Derin Kent
phone: +44 (0)24 765 24690
email: Derin.Kent@wbs.ac.uk
room: 2.128
Profile (biography)
Derin Kent is an Associate Professor of Organisation Studies at Warwick Business School, United Kingdom. He specialises in ethnographic research with people who work in extreme contexts, that is, those that are physically or psychologically dangerous. Over the years, this has meant embedding with participants ranging from storm chasers to seafarers to disaster relief teams to draw lessons about how people and organisations thrive in highly adverse conditions. Derin's research appears in top academic journals (e.g., Academy of Management Journal, Organization Studies) and outlets like Harvard Business Review and The Conversation. At Warwick Business School, Derin co-founded and co-directs the Extreme Contexts Unit, a hub for the study, theoretical development, and dissemination of research in organisational contexts marked by risk, emergencies, and disruption.
Prior to joining Warwick, Derin was a postdoc at Aalto University (Finland) and earned his PhD at Queen’s University (Canada). He has experience as a university instructor in Europe and North America (including MBA and executive programmes), teaching subjects like change management, career management, organisational behaviour, and research methods.
Outside of academia, Derin is an outdoor enthusiast and an Operational Team Leader at the British Red Cross, where he responds to incidents ranging from fires to floods and provide emergency management training to organisations.
Research Interests
Extreme contexts; isolated and confined settings; organisational ethnography; personal growth in organisations; resilience; terrorism; theorising from unconventional contexts.
Publications
Journal articles
Kent, D. & Dacin, M. T. 2025. After the crisis: Explaining stories of professional identity growth from collective action. Organization Studies, 46(7): 995-1022. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406241295495Link opens in a new window
Kent, D. & Granqvist, N. 2025. Chasing storms: Temporal work to foster group engagement under uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 68(2): 380-408. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2021.1316Link opens in a new window
Wright, A., Kent, D., Hällgren, M., & Rouleau, L. 2023. Theorizing as mode of engagement in and through extreme contexts research. Organization Theory, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877231217310Link opens in a new window
Kent, D. 2019. Giving meaning to everyday work after terrorism. Organization Studies, 40(7): 975-994. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084061876558Link opens in a new window
Dacin, M. T., Dacin, P. A., & Kent, D. 2019. Tradition in organizations: A custodianship framework. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1): 342-373. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0122Link opens in a new window
Kent, D. & Dacin, M. T. 2013. Bankers at the gate: Microfinance and the high cost of borrowed logics. Journal of Business Venturing, 28(6): 759-773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2013.03.002Link opens in a new window
Digital articles
Kent, D. & Granqvist, N. 2024 (October 18). Even storm chasers get bored at work - here's what they can teach us about focus. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/even-storm-chasers-get-bored-at-work-heres-what-they-can-teach-us-about-focus-237092Link opens in a new window
Beunza, D. & Kent, D. 2020 (August 28). Returning to the office: How to stay connected and socially distant. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/returning-to-the-office-how-to-stay-connected-and-socially-distant-145210Link opens in a new window
Beunza, D. & Kent, D. 2020 (June 8). Remote working is not the same for traders – here’s why. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/remote-working-is-not-the-same-for-traders-heres-why-140274Link opens in a new window
Martela, F. & Kent, D. 2020 (June 3). What to do when work feels meaningless. Harvard Business Review (digital article). https://hbr.org/2020/06/what-to-do-when-work-feels-meaninglessLink opens in a new window