AOC
Jean Neumann, BA, MA, PhD
Jean Neumann works as both practitioner and academic in those applied social and behavioural science fields that make up organisational development and change (OD&C), organisational consultancy and related careers.
She cares deeply about ‘good’ organisational change and development, completing over 400 projects with organisations who consider themselves thus engaged.
Jean serves as the Director of Studies and a Core Faculty for The Tavistock Institute’s Advanced Organisational Change and Consulting (AOC) programme, which she co-founded in 1991 with Dr. Eric Miller. Jean’s action research manifests her dual intentions of using practice to inform a more critical OD&C theory of practice, and of improving the quality and integrity of consultancy available to those inside organisations and related social systems. She is ‘shamelessly practical’ in her research and publication.
Current concerns include: design rules for whole systems intervention; issues in using centralised human resources for international OD&C; the relationship between consultants’ domains and their clients’ agenda; and experiential learning for scholarly practice.
Sample publications:
Neumann, J.E. (2007). Becoming better consultants through varieties of experiential learning
Reynolds, M. & Vince, R. (Eds.), The Handbook of Experiential Learning in Management Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 258-273.
(2005) Kurt Lewin at The Tavistock Institute, Educational Action Research
13:1, pp. 121-137.
(1999) Systems psychodynamics in the service of political organisational change
French, R. & Vince, R. Group Relations, Management and Organisation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(1997) Developing Organisational Consultancy
London: Routledge.
(1989) Why people don’t participate in organizational change
Woodman, R. W. & Pasmore, W. A., Research in Organizational Change and Development, Volume 3. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 181-212.
An Assistant Editor for Human Relations for eight years (1989-1998), Jean currently reviews for the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Over the last 20 years, she has taught aspects of organisational behaviour and change in various graduate programmes: the National School of Government, Cranfield University, City University, Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University. Her emerging strengths in academe link experiential learning and action research approaches to enhance relevance of organisational studies to real life practice.
In private practice, Dr. Neumann works individually and collectively with organisational consultants, change managers and other agents who are involved with initiatives they intend to be ‘good organisational change’. Most clients are willing to experiment with some aspect of participative decision-making. They come from a wide variety of sectors. Jean has a reputation for helping to sort out problems with co-operation and motivation during challenging organisational developments. Her background and experience have prepared her to address both structural and cultural changes, as well as to handle many types of interventions successfully.
In 1987, Jean was awarded a Ph.D. in organisational behaviour from Case Western Reserve University, USA. Previously, she earned an MA in adult development, and a BA in education and psychology. Jean holds both UK and USA citizenship, living in South London with her husband (Richard Holti) and two teenagers (William and Elizabeth). Her hobbies include walking and gardening.
