Department of Management

More Management Staff

Professor Dennis Tourish

B.Sc.(Hons), M.Sc., DPhil.

Tel: +44 (0)1224 263914
Email: d.j.tourish@rgu.ac.uk

I am a Professor of Management and Leadership within the Department of Management, specialising in the study of organisational communication, organisational behaviour, and leadership and leadership development. I have also carried out research into group dynamics, team development and dysfunctional leadership practices, particularly in organisations regarded as cults.

I have worked with many organisations, leading leadership development programmes, conducting communication assessments and advising on the development of communication strategies. I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences on management and leadership issues.

External Activities

Member of International Communication Association (Interpersonal and Organisational Communication Divisions)

Member of The Academy of Management

Member of The International Association for Business Communication

Member of The European Communication Association

Member of The British Academy of Management

Member of the Editorial Board of Management Communication Quarterly

Member of the Editorial Board of Cultic Studies Review

Member of the Editorial Board of Leadership

Research Projects

Editorial: Special Edition of 'Leadership'

The Special Edition of Leadership, entitled ‘Communication and Leadership’ seeks to explore the relationship between a variety of communication processes and leadership. (With Professor Brad Jackson, co-editor of the forthcoming Special Edition - due for publication in August 2008).

Other Projects

Project Head - Evaluating Leadership Development in Scotland. Funded by the European Social Fund (December 2004 - December 2006). Total value of award £109,980. Full detail on this can be seen on the Evaluating Leadership Development in Scotland project page.

Communication and OB Evaluation including culture and communication audits. Wolston Park Hospital (1999/2000).

Irrationality in Management Decision-making. University of Queensland (1999).

Evaluating impact of Training for Selection Interviews on Adolescents. European Union Social Fund (1998).

Communication between Nurses and their Managers. National Board for Nursing (1996).

Special Interests

The development and application of communication audit methodologies
'I have concentrated on updating seminal audit instruments originally developed by the International Communication Association in the 1970s. The result has been a newly validated instrument geared at assessing internal organisational communication.'

The relationship between internal organisational communication and organisational effectiveness
'Utilising audit approaches, I have explored relationships between staff and managers and how such relationships impact on an organisation’s ability to achieve its objectives.'

Transformational Models of Leadership
'I am increasingly interested in the differences between transformational and transactional models of the leadership process, and their relevance for business.'

Social influence, Persuasion Dynamics and Cults
'This grew out of my interest in group dynamics. Cults are most often associated with messianic religious movements, but I have explored their impact in other contexts - including business and politics.
I have published a book on political cults and am on the editorial board of the main journal devoted to this area, the Cultic Studies Review.'

Publications

Books

O. Hargie and D. Tourish (Eds) Auditing Organisational Communication: A Handbook of Research, Theory and Practice, Routledge. Publication by December 2008.

Hargie, O., Dickson, D., and Tourish, D. (2004) Communication Skills for Effective Management, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Tourish, D., and Hargie, O. (2004) (Eds.) Key Issues in Organisational Communication, London: Routledge.

Tourish, D., and Wohlforth, T. (2000) On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, Sharpe: New York.

Hargie, O., Dickson, D., and Tourish (1999) Communication in Management, Gower: Aldershot.

Hargie, O., and Tourish, D., (Eds.) (2000) The Handbook of Communication Audits For Organisations, Routledge: London.

Chapters in published books

Tourish, D. (2006) The appraisal interview reappraised, In O. Hargie (Ed.) The Handbook of Communication Skills (3rd Edition), London: Routledge.

Tourish, D., and Hargie O. (2004) Communication Audits: The Key To Building World Class Communication Systems, In S. Oliver (Ed.) Corporate Communication: A Handbook of Best Practice, Routledge

Tourish, D., (1999) Communicating Beyond Individual Bias, In Long, A., (Ed), ‘Interaction For Practice in Community Nursing,’ MacMillan

Hargie, O., and Tourish, D. (1999) The Psychology Of Interpersonal Skill, In: Bull, R. and Memon, A. (Eds.) ‘Handbook of the Psychology of Interviewing’, Wiley

Hargie, O., and Tourish, D., (1999) Internal Communications and the Management of Change, In: Baker, R. Hearnshaw, H. and Robertson, N. (Eds.) ‘Implementing Change With Clinical Audit’, Wiley

Hargie, C., and Tourish, D., (1997) Relational communication, In Hargie, O., (Ed.) A Handbook of Communication Skills (2nd Edition), Routledge: London

Journal Articles - Recent Publications

Tourish, D., Craig, R., and Amernic, J. Transformational leadership education and agency perspectives in business school pedagogy: A marriage of inconvenience, British Journal of Management (In Press – Publication expected in late 2008).

Tourish, D., and Jackson, B. Guest Editorial Introduction - Communication and Leadership: An Open Invitation to Engage, Leadership (in press – publication due August 2008).

Tourish, D. (2008) Challenging the ‘transformational’ agenda: leadership theory in transition? Management Communication Quarterly, 21, 522-528.

Tourish, D. (2007) Themed book review: Communication, discourse and leadership, Human Relations, 60, 1727-1740.

Amernic, J., Craig, R., and Tourish D. (2007) The charismatic leader as pedagogue, physician, architect, commander, and saint: Five master metaphors in Jack Welch’s letters to stockholders of General Electric, Human Relations, 60, 1839-1872.

Tourish, D., and Robson, P. (2006) Sensemaking and the distortion of critical upward communication in organizations, Journal of Management Studies, 43, 711-730.

Tourish, D., and Vatcha, N. (2005) Charismatic leadership and corporate cultism at Enron: The elimination of dissent, the promotion of conformity and organisational collapse, Leadership, 1, 455-480.

Tourish, D. (2005) Critical upward communication: Ten Commandments for Improving Stratgy and Decision Making, Long Range Planning, 38, 485-503

Tourish, D., Paulsen, N., Hobman, E., and Bordia, P. (2004) The downsides of downsizing: Communication processes and information needs in the aftermath of a workforce reduction strategy. Management Communication Quarterly, 17, 485-516.

Bordia, P., Hunt, E., Paulsen, N., Tourish, D., and DiFonzo, N. (2004) Uncertainty during organizational change: It is all about control The European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13, 345-365

Tourish, D., and Robson, P. (2003) Critical upward feedback in organisations: Processes, problems and implications for communication management, Journal of Communication Management, 8, 150-167

Tourish, D., and Pinnington, A. (2002) Transformational leadership, corporate cultism and the spirituality paradigm: An unholy trinity in the workplace? Human Relations, 55, 147-172

Hargie, O., Tourish, D., and Wilson, N. (2002) Increased Information: Communication Metamyth or Vehicle for Reducing Uncertainty? Results from a Longitudinal Audit Study, Journal of Business Communication, 39, 414-436

Journalism and Media Appearances

I have featured widely in the media as a result of my expertise on cults. Recent examples include a lengthy opinion piece in the Irish Times:

'How cults create killers', Irish Times,16 July 2005. The full text is available to view in the article in The Irish Times

I was also interviewed at length on this subject on ABC Radio's Late Night Live on Wed 20th July 2005 by Phillip Adams. ABC is the main national radio station in Australia, LNL is one of its flagship radio discussion programmes, and Phillip Adams is one of the country's leading independent commentators. To listen to this discussion go to Late Night Live

Adams also devoted a column to the issue of cults, and my own work on the issue in particular, on Tuesday 26th July, under the heading 'Bombers come from cults of personality' which was featured in Australia's national daily newspaper The Australian where on-line newspaper articles can be accessed through newstext.

Another article, Following the Leader was featured in the Press and Journal of 8th December 2005.
Political leaders come and go, like football managers and company executives, but could the elusive key to leadership success lie in being able to make mistakes and then learn from them?
Professor Dennis Tourish thinks so, as he tells Mike Lowson. For full story see the article Following the Leader (Press and Journal, 8th December 2005).