Dear OMT colleagues,
I would like to bring to your attention that starting this November, Professor Hari Tsoukas and I are hosting the Socrates Club – a series of informal meetings in which we discuss the practical relevance of philosophical ideas in the fields of management and organisation studies. Please find further information attached.
Our inaugural session will take place on Monday, November 20th from 12:30 to 14:00 at the Warwick Business School (WBS) main building. A light lunch will be provided. In this session, we will discuss relationships between chaos and organisation, following an informal talk by Professor Gibson Burrell (University of Leicester). An abstract of the talk and information on how to register are provided below:
Chaos and Organization: Some philosophical connections
I wish to start with the argument that Chaos is the defining term of 'Organization Theory'. It is our sine qua non, yet we tend always and everywhere to ignore it. I seek to patrol the edge of 'Chaos' and the edge of 'organization' allowing only certain credentialled elements to enter or leave. This liminal world is, and has been in recent years, the province of management consultants seeking to thrive there, so the patrolling of this historical time and space is crucial in preventing a robbing out of what is central to our treasured disciplinary tradition by those who have no real interest in it. Whereas these consultants operate under the illusion of a totalizing management controlling an overarching domain, my attention will be on the complex relationship between organization and Chaos and to assess whether and how they might overlap or be seen as totally separable. Chaos is the most important term we have because it scares us –or it should scare us- immensely. And every disciplinary nexus needs to be scared shitless from time to time.
Gibson Burrell is Professor of Organisation Theory at the University of Leicester. Professor Burrell has written many highly influential critical management theory papers and books, including "Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis" (co-authored with Gareth Morgan). In 2014 he received the Academy of Management OMT Division's biennial Joanne Martin 'Trailblazer' award for lifelong contribution to organization and management theory.
Registration information:
Space is very limited (!), so you must register if you would like to participate in this session by emailing me at rene.wiedner@wbs.ac.uk with the subject "Socrates Club session 1". Please only email with this subject if you are sure you will attend. You should receive confirmation within about a week of registering your interest and will be notified of the exact location. You will also be added to the distribution list for future sessions. If you are not planning to attend the first session but would like to be added to the distribution list in order to be kept up to date about future sessions, please use the subject "Socrates Club info".
Dr Rene Wiedner
Assistant Professor | Warwick Business School | Room 3.135 | University of Warwick | Coventry CV4 7AL
Associate | St Edmund's College | University of Cambridge