Dr Michal Izak

Professor in Organisation Studies

Chester Business School
m.izak@chester.ac.uk
Dr Michal Izak

Prior to joining the University of Chester I worked at the University of Essex, Lincoln and Roehampton, recently as a Reader in Management. I published my work in academic peer-reviewed outlets such as Human Relations, Organization Studies and Work, Employment and Society. I also published edited volumes (e.g. with Routledge and Palgrave) and book chapters.

I’m an editorial board member of Organization Studies and an Associate Editor of Management Learning. I have co-organised numerous international academic conferences and conference streams.

  • BU7001 - Management Research Project
  • BU7002 - Management Research Methods
  • PGR/PhD supervision
  • DBA and DProf - Research Methods phase
  • Personal Academic Tutor (PAT)

My research interests include flexible working discourses and their ideological underpinnings, organisational communication and ethnographic and narrative approaches to organisational analysis.

Conference and Network Committee Memberships

  • AoM
  • CMS
  • EGOS
  • SCOS
  • ICOD

Journal Board Memberships

  • Management Learning – Associate Editor
  • Organization Studies – Editorial Board member

Awards/Appointments

  • Reviewer of the year (2019) – Management Learning
  • Top cited paper 2020-2021 – European Management Review

Other Research Activities

  • Reviewer for: Human Relations; Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion; Issues of Management (Problemy Zarządzania); Sage Open; TAMARA Journal for Critical Organizational Inquiry; Zarządzanie w kulturze (Management in Culture); Leadership; Management Learning; New Technology, Work and Employment; Journal of Organizational Change Management; Ephemera; British Journal of Management; International Journal of Manpower; Culture and Organization; Basic and Applied Social Psychology; Organization Studies; International Management Research Academy; Futures journal; Journal of Management Inquiry; Journal of Information Technology; Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work; Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly; European Management Review; Universal Journal of Industrial and Business Management; Journal of Business Ethics; Journal of Management History.
  • Managing editor of: the Special Issue of Futures journal (‘The Futures of Capitalism’) published in 2015; the Special Issue of Tamara journal of Critical Organizational Inquiry (‘Untold stories’) published in 2014; the Special Issue of Culture and Organization journal (‘Flexible lives: spatial, temporal, and behavioural boundaries in a fluid world of work and home’) to be published in 2023.
  • Editorial Advisory Board member: Managing Dynamic Technology-Oriented Businesses: High Tech Organizations and Workplaces (2012) (eds. Jemielniak, D. and Marks, A.).
  • Mentor for Working Paper Nursery.
  • Reviewer for the British Council Newton Fund Grants.
  • Co-organiser of the research seminar series organized by Organisation and Management Studies Group (Lincoln Business School) from 2012 – 2015.
  • Stream’s co-convener at the APROS/EGOS conference (Sydney, 2015) The Liminality of Organizational Space.
  • Higher Education Academy – HEA Senior Fellow.
  • Chartered Management Institute – Member.
  • Co-organizer of the Organizational Discourse Conference (Amsterdam, 2016).
  • Stream co-convener at the Critical Management Studies Conference (Liverpool, 2017) Reclaiming Flexibility - ‘Workplace flexibility’ in the contemporary economy.
  • Stream co-convener at the Critical Management Studies Conference (Milton Keynes, 2019) Flexible working arrangements – boundary work or boundless work?
  • Stream co-convener at the Critical Management Studies Conference (New Delhi, 2021) Flexible lives: spatial, temporal, and behavioural boundaries in a fluid world of work and home. 
  • Visiting academic (sabbatical) in VU Amsterdam (2017).
  • Visiting academic (sabbatical) in Copenhagen Business School (2017).
  • Member of the board for reviewing Work Wise UK smarter working excellence standards.
  • Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) – Subject specialist/ Assessor (Business and Management).
  • External Examiner: University of Sheffield; University of Suffolk.

Organising/hosting impact events (e.g. business round tables)

  • Organizer of the Organizational Storytelling Conference (international, practitioner and academic) (Roehampton, London, UK; University of Lincoln, UK) in 2014 and 2018.
  • Workshop delivered at European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) Strategic Foresight and Capabilities Unit at the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.
  • This engagement may potentially lead to further collaboration (which may have capacity for impact). Participants: Researchers at the European Parliament, Think tanks, MEPs assistants. 2021.

Journal Articles

  • Izak, Michal; Case, Peter and Ybema, Sierk (2022) ‘Monologue and Organization Studies’, Organization Studies (earlycite).
  • Izak, Michal; Shortt, Harriet; and Case, Peter (2022) ‘Learning to inhabit the liquid liminal world of work: an auto-photographic account of work-life boundary transitions’, Management Learning.
  • Reissner, Stefanie; Izak, Michal and Hislop, Donald (2021) ‘Configurations of Boundary Management Practices Among Flexible Workers’, Work, Employment and Society, 35(2): 296-315.
  • Bal, Matthijs and Izak, Michal (2021) ‘The flexibility paradox: an integrative review of research on workplace flexibility’, European Management Review, (18): 37-50. – Top-cited paper in 2021 award
  • Shortt, Harriet and Izak, Michal (2021) ‘Scarred objects and time marks as memory anchors: the significance of scuffs and stains in organisational life’, Human Relations, 74(10): 1688-1715.
  • Hagos, Sirak, Izak, Michal and Scott, Jonathan. (2019) ‘Objective institutionalized barriers and subjective performance factors of new migrant entrepreneurs’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 25(5): 842-858.
  • Izak, Michal (2016) ‘Nothing left to learn: translation and the Groundhog Day of bureaucracy’, Management Learning, 47(5): 543-562.
  • Izak, Michal (2015) ‘Situational liminality: mis-managed consumer experience in liquid modernity’, Scandinavian Journal of Management, 31: 178-191.
  • Izak, Michal; Mansell, S. and Fuller, T. (2015) ‘Between No Future and Business-As-Usual: Exploring Futures of Capitalism’, Futures (68): 1-4.
  • Izak, Michal (2013) ‘Learning from a Fool: Searching for the ‘unmanaged’ context for radical learning’, Management Learning, 46(1): 87-104.
  • Izak, Michal (2014) ‘Translucent Society and its Non-fortuitous Design: Producing and Consuming Reality through Images’, Culture and Organization, 20(5): 359-376.
  • Izak, Michal (2014) ‘A Story-in-the-making: An Intertextual Exploration of a Multivoiced Narrative’, TAMARA Journal for Critical Organizational Inquiry, 12(1): 41-57.
  • Izak, M., Kostera, M and Zawadzki, M. (Eds.) (2017) The Future of University Education. London: Pelgrave.
  • Izak, M; Hitchin, L. and Anderson D. (Eds.) (2015) Untold Stories in Organizations. London: Routledge.
  • Izak, Michal (2022) ‘Reducing reductionism, halting holism – some reflections on writing for humans’, in: Kostera, Monika (Ed.) Writing Differently. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 127-135.
  • Shortt, Harriet and Izak, Michal (2020) ‘The contested home’, in: Martin Parker (ed) Life after Covid-19: The other side of crisis. Bristol University Press: Bristol, pp. 43-52.
  • Izak, Michal and Kostera, Monika (2020) ‘King Popiel, the killer mice and the story of the post-lie leadership’, in: Matt Statler and Wendelin Küpers (eds) Leadership and Wisdom Lessons from folklore. London: Routledge.
  • Izak, Michal and Kostera, Monika (2019) ‘There is hope in organizing: Dialogic imagination against linearity’, in: Daniel Ericsson and Monika Kostera (eds) Organizing Hope: Narratives for a better future. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 176-187.
  • Izak, Michal (2015) ‘Analiza fikcji literackich i filmowych’ (‘Analyzing Fiction’), in: Zarządzanie humanistyczne: Metody i inspiracje badawcze. (Humanistic Management: Methods and Inspirations) (ed. Kostera, M.), Warsaw: Sedno.
  • Izak, Michal (2014) ‘Transcending liquidity: Towards a new embeddedness’ - in: Liquid Organization’ (eds. Kostera, M. and Kociatkiewicz, J.), Routledge: London, pp. 153-169.
  • Izak, Michal (2014) ‘The critical approach to Critical Management Studies’, in: Zawadzki, M. and Sulkowski, L. (Eds) The Handbook of Critical Organization Studies. Warsaw: Difin.
  • Izak, Michal and Kociatkiewicz, Jerzy (2014) ‘Zespół w Kryzysie: Rozpad Organizacji w Filmie Obcy Ridleya Scotta’ (‘A team’s crisis: The organizational collapse in Ridley Scott’s Alien’, in: Kostera, M. (Ed.) O zarzadzaniu historie niezwykle: Studia przypadku z zarzadzania humanistycznego, (Amazing Stories in Management: Case Studies in Humanistic Management). Warsaw: Poltext.

Books

  • Izak, M., Kostera, M and Zawadzki, M. (Eds.) (2017) The Future of University Education. London: Pelgrave. 
  • Izak, M; Hitchin, L. and Anderson D. (Eds.) (2015) Untold Stories in Organizations. London: Routledge.

Book Chapters

  • Izak, Michal (2022) ‘Reducing reductionism, halting holism – some reflections on writing for humans’, in: Kostera, Monika (Ed.) Writing Differently. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 127-135. 
  • Shortt, Harriet and Izak, Michal (2020) ‘The contested home’, in: Martin Parker (ed) Life after Covid-19: The other side of crisis. Bristol University Press: Bristol, pp. 43-52. 
  • Izak, Michal and Kostera, Monika (2020) ‘King Popiel, the killer mice and the story of the post-lie leadership’, in: Matt Statler and Wendelin Küpers (eds) Leadership and Wisdom Lessons from folklore. London: Routledge. 
  • Izak, Michal and Kostera, Monika (2019) ‘There is hope in organizing: Dialogic imagination against linearity’, in: Daniel Ericsson and Monika Kostera (eds) Organizing Hope: Narratives for a better future. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 176-187. 
  • Izak, Michal (2015) ‘Analiza fikcji literackich i filmowych’ (‘Analyzing Fiction’), in: Zarządzanie humanistyczne: Metody i inspiracje badawcze. (Humanistic Management: Methods and Inspirations) (ed. Kostera, M.), Warsaw: Sedno. 
  • Izak, Michal (2014) ‘Transcending liquidity: Towards a new embeddedness’ - in: Liquid Organization’ (eds. Kostera, M. and Kociatkiewicz, J.), Routledge: London, pp. 153-169. 
  • Izak, Michal (2014) ‘The critical approach to Critical Management Studies’, in: Zawadzki, M. and Sulkowski, L. (Eds) The Handbook of Critical Organization Studies. Warsaw: Difin. 
  • Izak, Michal and Kociatkiewicz, Jerzy (2014) ‘Zespół w Kryzysie: Rozpad Organizacji w Filmie Obcy Ridleya Scotta’ (‘A team’s crisis: The organizational collapse in Ridley Scott’s Alien’, in: Kostera, M. (Ed.) O zarzadzaniu historie niezwykle: Studia przypadku z zarzadzania humanistycznego, (Amazing Stories in Management: Case Studies in Humanistic Management). Warsaw: Poltext.
  • PhD in Management Studies