Dr Robert Cluley
Biography
Robert joined the School of Management at the University of Leicester as Lecturer in Marketing and Management in 2010. He holds a BSc (Hons) Management from Lancaster University, an MA Critical Theory awarded by The University of Nottingham, an MSc Management Research from the University of Leicester and was awarded his PhD by the University of Leicester.
In a gap from his studies, Robert spent three years working in the manufacturing and building services industries in the UK. In 2006, he returned to management research after he was awarded a Critical Management Studies Scholarship by the University of Leicester. At Leicester he completed an MSc Management Research with distinction.
In 2008, he was awarded an ESRC Scholarship for his doctoral research project investigating the nature of cultural production in the music industries. His thesis, supervised by Professor Martin Parker and Dr Nick Ellis was examined by Professor Alan Bryman and Professor Carl Rhodes
Research Interests
Robert's research offers a critical analysis of the language and psychology of consumption, markets and organizations. He is interested the ways that contemporary social relations and the tools we have for talking about them allow us and encourage us to fool ourselves. So far, his research projects have looked at the concepts of 'creativity', 'labours of love' and 'ethical consumption'. He has analysed the ways that buzzwords help leaders deal with anxieties produced by their position within organizations and how organizations hide our narcissism.
Currently, Robert is working on a range of projects. He is developing an empirical measure to establish whether the 'Gruen Transfer' exists. He is compiling a review of consumer misbehaviour. He is collaborating with Prof Mark Tadajewski on an organization history of the Frankfurt School. He is working with Dr Tom Coogan on the ways that marketing techniques create disability. He is also co-editing an forthcoming special issue of Marketing Theory entitled 'Psychoanalysis and marketing theory: retail therapies, marketing repressions and oedipal consumption' with Dr John Desmond.
Robert has also worked with a number of organizations. He has completed EU Innovation Partnerships with two local companies. He has also acted as an adviser to 'the Smokescreen' (www.) and Blaby District Council's 'The Write Stuff'.
Academic Awards and Scholarships
2012 Visiting Academic ESC Groupe Pau
2011 Best paper, Academy of Marketing Conference 2011 (Critical marketing stream) 2008 ESRC +3 Open Competition Doctoral Research Scholarship
2008 Visiting PhD Researcher (April-August), Copenhagen Business School
2006 Critical Management Studies Research Scholarship, University of Leicester
Memberships
2012 Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction
2011 Academy of Marketing
2006 Centre for Philosophy and Political Economy
Doctoral supervision
Robert is currently supervising Donald Harper with Prof Mike Saren.
Most Recent Publications
Cluley, R. (forthcoming) 'What Makes a Management Buzzword Buzz?', Organization Studies
Cluley, R. and Dunne, S. (2012, in press) 'From Commodity Fetishism to Commodity Narcissism', Marketing Theory, 12(3)
Cluley, R. (2012) 'Art Words and Art Worlds: The Methodological Importance of Language Use in Howard S. Becker's Sociology of Art and Cultural Production', Cultural Sociology, 6(2): 201-216
Cluley, R. (2011) 'The Organization of Santa: Fetishism, Ambivalence and Narcissism', Organization, 18(6), 777-792.
Cluley, R. and Harvie, David (2011) 'Comment on David Graeber's "Consumption"', Current Anthropology, 52(4), 502-503.
Cluley, R. (2010) 'Critical Theory' in Mark Tadajewski, Pauline MacLaran, Elizabeth Parsons and Martin Parker (2010) Key Concepts in Critical Management Studies, pp. 92-96, London: Sage.
Cluley, R. (2009) 'Chained to the Grassroots: The Music Industries and DCMS', Cultural Trends, 18(3), 213-225.
Cluley, R. (2009) 'Engineering great moments: The production of live music', Consumption, Markets & Culture, 12(4), 373-388.
Crook, C. and Cluley, R. (2009) 'The teaching voice on the learning platform: seeking classroom climates within a virtual learning environment', Learning, Media & Technology, 34(3), 199-213.
Cluley, R. (2008) 'The Psychoanalytic Relationship between Leaders and Folllowers', Leadership, 4(2), 201-212
