Associate Professor in Organisation Theory
Deputy Director of the MBA Programme
Fellow in Sociology and Director of Studies in Management at Girton College
Bye-Fellow 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)
Research interests
Economic sociology; organisation theory; social evaluations; stigma, disapproval and scandals; institutional theory; stakeholder relationships; ethics; leadership.
Subject group: Organisational Theory & 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). 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, 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 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 the Journal of Management, Organization Studies 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 [email protected]@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 has also been 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 CJBS teaching award for his leadership teaching in the MBA in 2021. In parallel to his teaching in the Business School, he teaches 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.
Awards & honours
- 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
Selected publications
Here are a selection of Thomas Roulet’s publications. Please see the “Selected publications” tab above for a more comprehensive list.
Lander, M.W., Roulet, T.J. and Heugens, P.P.M.A.R. (2022) “Tempering temperance? A contingency approach to social movements’ entry deterrence in Scottish whisky distilling, 1823-1921.” Academy of Management Journal (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2019.1411) (published online Jul 2022)
Roulet, T.J. and Bothello, J. (2022) “An event-system perspective on disruption: theorizing the pandemic and other discontinuities through historical and fictional accounts of the Plague.” Academy of Management Review (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2021.0206) (published online Jul 2022)
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 (DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2022.1603) (published online Jun 2022)
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
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.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)
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., 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
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.V. and Stenger, S. (2017) “What a study of French auditors tells us about homophobia at work.” Harvard Business Review, 29 March 2017
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)
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., 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. 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)
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.” [email protected]@gement, 21(4), 1178-1185
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)
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)
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)
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
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)
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 (DOI: 10.1111/joms.12875) (published online Sep 2022)
Jaser, Z. and Roulet, T. (2022) “How hyperflexibility can benefit – or burn out – your team.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 5 Jan 2022
Lander, M.W., Roulet, T.J. and Heugens, P.P.M.A.R. (2022) “Tempering temperance? A contingency approach to social movements’ entry deterrence in Scottish whisky distilling, 1823-1921.” Academy of Management Journal (DOI: 10.5465/amj.2019.1411) (published online Jul 2022)
Pichler, R., Roulet, T. and Paolella, L. (2022) “A bailout for the outlaws: interactions between social control agents and the perception of organizational misconduct.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations (forthcoming) (available online)
Roulet, T.J. and Bothello, J. (2022) “An event-system perspective on disruption: theorizing the pandemic and other discontinuities through historical and fictional accounts of the Plague.” Academy of Management Review (DOI: 10.5465/amr.2021.0206) (published online Jul 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 (DOI: 10.1017/beq.2021.36) (published online Nov 2021)
Roulet, T. and Laker, B. (2022) “Your career needs a little luck. Here’s how to cultivate it.” Harvard Business Review, 19 January 2022
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 (DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2022.1603) (published online Jun 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
Books, monographs, reports & 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)
