Joep Schrijvers was born in Amsterdam, is the youngest of seven children, and comes from a Catholic family of educators. After completing his gymnasium beta, he studied adult education (change management) at the University of Amsterdam. His mentors were research methodologist and systems theorist ...
Joep Schrijvers was born in Amsterdam, is the youngest of seven children, and comes from a Catholic family of educators. After completing his gymnasium beta, he studied adult education (change management) at the University of Amsterdam. His mentors were research methodologist and systems theorist Prof. Gerard de Zeeuw and philosopher/theologian Prof. Arjo Nijk.
After his studies, he retrained as a programmer and began his career in automation. He worked at Bull, BSO, Origin, and The Vision Web as a teacher, multimedia developer, and organizational consultant. In the civil society sector and healthcare, he contributed to the quality improvement of elderly care and the revision of healthcare education while working at the consulting firm SOVOV. Until 2006, he was associated with the management center of VNO-NCW, De Baak, as a writer and speaker.
In the early 1990s, he earned his PhD at UVA, at the Center for Innovation and Cooperative Technology, with a dissertation on computer-supported course development.
For the past five years, he has been the author of successful, critical books on management, people, and society.
Joep Schrijvers is an unconventional columnist for the magazines Managementteam and Opleiding & Ontwikkeling. From time to time, he publishes essays in various magazines, but he is primarily known as the author of successful books on management, people, and society.
He has now published three books:
By now, Joep Schrijvers is a sought-after and well-regarded speaker at conferences and scholarly meetings of companies. He can also be found at many scholarly gatherings of businesses and non-profit organizations.
His presentations always revolve around the themes of his books and publications, such as rat-like behavior and power, the tomtomization of organizations, why you should not follow your passions, and provocative consulting methods.
He supports his witty contributions with stimulating multimedia. Many know that the ‘author of the rat’ is not afraid to stir the pot.
Nevertheless, Schrijvers is primarily a substantive speaker. His focus is always on the major developments in the economy and culture, the emotions of people, and the malignant and irrational aspects of it.