Dear Svenja;
Many thanks for your comments. Just one point of clarification: my reference to “social engineering” referred to – in an admittedly provocative way – the effects of government policies rather than the actual or potential impact of researchers. You state that you feel that there is a disconnect between scholarly research and practice – something that many members of our community would likely support. That said, do you not feel that we have anything to contribute to major social issues, particularly in this case, the migration crisis? Are there approaches being used by either scholars or practitioners that you have encountered that you feel are helpful?
What do others feel?
Cheers,
John
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John Amis
Professor of Strategic Management & Organisation
Director, Doctoral Programme
Co-Director, Centre for Strategic Leadership
University of Edinburgh Business School
29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JS. UK.
Tel.: +44 (0)131 651 5545 (o)
+44 (0)7758 138971 (m)
Skype: john_amis
Homepage
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On 21/06/2016, 14:26, "Organization Development and Change Listserv on behalf of Svenja Tams" <
ODC-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU on behalf of
S.Tams@BATH.AC.UK> wrote:
Dear John
Among the many issues and layers your post raised, you asked whether ‘we’ - the community of OD-minded management scholars - had any tools and informed positions to such a complex societal issue as migration.
To start off, let me state that I am not speaking as an expert on migration.
Yet, migration is situated within a complex web of related social and environmental issues. Thus, your post also draws attention to relevant organizational approaches, methods and tools for addressing complex societal issues more broadly.
The title of your post asks about ‘social engineering’. I would be cautious about change theorists and practitioners casting themselves as social engineers in possession of tools and informed positions to tackle complex societal issues. Notwithstanding, we can play an important role in participating in, supporting, observing, and questioning efforts to tackle large-scale migration or other complex issues, and thereby advance our understanding of available and more or less appropriate choices.
You framed your contribution in relations to the previous series of posts triggered by David Grant’s question about the current state of OD. While the state of OD within organizations appears fragile by some accounts, I have been observing over the past 15-20 years or so a new generation of change agents who work with organizations and communities in tackling complex societal issues. They often use a combination of OD methods, but also methods of community engagement, public deliberation, design practice, and arts-based methods / community arts, etc.
From my engagement with this field, it doesn’t strike me that change practitioners or scholars can speak from a position of authority about ‘what works’.
Moreover, I observe a big gap between change practitioners and academic research. Change practitioner in this field draw on theories and frameworks, but not the ones that have any currency among management scholars and show up in our leading management and organization studies journals.
Thus, while there is an emerging field of practice that claims to address complex societal problems, we may want to inquire critically, and yet sympathetically, into what they accomplish.
I leave it here. If this resonates in any ways with you and other colleagues on this forum, I would be delighted to connect and explore how to advance this field.
All the best
Svenja
Dr Svenja Tams
School of Management, University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom
Email
s.tams@bath.ac.uk
http://www.bath.ac.uk/management/faculty/svenja_tams.html
________________________________________
From: Organization Development and Change Listserv <
ODC-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU> on behalf of ODC-L automatic digest system <
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Sent: 17 June 2016 05:02
To:
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Subject: ODC-L Digest - 8 Jun 2016 to 16 Jun 2016 (#2016-51)
There are 2 messages totaling 766 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Dead or deported – engineering social change in the European refugee
crisis? (2)
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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2016 18:27:11 +0000
From: AMIS John <
John.Amis@ED.AC.UK>
Subject: Dead or deported – engineering social change in the European refugee crisis?
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2016 19:39:39 +0000
From: LOUIZA PARASKEVOPOULOU <
louizpar@AUEB.GR>
Subject: Re: Dead or deported – engineering social change in the European refugee crisis?
Dear professor John Amis
your e-mail is an interesting surprise! firstly because refugee crisis
indeed is an important social issue nowdays and secondly because I had
a similar problematique. As a researcher but mostly as a greek citizen
facing this issue particualrly in my country I feel that I should
orient my research on the immigrant issue. Therefore I started
thinking on than in order to create a team and execute a research
project during the following months at refugee camps in Greece. Yet, I
did not have the time to allocate my energy on that issue but your
mail triggered me to express my idea: resilience, identity
issues(rootless feeling), deviant behavior, social integration.
As a phd candidate in organizational behavior I do not have the
expertise and the experience of such a project so I would appreciate
any feedback on the initial idea and any collaboration. I am not sure
yet if that project will take place at all however I live in Athens
and I can have access in refugee camps so I would be glad to offer any
kind of help to any researcher concerned in the issue.
kind regards
Louiza Paraskevopoulou
Quoting AMIS John <
John.Amis@ed.ac.uk>:
> Dead or deported – engineering social change in the European refugee crisis?
>
> I have been enthused by recent debates on the list sparked by David
> Grant on the apparent resurrection of OD, and Patrice Rosenthal on
> authentic leadership. I wanted to throw something out that I have
> been thinking about for some time regarding the current European
> refugee crisis.
>
> The flows of people into and across Europe (and beyond) has become
> increasingly pronounced, and contentious. Given the social, economic
> and political effects that this is having, and will continue to have
> for many years, this is a change issue to which members of the ODC
> community can and should contribute.
>
> There are two main strands to this issue, though when we start to
> pick at them, we see a myriad of other complicating factors
> emerging. On the one hand, we have the movement of people from one
> country to live and work, so called economic migrants. On the other,
> we have flows of people from one country to another to escape
> persecution or conflict: refugees.
>
> In Europe, much of the debate has centred on how – or indeed if –
> the flow of people moving from one country to another in order to
> take advantage of economic opportunities should be controlled. While
> freedom of movement to work is enshrined in European law, there have
> been concerns about how some countries faced with a large influx of
> migrants are able to accommodate them with infrastructure such as
> housing, schools, and hospitals that have already been under strain
> from decreases in investment following the global financial crisis.
> In the UK, this issue has become central to the June 23 2016
> referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union, so
> called ‘Brexit’.
>
> The debates about economic migrants have become inexorably
> intertwined with the flow of refugees into Europe. In 2015, the
> International Organization for migration estimated that more than 1
> million people arrived by sea and almost 35,000 by land,
> predominantly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea. The EU’s
> external border force agency, Frontex, stated that more than 1.8
> million migrants entered Europe that same year. Thousands of
> migrants have died in attempting to enter Europe: those that survive
> the journey usually end up in camps with the most basic of
> conditions, and there are frequent allegations of abuse,
> particularly of unaccompanied children. The accompanying political,
> economic, and humanitarian arguments have been contradictory and
> largely ineffectual. For example, the recent agreement that migrants
> arriving in Greece would be deported to Turkey and then eventually
> relocated has been heavily criticised.
>
> The situation has been further complicated by the terrorist attacks
> in Paris and Brussels, and the suggestion that the terrorists
> committing these offences benefitted from the Schengen agreement
> that permits free travel across national borders among 26 European
> states. Again, this agreement is seen as a central part of the
> European accord, but is now potentially under threat.
>
> As a further complicating factor, debates about migrants and
> refugees have become linked with the increase in popularity of
> extremist politicians, most notably the far right. (Parenthetically,
> with the negative rhetoric from presumptive Republican nominee
> Donald Trump regarding the entry of Hispanics and Muslims to the US
> seeming to be seen as acceptable by large portions of American
> voters, this is not just a European issue.)
>
> What we are seeing, in real time, with real people’s lives, are
> attempts to engineer social change. Clearly there is a lack of
> understanding of how to proceed among politicians and practitioners,
> with most debates quickly descending into vitriolic rhetoric. It
> strikes me that as change theorists and practitioners, we should
> have the tools and informed positions that could help to advance our
> understanding of what we should do when faced with the type of
> large-scale migration that I have sketched here. But what are these
> tools? What theories do we have that could contribute to
> understanding and/or solutions to what has been termed the
> ‘migration crisis’? How could/should we as a community become
> involved?
>
> I would welcome your thoughts on this.
>
> Incidentally, there are also at least three events at the upcoming
> Academy of Management meeting that may also be of interest:
>
>
> 108
>
> Research Incubator on the Role of Business and the Private Sector in
> the Refugee
> Crisis<javascript:__doPostBack('gvSessions$ctl03$linkSessionDetails','')>
>
> PDW Workshop
>
> -GDO-SIM-CMS-ITC-
>
> Friday, Aug 5 2016
> 12:30PM - 2:30PM
> Sheraton Park Hotel, Park D
>
> 357
>
> Meaningful Leadership Responses to the Global Refugee
> Crisis<javascript:__doPostBack('gvSessions$ctl04$linkSessionDetails','')>
>
> PDW Workshop
>
> -OB-SIM-ODC-
>
> Saturday, Aug 6 2016
> 1:00PM - 5:00PM
> Anaheim Convention Center, 207A
>
> 1237
>
> Organizing and Administration in Refugee
> Crises<javascript:__doPostBack('gvSessions$ctl07$linkSessionDetails','')>
>
> Showcase Symposium
>
> -OMT-SIM-PNP-
>
> Monday, Aug 8 2016
> 1:15PM - 2:45PM
> Anaheim Marriott, Grand Ballroom Salon E
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> John Amis
> Professor of Strategic Management & Organisation
> Director, Doctoral Programme<http://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/phd>
> Co-Director, Centre for Strategic
> Leadership<http://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/csl/>
> University of Edinburgh Business School
> 29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JS. UK.
> Tel.: +44 (0)131 651 5545 (o)
> +44 (0)7758 138971 (m)
> Skype: john_amis
> Homepage<http://www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/schoolbiz/staff-information/?staff_id=924&category_id=1>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Louiza Paraskevopoulou
Phd Candidate in Organizational Behavior
Athens University of Economics and Business
47A Evelpidon & 33 Lefkados, 11362, Athina, Hellas
tel.:+302108203853
mob.:+306978270273
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End of ODC-L Digest - 8 Jun 2016 to 16 Jun 2016 (#2016-51)
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--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.