Guest, D

King's College, University of London , U.K.

Emeritus Professor of Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management

David Guest is one of the leading academic experts on human resource management and related aspects of work and organizational psychology.  He has a first degree in Psychology and Sociology from Birmingham University and Ph.D. in Occupational Psychology from London University. His first job was as a research officer in the Department of Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck College.  He then spent three years as behavioral science adviser to British Rail before joining the London School of Economics in 1972.   He moved to Birkbeck in 1990 and for ten years was Professor of Occupational Psychology and head of the Department of Organizational Psychology.  During that period he had a spell as a Governor of Birkbeck and as Pro-Vice Master.  He moved to King’s College in 2000 where he has served as Head of The Department of Management and Deputy Head of the School of Social Science and Public Policy. He is currently also an adjunct professor at Griffith University in Australia.

He is a past editor of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology and the British Journal of Industrial Relations and a current member of the editorial advisory board of several journals. He has been a member of the UK National Health Service SDO Commissioning Board, the UK Skills and Employment Advisory Group, and the Council of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations.  He is currently a member of the Board of the Institute of Employment Studies and the Advisory Council of the Involvement and Participation Association. Over the years he has worked closely with a range of companies including IBM, HSBC, Shell, MTRC in Hongkong as well as the Bank of England and a number of UK government departments. He was voted by managers as one of the leading “HR Thinkers” of the past decade. He has been a keynote speaker at numerous academic and business conferences. David has received a number of honors including lifetime achievement awards from the Human Resources Division of the American Academy of Management and from the Dutch HRM Network.

His current research and writing are concerned with the relationship between human resource management, organizational performance, and employee well-being in the private and public sectors; the role of human resource departments; the individualization of employment relations and the role of the psychological contract; flexibility and employment contracts; partnership and engagement at work; and the future of the career. He has been involved in many major funded research projects on topics ranging from the future of careers, the psychological contract in the military, the impact of temporary employment on well-being, and the role of the social sciences in promoting patient safety and service quality in healthcare. He has published over 100 articles in leading international journals.