Cary Cooper
Sir Cary Lynn Cooper, is an American-born British psychologist and 50th Anniversary Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at the Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.
Career
Before moving to Manchester he was Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University. Cooper was Head of the Manchester School of Management from the early 1980s. In 1995 he became Pro-Vice-Chancellor and then Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UMIST until 2002. From 1979 to 1980 he was chairman of the Management Education and Development Division of the Academy of Management and was elected as Founding President of the British Academy of Management. In June 2005 he was appointed head of the Sunningdale Institute, which, managed by the United Kingdom National School of Government, brings international academics and industry figures together to advise on issues facing UK public sector organisations. In 2008, Cooper was appointed lead scientist for the UK government's Foresight programme and Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing. He was chair of the Academy of Social Sciences, a body representing over 88,000 social scientists and 46 learned societies in the social sciences. In 2010 he was chair of the Chronic Diseases and Mental Health Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum. He is immediate past president of Relate, Clinical Advisor to Anxiety UK, President of the Institute of Welfare, Past President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2016–2021, Chair of the National Forum for Health & Wellbeing at Work and past president of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Cooper was a director of well-being specialists and business psychologists at, a university spin off company which he set up in 1999 with Ivan Robertson. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Organizational Behavior, founding co-editor of the International Journal of Management Reviews, Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management, and past editor of the journal Stress and Health.Cooper's parents were Jews from Romania and Ukraine who settled in West Hollywood. He became a British citizen in 1993.
Education
Cooper went to Fairfax High School and then obtained a BSc, an M.B.A., and a PhD.Recognition
Cooper has received the following awards from professional and academic organizations:- 1994 Fellow of the British Academy of Management
- 1994 Elected a Fellow of the Institute of Management
- 1997 Elected by the Academy of Management as one of the first UK Fellows
- 1997 Became a Companion of the Institute of Management
- 1998 Awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Academy of Management for services to the field of management
- 1998 Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Heriot-Watt University for contributions to organizational psychology
- 1999 Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration by Wolverhampton University
- 2000-2004 Elected as President of the British Academy of Management
- 2002 Awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by Aston University
- 2003 Awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Middlesex University
- 2005 Cooper was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians
- 2006 Cooper was made Hon Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians
- 2007 Cooper was appointed by the UK's Chief Scientist as the Lead Scientist for the UK government's Foresight Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing
- 2008 Awarded Hon Fellow of the British Psychological Society
- 2008 Cooper was made an Hon Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
- 2008 Cooper was selected as chair of the Academy of Social Sciences.
- 2009 Cooper was appointed chair of the Chronic Diseases Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum.
- 2010 Awarded the Lord Dearing Lifetime Achievement Award for Higher Education by THE
- 2011 Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by University of Sheffield
- 2012 Awarded Hon Fellowship of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
- 2014 Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Bath
- 2014 Elected as President of the British Academy of Management
- 2015 Elected as CIPD President
- 2017 Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Chester
- 2018 Awarded the WFPMA Petitpas Award for Distinguished Service to the Global HR Profession by the World Federation of People Management Associations, Chicago.
- 2019 Awarded the Chris Arygris Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Management, Boston.
- 2019 Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Education by the University of Bolton
- 2020 Winner of the New York City Big Book Award for the Book of the Year in Marketing & PR for The Apology Impulse
- 2020 Winner of the American Book Fest Award for the Book of the Year in Communications/PR for the Apology Impulse
- 2021 Awarded Companion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
- 2021 Awarded ISMA Federation International Medal for lifetime achievement, India
- 2021 Bank of England Flagship Lecture ‘Mental Capital & Wellbeing’
- 2022 Endowed Chair and Lecture Theatre named after Sir Cary Cooper at Woxsen University, India
- 2022 Patron, International Stress Management Association
- 2023 Awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the IOBC in Israel on January 3,2023.
- 2024 Ranked the 4th Best Business & Management Scientist in the World by Research.com, April 19, 2024
- 2025 Ranked the 4th Best Business & Management Scientist in the World by Research.com, December 2025.
- 2025 Awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences, June 18th, 2025
- 2026 Awarded a Senior Fellowship of the EuroMed Academy, January 14, 2026.
Queen's Birthday Honours
Cooper was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire by The Queen in the 2001 Birthday Honours for his contribution to occupational/organizational health and was Knighted by the Queen in the 2014 Birthday Honours for services to the social sciences.Media work
Cooper has been described as the media's first choice for comment on workplace issues, and is often interviewed by the UK press for both news and current affairs.Selected bibliography
- "Work-Non Work Management".
- "Why the Social Sciences Matter More than Ever".
- "Imagining the Post-Covid Workplace"
- "Healthy High Performance: Unlocking Business Success through Employee Wellbeing"
- "Advancing Positive Organizational Behavior"
- "Elgar Encyclopedia of Occupational Health Psychology"
- " Advances in Mergers & Acquisitions: Volume 23"
- "Psychology of Sustainability & Sustainable Development in Organizations"
- "Resilience in Modern Day Organizations"
- "Advances in Mergers & Acquisitions: Vol 22"
- "The Cambridge Companion to Organizational Stress & Wellbeing"
- Law Enforcement, Leadership & Wellbeing: Creating Resilience"
- "Occupational Health & Wellbeing"
- "Myths of Management: Dispel the Misconceptions".
- "Burnout While Working"
- "Organizational Stress:Ed2"
- "Remote Workplace Culture"
- "Organizational Stress Theories"
- "Managing Workplace Health & Wellbeing During a Crisis"
- "The Healthy Workforce"
- "A Research Agenda for Workplace Stress & Wellbeing"
- "The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Wellbeing"
- "Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Work"
- "Organizational Stress Around the World: Research and Practice"
- "Brexit in the Workplace: A Psychology of Survival"
- "Flexible Work: Designing Our Healthier Future Lives"
- "Navigating the Return to Work Experience for New Parents"
- "Work & Stress: A Research Overview"
- "The Apology Impulse"
- "Current Issues in Work & Organizational Psychology
- "Handbook of Research on the Psychological Contract at Work"
- "Wellbeing at Work"
- "Presenteeism"
- "The Myths of Management"
- "21st Century Workforces and Workplaces"
- "Boards that Dare"
- "Managing Health and Wellbeing in the Public Sector".
- "The Spartan Worker".
- "The Aging Workforce Handbook", Emerald, 2017.
- "Handbook of Stress and Health".
- "The Outstanding Middle Manager"
- "Stress in the Construction Industry".
- "Solving the Strategy Delusion"
- "Handbook of Research on Work-Life Balance in Asia", Edward Elgar 2015.Stress in the Spotlight: Managing and Coping with Stress in the Workplace.
- "Wellbeing: The Complete Reference Guide", Wiley Blackwell, 2014.
- "From Stress to Wellbeing: Volumes 1 &2), Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
- "Building Resilience for Success., Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013.,
- "Stress in Turbulent Times", Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
- "High Engagement Work Culture: Balancing WE and ME., Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012.
- "Organizational Health and Wellbeing". Sage, 2011.
- "Wellbeing: Productivity and Happiness at Work., Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011.
- "The Science of Occupational Health"., Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
- "Innovations in Stress and Health", Palgrave Macmillian, 2011.
- Employee Morale: Driving Performance in Challenging Times, Palgrave-Macmillan October 2009
- Mental Capital and Wellbeing, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
- Open Source Leadership, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
- The Oxford Handbook of Personnel Psychology, Oxford University Press, 2008.
- The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Wellbeing, Oxford University Press, 2008.
- "Managing Executive Health", Cambridge University Press, 2008.
- "Surviving the Workplace: A Guide to Emotional Wellneing, Thomson, 2007.
- "Happy Performing Managers", Edward Elgar Publ, 2006.
- "Business and the Beautiful Game", Kogan Page 2005Leadership and Management in the 21st Century: Business Challenges of the Future, Oxford University Press 2004The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Management, Blackwell 2004Stress: A Brief History, Blackwell 2004International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Vols.1–19, John Wiley and Sons, 1986–2004.
- "Managing the Emotions in Mergers and Acquisitions", Edward Elgar Publ., 2005.Work Psychology: Understanding Human Behaviour in the Workplace, Financial Times Prentice Hall 2004Managing the Safety Risk of Workplace Stress, Routledge 2003
- "Destressing Doctors", Butterworth Heinemann, 2003.
- "The FT Guide to Executive Health", FT/Prentice Hall, 2002.
- "Stress and Employer Liability", CIPD Press, 2001.
- " Managerial, Occupational & Organizational Stress Research", Ashgate, 2001.
- "Who's Who in the Management Sciences", Edward Elgar, 2000