Discussion: View Thread

RRBM Webinar: Why Theory in Management?

  • 1.  RRBM Webinar: Why Theory in Management?

    Posted 05-06-2021 15:48

    RRBM Webinar: Why Theory in Management? Reclaiming the Lost Promise of Management as a Profession

    Speaker: Professor Roy Suddaby (Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria and Carson College of Business, Washington State University)


    Time: Wednesday, 12th of May at 7am (Pacific) / 10am (Eastern) / 3pm (London) / 7.30pm (Delhi). This webinar is scheduled for 90 minutes including Q&A.

    Registration: Please register here to receive a personalized Zoom link and a reminder for this event.


    Description: Since their inception, business schools have been beset by questions about the legitimacy of theory in management. Many of these challenges arise internally with claims that there is too much theory, too many theories, or too much bad (i.e. unscientific) theory. Much of this debate, however, arises from a serious misunderstanding of what theory is and how theory relates to the knowledge mandate of a profession. The debate also arises, in part, because of confusion about what type of profession management is. I address these issues in this webinar. My core argument is that management is not a purely scientific profession, like medicine, nor is it a purely normative profession, like law. Rather, it is a syncretic profession that embraces both and thrives best when we successfully mediate the essential tension between scientific and normative ways of knowing.

    Recommended reading: Suddaby, R. (2014) Why Theory? Academy of Management Review, 39(4): 407-411.


    About the speaker

    Roy Suddaby is the Winspear Chair of Management at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Carson College of Business, Washington State University and Professor of Organization Theory at the University of Liverpool Management School. He is a former editor of the Academy of Management Review and is or has been an editorial board member of Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, and the Journal of Business Venturing. His research focuses on role of symbolic resources – legitimacy, authenticity, identity and history – in processes of entrepreneurial change and innovation.


    This webinar is supported by Responsible Research in Business and Management (www.rrbm.network).

    If you have any questions, please contact Ibrat Djabbarov i.djabbarov@cranfield.ac.uk.



    ------------------------------
    Ibrat Djabbarov
    Cranfield School of Management
    BEDFORD
    ------------------------------