Discussion: View Thread

REMINDER:

CALL FOR ACTION RESEARCH PROJECTS

AOM 2011 Professional Development Workshop:

Transforming Institutions and Leaders in Support of

Caring Economics Principles, Policies and Practices

Meeting Date and Time:         Sat., August 13, 2011 10:15 AM - 2:15 PM (Central Time)

Location:                                 Grand Hyatt, Republic B, San Antonio, Texas

Primary Sponsor:                     HR Division, with cosponsors GDO, MSR, ONE, PNP, & SIM

Main Contact:                         Kristine Kawamura, PhD,* kristinekawamura@yahoo.com,

How do we, as management scholars and practitioners, transform institutions and leaders in support of Caring Economics? How do we put humans back into the business equation?

As we become a global knowledge/service society, people are well proclaimed as our most important resource.  People - with their hearts and minds, knowledge and experience base - create the organization as well as its strategies, innovations, successes and values.  People, however, have lost their faith in institutions and leaders, blaming them for todays' turbulent economic environment and their own sufferings.  They want change but have lost hope in the tenets of society that are empowered to create wealth and to even influence meaning in our lives.

We believe that to move forward, we who are focused on the valuing and empowerment of human resources must collaboratively work for transformative change in institutional policy, organizational practices, leadership skills, and people's commitment to values.  We need to care, and to bring care into our work. 

We invite scholars and/or research practitioners who are interested in the caring transformation of organizations, societies, and leaders (in governments, for profits and/or non-profit institutions) to submit a one page proposal for Action Research Projects by June 30, 2011 (either embryo or in-process projects) that will be organically and collaboratively created, nurtured, developed, and/or critiqued.  Be part of an exciting cross-divisional, cross-disciplinary conversation as you design real-world projects that move Caring Economics from concept to reality.  We'll utilize Action Research methods to bridge research with experience in hands-on, practice-oriented, practice-grounded roundtables.

Our intent is to solve real organizational, community, and inter-organizational problems.  We want to generate deeper learning and publishable knowledge in the area of Caring Economics and ignite the inclusion of Care as a critical component of Societal and Organizational Change, as well as Leadership Practice.  We build upon the excitement of the 2010 All Academy Theme "Dare to Care" as well as the transformational work of Riane Eisler, described in her book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics (2007, Berrett-Koehler) and highlighted in her 2010 All-Academy speech. 

* Please contact in order to discuss conceptual project ideas, or to receive initial background research into this PDW topic.

PDW Organizing Committee

·         Riane Eisler, President, Center for Partnership Studies (Email: eisler@partnershipway.org)

·         Kristine Kawamura, PhD, AIM Centre, St. Georges University, Grenada (Email:kristinekawamura@yahoo.com)

·         Jeana Wirtenberg, PhD, Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey (Email:  jwirtenb@fdu.edu )

·         Simon Dolan, PhD, ESADE, Barcelona, Spain (Email: simon.dolan@esade.edu)

SAMPLE PROJECTS

All types of projects are welcome.  We especially encourage projects that are multi-disciplinary and contain both research- and practitioner-oriented perspectives.  The projects should focus on the critical importance of caring practices, policies, and programs that develop the well-being of a nation's and organization's people, and the culture and strategy of the organizations in which they work and thrive.  We encourage projects to address a broad range of "people", including: male and female leaders at all levels of organizations and institutions; women and minorities, children and the elderly, and people of diverse cultural and/or socio-economic backgrounds; and, new generations of students and employees who may be our future leaders.

Participants are invited to propose their own project (in embryo or development stage) or join one of those being sponsored by others. "Embryo" project proposals are new collaborative project between academics and practitioners for which attendees would like to add action-research expertise and advance during the session. "In-Process" project proposals are either ongoing collaborative activities that attendees would like to evolve into an action research project or are ongoing AR projects that they would like to strengthen/expand, through critique and development during the session.  Once the action research projects are selected, we will circulate the final project topics through the Sponsoring Divisions, again, in order to invite further project participation at the PDW.

All participants in this PDW will be invited to co-create an ongoing vision for this transformational work.  For example, we anticipate post-workshop paper submissions and possible monograph or book publications.

Sample questions for exploration via action-research include, but are not limited to, the following:  

General

• What is Caring Economics?  What are Caring Societies, Caring Organizations and Caring Leaders?  How do we develop them?
• What course curriculum and teaching methods may educate and empower students (and educators) to build and lead Caring Societies and Caring Organizations through Caring Economics?
• How does care influence, or not influence, management education in the areas of economics, organizations, and management?
• What is a good (and caring) society?  How do institutions, organizations and leaders co-create it?

Organizational Strategies and Cultures, HR, and Gender Diversity

• How do we put humans back into the business equation?
• How do we create, or develop, caring organizational strategies and cultures? What practices may be used to develop caring organizational strategies and cultures?
• What organizations are currently creating and implementing caring practices, policies, and environments?  What may we learn from them?
• What HR policies, practices and competencies would support the developing of Caring Organizational Systems?
• What would a care model for a caring organization look like?
• How do we bring equality and gender diversity into HR practices, policies and programs?
• What system-wide Organizational Metrics are needed to build the capacity and change existing mindsets for Caring Economics to be realized?
• How must Capitalism shift, transform, or be augmented or integrated in order to bring Caring Economics into reality on an organizational or industry level? 
• How must Feminism shift, transform, or be augmented or integrated in order to bring Caring Economics into reality on a human, organizational resource, and/or talent level?
• What elements must be incorporated in an organizational career infrastructure and organizational culture in order to promote the advancement of women? 

Leadership

• What Leadership skills, knowledge and resources are needed to lead the cultural transformation to a caring organization? 
• How do we develop the intellectual, emotional, and social intelligence of leaders so they are Caring Leaders, and capable to lead Caring Organizations and Institutions?
• What system-wide Social Wealth indicators and Organizational Metrics are needed to build the capacity and change existing mindsets for Caring Economics to be realized?
• How do we teach – or develop – courage as a core value of leadership?
• How do Leadership models embrace care, leadership skills, and social/emotional intelligence differently in female vs. male leadership models?
• How might different management, work and scholarly traditions play out, or influence, the development of management education and learning across different cultures and societies in the developing of caring organizations?

Institutional and Natural Environment

• What caring practices, programs and policies will empower as well as develop the well-being of women and children through Caring Economics?
• What institutional assumptions, mindsets, players or entrenched systems either block, or resist, a move to building and leading Caring Societies, Organizations and Leaders?
• How do we motivate governmental leaders, organizations, and decision-making bodies to value people?  To create and implement policies that develops the human infrastructure of our societies?
• What system-wide Social Wealth indicators are needed to build the capacity and change existing mindsets for Caring Economics to be realized?
• How must Capitalism shift, transform, or be augmented or integrated in order to bring Caring Economics into reality on an institutional or societal level? 
• How must Socialism (or any composite political, socio-economic system) shift, transform, or be augmented or integrated in order to bring Caring Economics into reality on an institutional or societal level?
• What kind of hybrid organizations may be developed in order to promote Caring Economics?  What may we learn from social enterprise and social marketing to solve problems with joint business/society solutions?
•  How may we create interaction between stakeholders (including governments and multi-laterals, organizations, and NGOs) to encourage new methods of co-creating value via Caring Economics principles, programs, and practices?
• How may we empower women, children, minorities, the elderly, and other disenfranchised categories of humans in order to create an innovative, thriving, and equitable society?
• What caring policies, practices and/or measurements in organizations and societies will help to develop the well-being of the natural environment?
• What is the relationship between Sustainability, Caring Economics, and Values?

International

• How applicable are Western theories, philosophies and practices for developing caring organizations, egalitarian environments, and value applicable in other parts of the world?  How might Eastern theories, philosophies and practices inform and alter Western?
• Should we develop a "generic" theory and practice for creating caring organizations that apply to multiple cultures, or should we use a contingency based approach in which practices vary by culture? 
• How do we activate a Care-based paradigm shift within the social, cultural, organizational, and economic differences of East-West economies?
• What philosophical, cultural, social, political, and economic differences (and similarities) influence the development of caring organizations across the globe?
• How do globalization and migration impact the development of globally-based caring organizational cultures and strategies?
• How do different cultural values and traditions express themselves in terms of care?

Management Spirituality and Religion

• What is the interplay between care, values, and spirituality in building and leading Caring Societies, Organizations, and Leaders through Caring Economics?
• How can we learn from wisdom offered by Eastern and Western spiritual and religious traditions to bring care and other human values into decision making, organizational life, and performance?
• To what extent do organizations that are spiritual, religious or culturally philosophical (of all traditions) enable enlightenment, balance, or transcendence?
• What are best practices for managing, leading, and developing employees and/or teaching students who are spiritually and religiously diverse, utilizing Caring Economics as a conversation model?