Management and Organisation research seminars take place on the following Thursdays from 12.30pm-2pm in Jubilee G30, unless otherwise specified.
Summer Term 2015
- 09 April
The Rise of Mega-FTAs in the Pacific & the Atlantic
Vinod Aggarwal (Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkley) -
Abstract
In the wake of problems in the conclusion of the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), we have seen the negotiation of a host of bilateral trade agreements. Recently, in parallel with this bilateral approach, we have seen the rise of so-called mega-FTAs. These include the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Based on my own research and two major conferences that I have organized over the last few months, this talk explores the driving forces for mega-FTAs as well as their likely prospects for a successful conclusion.
Bio
Vinod K. Aggarwal is Professor of Political Science, Affiliated Professor at the Haas School of Business, and Director of the Berkeley APEC Study Center at the University of California at Berkeley. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Business and Politics and a Global Scholar at Chung-Ang University in Seoul. His most recent book is Responding to the Rise of China (2014).
- 16 June
Environmental Sustainability and Supplier Collaboration: Developing a Strategic Framework
Paul Cousins (Manchester Business School, University of Manchester)
Please note: There has been a change of room to Jubilee 116 -
Abstract
The focus of the seminar is a current working paper that explores the development of a sustainable topology (see abstract below). The aim of the work is to enable academics and practitioners to explore some of the fundamental motivators and barriers to implementing and maintaining a sustainable approach to business. This is a qualitative study based on a series of interviews and incorporating a large case study of a leading aerospace manufacturer.
Purpose – We explore the relationships among sustainable collaboration, performance success, and firm performance within UK manufacturing and service firms. Applying the natural resource-based view of the firm, our study informs the current state of practice with regards to supplier collaboration for environmental sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – A series of interviews with twenty-one Chief Purchasing Officers and Purchasing Directors across manufacturing and service industries were undertaken to develop a framework that allows organisations to benchmark the risk and rewards of different sustainability strategies. To ensure the validity of the framework it was then applied to an aerospace company using an in-depth case study including 46 semi-structured interviews, 8 focus groups and secondary objective data. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 9.0.
Findings – We provide evidence on how the natural resource-based view can help explain organisational decisions with regards to sustainability collaboration. The majority of organisations interviewed were seen to pursue sustainability initiatives for compliance or cost reduction purposes. Relatively few organisations saw sustainability as an order wining criteria, but those who did reported rare and unique sources of advantage in the market and through their supply chain processes.
Limitations - Our cases capture a range of industries and levels of organisational performance with respect to sustainability, nonetheless, our results may not apply to all firms.
Practical implications – We develop a framework for organisations to benchmark and understand the relevant risk and reward trade-offs of pursuing different sustainability strategies.
Originality/value – A four stage evolutionary model is presented which illustrates the development of firm-specific sustainability capabilities.Bio
Paul is professor of operations management at the Manchester Business School. He has recently completed several large administration roles, where he was Deputy Director of the School and Director of Research and Engagement for MBS (responsible for the REF submission). He is now on sabbatical leave focusing on his research.
During his career he as worked in industry (Westland Helicopters, Sikorsky Aircraft –USA), Consultancy (A.T.Kearney) and for several universities (Bath, Melbourne, Queens and Manchester). He is an associate editor for the Journal of Operations Management and also the Journal of Supply Chain Management and is on the editorial boards of several other journals such as International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Decision Sciences and the European Journal of Supply Chain Management.
Paul’s main research areas are supplier collaborations, sustainability and network theory. He is currently working on several projects and grant applications based across these areas - 17 June
Public sector reform and Information Systems adoption in Greece
Professor Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos (Harokopion University of Athens, Greece)
Please note: There has been a change of room to Jubilee G31, and time to 2-3.30pm -
Abstract
TBC
Bio
Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos is a Professor at the Department of Informatics and Telematics, Harokopio University of Athens, Greece. He is the Rector of Harokopio University since 2011. He is the current Chair of the Greek Rectors' Conference. He served as Secretary General of Information Systems of the Greek Ministry of Finance and Economics from 2004 to 2009. In 2008-2009 he was a member of the Board of Directors of EYDAP SA. He has a PhD from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Computer Science. His research interests include eGovernment, Information Systems, Semantic Web and Web Services, Modelling and Simulation Methodologies and Applications (networks, transportation systems) and Business Process Modelling. He has published more than 100 papers in leading journals and international conference proceedings. He has organized international conference special sessions and has been key speaker in conferences. He is an Associate Editor of the Requirements Engineering Journal (Springer) and a member of ΙΕΕΕ and SCS.
Past Seminars
- Spring Term 2015
- 29 January
Developing, communicating and enriching organizational (information systems) strategies utilising social media
Prof Rober Galliers (Bentley University) -
Abstract
While intranets have become a central information hub for employees in different parts of anorganization, they have also played a key role as a rhetorical tool for senior managers. With the advent of social media, this is increasingly so. How such technologies as these are incorporated into organisations’ ‘rhetorical practices’ is an important, yet under-researched topic. To explore this research agenda, Professor Galliers will examine the effects of social media on established and emerging flows of rhetorical practices in organisations, focusing in particular on the expanding, and in some cases switching, roles played by senior management and other organisational actors. Organisational rhetorical practices are conceptualised as the combination of strategic intent, message and media. The paper considers the interplay between rhetors and their audience, and – adopting an interpretive, multiple case study approach – also discusses the use of social media in three multi–national organisations in the telecommunications industry. The findings reveal that social media can enable and facilitate the shaping of organisational rhetorical practices by (i) adding multivocality; (ii) increasing reach and richness in communication, and (iii) enabling simultaneous consumption and co-production of rhetorical content, but this – crucially – depends on managerial attitudes and actions, and the willingness of organisational actors to contribute to on-going strategy-making.
- 19 February
Compromising Conventions: Attitudes to Families and Maternal Employment in Denmark, Poland, Spain and the UK’ Work, Employment and Society vol 28: 2 pp.168-188’
Prof Jackie O'Reilly (University of Brighton) -
Abstract
The article examines cross-national variations in attitudes towards gender roles and the extent to which they map onto regime types. It explores intra-national variation in attitudes to non-traditional gendered behaviour drawing on the theoretical approach of the ‘economy of conventions’, informed by feminist perspectives from comparative research. Data from the European Social Survey are used to map where there is a strong degree of resonance or dissonance between societal and individual attitudes and how these are attenuated by sex and employment status. The results expose unexpected national and intra-national similarities and differences. Societies characterized by a traditional male breadwinner model, such as Spain, indicate a higher degree of permissive values than expected; more liberal countries like the UK show high degrees of indifference, as well as a strong element of traditionalism. Dissonance and indifference compromise traditional gendered conventions and illustrate underlying tensions at the individual and societal level in resolving gender conflicts.
Bio
Jacqueline O’Reilly is Professor for Comparative Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Brighton Business School in the UK, where she is also Director of the Centre for Research on Management and Employment. She is currently coordinator of a large-scale EU FP7 Project STYLE: Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe. Her research focuses on labour market transitions and gender. She was recently awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Project Fellowship for a new book ‘Challenging the Gender Contract’ (OUP). She previously worked at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin and was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. She completed her doctorate at Nuffield College, Oxford including a period of time at L’Observatoire Sociologique du Changement, Science Po, Paris. She is co-editor of ‘Part-time Prospects’ with Colette Fagan and the ‘International Handbook on Labour Market Policy and Evaluation’ with Guenther Schmid and Klaus Schomann. She has been an advisor to the German Excellence Initiative of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), Swiss Research Council, Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR), the Irish Research Council and the Greek Ministry of Education.
- 12 March
Firm size and sustainable performance in food supply chains: Insights from Greek SMEs
Prof Michael Bourlakis (Cranfield University) -
Abstract
The presentation will analyse sustainable performance differences within the Greek food supply chain by focusing on a cross-examination of its key members with respect to firm size. Aiming to fill a gap in the relevant literature, we cross-examined micro, small and medium-sized firms against a set of sustainable performance measures and we employed survey research using a sample of 997 firms operating in the Greek food supply chain. Key informants evaluated their firms based on sustainable performance measures. The key results illustrate the specific chain members which perform or underperform in relation to size and detailed reasons are provided for these performance differentials. Findings of this paper will prove useful for food SMEs and policy makers planning to introduce specific sustainability incentives related to firm size and to the food chain.
Bio
Professor Michael Bourlakis is the Director of the Demand Chain Management Community and the Head of the Supply Chain Research Centre at Cranfield School of Management. Michael is a logistics and supply chain management expert with particular interest in food and retail supply chains. Michael has been a member of the Academic Committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (Logistics Research Network). He is also the joint Editor-in-Chief of a leading logistics journal (International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications) and he is on the Editorial Board of six other journals. Michael is a member of the European Technology Platform (Food for Life, European Commission) and he has been a Member of an Expert Panel for the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation) working with leading retailers and other academics on "Retail Innovation". His recent research interests lie in e-business and supply chain management, sustainability and supply chain management and the marketing and supply chain management interface. He has produced more than 200 publications (including 50 journal papers) and he has secured (as a PI or Co-I) more than 20 research grants funded by various leading bodies including the European Union (FPVI, FPVII), EPSRC, Food Standards Agency (UK), Technology Strategy Board (UK) and Regional Development Agencies (UK)
- 9 April
The team unbound: rethinking teams in today's global work environment
Prof Mark Mortensen (INSEAD) -
Abstract
There is little question that the large multi-disciplinary body of scholarship on organizational teams has helped us to understand, predict, and improve upon team dynamics. At the same time, the increased dynamism, competitiveness, and scope of today’s global work environment is exerting pressures on organizational teams that may be fundamentally changing not only the dynamics of those teams but even how they are defined. In this work I explore some of the critical differences between our understanding (both scholarly and in practice) of teams and the types of teams we frequently find in the field. With a focus on team boundaries and sense of “boundedness” I consider boundary fluidity, overlap, ambiguity, and disagreement as four critical departures from the characterization of teams found in much of our existing theory. I suggest that to address the issues that arise when theories based on well-bounded teams are applied to unbounded- or weakly-bounded teams, we would benefit from considering boundedness not as a definitional element of the team, but as a dimension along which teams can and often do vary. Importantly, this implies three core shifts in our thinking: from approaching and differentiating teams on the basis of their membership to doing so on the basis of their task, from viewing teams as stable entities to viewing them as states in an ongoing process, and from viewing them as self-contained to viewing them as inextricably linked to the broader social system in which they are situated. I discuss the benefits and costs of changing how we think about teams, compare this proposed shift with other approaches to rethinking the construct of “team,” and provide guidelines for making this transition.
Bio
Mark Mortensen is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD. His research focuses on the changing nature of collaboration, with a particular emphasis on global/virtual work and dynamic teams. He publishes this work in a range of academic, professional, and popular outlets and his contributions have been recognized through academic awards as well as leadership and editorial board positions. He teaches the MBA core as well as in many executive programs, and consults widely on team dynamics, global work, and related topics. Prior to joining INSEAD, Professor Mortensen was on the faculty at MIT and McGill University. He holds a PhD from Stanford University, as well as an M.S. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Colby College.
- 29 January
- Autumn Term 2015
- 2 October
The role of leader support in facilitating proactive work behaviour: A perspective from attachment theory
Dr Chia-Huei Wu (LSE) -
Abstract
Researchers have proposed that leader support helps employees behave proactively at work. Leader support can facilitate the opportunities for employees to bring about change, as well as their motivation to do so. Nevertheless, empirical studies have shown mixed effects of leader support on employees’ proactive behaviour. In this study, to reconcile the inconsistent findings on the impact of leader support on employees’ proactive behaviour, the authors consider the content, mediating mechanisms, and boundary conditions of leader support in shaping employees’ proactive behaviour. On the basis of attachment theory, the authors propose that secure-base support from leaders (support in the form of leader availability, encouragement, and non-interference) positively predicts employees’ proactive work behaviour by increasing their role breadth self-efficacy and autonomous motivation. These hypotheses are supported in an online-survey sample from U.S. participants (N = 138) and a sample from a large gas and oil company in China (N = 212). The authors further propose that the beneficial effects of secure-base support from leaders are more prominent for individuals with lower attachment security. This hypothesis was also supported: Individuals high in attachment anxiety especially benefited from leader secure-base support in terms of its effect on role breadth self-efficacy; whereas those who are high in attachment avoidance especially benefited from leader secure-base support in terms of its effect on autonomous motivation. Our study helps explain how leaders’ support motivates employees’ proactive behaviour, particularly for those individuals who have lower attachment
security.Bio
Dr Chia-Huei Wu is Assistant Professor of organizational behaviour in the Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science. His research in organizational behaviour focuses on employee proactive behaviour, personality/self-concept development at work and work design. He has published 58 journal articles covering research on quality of life and other topics in social psychology. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Human Relations, and Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, etc. He has also contributed chapters to books, including The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations, The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship, Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology and Advances in Global Leadership.
- 23 October
The new public value of social science and the future of the business school
Prof Rick Delbridge (Cardiff Business School) -
Abstract
The last decade has seen considerable debate about the role of Business Schools and this debate was sharpened considerably with reflection on their role (or otherwise) in the global financial crisis of 2008 . The debate has generated considerable heat, maybe some light, but apparently very little fundamental change in how business schools organize and conduct themselves . This paper returns to these debates but takes its inspiration from recent work in sociology rather than from within the business and management research community. The foundational framework is provided by the typological analysis of sociology provided by Michael Burawoy (2004) and the animation for the current discussion stems from a recent book written by John Brewer (2013) who advances a new public social science. These scholars provide the theoretical conceptualization to allow us to rethink the nature of a business school, putting forward social science sensibilities and a commitment to a new public value that goes beyond economic value and value-in-use. The potential for these ideas to positively influence the development of management studies as a critical, engaged and impactful contributor to post-disciplinary research focused on societal problems was recently advanced (Delbridge, 2014). The paper sets such aspirations in context. First we review the wider institutional context of debate on the value and purpose of business schools and then we proceed to consider recent policy developments that are specifically relevant to the UK. We identify what we term a ‘reductionist turn’ in these debates, as policy makers advance a model founded on economic value and growth to the detriment of wider social science goals and objectives. In the final sections of the paper we rehearse a current example of how one UK university is seeking to develop its business school and wider social science research agenda in these less than promising contexts.
Bio
Rick Delbridge is Cardiff University's Dean of Research, Innovation and Enterprise and Professor of Organizational Analysis at Cardiff Business School. His research interests include the management and organisation of innovation, work and workplace relations and theories of organization. He has published widely in leading international journals and had served as an editor of Academy of Management Review and Organization. He is an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy of Management and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
- 13 November
The ontological choreography of the impressionable subject in online display advertising
Prof Lucas Introna (Lancaster University) -
Paper
• Seminar paper [DOCX 971.57KB]
Abstract
We are not subjects from the start, we become the subjects we are assumed to be in and through a complex and subtle ontological choreography which is both discursive and material. Of course, we have already known this since Butlers’ (1990; 1988) work on gender and Foucault’s work on madness (2006) and birth of the prison (1991). However, with others, such as Latour, Barad and Pickering, we have also become increasingly aware that this complex choreography also include a whole host of heterogeneous actors, human and non-human alike. Furthermore, in this ontological choreography the flow of agency is diffused and distributed. It seems to be everywhere and nowhere, and it seems not to be at the behest of any one actor as such (be that human or non-human). We see and feel its effects yet it seems impossible to establish its origin, and account for all its flows. It is constituted by the whole yet enacted by the particular and very specific acts of the assumed parts. In this paper I want to attempt to trace the ontological choreography of the constitutive enactment of the impressionable subject by considering the case of online display advertising. The object of advertising is this very subject. Namely, the subject that will convert. I will trace the outlines of the performative production of this impressionable subject by focusing on a number of so-called ‘technical’ actors (or more specifically algorithmic actors). However, I will claim that they are never purely ‘technical’, rather, that they already embody or impart the whole, from the start, as it were. The sociomaterial (discursive and material) whole in this case is a particular logic (or business model) which enacts the so-called ‘free’ internet but which is in fact based on advertising revenue. This logic requires of advertising (and by implications the whole) to enact convertible subjects, what I called impressionable subjects. I want to attempt to show how exactly these actors are imparted to enact this logic, and by implication the impressionable subject. I will trace this ontological choreographed as the enactment of a variety of necessary subject positions, specifically: the gazing subject; the animated subject; the individuated subject; and finally, the branded subject. I will conclude by considering some of the issues of becoming constituted as such a subject and why we need to attend to it, perhaps more carefully than we normally do.
Bio
Lucas D. Introna is professor of technology, organisation and ethics at the Centre for the Study of Technology and Organisation, Lancaster.
- 4 December
The long tail and its operational implications
Prof Bart McCarthy (University of Nottingham) -
Bio
Bart is Professor of Operations Management at Nottingham University Business School. His research spans the analysis, modelling and management of operational systems in a wide range of sectors. He has led major research projects on effective decision support in planning and scheduling, Mass Customization, supply chain management and order fulfilment. He was recently awarded major research funding to examine new perspectives for the analysis of robustness and resilience in international supply networks with a consortium of UK universities and companies. He has researched and consulted with companies in different sectors including automotive, aerospace, engineering, textiles and clothing, consumer products, food and logistics. He has published widely in the Operations Management and Management Science literature. He is European Editor for the International Journal of Production Economics (IJPE) and serves on the editorial board of a number of other academic journals including the International Journal of Operations and Production Management. He was President of the European Chapter of the Decision Sciences Institute (EDSI) from July 2011 until June 2012. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its applications (FIMA), the Institute of Operations Management (FIOM) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (FIET).
- 2 October