O. Bouwmeester

Onno Bouwmeester is Associate Professor in Management and Consulting. He received Msc degrees in Philosophy (1993) and economics (1994) from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He first worked as a secondary school teacher in economics, and then six years  as a management consultant at KPMG Bureau voor Economische Argumentatie. In 2001 he became assistant professor at the School of Business and Economics. In 2008 he recieved his PhD degree, based on a dissertation with the title Advice as Argument. Since 2010 he is head of the management consulting group at the M&O department, member of the department's management team, and responsible for the master specialisation Management Consulting in the MSc program business adminstration. In 2015 he was active as deputy head of department for one year.

Onno's research is focussed on management consultants and decision making. His studies are interpretive, with special attention for argumentation analysis. Current projects explore the reputation of consultants as expressed in internet jokes and self-reflections, consultants and stress, consultants as stakeholder in the rigor and relevance debate, change and employee participation, and argumentation strategies of entrepreneurs to convince their investors. Argumentation analysis is also applied to  analyse rationality behind policy decisions. The identified 'good reasons to act on' are context dependent, as outlined in his most recent monograph: The Social Construction of Rationality: Policy Debates and the Power of Good Reasons (Routledge 2017). Good reasons are found to be expressive, social or instrumental rational in different combinations.

Courses Onno is coordinating the courses Second Opinion Writing and Business Ethics for students in the master specialization Management Consulting. Next to that he participates in the master course Management Consulting: a Human Perspective. He also participates in executive education for management consultants. His thesis students have been nominated two times for the VU Thesis Award.

• De Beuk | Hippolitushoef | Member of the supervisory board | 2014-08-04 - present

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