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Dear Colleague

 

This is to remind you that the deadline for submission of papers for the Ashridge International Research conference with the subject "The Sustainability Challenge: Organisational Change and Transformational Vision" is March 31st 2011, hence in a couple of weeks time.

 

The conference will take place June 10-12 2011 at Ashridge, Berkhamsted [near London], UK.

 

All information, Call for Papers, Outline Conference programme with three Special Sessions with Experts and Keynote Speakers, Registration Form with Early Bird fee, Link to Special Issues of three peer reviewed journals, can be found on the AIB Conference site or on www.ashridge.org.uk/airc2, or below.

 

 

 

ASHRIDGE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE

"The Sustainability Challenge: Organisational Change and Transformational Vision"

10-12 June 2011 2pm-2pm; 

paper submission deadline 31 March 2011: www.ashridge.org.uk/airc2 

 

A multidisciplinary international conference aimed at scholars, executive leaders and policy makers working in international business 

and marketing, organisational behaviour, strategy, education, public affairs, economics, management and leadership. 

The conference focuses on a change of mindset and on implementation of the long term sustainability agenda and is linked to Special Issues of

*         The Journal of Organisational Change Management [www.ashridge,org,uk/jocm] 

*         The Journal of Public Affairs [www.ashridge.org.uk/jpa] 

*         The Journal of Management Development [www.ashridge/org.uk/jmd ]

 

 

The submission deadline for papers for the Special Issues of these journals is in the autumn 2011. See the relevant websites above for the Calls for Papers and further details, and take advantage of the opportunity for dialogue among colleagues and feedback and peer review on your papers well before the submission deadlines for the individual journal special issues by submitting your conference paper by 31 March 2011 and attending AIRC2 between 10 and 12 June 2011. 

 

 

Outline conference programme:

 

Friday 10 June

14.00 - 14.15 Conference Opening Carla Millar / Matthew Gitsham

14.15 - 15.30  Experts' panel

16.00 onwards  Conference papers in parallel sessions

 

Saturday 11 June:

09.00 - 16.00 Conference papers in parallel sessions

16.30 - 18.00 Dean's Forum

19.00 - 21.00 Conference Dinner

 

Sunday 12 June

09.30 - 12.30 Keynote Addresses and Interactive Forum Discussion

12.30 - 13.00 Concluding Keynote Address by Matthew Gitsham

13.00 - 13.15 Journal SIs and Closing of Conference by Carla Millar

 

 

Three Special Sessions:

 

Friday 10 June, 14.15-15.30

Experts' Panel: "Redesigning Business for Long term Sustainability"

An international panel of experts will introduce and discuss issues around the conference theme

* Graham Floater, Director, The Climate Centre. Formerly Deputy Director and Senior Advisor to the

No.10 Offi ce of Climate Change

* André van Heemstra, Chairman, Steering Group Netherlands Network UN Global Compact and Vice

Chair, Supervisory Board, EABIS, Academy of Business in Society; Formerly Member of the Board

and Personnel Director, Unilever

* Sandra McLeod, Group Chief Executive, Echo.

Chair: Professor Kai Peters, CEO Ashridge.

 

Saturday 11 June, 16.30 - 18.00

Dean's Forum: "Redesigning Business Schools for Long Term Sustainability"

* Professor Phil Harris, Executive Dean, Faculty of Business, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and

Westminster Chair of Marketing and Public Affairs, University of Chester; Editor, Journal of Public

Affairs

* Professor John Mahon, John M. Murphy Chair of International Business Policy and Strategy and

Professor of Management, University of Maine; Formerly Dean, College of Business, Public Policy

and Health, University of Maine

* Professor Mette Morsing, Sustainability Director, Copenhagen Business School

Chair: Professor Kai Peters, Dean and CEO Ashridge

 

Sunday 12 June, 9.30 - 12.30

Keynote Addresses and Forum Discussion: 

"Transformational Vision and Sustainability-driven Change"

* The leadership dimension:  Philip Sadler, Senior Fellow with the think tank Tomorrow's Company;

Vice President and former CEO, Ashridge, and author of 'Sustainable Growth in a Post-Scarcity World'

* The organisational change management dimension: David Ballard, Director, Alexander Ballard Ltd.

* The management development dimension: Dr Gill Coleman Co-Director of the Ashidge MSc in

Sustainability and Responsibility and Director of the Ashridge Centre for Action Research

* The public policy dimension: Professor Kalle Määttä, Office of the Inspector of Public Finances,

Finland and author of 'Environmental Taxes'. tbc

* The strategy and influencing dimension: Professor John F. Mahon, John M. Murphy Chair of

International Business Policy and Strategy and Professor of Management, University of Maine

Chair: Philip Sadler.

 

 

Call for papers

e Susta

An increasing number of global mega trends is shaping the contemporary business, political and societal landscape: demographic change, globalisation, shifts in the centres of economic power to include emerging markets, climate change and ecosystem degradation, to list those most frequently cited. Differentials in the quality of life and resource scarcity are challenges that underline the inevitability of change. In this environment the narrative of 'sustainable development' is increasingly being adopted as a helpful set of principles to make sense of these connected global facts and trends and to guide our political and business responses.

How can and do organisations, businesses and nations respond? What are the specific roles of the customer-facing and organisation-facing disciplines of strategy, organisational change and development, executive education, marketing or public affairs at home or globally in that response?

 

Ten years ago, CEOs tended to believe that the principles of sustainability added nothing but cost to their business. Now the situation is radically different as a critical mass of business leaders increasingly see sustainability becoming one of the lynchpins of competition within their sector and a significant source of both opportunity for and risk to long term competitive advantage.

 

The United Nations Global Compact-Accenture 2010 CEO study, for example, shows that 93% of CEOs believe sustainability will be critical to the future success of their companies. 80% believe a tipping point where sustainability is embedded in the core business strategies of most companies will be reached within the next 15 years, and 54% believe this tipping point could occur within the next decade (UN Global Compact and Accenture, 2010). As this significant shift in thinking has occurred over the past decade, the need for organisational change has become increasingly recognised by business leaders.

 

Ashridge's 2009 study for the United Nation PRME with EABIS, for example, showed that 92% of CEOs and senior executives believed change in organizational culture was required to effectively address the challenges and opportunities of sustainability (Gitsham et al., 2009). These changes over the past decade mirror developments in the academic literature. There is an increasingly well developed body of literature on the nature of the challenges around sustainability, and also a well developed literature on the implications for organisations and the changes that need to take place. However, while the Beta sciences have provided much technical advice and solutions, the Gamma sciences are failing to provide the research for implementation (Winsemius, 2010).

 

Where there is a need for more work is around understanding how to bring about these changes effectively within organisations, nationally and internationally, and what we can learn from organizations where these changes have already begun to occur.

For example:

* What can we learn from the organizational transformation, change and development literature about how to effectively stimulate change for sustainable organisations? How can we best build on the thinking of pioneering scholars such as Dunphy (2003), Ballard (2005), Reason (2009), Doppelt (2003) and others?

* What does this mean for how we approach building leadership capability in organisations? How can we build on the work of Maak & Pless (2009), Stubbings (2009), Gitsham et al. (2009), Hind et al. (2009) and others who have begun to explore what implications these changes in the global context might mean for the kinds of leadership required and how to develop these?

* What then does this mean for the role of business schools and the management education sector?

* What do these changes mean for how we conceptualise the purpose of organisations, what they stand for, their identity, and how this connects with the corporate brand proposition and their image and reputation, especially for MNEs in the global context? 

* What are the implications for corporate communications and public affairs? How should the organisation be communicating about itself, both internally and externally?

* How should public policy be challenged? What kind of national and international regulation is required in bringing about change and what does this mean for the public affairs function?

* How are leaders in multinational organisations seeing and practising their role in a global environment where sustainability is beginning to be perceived as a norm?

* How can the policies of governments, business, and the third sector be influenced and made to 'dare to care' (AoM 2010) as well as fulfill strategic objectives?

 

We invite theoretical and empirical (quantitative or qualitative) papers that focus on any of the subjects mentioned above, and fit within the general context of the conference in the various disciplines.

We welcome both strong academic papers and papers focusing on real managerial and policy dilemmas and solutions, as a major objective of the conference is to foster a dialogue among academics, policy researchers and corporate executives on the challenges inherent in dealing with the sustainability agenda - within MNEs, complex organisations in a networked world and a diversity of national environments; and affecting organizational behaviour, leadership, strategy, corporate brand and reputation and policy making.

 

The fundamental question for this conference is thus:

How to deal with the sustainability challenge? How to balance short term priorities with long term vision, organisational change with stability, strategic goals with day to day implementation, domestic with international responsibilities; how to manage the corporate brand, image and reputation; how to influence policies nationally and internationally and how to foster relations, teach and educate - all in the realm of effecting the change in attitude and behaviour that sustainability demands.

 

Submission and review details for Conference Papers

*                       Submission details can be accessed at http://www.ashridge.org.uk/airc2 <http://www.ashridge.org.uk/airc2> .  Please follow the link 'Submissions' and clearly indicate that your submission is for the conference

*                       Submissions should be sent by email as a Word document attachment to [log in to unmask]

 

Submission and review details for Panel Proposals

We welcome proposals to organize a Panel. These should be for focused research based sessions of 1- 1.5 hours, where the panel leader invites the other speakers [they may be scholars, executives, researchers] as participants to conference and panel and creates dialogue with the audience. Panel proposals will be reviewed and a decision will be given within one month.

*                       Submissions of around 1000 words should be sent by email as a Submissions of around 1000 words should be sent by email as a Word document attachment to [log in to unmask]

 

 

 

 

 

Santander Sustainability Challenge Scholarship

 

The Conference Chairs of the Ashridge International Research Conference "The Sustainability Challenge: Organisational Change and Transformational Vision" 

are delighted to announce that Bank Santander has offered special encouragement to 

researchers from Latin America.

Up to 6 scholarships offering a £500 reduction on the conference fee will be available for excellent submissions from that continent. 

The Conference Chairs will inform the winners by 1 May together with the feedback on their submission.

 

When submitting your paper for the conference, please indicate that you wish to be considered for a

Santander Sustainability Challenge Scholarship.

 

Carla Millar and Matthew Gitsham

Conference Chairs

 

 

Administrative details

The Ashridge International Research Conference will be held from 10-12 June 2011 2pm-2pm at Ashridge Business School, Berkhamsted, an 18th Century mansion within its own grounds, 

extensive buildings and executive facilities in the English countryside, 40 minutes from London, UK, by road or rail (London Euston)..

The conference fee is a very competitively priced all-in fee, and covers attendance at the conference, accommodation in executive suites, all meals and refreshments during the 

Friday-Sunday 48 hour conference period, and the conference proceedings on CD ROM.

Travel costs are not included.

For conference registration, arrangements for transport to/from airport or station, or any further information please go to www.ashridge.org.uk/AIRC2 or contact [log in to unmask] 

 

 

The Ashridge International Research Conference represents an opportunity for stimulating multi-disciplinary conversations academically as well as across the institutions of the academic, the business and the policy world. We encourage researchers and executives from academe, the corporate world, the public sector and the third sector to consider submitting their research, case studies or international experience-based work to the conference.

 

 

Carla Millar and Matthew Gitsham

Conference Chairs

 

Prof. dr. Carla C.J.M. Millar

Professor, International Marketing & Management

University of Twente

School of Management & Governance

PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede

The Netherlands

0031 53 489 5355

0031 33 462 7343

[log in to unmask]  

 

Fellow, Ashridge

Berkhamsted, Herts, UK

0044 1442 84 1175

0044 20 7402 4700

[log in to unmask]  

 

Ashridge

Berkhamsted

Hertfordshire HP4 1NS

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1442 843491

Fax: +44 (0)1442 841209

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. dr. Carla C.J.M. Millar

Professor, International Marketing & Management

University of Twente

School of Management & Governance

PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede

The Netherlands

0031 53 489 5355

0031 33 462 7343

[log in to unmask]  

 

Fellow, Ashridge

Berkhamsted, Herts, UK

0044 1442 84 1175

0044 20 7402 4700

[log in to unmask]  

 


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