Kevin Orr is a Senior Fellow in the Institute of European Studies. He is Professor of Leadership and Governance at the University of St Andrews, UK. Orr is a Fulbright Scholar and was hosted by the IES and the Center for British Studies at UC Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar in 2017-2018. During that time he led collaborative projects on political leadership and governance, austerity and crisis, and on several public policy areas. Orr is a recipient of the Louis Brownlow Prize from the American Society for Public Administration for work on academic-practitioner collaborative research. He has contributed to the IES public lecture series delivering a lecture on Leadership, Storytelling and Alternative Facts, and given papers to conferences organized by the Institute’s Center for British Studies.
Orr’s scholarship engages with theories at the intersections of organizational theory, public administration and political studies. His research addresses aspects of leading, managing and organizing, most often in political settings. The work adopts an interpretive approach, contributing to conversations about storytelling and narratives; relational leadership; knowledge and practice; and power and traditions, in a range of political and organizational arenas.
Orr’s interpretive research on local governance appears in journals such as Public Administration Review, Organization Studies, Public Administration,British Journal of Politics and International Relations, and Policy and Politics. His work on the politics of academic-practitioner research coproduction can be read in Public Administration Review and Management Learning. He is co-editor of Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations, Routledge (2016). His recent ethnographic writing explores organizational ghosts – examining how inheritances of the past haunt the relations and struggles of the present. Orr is currently leading projects on public sector austerity; dilemmas of political management; and narrative approaches to the policy process.
Orr’s work is connected with international research leadership roles. He is past chair of the Organizational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities research community, and continues to serve on its Executive Board. Orr is interested in wider intellectual engagement and has carried out research for the International City Managers Association (US), the British Council, the Scottish Parliament, and a range of public bodies in the UK. He is an experienced university leader, most recently serving as Co-Head of the School of Management at the University of St Andrews. Working with the IES Director, he is responsible for the PhD student exchange scheme between St Andrews and IES. In 2019 he will co-convene a conference on political leadership at UC Berkeley.
