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Webinar on Strategy and Complexity

  • 1.  Webinar on Strategy and Complexity

    Posted 02-13-2021 01:57
    The Strategy Group at Cranfield School of Management (UK) invites you to the webinar series that explores new developments in scholarship at the intersection of strategy, complexity, and evolutionary theory.

    Webinar: Complexity, Process Metaphysics and the Practice of Strategic Wayfinding

    Speaker: Professor Robert Chia (University of Glasgow)

    Time: Thursday, 25 February 2021; 10 am (US Eastern) / 3 pm (London) / 8.30 pm (New Delhi). The webinar is scheduled for 1 h 30 min (including Q&A).

    Description: Process metaphysics assumes flux, disorder, instability and uncertainty to be intrinsic to reality. This metaphysical worldview leads us to realise that it is everyday practical coping actions in organizations which account for the patterned "strategic" responses to environmental challenges. Instead of a priori relying on elegant strategic models and elaborate strategic plans to direct strategic action, Strategic Wayfinding begins with direct intense engagement with actual goings-on occurring at the coal-face of the organization/environment nexus. It relies on a finely-honed perceptual sensitivity to environmental solicitations and affordances to guide our coping responses and works through iterative, close-quarter, deviation-amplifying feedback loops. In times of unprecedented turbulence, Strategic Wayfinding better equips an organization with the ability to negotiate the radical uncertainty of events such as the current pandemic to secure its continued survival and growth.

    Registration: Please register here to receive a personalized link and a reminder prior to the event.


    About the speaker

    Robert Chia (Robert.Chia@glasgow.ac.uk) is Research Professor of Management at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. He received his PhD in Organizational Analysis from the University of Lancaster. He is the author/editor of five books including Strategy without Design (Cambridge University Press, with R. Holt) and has published extensively in the major organization and management journals. His research is fundamentally underpinned by a process-philosophical worldview which is used to interrogate research issues such as strategic thinking and strategy-making; peripheral awareness, foresight and organizational leadership; decisions and unintended consequences; the educational role of university business schools; and the significance of contrasting East-West mentalities and their implications for business practice. Prior to entering academia Robert worked for seventeen years in shipbuilding, aircraft engineering and held senior management positions in manufacturing and human resources for a large multinational corporation based in Singapore.  

    About Cranfield Strategy Group

    Recognising the complex nature of the social world, we view strategic management as "guided emergence" and are interested in advancing the knowledge of organizational processes and managerial decisions and actions with an eye towards enabling strategists to be effective in a world they cannot control. Our research focuses on the nature of competitive advantage, the processes of value creation and value capture, the evolution of strategic intent, and various aspects of emergent strategy, such as organizational values, sensemaking, and the role of middle managers.

    If you have any questions about this event, please contact Dr Ibrat Djabbarov (i.djabbarov@cranfield.ac.uk) or Prof Andrey Pavlov (andrey.pavlov@cranfield.ac.uk).

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    Ibrat Djabbarov, MD, MPH
    PhD Candidate
    Cranfield School of Management
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