Dr Stephen Allen

Management School

Lecturer in Organisation Studies

Stephen Allen, stood on the mezzanine walkway, wearing a dark blue jumper and light blue shirt.
Profile picture of Stephen Allen, stood on the mezzanine walkway, wearing a dark blue jumper and light blue shirt.
stephen.allen@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 3229

Full contact details

Dr Stephen Allen
Management School
Room A010
ºù«Ӱҵ University Management School
Conduit Road
ºù«Ӱҵ
S10 1FL
Profile

Stephen is a lecturer in the Work, Employment and Organisations Group and a member of the Organisation Studies research cluster

Before joining ºù«Ӱҵ University Management School in 2018, he was a lecturer at Hull University Business School (2014-2018), and previously at Lancaster University Management School (having completed his PhD there in 2012).

Prior to his academic career, he held roles at a range of organisations from new business start-ups to large international companies.

Research interests

By working at the intersections of ideas about sustainability, reflexivity and leadership his interdisciplinary research explores how people make sense of and attempt to organise for socio-ecological sustainabilities.

The focus of his recently published work includes:

  • exploring how sustainability became translated into actions at a major urban regeneration project
  • developing a more complex and nuanced understanding of scale in relation to sustainable organising
  • offering new approaches to sustainability in management education; considering ethical forms of organising that help to foster inclusivity and equality
  • investigating senior managers’ identity tensions in relation to sustainability in the energy and power industry.

Stephen's work has been published in journals including: British Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Management Learning, Organisation and Environment, and Scandinavian Journal of Management.

He is a member of the International Editorial Board for Management Learning. He has co-convened streams at the International Critical Management Studies conference.

Publications

Books

  • Allen S (2022) Being and organizing in an entangled world : sociomateriality and posthumanism. MayFly Books. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

  • Allen S & Girei E (2024) . Academy of Management Learning and Education, 23(2), 246-264. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Nevins J, Allen S & Watson M (2022) . Travel Behaviour and Society, 26, 231-239. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S (2019) . Quaker Studies, 24(2), 249-269. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S & Marshall J (2019) . International Journal of Action Research, 15(2), 99-112. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S (2019) . Scandinavian Journal of Management, 35(1), 64-75. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S, Cunliffe AL & Easterby-Smith M (2019) . Journal of Business Ethics, 154(3), 781-795. RIS download Bibtex download
  • O'Reilly D, Allen S & Reedy P (2018) . British Journal of Management, 29(2), 220-234. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S, Brigham M & Marshall J (2018) . Scandinavian Journal of Management, 34(1), 29-39. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S (2017) . Management Learning, 48(2), 125-139. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S & Marshall J (2015) Metalogue: Trying to talk about (un)sustainability – a reflection on experience. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S, Marshall J & Easterby-Smith M (2015) . Organization & Environment, 28(3), 328-348. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S (2015) . International Journal of Work Innovation, 1(2), 240-240. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S & Thomas KT (2007) . The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture, and Change Management: Annual Review, 6(7), 81-88. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Thomas K & Allen S (2006) . The Learning Organization, 13(2), 123-139. RIS download Bibtex download

Chapters

  • Allen S & O'Reilly D (2023) Leadership within ‘alternatives’ In Schedlitzki D, Larsson M, Carroll B, Bligh MC & Epitropaki O (Ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Leadership (pp. 371-382). London: Sage Publications Limited. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S (2022) In Godwyn M (Ed.), Research Handbook on the Sociology of Organizations (pp. 491-508). Edward Elgar RIS download Bibtex download
  • Allen S (2019) , Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education (pp. 1067-1073). Springer International Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

Organisation Studies Research Cluster

Grants
Date Funder Title Amount
2023 British Academy/Leverhulme Does organizational democracy matter for ecological sustainability in organizations? £9994 with Co-I's Charles Barthold and Carole Elliott
2022 Festival of the Mind 2022 Can we fly-less? £4866 with Co-I's Judith Krauss, Renee Timmers and Matt Watson
2021-2022 Society for the Advancement of Management Studies Progressive leadership for sustainability in the face of the ecological emergency £5,100 with Dr Charles Barthold, Open University
2021 ESRC Festival of Social Sciences No leaders here! A conversation about grassroots, activist and community organizing £1,200
2019-2020 Quaker Studies Research Association Exploring leadership amongst Friends £1,000
Teaching interests

Stephen's key commitments for good teaching practice involve: taking a critical approach that considers and explores the politics and powers in processes of producing knowledge and teaching students; developing student’s awareness of and practices for reflection to help probe their ways of knowing by appreciating how their locations (physical, historical and relational) can shape their understanding; and, drawing upon learning perspectives that see teaching as encompassing on-going, evolving and collaborative processes of sense making which happen in dynamic environments.

The variety of non-academic jobs that Stephen undertook prior to working in academia have given him a good appreciation of the career realities for students of working in different settings.

For example, his international working spans a range of roles include: co-founding a successful start-up in London, working in the global sales and distribution team of a multinational technology company in New York, and being an account manager for a global research and consulting business.

These experiences place him well to promote learning by grounding innovative pedagogy amongst personal examples of managing and being managed.

Professional activities and memberships
PhD Supervision

Stephen is interested in supervising PhD students in the following broad areas:

  • Organisations and socio-ecological sustainability
  • Reflexivity and reflexive practice
  • Learning and education for sustainability
  • Critical and post-heroic leadership