Adrian Furnham

Adrian Furnham (born 1953) is a British organizational and applied psychologist, management expert and Professor of Psychology at University College London. In addition to his academic roles, he is a consultant on organizational behaviour and management, writer and broadcaster.

Association with academic organisations

Oxford University, 1979-1990

In 1979, Furnham was appointed as a Lecturer in Psychology at Pembroke College, Oxford, and served in this capacity until 1982. He was also made a part-time tutor in psychology in the Department of External Studies, teaching management science and psychology to groups of middle and senior managers and administrators.

University College London 1979-present

From 1979, Furnham became a postgraduate study supervisor at University College London. In 1981, he was made a lecturer (1981-1987) and reader in 1988 (1988-1992). On 1st October, 1992, he was appointed Professor in Psychology ("d hominem"), and holding this position, he continues to teach applied / occupational psychology, as well as personality and social psychology to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Other organizations

Furnham was a vising professor to the University of Hong Kong business school, (1995-1997) and a visiting professor to the Henley Management College (1999-2001).

Publications (1985 to the present)

As of 2008, he is the author of 48 books including: Culture Shock (1994), The New Economic Mind (1995), The Psychology of Money (1998), The Incompetent Manager(2003), The Dark Side of Behaviour at Work (2004), The People Business (2005), cite journal
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year =2007
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title = Newsletter Spring 2007
journal = People and Organizations@Work POW!
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id =ISSN 1746-4188
url = http://www.bps.org.uk/downloadfile.cfm?file_uuid=8E9A2BAB-1143-DFD0-7EB4-481F2E946B4A&ext=pdf [PDF file] ] He also wrote pieces in newspapers ("Financial Times", "Guardian", "Telegraph", "Daily Mail", "Times Higher Educational Supplement", "Sunday Times").Fact|date=November 2007 He has also contributed to several magazines ("Spectator", "Personnel Management", "New Scientist", "Across the Board", "Spotlight") in both Europe and North America.Fact|date=November 2007 He has been a columnist in various management magazines ("Mastering Management", "Human Resources"). Additionally he is the author of 650 scientific papers

Personal life and education

Furnham was born in Port Shepstone, South Africa of British parents. In 1959 the family moved to the capital, Pietermaritzburg, where he was to receive his primary, secondary and initial tertiary education. He attended Scottsville Primary School and then went on to Alexanrda High School.

In 1970, Furnham was accepted as a student at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus). He graduated in 1972 with a B.A. degree, and the following year with B. A. honours, obtaining a distinction in psychology. In 1975 he was accepted as a masters student at the University of London and completed his Master of Science in 1976, obtaining a distinction in Economics. He completed another M. Sc. Degree at the University of Strathclyde and was then accepted as a doctoral student at the University of Oxford. He completed his D. Phil. degree there in 1981. Furnham later completed another two doctoral degrees, a D. Sc. at the University of London in 1991 and a D. Litt. at University of Natal in 1995.

During his studies at Oxford, he met Allison Green, a psychologist known for her work on memory. They married during 1990, and later had a son, Benedict.

In 1985, Furnham founded a management consultancy called "Applied Behavioural Research Associates", and became its first director. This specialised in research on corporate evaluation and design, performance appraisal, personnel and corporate assessment and selection, and literature reviews. Clients have included the Foreign Office, BT, TWA, Lloyds Bank, Cathay Pacific Airways, Channel Four, Abbey Life, Boots, Hambros Bank, Ritz Hotel, British Rail, Air New Zealand, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Marks and Spencer, Careers Research Forum and Barclays Bank.

Furnham was recognized as a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Chartered Health Psychologist, by the British Psychological Society, of which he became a Fellow in 1988. He is also one of only 75 psychologists to belong to the well-known American Psychological Association.

Controversy

In February 1999, Adrian Furnham wrote a piece in the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper in which he suggested that there was "a wealth of conditions that can be fashionable excuses for lack of success" in which he included ME/CFS. Dr Charles Shepherd, the ME Association’s Medical Adviser penned a response for the Association’s Newsletter saying, "Professor Furnham’s view that ME/CFS is nothing more than a fashionable medical excuse for people who are otherwise lazy, mediocre or incompetent is not only insulting, but totally inconsistent with published scientific findings". [Charles Shepherd (in) Perspectives [now "ME Essential"] , Summer 1999, page 3 [http://www.meassociation.org.uk/content/view/185/113/] ]

Notes