Dear Friends & Colleagues,
I would like to share with you the latest episode of the 4Sight Chats video podcast series with Nicolai J. Foss. Nicolai is a professor of strategy at the Copenhagen Business School. He is a prolific contributor to the research literature in management and is one of the world's most cited management scholars. He is mainly interested in the organizational and individual-level aspects aspects of processes of creating and capturing value.
<yt-formatted-string class="segment-text style-scope ytd-transcript-segment-renderer" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">The episode is about Nicolai's recent book titled "Why Managers Matter: The Perils of the Bossless Company" (together with </yt-formatted-string><yt-formatted-string class="segment-text style-scope ytd-transcript-segment-renderer" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">Peter Klein), about his</yt-formatted-string><yt-formatted-string class="segment-text style-scope ytd-transcript-segment-renderer" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"> work on wokeness in</yt-formatted-string>
<yt-formatted-string class="segment-text style-scope ytd-transcript-segment-renderer" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">organizations, about the biggest problems in management</yt-formatted-string>
<yt-formatted-string class="segment-text style-scope ytd-transcript-segment-renderer" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1">research, and also about his experience as a business school professor in Bocconi (Italy).</yt-formatted-string>
A detailed chat outline is as follows:
[02:58] Can you give us a quick introduction to your recent book "Why Managers Matter: The perils of the Bossless Company", with Peter Klein?
[10:21] Mark 1 and Mark 2 authority and how the bossless company narrative confuses them [15:14] The bossless company narrative in in high power distance contexts and its psychological costs
[17:15] When does the bossless company actually work?
[23:23] The bossless company narrative in highly turbulent/highly uncertain environments [25:14] The deeper epistemological and political values behind the bossless company narrative [31:20] The bossless company narrative and postmodernism
[34:03] Why do companies go woke?
[36:16] The public response to Nicolai work on bossless company and wokeness
[40:10] Why do business schools do so little research on sensitive themes such as wokeness and capitalism?
[44:52] What are the biggest problems in management research?
[54:52] Lighthearted closing question: What is your experience as a business school professor in Bocconi (Italy)?
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Alex Fergnani
Rabat Business School
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