35, Financial Times & McKinsey, 2019
London50, Top 50 Professors in Management in the London area, 2019
University-wide Teaching Excellence Award, King’s College London, 2018
Best paper in Organizational Research Methods for 2017, Research Methods Division, Academy of Management, 2018
ABCD Reviewer Award, OMT Division, Academy of Management, 2018
British Academy/Leverhulme Grant, 2017
Best paper nomination, Research Methods Division, Academy of Management, 2016
Shortlisted, Bracken Bower Prize for the Best Business Book Proposal by an Author under 35, Financial Times & McKinsey, 2015
Runner-up, Grigor McClelland Best Dissertation Award, EGOS, 2014
Roland Calori Award (Best young scholar in strategy), AIMS (French Association for Management), 2014

News and insights

Cambridge professor named to World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders

Thomas Roulet, Professor of Organisational Sociology and Leadership at Cambridge Judge Business School, is named to the Young Global Leaders Class of 2024 by the World Economic Forum as part of the next generation of changemakers.

AI and technology

How AI can make us more receptive to negative feedback

Learning from failure is crucial and the growth of AI in the workplace offers more opportunities to deliver machine feedback. A new study co-authored by Thomas Roulet of Cambridge Judge Business School finds that automated critiques can act as a catalyst to motivate people to learn from each other.

Faculty news

How fossil fuel firms subtly shape the dialogue

Large energy companies ignore online discussion about extreme weather and focus instead on corporate sustainability, finds study co-authored at Cambridge Judge.

Media coverage

Financial Times | 22 February 2023

Culture clash – the challenge of uniting fierce rivals UBS and Credit Suisse

Thomas Roulet, Associate Professor in Organisation Theory and Deputy Director of the MBA programme at Cambridge Judge Business School, comments about the integration of UBS and Credit Suisse.

INBusinessnews | 23 March 2017

The new era for entrepreneurship at the heart of the CIM Summit 2023

Thomas Roulet, Associate Professor in Organisation Theory and Deputy Director of the MBA programme at Cambridge Judge Business School, is mentioned in this article about mental health in the era of teleworking, digital marketing and artificial intelligence.

Newsweek | 6 February 2023

More than a third of Americans are ‘quiet quitting’

Thomas Roulet, Associate Professor in Organisation Theory and Deputy Director of the MBA programme at Cambridge Judge Business School, is mentioned in this article regarding Americans’ attitudes towards work after the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. “In a highly uncertain world, people are looking for purpose, not mind-numbing work where they feel like a cog in a large dehumanised machine,” says Thomas..

Le Point International, 29 January 2023
Cancer vaccines: why BioNTech is betting on the UK

Forbes, 31 December 2022
Forget about new year resolutions. Focus on prioritising and planning.

Financial Times, 6 November 2022
The retirees heading back to work

Business Insider, 1 November 2022
Resentment is mounting as some employees are forced back to the office and some are allowed to work from home

Forbes, 22 October 2022
How failed leaders make successful comebacks: Boris Johnson and the saviour strategy

Metro news, 17 September 2022
‘I had to pretend to be someone I wasn’t’: The reality of LGBTQ work discrimination

Yahoo.com (La Nacion), 2 September 2022
Demonised industries – why people choose to work in companies with a bad reputation

Yahoo Finance, 22 August 2022
Apple employees claim they’re doing ‘exceptional work’ remotely as Tim Cook orders them back. They’re probably wrong

The Economist, 11 August 2022
Why employees want to work in vilified industries

Fox Business, 12 July 2022
How to write a perfect cover letter, according to experts

Forbes, 21 June 2022
Three leadership and entrepreneurial lessons from the crypto crash

European Sting, 17 June 2022
4 experts on how leaders can best respond to a changing global landscape