Profile

Before joining Newcastle University in 2013, Andrea held a Chair in Organisation Studies at Cardiff University. Andrea graduated with a first class honours degree in Natural Science from Durham University in 1999 and gained her ESRC funded PhD in Sociology from Brunel University at the Centre for Research into Innovation, Culture and Technology (CRICT) in 2003, followed by an ESRC funded post-doctoral research fellowship at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Her research is driven by a passion for understanding the role of language in management settings and is informed by theories and methodologies from the fields of discourse analysis, narrative, discursive psychology, ethnography, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. She has conducted research on management consultants, identity, branding, organizational change, technology and strategy. Recent research has focused on sensemaking in official discourse, strategy discourse and narratives and qualitative research methodology.

Andrea has co-authored two SAGE textbooks, Understanding Identity and Organizations (2011) and Strategy: Theory and Practice (2nd edition 2017, 3rd edition 2020, 4th edition 2022).

Andrea is currently Research Community Lead for the Management & Organisation community and has previously served as Head of the Leadership, Work and Organization Subject Group (2016-2019) and Strategy, Organizations and Society (SOS) Research Group (2013-2015). 

Google Scholar: Click here.

My passion is studying language and discourse in management and organizational settings. I have incorporated a broad range of theories into my research, from a variety of fields, including post-structuralism, critical discourse analysis, narrative, discursive psychology, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. The core research question in all my studies is simple: how do practices of language-use enable organizations and societies accomplish their business?

I work with naturally-occurring linguistic data gathered primarily through ethnographic observation or audio-/video-recording, but I also work with secondary sources such as publicly-available texts. I have conducted research on a range of topics, including:

• Teleworking
• Management consultancy
• Identity and narrative
• Organizational change
• Strategic organisation
• Business-to-business interaction
• Manager-employee interaction 

I was principal investigator on an ESRC funded Research Grant in 2004-2005, which examined technological change in public sector organizations.

I am interested in collaborating on research projects that involve analysing discourse and language-use in organizational and institutional settings.

I am currently involved in teaching mainly Management and Organisation and Managing Organisational Change at undergraduate and post-graduate level.

I currently supervise three doctoral students and have been fortunate to supervise a number of gifted doctoral students over the past few years. I regularly act as Internal Examiner and External Examiner for doctoral theses in the UK and around the world.

I am interested in supervising prospective PhD students on research projects that involve analysing practices of language-use in (or about) organizations - please drop me a line to discuss potential topics and funding opportunities.

• Articles

  • Jabbouri R, Whittle A, Truong Y, Schneckenberg D. Narrative Switching in Entrepreneurial Failure Accounts: Unravelling Discourse Dynamics and Variability. British Journal of Management 2025, epub ahead of print.
  • Whittle A, Reissner S. Making knowledge claims from qualitative interviews: A typology of epistemological modes. British Journal of Management 2025, 36(1), 3-16.
  • Yusuff K, Whittle A, Mueller F. Accounting for the “harms” of social media firms: Dialogic accountability and discursive contestation in public hearings. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 2025, 38(3), 1019-1040.
  • Giazitzoglu A, Whittle A. A good bloke and a good man to do business with: How men use symbolic masculinity to network through golf. Gender, Work and Organization 2025, epub ahead of print.
  • Giazitzoglu A, Whittle A, Mueller F. The role of cunning misrepresentations in entrepreneurial impression management. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development 2024, 36(9-10), 1210-1231.
  • Carter C, Whittle A, Badham R, Clegg S. Reconstituting the centrality of power in management and organization studies. European Management Review 2024, 21(2), 263-276.
  • Whittle A, Vaara E, Maitlis S. The role of language in organizational sensemaking: an integrative theoretical framework and an agenda for future. Journal of Management 2023, 49(6), 1807-1840.
  • Mueller F, Whittle A, Addison S. Official truth, applied deconstruction and post-inquiry sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash. Human Relations 2023, 76(7), 1050-1080.
  • Kelsey D, Yannopoulou N, Whittle A, Heath T, Golossenko A, Soares AM. The (Army) Hero with a thousand faces: A Discourse-Mythological Approach to theorizing archetypal blending in contemporary advertising. Marketing Theory 2023, 23(1), 141-162.
  • Humonen K, Whittle A. "Just relax and ram it in": Dimensions of power in workplace sexual humour. Organization 2023, 32(3), 345-376.
  • Reissner SC, Whittle A. Interview-based research in management and organisation studies: making sense of the plurality of methodological practices and presentational styles. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management 2022, 17(1), 61-83.
  • Vaara E, Whittle A. Common Sense, New Sense or Non-Sense? A Critical Discursive Perspective on Power in Collective Sensemaking. Journal of Management Studies 2022, 59(3), 755-781.
  • Whittle A, Gilchrist A, Mueller F, Lenney P. The art of stage-craft: A dramaturgical perspective on strategic change. Strategic Organization 2021, 19(4), 636-666.
  • Whittle A. Making sense of the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn: Towards an ambiguity-centred perspective on authentic leadership. Leadership 2021, 17(4), 441-463.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F, Carter C. Authenticity and political leadership. IPPR Progressive Review 2021, 28(2), 140-152.
  • Reichard B, Reed MS, Chubb J, Hall G, Jowett L, Peart A, Whittle A. Writing impact case studies: a comparative study of high-scoring and low-scoring case studies from REF2014. Palgrave Communications 2020, 6, 31.
  • Budd K, Kelsey D, Mueller F, Whittle A. Payday loans in the press: a discourse-mythological analysis of British newspaper coverage of the payday loan industry. Social Semiotics 2020, 30(1), 25-44.
  • Whittle A, Carter C. Making strategy critical? Part II: Strategy redux – Macro perspectives. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2020, 73, 102262.
  • Mueller F, Whittle A, Gadelshina G. The discursive construction of authenticity: The case of Jeremy Corbyn. Discourse, Context and Media 2019, 31, 100324.
  • Iszatt-White M, Whittle A, Gadelshina G, Mueller F. The 'Corbyn Phenomenon': Media Representations of Authentic Leadership and the Discourse of Ethics Versus Effectiveness. Journal of Business Ethics 2019, 159(2), 535-549.
  • Budd K, Kelsey D, Mueller F, Whittle A. Metaphor, morality and legitimacy: A critical discourse analysis of the media framing of the payday loan industry. Organization 2019, 26(6), 802-829.
  • Llewellyn N, Whittle A. Lies, defeasibility and morality-in-action: The interactional architecture of false claims in sales, telemarketing and debt collection work. Human Relations 2019, 72(4), 834-858.
  • Carter C, Whittle A. Making strategy critical?. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2018, 53, 1-15.
  • Neyland D, Whittle A. Garfinkel on strategy: Using ethnomethodology to make sense of “rubbish strategy”. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2018, 53, 31-42.
  • Frandsen S, Gotsi M, Johnston A, Whittle A, Frenkel S, Spicer A. Faculty Responses to Business School Branding: A Discursive Approach. European Journal of Marketing 2018, 52(5/6), 1128-1153.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F, Carter C. The ‘Big Four’ in the spotlight: Accountability and professional legitimacy in the UK audit market. Journal of Professions and Organization 2016, 3(2), 119-141.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F, Gilchrist A, Lenney P. Sensemaking, Sense-censoring and Strategic Inaction: The Discursive Enactment of Power and Politics in a Multinational Corporation. Organization Studies 2016, 37(9), 1323-1351.
  • Kelsey D, Mueller F, Whittle A, KhosraviNik M. Financial crisis and austerity: Interdisciplinary concerns in critical discourse studies. Critical Discourse Studies 2016, 13(1), 1-19.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Accounting for the banking crisis: Repertoires of agency and structure. Critical Discourse Studies 2016, 13(1), 20-40.
  • Whittle A, Wilson J. Ethnomethodology and the production of history: Studying ‘history-in-action’. Business History 2015, 57(1), 41-63.
  • Whittle A, Housley W, Gilchrist A, Mueller F, Lenney P. Category predication work, discursive leadership and strategic sensemaking. Human Relations 2015, 68(3), 377-407.
  • Mueller F, Carter C, Whittle A. Can Audit (Still) Be Trusted?. Organization Studies 2015, 36(9), 1171-1203.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F, Lenney P, Gilchrist A. Interest‐Talk as Access‐Talk: How Interests are Displayed, Made and Down‐played in Management Research. British Journal of Management 2014, 25(3), 607-628.
  • Whittle A, Carter C, Mueller F. 'Above the fray': Interests, discourse and legitimacy in the audit field. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 2014, 25(8), 783-802.
  • Mueller F, Whittle A, Gilchrist A, Lenney P. Politics and Strategy Practice: An Ethnomethodologically-informed Discourse Analysis Perspective. Business History 2013, 55(7), 1168-1199.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Bankers in the Dock: Moral Storytelling in Action. Human Relations 2012, 65(1), 111-139.
  • Mueller F, Whittle A. Translating Management Ideas: A Discursive Devices Analysis. Organization Studies 2011, 32(2), 187-210.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. The Language of Interests: The Contribution of Discursive Psychology. Human Relations 2011, 64(3), 415-435.
  • Whittle A, Suhomlinova O, Mueller F. Dialogue and distributed agency in institutional transmission. Journal of Management and Organization 2011, 17(4), 548-569.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Strategy, enrolment and accounting: The politics of strategic ideas. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 2010, 23(5), 626-646.
  • Whittle A, Suhomlinova O, Mueller F. Funnel of interests: The discursive translation of organizational change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 2010, 46(1), 16-37.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F, Mangan A. Storytelling and 'character': Victims, villains and heroes in a case of technological change. Organization 2009, 16(3), 425-442.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. 'I could be dead for two weeks and my boss would never know': Telework and the politics of representation. New Technology, Work and Employment 2009, 24(2), 131-143.
  • Whittle A, Spicer A. Is Actor Network Theory Critique?. Organization Studies 2008, 29(4), 611-629.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Intra-preneurship and enrolment: Building networks of ideas. Organization 2008, 15(3), 445-462.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F, Mangan A. In search of subtlety: Discursive devices and rhetorical competence. Management Communication Quarterly 2008, 22(1), 99-122.
  • Whittle A. From flexibility to work-life balance: Exploring the changing discourses of management consultants. Organization 2008, 15(4), 513-534.
  • Whittle A. The paradoxical repertoires of management consultancy. Journal of Organizational Change Management 2006, 19(4), 424-436.
  • Whittle A. Preaching and practising 'flexibility': Implications for theories of subjectivity at work. Human Relations 2005, 58(10), 1301-1322.

• Authored Books

  • Clegg SR, Schweitzer J, Whittle A, Pitelis C. Strategy: Theory and Practice. SAGE, 2017. In Preparation.
  • Kenny K, Whittle A, Willmott H. Understanding Identity and Organisations. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2011.

• Book Chapters

  • Whittle A, Mueller F. A dramaturgical framework for strategy as practice. In: Golsorkhi, D; Rouleau, L; Seidl, D; Vaara, E, ed. Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. Cambridge University Press, 2025, pp.230-248.
  • Whittle A. Using Membership Categorisation Analysis to Study Identities in Talk and Text. In: Winkler I; Reissner S; Cascón-Pereira R, ed. Handbook of Research Methods for Studying Identity In and Around Organizations : Usual Suspects and Beyond. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023, pp.316.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Membership Categorisation Analysis: Developing Awareness of Categories and their Consequences. In: Darics E, ed. Language Awareness in Business and the Professions. Cambridge University Press, 2022, pp.183-203.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Membership Categorisation Analysis: Studying Identities in Talk and Text 'In Situ, In Vivo'. In: Brown AD, ed. The Oxford Handbook on Identities in Organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, pp.976.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Harold Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. In: Clegg, S; Pina e Cunha, M, ed. Management, Organizations and Contemporary Social Theory. CRC Press, 2019.
  • Whittle A. Ethnomethodology. In: Cassell C; Cunliffe A; Grandy G, ed. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods. London: Sage Publications, 2018, pp.217-232.
  • Whittle A, Housley W. Ethnomethodology. In: Langley, A; Tsoukas, H, ed. The SAGE Handbook of Process Organization Studies. London: SAGE, 2017, pp.174-189.
  • Whittle A, Housley W, Gilchrist A, Lenney P, Mueller F. Power, Politics and Organizational Communication: An Ethnomethodological Perspective. In: François Cooren, Eero Vaara, Ann Langley and Haridimos Tsoukas, ed. Language and Communication at Work: Discourse, Narrativity, and Organizing. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014, pp.71-94.
  • Whittle A, Mueller F. Villains, Victims and the Financial Crisis: Positioning Identities through Descriptions. In: Schultz, A., Maguire, S., Langley, M., Tsoukas, H, ed. Constructing Identity in and around Organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp.147-179.

• Edited Books

  • Kelsey D, Mueller F, Whittle A, KhosraviNik M, ed. The Discourse of Financial Crisis and Austerity : critical analyses of business and economics across disciplines. London: Routledge, 2017.
  • Kelsey D, Mueller F, Whittle A, KhosraviNik M, ed. The discourse of crisis and austerity: Critical analyses of business and economics across disciplines. Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.