Philosophy of Management 2012 is the eighth in a series of conferences open to all. \;It will be of special interest to philosophers\, management researchers and teachers\, consultants and practising managers.
Following the established model at St Anne's College we are designing an event to offer opportunities for unhurried presentation of papers and discussion\, high-quality supportive interaction and feedback\, ample opportunity for networking and a gathering in which all participants can pursue informal\, rich conversations and the continuing exploration of shared concerns. Participants will be limited to 75 plus plenary speakers.
Contributions are invited to any of the Conference tracks - or on any aspect \;of philosophy of management and from within any cultural or philosophical \;tradition. We will especially welcome papers\, panels and workshops on the \;relationship between philosophy and management practice.
Publication
Papers will be blind-reviewed\, appear on the Conference Papers website and \;revised versions will be considered for publication in a forthcoming issue \;of Philosophy of Management.
Tracks
Papers combining empirical research and case studies with philosophical \;treatment of issues will be particularly welcome in all tracks.
1. \;Is "Sustainability" Sustainable?
Track convenor: Wim Vandekerckhove
Sustainability has become a household name. The discourses of carbon \;emissions and climate change have rendered it urgent such that 'sustainable' \;is now a must for everything we do or plan. Perhaps paradoxically it has \;become a driver for organisational change far beyond the domain of \;ecological sustainability. This track welcomes papers that critically examine the various practices \;justified through the concept of sustainability. Welcomed contributions \;could cover the following:
2. \;Wisdom in Management
Track convenors: Steven Gold and Bernard McKenna (Professor of Management \;University of Queensland)
Wisdom has not recently been a significant area of interest for \;philosophers\, but oddly it has received serious attention in the disciplines \;of psychology and management. \;Since these are applied fields of study with \;practical implications defining what wisdom is\, operationalizing it\, \;measuring it\, and applying it presents a wide array of interesting problems. \;This track opens the topic of wisdom up from the purely theoretical to the \;applied. Topics of interest might include:
3. \;Legitimacy and Management
Track convenor: Miriam Green
Management and its role has been a subject of interest at least since Berle \;and Means' The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932). \; In recent \;decades managers have been working in a context where the market and market \;values have acquired dominance in public as well as private organisations\; \;where bureaucratic structures have been weakened in favour of more \;flexibility and freedom for managers\; where corporations have increased \;their power nationally and internationally and have developed strong \;corporate cultures internally\; and where inequalities in wealth and power \;among managers and others have increased exponentially.
This raises questions surrounding the long-standing question of management \;legitimacy\, specifically about managerial values\, goals and practices\, the \;character of a good manager\, how we should judge managers\, the legitimacy of \;their roles and the future of management itself.
Contributions are welcomed and could include the following topics::
4. \; On the Possibility of a Public Sector Management Philosophy
Track convenor: Paul Griseri
Over the last couple of decades there has been an increasing trend for \;public sector management to draw from private sector models. The sloganised \;idea of a 'New' Public Management based on emulation of private sector \;practices has become an orthodoxy. Privatisation\, and its cognates such as \;internal markets for service provision\, have led to a gradual diminishing of \;the concept of public service as a value in its own right. Management \;approaches such as performance measurement\, developed for the management of \;companies\, and more specifically finding their most clear application to \;activities such as manufacturing\, are applied in the complex arena of public \;service provision.
Underlying this is the belief that an organisation that is structured and \;intended to provide a public service may be compared directly in terms of \;its basic operational drivers with one that is structured and intended to \;generate profits for its owners and/or shareholders. There are however \;drawbacks to this - the hierarchy of financial ratios\, for example\, that \;provides an elegant means of evaluating the overall performance of a company\, has no simple analogue for\, say\, an education or social welfare \;function of government. \;Simply put\, the oil that greases a company's cogs \;and wheels is profit - all and any activity may be assessed in terms of what \;it might add to the bottom line\, whether such activities be directly linked \;to costs and sales\, or are more remote areas such as CSR programmes or brand \;recognition initiatives. \;No such financially founded lubricant exists in a \;parallel manner for the public sector.
One basic question\, therefore\, underlying this track is how far might a \;modelling of the public sector on the private be appropriate. \;The New \;Public Management has\, arguably\, grown old\, and the plight of many \;governments in 2011 suggests that it has not achieved its stated aims in any \;case. Therefore\, it is necessary to return to the question of what models \;successfully capture the several key features of the public sector\, such as \;the idea of public accountability\, the acquisition and use of resources\, the \;ideal of public service\, and the relation between the public sector and \;other\, non-governmental not-for-profit organisations.
A further issue is the division between public and private sector \;activities. \;During the Keynesian era\, it was common for developed economies \;to have a significant degree of publicly-owned enterprise\, in the form of state airlines\, state corporations involved in mining and extraction\, state \;retail banking. Whilst this has not disappeared\, it has diminished\, driven \;by a reduced idea of the state as providing solely the infrastructure and \;frameworks for other economically valuable activities to be conducted via \;markets.
Papers are therefore welcomed that address questions such as the following:
5. \;Moving Philosophy of Management into the Management Curriculum Track
convenor: Nigel Laurie
If philosophy of management is to inform management practice then it needs \;to shape management education. \;This track invites theoretical and empirical \;contributions on the relationship between philosophy of management as a \;field of study and as a subject in the management curriculum. \;Contributions \;on any aspect will be welcomed including the following:
6. \;'Divers'
As in French academic conferences\, the 'divers' track is reserved for papers \;on any other aspect of philosophy of management and they will be very \;welcome.
Conference format
We invite participants to propose collaborative formats for their sessions: \;eg paper\, prepared reply and moderated discussion\; contrasting approaches to \;an issue with papers from theorists and practitioners. Contributors are \;welcome to assemble small panels to offer a series of linked papers.
Language
The language of the conference will be English.
To contribute
Please submit a 500 word abstract proposal with contact details and brief cv
all in one WORD (or equivalent) file to arrive by Monday 9 January 2012.
(Please do not submit full length papers at this stage.)
Please indicate the track to which you wish to contribute.
Please name your file as follows: \; (yoursurname-papertitle).doc
Eg \; McKenna-WisdomInManagement.doc
Email to \; \;nwltempemail-conference2012@yahoo.co.uk
Papers will be double-blind peer reviewed.
Timetable
23 January \; \;Proposal abstracts due
30 January \; \;Contributors informed of acceptance
30 March \; \; \; Full papers due
11 May \; \; \; \; \;Notification of conference tracks
22 June \; \; \; \; Issue of conference programme and full set of abstracts to \;all participants
19 - 22 July \; Conference
Please note that the texts of all papers will be available before the \;conference on the conference papers website. \;Speakers will speak to their \;abstracts which will be issued by email on 22 June.