Staff profile

Prof. Frank Mueller is a Professor in Accountability, Organisations & Strategy at Durham University Business School. He earned his MSc and DPhil degrees from Oxford University, and holds a first class degree from Konstanz University.

During the last 29 years, Frank has disseminated his research via 77 main publications. Of these, 25 have been published in ABS 4-rated journals, and 17 have been published in ABS 3-rated journals. Frank’s h-index is 38 and his i10 index is 60.

Frank’s overall research focus can be divided into three areas: [1] Strategy, Organisation, Leadership & Change. [2] Governance, Accountability, Accounting and the Public/Private Interface. [3] Financial Crisis and austerity.

With regard to [2], Frank has researched the connection between strategy, accounting and accountability since the early 2000s. Frank has looked into connections between strategy, regulation and accountability. More recently, Frank has extended this with his research into governance and philanthropy.

With regard to Frank’s output with public policy impact or relevance at the nexus of accounting and public administration, Frank has published in journals that include Accounting, Organizations & Society (AOS), Accounting, Accountability and Auditing Journal (AAAJ), Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA), Organization Studies and Public Administration (PA) amongst others.

Frank Mueller - Google Scholar Citations

Mini Biography

Prof. Frank Mueller is a Professor in Accountability, Organisations & Strategy at Durham University Business School. He earned his DPhil from Oxford University, and holds a first class degree from Konstanz University. He has previously worked at Newcastle University, the University of St Andrews, Leicester University, Royal Holloway University of London, Aston University, London Business School and Oxford University.

• Accountability and Transparency
• Discourse Analysis
• Field Study Research Methods (primarily within public sector contexts)
• Practice Theory (including Strategy-as-Practice)
• Social theory (Goffman, Garfinkel)

Chapter in book

• Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. (in press). A dramaturgical framework for strategy as practice. In D. Golsorkhi, D. Seidl, & E. Vaara (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Strategy as Practice. (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press
• Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. (2022). Membership Categorisation Analysis: Developing Awareness of Categories and their Consequences. In E. Darics (Ed.), Language Awareness in Business and the Professions (183-203). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108696159.014
• Yang, R., Harvey, C., Mueller, F., & Maclean, M. (2021). ‘Capital Breeds Capital’: Bourdieu and the Cross-National Importation of Organisational Models. In S. Robinson, J. Ernst, K. Larsen, & O. J. Thomassen (Eds.), Pierre Bourdieu in Studies of Organization and Management: Societal Change and Transforming Fields. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003022510
• Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. (2020). Membership Categorization Analysis: Studying Identities in Talk and Text ‘In Situ, In Vivo’. In A. Brown (Ed.), The Oxford handbook on identities in organizations (326-339). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198827115.013.5
• Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. (2019). Harold Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. In S. Clegg, & M. P. E. Cunha (Eds.), Management, organizations and contemporary social theory (19-38). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429279591-2
• Whittle, A., Housley, W., Gilchrist, A., Lenney, P., & Mueller, F. (2014). Power, Politics and Organizational Communication: An Ethnomethodological Perspective. In F. Cooren, E. Vaara, A. Langley, & H. Tsoukas (Eds.), Language and communication at work : discourse, narrativity, and organizing (71-94). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780198703082.001.0001

Edited book

• Kelsey, D., Mueller, F., Whittle, A., & KhosraviNik, M. (Eds.). (2017). The Discourse of Financial Crisis and Austerity : critical analyses of business and economics across disciplines. Routledge

Journal Article

• Yusuff, K., Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. (2023). Accounting for the “harms” of social media firms: Dialogic accountability and discursive contestation in public hearings. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-11-2022-6165
• Millar, J., Mueller, F., & Carter, C. (2023). Grassroots accountability: the practical and symbolic aspects of performance. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-06-2022-5865
• Adams, C., & Mueller, F. (2022). Academics and policy makers at odds: the case of the IFRS Foundation Trustees’ Consultation Paper on Sustainability Reporting. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 13(6), 1310-1333. https://doi.org/10.1108/sampj-10-2021-0436
• Harvey, C., Gibson, A., Maclean, M., & Mueller, F. (2022). Philanthropy and the sustaining of global elite university domination. Organization, https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221115842
• Mueller, F., Whittle, A., & Addison, S. (2022). Official Truth, Applied Deconstruction and Post-Inquiry Sensemaking in the Mull of Kintyre Helicopter Crash. Human Relations, https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267221082881
• Whittle, A., Gilchrist, A., Mueller, F., & Lenney, P. (2021). The art of stage-craft: A dramaturgical perspective on strategic change. Strategic Organization, 19(4), 636-666. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127020914225
• Whittle, A., Mueller, F., & Carter, C. (2021). Authenticity and Political Leadership. Progressive Review, 28(2), 140-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/newe.12259
• Maclean, M., Harvey, C., Yang, R., & Mueller, F. (2021). Elite Philanthropy in the United States and United Kingdom in the New Age of Inequalities. International Journal of Management Reviews, 23(3), 330-352. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12247
• Yang, R., Harvey, C., Mueller, F., & Maclean, M. (2021). The role of mediators in diffusing the community foundation model of philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764021991677
• Harvey, C., Yang, R., Mueller, F., & Maclean, M. (2020). Bourdieu, strategy and the field of power. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 73, Article 102199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102199
• Budd, K., Kelsey, D., Mueller, F., & Whittle, A. (2020). Payday loans in the press: a discourse-mythological analysis of British newspaper coverage of the payday loan industry. Social Semiotics, 30(1), 25-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2018.1526466
• Iszatt-White, M., Whittle, A., Gadelshina, G., & Mueller, F. (2019). The 'Corbyn phenomenon': Media representations of authentic leadership and the discourse of ethics versus effectiveness. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(2), 535-549. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3838-x
• Mueller, F., Whittle, A., & Gadelshina, G. (2019). The discursive construction of authenticity: The case of Jeremy Corbyn. Discourse, Context and Media, 31, Article 100324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2019.100324
• Budd, K., Kelsey, D., Mueller, F., & Whittle, A. (2019). Metaphor, morality and legitimacy: A critical discourse analysis of the media framing of the payday loan industry. Organization, 26(6), 802-829. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418812569
• Mueller, F. (2018). Taking Goffman seriously: Developing Strategy-as-Practice. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 53, 16-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2017.03.009
• Whittle, A., Mueller, F., & Carter, C. (2016). The ‘Big Four’ in the spotlight: Accountability and professional legitimacy in the UK audit market. Journal of Professions and Organization, 3(2), 119-141. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/jow001
• Whittle, A., Mueller, F., Gilchrist, A., & Lenney, P. (2016). Sensemaking, Sense-censoring and Strategic Inaction: The Discursive Enactment of Power and Politics in a Multinational Corporation. Organization Studies, 37(9), 1323-1351. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616634127
• Kelsey, D., Mueller, F., Whittle, A., & KhosraviNik, M. (2016). Financial crisis and austerity: Interdisciplinary concerns in critical discourse studies. Critical Discourse Studies, 13(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2015.1074600
• Whittle, A., & Mueller, F. (2016). Accounting for the banking crisis: repertoires of agency and structure. Critical Discourse Studies, 13(1), 20-40. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2015.1074598
• Mueller, F., Carter, C., & Whittle, A. (2015). Can Audit (Still) Be Trusted?. Organization Studies, 36(9), 1171-1203. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840615585336
• Addison, S., & Mueller, F. (2015). The Dark Side of Professions: The Big Four and Tax Avoidance. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 28(8), 1263-1290. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-01-2015-1943
• Whittle, A., Housley, W., Gilchrist, A., Mueller, F., & Lenney, P. (2015). Category predication work, discursive leadership and strategic sensemaking. Human Relations, 68(3), 377-407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726714528253
• Whittle, A., Carter, C., & Mueller, F. (2014). 'Above the fray': Interests, discourse and legitimacy in the audit field. Critical Perspectives On Accounting, 25(8), 783-802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2013.09.001
• Whittle, A., Mueller, F., Lenney, P., & Gilchrist, A. (2014). Interest-Talk as Access-Talk: How Interests are Displayed, Made and Down-played in Management Research. British Journal of Management, 25(3), 607-628. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12021