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Philosophy of Management 09: Call for Papers

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St Anne's College, Oxford

23 - 26 July 2009

Managing In Critical Times: Philosophical Responses To Organisational Turbulence

The Sixth International Philosophy of Management Conference

Managing In Critical Times is the fifth 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 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.

All papers will appear in the Conference Proceedings and a selection of revised papers will be published in a forthcoming issue of Philosophy of Management.

Theme

Recent and continuing turbulence in organisations and economies has called many apparent orthodoxies into question and prompted actions that many would previously have declared unthinkable. We can be sure that the future will bring fresh crises and turbulence that will overturn established thinking. The challenges for managers in such contexts are philosophical as well as practical .

We therefore invite philosophical responses to the practical and theoretical challenges facing managers, their teachers, the discipline and practice of management, and its philosophical bases.

We especially welcome contributions which reflect philosophically on experience and practice, and which explicitly link theory to practice.

St Anne's College, Oxford

Issues you may care to consider include:

1. The bases of managerial legitimacy in times of crisis

2. The validity of the neoliberal and other conceptions of business and its relationship to concepts and current practices of management

3. Philosophical contributions to the development of judgement and decision-making capacities

in managers in critical situations, including addressing ethical dilemmas

4, The nature and place of wisdom in management

5. Core concepts in management relating to turbulence and crisis management such as risk,

judgement, character, individual and corporate responsibility, moral hazard, integrity,

strategy, organisational learning

6. The idea of global networks – economic, internet, socio-political

7. Current management models for crisis management

'8. The leader as hero': the bases of and prospects for heroic conceptions of organisational

leadership

9. Ways of understanding turbulence and crisis eg modelling, narrative histories, drama, fictions

10. Developing managers for turbulent and critical times

Conference Format

¨	Plenary sessions with invited leading speakers
¨ ¨	Presentations of papers in parallel sessions
¨ ¨	Workshops, panel discussions and interviews
¨ ¨	Poster presentations
¨ ¨	Practitioner workshops including items such as: Workshops offering participants the opportunity to experience or observe philosophical processes and techniques in use by managers Case studies of the application of philosophical thinking and techniques in management practice and management development Demonstrations of philosophical methods and materials used with managers

We also 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.

'Hands-On' Workshops

The progamme will include two parallel 'workout' sessions in the two conference disciplines.

1. Management Concepts for Philosophy Teachers and Researchers

This is a short afternoon/early evening session designed for those who come to the conference from a philosophical, rather than business, background. We will briefly run through some of the key concepts that are generally adopted by management academics and practitioners. The intention is to provide an overall background to discussions about management and business – perforce this is not a comprehensive map of the whole terrain in so short a time, but rather a swift visit to the most important landmarks. Amongst other things, we will look at differences between commercial and not-for-profit organisations, approaches to strategy such as the highly influential Resource-Based View, and the use of popular analytical methods such as the Boston Matrix.

2. Philosophical Techniques for Management Teachers and Researchers

This session will provide a practical refresher in some of the core skills of the professional philosopher: conceptual analysis, identification of presuppositions, and assessment of arguments. The skills will be deployed to deal with a core philosophical issue confronting managers and organisations eg 'what can we know, and how can this be applied to business and management practice?', ‘what kind of thing is an organisation?’ 'what is integrity in management?'.

Participants will practise the core skills in a collaborative atmosphere with the emphasis on establishing their contribution to their own teaching and research.

Post-Doctoral Workshop

This doctoral day is a unique chance for doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers to become more familiar with, and involved in, the cross-disciplinary field of Philosophy of Management. The subject has an international cluster of researchers, a number of whom will be in attendance at the conference: this will be an opportunity to meet them and understand how Philosophy and Management interact.

The day is intended to provide participants with the opportunity to sample the nature of Philosophy of Management by attending sessions of the full conference, by meeting and talking with academics working in the field, by analysing examples of published writing in the field, and also by discussing work in progress of their own or of their peers.

The workshop provides a valuable forum for engaging in enquiry and analysis in this area, and participants are encouraged to bring work of their own for discussion. The workshop will include an initial presentation of requirements for successful publication in the journal ‘Philosophy of Management,’ and will then move on to discussion and analysis of examples of writing.

The day will commence at 8.30 a.m. and the workshop afternoon will finish at 6.30 p.m. following which there will be drinks and dinner.

If you are interested in attending this Workshop please forward your contact details to

Doctoralworkshop09@managementphilosophers.com

Publication

The official conference publication is Philosophy of Management

All papers will be considered for publication in the Journal.

Important: Please note that Conference contributions can be accepted only on condition that they have not been published or offered for publication elsewhere and that Philosophy of Management has the right of first refusal to publish them. Submission of a proposal or paper constitutes acceptance of this condition.

Language

The language of the conference will be English.

To Contribute...

Please submit a 500 word proposal plus separate contact details and brief cv to arrive by Monday 28 November 2008. (Please do not submit full length papers at this stage.)

Email to

Proposals09@managementphilosophers.com

Alternatively, send 3 paper copies to

Dr Paul Griseri

Head

Department of Business and Management

Middlesex University Business School

The Burroughs

London NW4 4BT

All papers will be double-blind peer reviewed.

Timetable

28 November Proposals due

19 December Contributors informed of acceptance

20 March Full papers due

11 May Notification of conference streams, session dates and times, etc

15 June Despatch of conference programme and full set of abstracts to all participants with online access to full paper texts.

23 - 26 July Conference

Proceedings

The texts of all papers will be available online before the conference and the proceedings cd rom will be issued at the conference. Speakers will speak to their abstracts which will be issued by email on 15 June.