Department of Management Research Conference

Following the successful Department of Management Research conferences in previous years, we are hosting another conference in June 2025. The conference will be in person in Birmingham Business School.

An overarching theme of this year’s conference is the importance of the role of management research in contributing towards understanding management, organizations and work in turbulent times. ‘Turbulence’ refers to economic, political, social, technological, and environmental crises occurring in the macro-environment and affecting the world of work, management and organizations (Prouska et al., 2024; Williams and Erickson, 2024).

In the context of such turbulence, unpredictability and multi-pronged crises (polycrisis) (Tooze, 2021), and at the risk of being labelled ‘woke’, can we use research to grow our positive impact on society, and influence policy and practice to develop more inclusive and equal organizations and economies, where business prioritises sustainability of society and the planet in the pursuit of purpose rather than maximising profits?

Once again, the idea is to have an event along the lines of a normal academic conference – streams with speakers allocated 20 minutes (presenting for 15 mins on their research, leaving 5 minutes for questions).

The three main objectives of the conference would be:

• to provide another forum for departmental colleagues to make new connections with people (often from different subject groups) that are working on areas of common interest,
• to allow staff to become more familiar in general with the research interests of their departmental colleagues, bringing colleagues closer together, and
• to provide a social opportunity for colleagues, again with the aim of bringing us closer together; especially as there have been quite a few new arrivals over the past two years.

Management PhD students are also welcome to present/attend.

Schedule

9:30-12:00 Parallel sessions

12:00-12:45 Lunch (105, University House)

12:45-13:45 Keynote speech by Prof Rea Prouska (Hult International Business School) - Macro-level turbulence and crises: Rethinking work, leadership, and organisational purpose (108, University House)

13:45-14:45 Parallel sessions

15:15-16:00 Special session by Prof David Bailey and Ellie Hail (CoSS press office) – Dealing  with the media in turbulent times (108, University House)