Cranfield Professor Publishes Findings on Promotion of Gender Equality
A professor at Cranfield University School of Management has compiled guidelines for men in middle management on how to foster gender equity in the workplace.
Professor Elisabeth Kelan, in a report entitled “Men, Middle Managers and Gender Inclusive Leadership,” chose explicitly to address the men—who make up 70 percent of middle managers—in her report. Though geared toward that specific audience, Kelan notes that the guidelines suggested by her research could also be used by current leaders in all levels of workplace structure to help foster gender equality.
Graziadio Announces Partnership with Dun & Bradstreet
Graziadio School of Business and Management and Dun & Bradstreet announced a new program called “Entrepreneurial Vision Partnership,” according to a press release from the school. The program aims to incorporate the strengths of both entities to promote an entrepreneurial approach that galvanizes the emerging business community.
Memorial Prize Awarded to London Business School Professor
Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School, was awarded the Richard Beckhard Memorial Prize for an article called “Combining Purpose with Profits,” according to a press release from the school. The award is presented by MIT Sloan Management Review and recognizes their most outstanding article dealing with the subjects of planned change and organizational development. The prize was given to Birkinshaw along with his two co-authors, Nicolai J. Foss, Professor of Strategy and Organisation at Copenhagen Business School and Siegwart Lindenberg, Professor of Cognitive Sociology at University of Groningen.
The winning article addressed an important and timeless question for managers: how can the tension between purpose and profits be best managed? The authors looked at the types of structures that companies can put in place that help provide purpose and direction for their employees, while also motivating individuals and drawing a group of people together in mutual pursuit. The judges praised the article for being in line with the beliefs of the late Richard Beckhard, organizational theorist and former MIT adjunct professor, for whom the award is named. The panel for the ward consisted of professors from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Birkinshaw was glad that his work was recognized in an official capacity. “It’s really pleasing to win this prize. Our intention in writing this article was to shift the debate towards how businesses can deliver on their purpose without sacrificing profit, and it’s great that the judges liked this perspective,” he said in a press release from the school.
DePaul Names Daryl Koehn New Business Ethics Chair
In a recent article by Robin Florzak on the Kellstadt School of Management’s website, DePaul University recently named a familiar face as Wicklander Chair in Business Ethics. In fact, it was more like a homecoming of sorts for Daryl Koehn.
Koehn had taught philosophy at DePaul from 1991 through 1998 and was the 1997-98 Wicklander Chair back when the post was a rotating, one-year appointment. The Wicklander Chair is now an endowed appointment that is no longer a rotating position. Koehn also will serve as managing director of DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (IBPE).
According to the article, one of Koehn’s priorities is to see the IBPE,
“develop expertise in the fast-growing area of benefit corporations, a new legal form for business entities that explicitly permits managers and boards to focus on benefiting a wide array of stakeholders, not just stockholders.”
According to DePaul, the IBPE’s work is supported by the Driehaus College of Business, as well as by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at DePaul Universty. IBPE is led by several of the nation’s leading business ethics scholars and strives to bring the broad knowledge base of academic research to life, helping business leaders resolve a growing number of real-world ethical and compliance challenges.
Koehn, who has authored or edited seven books on subjects that range from global ethics to the nature of evil, added:
“I think that alumni and the business community can provide useful insight into ways that DePaul can help benefit corporations, and also help refine the notion of ‘ethical business culture.’”
SFSU College of Business Professor Co-Authors Article on Career Disasters
San Francisco State University College of Business Professor of Management Mitchell Marks co-authored an article about how people respond to career disasters, according to a press release from the school. The article appeared on June 18 in the Harvard Business Review. The article was also co-authored by Phillip Mirvis, organizational leader and senior fellow at Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship and Ron Ashkenas, managing partner of Schaffer Consulting.
The authors worked with Tim Hall, a leading expert in careers at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, to analyze data about how managers said they recovered from career disasters. They identified three distinct patterns that emerged when people responded to career disasters. Some stewed over their loss and got lost in an endless cycle of self-justification. Others attempted to work through their setbacks but struggled to adapt to the new realities they faced. Almost half of respondents focused on learning from their loss through “identity work,” where one thinks about the role they play, sought advice and opinions from others, and took steps to care for themselves. The last group was most successful in moving past their career disaster.
While the other groups suffered from their inability to accept responsibility or dwelling on past failures, those who learned from their loss benefited from a new outlook on their life and career. Adaptability was one facet of a manager’s recovery. Seeking out peers’ opinions and reflecting upon their own actions led these managers see how they could have done better and improve upon it in the future. Another important part of recovery was evaluating your “self-system,” or your self-image in relation to their environment. Careful thought and reflection in both these categories led managers to success moving on with their careers and ultimately viewing their career disaster as a positive step forward.
Cass Becomes Part of Digital Creativity Hub
Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Budget that Cass Business School will become part of a £18 million new Digital Creativity Hub, according to a press release from the school. The goal of the Hub is to lead a revolution through cutting-edge research in interactive media and digital games to benefit society. Cass professors will join forces with academics from Falmouth University, Goldsmiths, and the University of York to work as part of the Hub, which is being led by York. Continue reading…
