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Professor Leroy White
Professor of Management
Streatham Court, University of Exeter, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX4 4PU, UK
External engagement and impact
Leroy is as a Professor of Management and Head of the Management Department at the University of Exeter Business School. He is a member of the College Executive Group. His main research interests are strategic partnerships, management practices, social network analysis, leadership behavioural operations and large group decision-making. He has worked with a range of clients, including the Department of Health, local health authorities, health trusts, the BBC and the voluntary sector in both the UK and abroad. He has published over a hundred papers in journals such as The Leadership Quarterly, Journals of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Human Resource Management and European Journal of OR. His funded research work includes ESRC KTP with Barclays Bank, British Academy award for a field experiment in the BBC, and ESRC Capacity Building Cluster on the third sector's impact.
Professor White's research interests involve applying novel techniques to collective leadership, group decision making, management practices and strategic partnerships to investigate their performance and implications. He has a particular interest in using statistical social network analysis, FsQCA , and Sequence Analysis. He has conducted research with many UK and overseas organisations, including the BBC, Barclays, BT, and many government bodies and NGOs.
Professor White has supervised many PhDs to completion and is interested in supervising students in areas such as collective leadership, leadership with digital innovations, strategic decision-making, and the impact of management practices.
He is a member of ExCL and CSN within the Business School.
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
White L, Kunc M, Malpass J, Burger K (2019). Behavioral Operational Research: a Capabilities Approach.
Behavioral Operational Research: a Capabilities Approach
Abstract. DOI.
White L, Kunc M, Malpass J, Burger K (2019). Preface.
Kunc M, Malpass J, White L (2016). Behavioral operational research: Theory, methodology and practice.
Behavioral operational research: Theory, methodology and practice
Ackermann F, Yearworth M, White L (In Press). Micro-Processes in Group Decision and Negotiation: Practices and Routines for Supporting Decision Making. Group Decision and Negotiation
Tully P, White L, Yearworth M (In Press). The value paradox of Problem Structuring Methods. Systems Research and Behavioral Science
The value paradox of Problem Structuring Methods
The use of Problem Structuring Method (PSM) interventions leads to outcomes unique to the circumstances of the problem context. Given the singular nature of these outcomes a consultant attempting to sell a PSM intervention will struggle to articulate value to clients in terms that are commercially meaningful prior to the intervention being enacted. Thus, in order to win a contract to deliver a PSM intervention the consultant must first resolve this puzzle. We explore this question by i) reviewing how the value of PSMs has been assessed previously, ii) setting out a suitable theoretical position to explore the problem, and iii) presenting empirical data from a commercial organisation to build our theoretical position. This starts with agreement with Checkland and Scholes that attempting to sell the (financial) value of a PSM intervention a priori is unlikely to ever succeed. Our theoretical development through analysis of empirical data leads to the recognition that the process of selling a PSM intervention is bound to the interposition of the processes of problematization and interessement and the issue of trust. The recognition of a distinction between these and the actual enactment of a PSM intervention leads us to conclude that the process of selling the consulting engagement is entirely associated with the temporal ordering between them. We thus avoid the bind of the original puzzle only by articulating a paradox. To resolve the paradox, we shift analytical focus to the pre-contractual phase of the relationship between a consultant and client and discuss implications of this paradox for Soft OR practice.
Abstract.
Burger K, White L, Yearworth M (In Press). Understanding front-end project workshops with Social Practice Theory. International Journal of Project Management
Understanding front-end project workshops with Social Practice Theory
Stimulated by the growing interest in understanding the actuality of project managing and the need to better understand how front-end project workshops can be efficacious, we aim to turn workshops-as-practice into a meaningful object of inquiry. We operationalise Social Practice Theory by studying the intertwining of materials, skills and meaning in video-recorded micro-episodes in a front-end project workshop. Our findings illustrate how material elements provide sensitive assistance as professional skills are enacted in structuring the project-specific urban development challenge. Our theoretical, methodological and empirical approach makes the characteristic tension of practice between transformation and reproduction accessible for empirical inquiry and theorising from practice, thereby helping to develop project management knowledge that resonates with the experience of the project practitioner.
Ormerod R, Yearworth M, White L (In Press). Understanding participant actions in OR interventions using practice theories: a research agenda. European Journal of Operational Research
Understanding participant actions in OR interventions using practice theories: a research agenda
Practice theory is a collective concept embodying a group of social theories that take practice, in other words actions, as the central focus of their theorising. In this paper we examine the intellectual development of practice theory, highlighting the importance of the key ideas that have shaped thinking on organisational activities and show their relevance to OR. In particular, we examine the social theories that OR researchers have adopted, what data was captured, and how it was analysed in order to establish empirical grounding in case studies involving workshops and meetings published by OR researchers. The cases thus provide a useful empirical basis for comparison to outline the prospects for the use of practice theories by OR academic researchers. Finally, we propose an agenda to advance the understanding of practice theories and their contribution to the theory and practice of OR.
White L, Burger K (2022). Understanding Frameworking for Smart and Sustainable City Development: a configurational approach. Organization Studies, 017084062210996-017084062210996.
Understanding Frameworking for Smart and Sustainable City Development: a configurational approach
in recent decades, frameworks combining rankings and indices for smart and sustainable city development have proliferated. Stakeholders respond to them in various ways for strategizing towards urban sustainability. We refer to this as frameworking, which we identify as focusing on how frameworks are commensurated. However, research on commensuration has concentrated mostly on reactivity towards metrics. Little is known about how stakeholders contemplate the quality of and reaction to rankings and indices. We examine this issue through a configurational analysis of a set of European cities that consistently appear in these frameworks. We unveil several configurations of smart city metrics that relate to sustainability. Based on these effects, we theorize frameworking as differences in the relative configurations of smart city metrics that can generate performance. These configurations relate to three underlying dimensions: smart city capability, reactivity and context. We show that when frameworking is studied configurationally, we can identify the previously under-researched response to the quality of indices and reactivity to metrics. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of a complex account of frameworks relevant to boosting urban sustainability.
White L, Lockett A, Currie G, Hayton J (2020). HYBRID CONTEXT, MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: a CONFIGURATIONAL APPROACH. Journal of Management Studies, NA, NA-NA. DOI.
White L, Lockett A, Currie G (2020). How does the availability and use of flexible leave influence the employer-employee relationship?. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, 59(5), 445-461. Author URL. DOI.
Burger K, White L, Yearworth M (2019). Developing a Smart Operational Research with Hybrid Practice Theories. European Journal of Operational Research
Developing a Smart Operational Research with Hybrid Practice Theories
The growth of technology-rich data-driven decision environments is seen by some as a challenge to the future relevance of Operational Research. Extant research remains unspecific about the distinct contribution that Operational Research can make in environments that are influenced by big data, data science and analytics. This paper explores the possibility that these environments hold the potential for a new integrative Operational Research offering, which we conceptualise as Smart Operational Research. In developing this proposal, we combine automated co-occurrence analysis of a corpus of literature with human-driven data interpretation to identify instantiations of hybrid decision-making. We then bring theory and practice together to outline the Smart Operational Research framework with the overall aim to enhance actionable insight and positive results for Operational Research practitioners.
White L (2018). A Cook's tour: Towards a framework for measuring the social impact of social purpose organisations. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, 268(3), 784-797. DOI.
Yearworth M, White L (2018). Spontaneous emergence of Community OR: self-initiating, self-organising problem structuring mediated by social media. European Journal of Operational Research, 809-824.
Spontaneous emergence of Community OR: self-initiating, self-organising problem structuring mediated by social media
We develop a new constitutive definition of Community OR as a self-initiating, self-organising community actor network emerging spontaneously in response to a triggering event and showing evidence of non-codified OR behaviours leading to action to improve the problem situation. From this new definition we have re-conceptualised Community OR as a construct that can be empirically observed emerging from suitable behavioural data. Social media play an instrumental role, acting as both the source of data and the enabling mechanism through which this form of Community OR occurs. Social media afford new possibilities for community empowerment and participation, with consequences for social enterprise and citizenship. We use Actor Network Theory, and specifically the language of translations, hybrid forums, and Callon's Co-production of Knowledge Model (CKM), as the methodological basis for our definition and analysis. The appearance of hybrid forums as a self-organising response to community needs after an event would seem to be a natural milieu for a range of OR competencies. However, unlike traditional practitioner-led engagements, here the OR practitioner's competency enters in a supportive rather than leading role. We support our argument through the analysis of social media data arising from the community response to a devastating flooding event – the Carlisle floods of December 2015.
Burger K, White L, Yearworth M (2018). Why so serious? Theorising playful model-driven group decision support with situated affectivity. Group Decision and Negotiation
Why so serious? Theorising playful model-driven group decision support with situated affectivity
An integrative approach to theorising behavioural, affective and cognitive processes in model-driven group decision support (GDS) interventions is needed to gain insight into the (micro-)processes by which outcomes are accomplished. This paper proposes that the theoretical lens of situated affectivity, grounded in recent extensions of scaffolded mind models, is suitable to understand the performativity of affective micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions. An illustrative vignette of a humorous micro-moment in a group decision workshop is presented to reveal the performativity of extended affective scaffolding processes for group decision development. The lens of situated affectivity constitutes a novel approach for the study of interventionist practice in the context of group decision making (and negotiation). An outlook with opportunities for future research is offered to facilitate an integrated approach to the study of cognitive–affective and behavioural micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions.
White L (2016). Behavioural operational research: Towards a framework for understanding behaviour in OR interventions. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, 249(3), 827-841. Author URL. DOI.
White L, Currie G, Lockett A (2016). Pluralized leadership in complex organizations: Exploring the cross network effects between formal and informal leadership relations. LEADERSHIP QUARTERLY, 27(2), 280-297. Author URL. DOI.
White L, Burger K, Yearworth M (2016). Understanding behaviour in problem structuring methods interventions with activity theory. European Journal of Operational Research, 249(3), 983-1004.
Understanding behaviour in problem structuring methods interventions with activity theory
This article argues that OR interventions, particularly problem structuring methods (PSM), are complex events that cannot be understood by conventional methods alone. In this paper an alternative approach is introduced, where the units of analysis are the activity systems constituted by and constitutive of PSM interventions. The paper outlines the main theoretical and methodological concerns that need to be appreciated in studying PSM interventions. The paper then explores activity theory as an approach to study them. A case study describing the use of this approach is provided.
Wang X, White L, Chen X (2015). Big data research for the knowledge economy: past, present, and future. INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT & DATA SYSTEMS, 115(9). Author URL. DOI.
Wang X, Chan HK, White L (2014). A comprehensive decision support model for the evaluation of eco-designs. JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY, 65(6), 917-934. Author URL. DOI.
Ackermann F, Franco LA, Rouwette E, White L (2014). Special issue on problem structuring research and practice. EURO Journal on Decision Processes, 2(3-4), 165-172. DOI.
White L, Currie G, Lockett A (2014). The enactment of plural leadership in a health and social care network: the influence of institutional context. LEADERSHIP QUARTERLY, 25(4), 730-745. Author URL. DOI.
Currie G, Burgess N, White L, Lockett A, Gladman J, Waring J (2014). The knowledge brokering role of middle level managers (MLMs) in service innovation: Managing the translation gap in patient safety for elderly care. Health Services and Delivery Research, 2(32), 1-118. DOI.
Yearworth M, White L (2014). The non-codified use of problem structuring methods and the need for a generic constitutive definition. European Journal of Operational Research, 237(3), 932-945.
The non-codified use of problem structuring methods and the need for a generic constitutive definition
When we use a PSM what is it we are actually doing? an answer to this question would enable the PSM community to considerably enlarge the available source of case studies by the inclusion of examples of non-codified PSM use. We start from Checkland's own proposal for a "constitutive definition" of SSM, which originated from trying to answer the question of knowing when a claim of SSM use was legitimate. By extending this idea to a generic constitutive definition for all PSMs leads us to propose a self-consistent labelling schema for observed phenomena arising from PSMs in action. This consists of a set of testable propositions, which, through observation of putative PSM use, can be used to assess validity of claims of PSM use. Such evidential support for the propositions as may be found in putative PSM use can then make it back into a broader axiomatic formulation of PSMs through the use of a set-Theoretic approach, which enables our method to scale to large data sets. The theoretical underpinning to our work is in causal realism and middle range theory. We illustrate our approach through the analysis of three case studies drawn from engineering organisations, a rich source of possible non-codified PSM use. The combination of a method for judging cases of non-codified PSM use, sound theoretical underpinning, and scalability to large data sets, we believe leads to a demystification of PSMs and should encourage their wider use. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Yearworth M, White L (2013). The uses of qualitative data in multimethodology: Developing causal loop diagrams during the coding process. European Journal of Operational Research, 231(1), 151-161.
The uses of qualitative data in multimethodology: Developing causal loop diagrams during the coding process
In this research note we describe a method for exploring the creation of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) from the coding trees developed through a grounded theory approach and using computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). The theoretical background to the approach is multimethodology, in line with Minger's description of paradigm crossing and is appropriately situated within the Appreciate and Analyse phases of PSM intervention. The practical use of this method has been explored and three case studies are presented from the domains of organisational change and entrepreneurial studies. The value of this method is twofold; (i) it has the potential to improve dynamic sensibility in the process of qualitative data analysis, and (ii) it can provide a more rigorous approach to developing CLDs in the formation stage of system dynamics modelling. We propose that the further development of this method requires its implementation within CAQDAS packages so that CLD creation, as a precursor to full system dynamics modelling, is contemporaneous with coding and consistent with a bridging strategy of paradigm crossing. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Currie G, White L (2012). Inter-professional Barriers and Knowledge Brokering in an Organizational Context: the Case of Healthcare. ORGANIZATION STUDIES, 33(10), 1333-1361. Author URL. DOI.
White L, Smith H, Currie C (2011). OR in developing countries: a review. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, 208(1), 1-11. Author URL. DOI.
Mingers J, White L (2010). A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, 207(3), 1147-1161. Author URL. DOI.
White L (2009). Challenge of Research Ethics Committees to the nature of operations research. OMEGA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, 37(6), 1083-1088. Author URL. DOI.
White L, Lee GJ (2009). Operational research and sustainable development: Tackling the social dimension. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, 193(3), 683-692. Author URL. DOI.
White L (2008). Connecting Organizations: Developing the Idea of Network Learning in Inter-Organizational Settings. SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, 25(6), 701-716. Author URL. DOI.
White L (2008). Evaluating PSMs - Reply. JOURNAL OF THE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY, 59(1), 138-139. Author URL. DOI.
White L (2007). Understanding global cultures: Metaphorical journeys through 17 countries. By Martin J. Gannon. Published by Sage Publications, California, 1994, 392 pp. £42.50 (cloth), £19.95 (paper), ISBN 0 8039 5374 7 (cloth), 0 8039 5375 5 (paper). Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 12(3), 247-249. DOI.
White L, Bourne H (2007). Voices and values: Linking values with participation in ORMS in public policy making. OMEGA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, 35(5), 588-603. Author URL. DOI.
White L (2006). Aesthetics in OR/systems practice: Towards a concept of critical imagination as a challenge to systems thinking. SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, 23(6), 779-791. Author URL. DOI.
White L, Cant B (2003). Social networks, social support, health and HIV‐positive gay men. Health & Social Care in the Community, 11(4), 329-334. DOI.
White L (2003). The role of systems research and operational research in community involvement: a case study of a health action zone. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 20(2), 133-145. DOI.
White L (2002). Connection matters: exploring the implications of social capital and social networks for social policy. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 19(3), 255-269. DOI.
White L (2002). Size matters: large group methods and the process of operational research. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 53(2), 149-160. DOI.
White L (2001). 'Effective governance' through complexity thinking and management science. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 18(3), 241-257. DOI.
White L (2000). Changing the "whole system" in the public sector. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13(2), 162-177. DOI.
White L, Taket A (2000). Exploring the use of narrative analysis as an operational research method: a case study in voluntary sector evaluation. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 51(6), 700-711. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1998). Experience in the Practice of One Tradition of Multimethodology. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 11(2), 153-168. DOI.
White L, Taket A (1997). Beyond appraisal: Participatory Appraisal of Needs and the Development of Action (PANDA). Omega, 25(5), 523-534. DOI.
White L (1997). Book Review: Diversity management: Triple Loop Learning. By R. L. Flood and N. R. A. Romm. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1996 253 pp. £24.95 ISBN 0 471 96449 2. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 14(6), 425-428. DOI.
White L, McIntyre J, Taket A, Bryant J, Richardson N (1997). Book reviews. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 10(5), 635-654. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1997). Wanted: Dead OR Alive—Ways of Using Problem‐structuring Methods in Community OR. International Transactions in Operational Research, 4(2), 99-108. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1997). Working with Heterogeneity: a Pluralist Strategy for Evaluation. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 14(2), 101-111. DOI.
Gregory A, White L, Van Gigch JP, Glanville R (1996). Book review. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 13(2), 179-185. DOI.
Rosenhead J, White L (1996). Nuclear Fusion: Some Linked Case Studies in Community Operational Research. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 47(4), 479-489. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1996). Pragmatic pluralism—An explication. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 9(6), 571-586. DOI.
White L, Taket A (1996). The end of theory?. Omega, 24(1), 47-56. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1994). After Post-Modernism in OR: Response. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 45(2), 242-242. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1994). Doing community operational research with multicultural groups. Omega, 22(6), 579-588. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1994). Support for Back to Basics?. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 45(7), 852-853. DOI.
White L, Taket A (1994). The Death of the Expert. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 45(7), 733-748. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1993). After OR: an Agenda for Postmodernism and Poststructuralism in OR. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 44(9), 867-881. DOI.
Scheeler D, White L, Spear R, Martin J (1993). Book reviews. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 6(2), 213-229. DOI.
Lami IM, White L (2022). Are PSMs Relevant in a Digital Age? Towards an Ethical Dimension. In (Ed) The Palgrave Handbook of Operations Research, 781-801. DOI.
Yearworth M, White L (2021). Group Support Systems: Experiments with an Online System and Implications for Same-Time/Different-Places Working. In (Ed) Handbook of Group Decision and Negotiation, 681-706. DOI.
White L (2019). Conjoined capability, collective behavior and collaborative action: What's the connection?. In (Ed) Behavioral Operational Research: a Capabilities Approach, 299-319. DOI.
White L, Kunc M, Malpass J, Burger K (2019). Future directions. In (Ed) Behavioral Operational Research: a Capabilities Approach, 361-367. DOI.
Yearworth M, White L (2019). Group Support Systems: experiments with an online system and implications for same-time/different places working. In Kilgour DM, Eden C (Eds.) Handbook of Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer.
Group Support Systems: experiments with an online system and implications for same-time/different places working
Yearworth M, White L (2017). Demystifying facilitation: a new approach to investigating the role of facilitation in group decision support processes. In (Ed) , 69-86.
Demystifying facilitation: a new approach to investigating the role of facilitation in group decision support processes
White L (2016). Behavior beyond the model. In (Ed) Behavioral Operational Research: Theory, Methodology and Practice, 65-84.
Behavior beyond the model
White L, Burger K, Yearworth M (2016). Big Data and Behavior in Operational Research: Towards a "Smart OR". In Kunc M, Malpass J, White L (Eds.) Behavioral Operational Research Theory, Methodology and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, 177-193.
Big Data and Behavior in Operational Research: Towards a "Smart OR"
White L, Burger K, Yearworth M (2016). Smart cities:big data and behavioral operational research. In Kunc M, Malpass J, White L (Eds.) Behavioral Operational Research Theory, Methodology and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan, 303-318.
Smart cities:big data and behavioral operational research
Taket A, White L (2004). Playing with PANDA: the CybOrg and the Rhizome. In (Ed) Community Operational Research, 253-272. DOI.
White L (2002). Community Matters: Community Operational Research Work on Health Needs on the Stonebridge Estate. In (Ed) Synergy Matters, 361-366. DOI.
White L, Taket A (1997). A Report on an Action-Research Project to Strengthen the Research Base in Primary and Community Care. In (Ed) Systems for Sustainability, 313-318. DOI.
Taket A, White L (1995). Working with Heterogeneity. In (Ed) Critical Issues in Systems Theory and Practice, 517-522. DOI.
White L, Yearworth M, Burger K (2015). Understanding PSM interventions through sense-making and the mangle of practice lens.
Understanding PSM interventions through sense-making and the mangle of practice lens
Hale A, White L (2014). Developing a framework to establish collaborative enterprise networks. 2014 8th Annual IEEE Systems Conference (SysCon). 31st Mar - 3rd Apr 2014. DOI.
White L, Christopoulos DC (2011). The public sector as broker: an interim report. Author URL. DOI.
White L (2009). Understanding problem structuring methods interventions. Author URL. DOI.
In the past I have taught:
Introduction to Management
Digital Innovation Analytics and Leadership
Digital Innovation and Health Care Management