prof. Onno Bouwmeester

Associate Professor, School of Business and Economics, Management and Organisation

Associate Professor, Amsterdam Business Research Institute

Personal information

Onno Bouwmeester is Professor in Consulting and Business Ethics at Durham University Bussiness School since 2023, and also Director of the VU Knowledge Hub for Consulting and PSF at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He holds Msc degrees in Philosophy (1993) and economics (1994) from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and a PhD in business adminstration from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2008). First he worked for six years as a management consultant at KPMG Bureau voor Economische Argumentatie, and then moved to the School of Business and Economics in 2001. From 2010-2021 he was head of the management consulting section at the M&O department, and also member of the department's management team. In 2015 he served as deputy head of the department for one year. He founded the master specialisation Management Consulting in the MSc program Business Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2009 and was leading the program until 2023. Currently he is leading the consulting pathway in the MSc Management at the Durham University Business School, and he is member of de wetenschappelijke raad van de Orde van Organisatie Adviseurs.

Research

Onno's research is focused on Management Consulting and Business Ethics. He is editorial boardmember of Journal of Managment Inquiry and Management Consulting Journal. He has written three mongraphs, one on Economic Advice and Rhetoric with Elgar, one on The Social Construction of Rationality with Routledge, and one on Business Ethics and Critical Consultant Jokes published with Springer. His methods are usually interview ot discourse based, and he likes to apply rhetorical and argumentation analysis. His studies on business ethics concentrate on the various good reasons we have to motivate our decisions, including non-economic forms of rationality such as social and expressive rationality. Next to that he has published on moral disengagement and moral leadership. His studies on consultants explore their rhetoric and reputation, uncertainty in the consultant-client relation, experiences of stress, work-life balance, psychologically dirty work, their motives for self employment, their role in reducing foodwaste and the role as intermediary in the relevance gap debate. His studies on entrepreneurship focus on their rhetorical strategies when convincing investors.

Teaching

Onno was founder and program coordinator of the MSc Managment Consulting at Vrije Universiteit for 15 years. He still coordinates the course Business Ethics in Management Consulting in this program. Several of his Master students have been nominated for a best Thesis Award. With them and with others he could publish in academic journals. He teaches a PhD courses and he is active in executive eduction for practicing consultant and internal consultants. Three of his PhD students have defended their thesis successfully, and several more are on their way. At Durham University is is currently leading the Consulting Pathway in the MSc Management, and he is engaged in their MBA

Ancillary activities

Durham University Business School | Durham | Professor | 2023-01-01 - present
Wetenschappelijke Raad van de Orde van Organisatie Adviseurs (OOA) | Lochum | Lid van de raad | 2024-01-01 - present

Ancillary activities are updated daily