Item 1:

Lectureship in Organisation Theory and Behaviour, University of York

The York Management School is looking to appoint a Lecturer who can contribute to the teaching of organisation behaviour at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and carry out research in the topic area in order to advance the School’s national and international standing.

You would be based in the Organisation Theory, Behaviour and Technology Group which has a distinctive strength in the specialist area of Critical Management Studies. Our research interests include ethnographic methods, sensuous and aesthetic methodologies, space, materiality, language and technology. The post-holder would be expected to contribute to the development of the research of Centre for the Study of Working Lives. The 2012 Art of Management and Organisation is being organised by the Group this September at the School.

You should possess a strong publication profile, a PhD in a cognate area, and a commitment to developing your teaching skills. You would be expected to supervise masters and doctoral students. A potential to attract research funding would be an advantage.

Closing date 1st June.

The post is available from September 2012.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Lynne Baxter (tel: +44 (0)1904 325005, email: lynne.baxter@york.ac.uk)

Please also see the web pages http://www.york.ac.uk/management/centres/cswl/

Apply here: https://jobs.york.ac.uk/


Item 2:

Graduate Teaching Assistantships , University of York

Applications are invited for the position of Graduate Teaching Assistantship.

Applications are invited for the position of Graduate Teaching Assistantship. Successful applicants will undertake full-time research leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the following subjects:

· Accounting & Finance
· Human Resource Management
· International Business and Marketing
· Operations Management
· Organisation Theory & Behaviour

Awards will commence October 2012 on the basis of a fixed term stipend for three and a half years to the value of £13,590 per annum and all fees paid at the UK and EU rate (provisionally £3,825). This fee is contingent on the Research Council UK approved fee rate. The assistantships will be increased in line with University Fees and stipends. Successful applicants will provide appropriate teaching support to the relevant Research Group.

Candidates must state on their application that they wish to be considered for a GTA.

Online applications can be made at:

http://www.york.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/

Closing date is 25th May, 2012.

Interviews will be held in June, 2012.


Item 3:

What's wrong with the University? – Conference: University College Cork, June 5 & 6, 2012

These are testing times for universities and for those working in them. Staff are constantly exhorted to be more efficient without compromising quality; to compete with one another but also to collaborate; to be creative and be more accountable; and to foster autonomy in a regime of control. In short, public expectations of universities are confused and contradictory.

As universities have grown, they have embraced sameness, standardisation and technical rationality, which now threaten to stifle the heart of academic endeavour. Thus, a key question for those working in universities is how to deal, individually and collectively, with pervasive technologies of control. When is it right to resist bureaucratic instrumentalisation and the introduction of private sector practices, and when is there something to learn from them? In what spirit should we participate in attempts to measure our work, our teaching, our research? What are our job expectations, and how do we manage the uncertainty surrounding them?

In many ways, these local issues speak to the changing and contested role of higher education in contemporary philosophical, economic and political models. These wider logics also raise a host of questions about the position and understanding of teaching within universities: What will teaching be like in 20 years time? Is the ideal of humanistic education finally being replaced by a world of on-line learning? Are the more traditional questions about knowledge, information, and culture still relevant? What do students need from their educational experience in the 21st century? What is happening to – and inside the ears of – our students? What do students need from their educational experience and what does society want universities to do?

This two-day conference brings together a range of speakers with a deep knowledge of teaching, learning and research in universities. The conference is free and open to all, but registration is required. Please register before May 15, 2012 by emailing Loretta Brady at l.brady@ucc.ie

Speakers include:
Prof Lee Harvey, Editor of Quality in Higher Education and Higher Education Quarterly
Prof Kathy Hall, Professor of Education, UCC.
Prof John Phillips, Dept of English Language & Literature, National University of Singapore
Prof Caroline Fennell, Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, UCC.
Dr Julia Jansen, Head of Philosophy, UCC
Mr Ben Honan, President, UCC Students Union.
Prof Martin Parker, Professor of Organisation Studies, Warwick Business School
Mr Mike Jennings, General Secretary, Irish Federation of University Teachers
Ms Loretta Brady, Department of English, UCC
Dr Seán Barrett, Seanad Éireann (Ind) Dublin University Panel and Department of Economics, TCD.
Prof Darryl Jones, Head of School of English, TCD.

Conference supported by Department of Management & Marketing, Department of Law, College of Business & Law, College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences, and the journal Organization.

Please also visit: http://www.donnchakavanagh.com/conference.html


Item 4:

ESRC Collaborative Studentship 2012

Project Title:
Board Potential – Comparing the routes of men and women to the first board appointment
KISS-DTC Theme: 5 – Work & Organisations
Partner Organisation: Sapphire Partners
King’s Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Centre (KISS-DTC) is inviting applications for one of the ESRC Doctoral Collaborative Studentships in the Department of Management at King’s College London in collaboration with Sapphire Partners. The studentship is going to form part of Theme 5: Work & Organizations of KISS-DTC and will start from October 2012 onwards.

Project Description:
Much public debate in the UK and Europe has centred around the scarcity of women on corporate boards of directors. The Davies Review has called for more women on UK boards but stops short of introducing a quota for women corporate boards. Instead it was suggested that affirmative search mechanisms are used such as asking search firms to provide gender-balanced shortlists. Thereby the focus shifts from a fixed quota to the appointment process itself. Academic research on gender on corporate boards of directors has so far focused mainly on characteristics of the women who make it onto boards and the effects of gender change on boards for board performance and company profitability. To date there is limited research that would provide evidence on which mechanisms play a role for the appointment of men and women onto boards. This PhD project, which is conducted in collaboration with Sapphire Partners, seeks to fill this gap in knowledge by conducting interviews with potential FTSE100 board members over 1.5 years to expose the experiences and success strategies of men and women seeking their first board appointment.

The studentship is part of the KISS-DTC Theme: 5 – Work & Organisations. The candidate will work closely with the Research Centres for Human Resource Management & Employment Relations and Work, Interaction & Technology in the Department of Management and the Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries. The Department of Management was ranked joint 5th of all UK management departments in the 2008 RAE with one-third of our research activity assessed as ‘world leading’. It is a research-led department with a strong reputation for contribution to scholarship, teaching and practice. The Department is located on the Waterloo Campus of King's College London where the studentship will be based.

Supervisors:
Lead Supervisor: Dr Elisabeth Kelan
Second Supervisor: Professor Rosalind Gill
Partner Organisation Supervisor: Kate Grussing
For specific questions in regards to the project, please contact Dr Elisabeth Kelan (Elisabeth.kelan@kcl.ac.uk) stating ‘ESRC Collaborative Studentship 2012’ in the subject line.

Funding Details: The scholarship will pay an annual maintenance allowance at the standard rate of £17,590 (based on the ESRC's current rate), a Research Support & Training Grant fund (currently £750 per year) and all tuition fees at the Home/EU rate.

Length of Award: 3 years (PhD)

Eligibility: Full ESRC studentship support is normally available only to students who (a) have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom for the previous three years; (b) other than citizens of European Union countries, whose residence during that period has not been wholly or mainly for the purposes of full-time education; and (c) who have permission to reside permanently in the United Kingdom. Potential applicants who are uncertain as to their eligibility should contact Jennie Eldridge (jennie.eldridge@kcl.ac.uk).

Application Details: Students for this award should hold a minimum 2.1 class undergraduate degree in business and management, sociology, women’s and gender studies or related discipline and have passed, or expect to have passed by autumn 2012, a Masters qualification from an ESRC-recognised research training course or a Masters degree which includes a substantial research element or equivalent research experience in a work setting, at Merit level (60%) or above. The candidate should have experience in qualitative research methods. The candidate will also need to be able to demonstrate good interpersonal skills and the ability to make effective verbal and written presentations to senior level managers in a commercial environment.

Deadline: Applications must be made online by 6pm on Tuesday, 5 June 2012. Formal interviews for shortlisted candidates will be held on Friday, 6 July 2012 at King's College London.

Application:
To apply, you need to complete two online forms.
1) Please go to https://myapplication.kcl.ac.uk/ On the online application form, please select ‘research degree’ and enter the search term ‘management’. Select ‘Management Research MPhil/PhD’ and entry date September 2012 (please note that the deadline for this studentship is earlier than the normal deadline). In your personal statement indicate how you would be able to contribute to the research project. This should include a discussion of your specific research interests within the scope of the advertised area. Please only put ‘ESRC Collaborative Studentship 2012: Board Potential: Comparing the routes of men and women to the first board appointment’ in the Research Proposal box. Please note, you do not have to submit a Research Proposal.
2) Please the go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MBFX5LQ and complete the form.

Only by completing both steps, your application will be considered.

If you have recently applied for entry for a King’s College London PhD, you might not be able to modify your application. In this case, please only complete the form under step 2.


Item 5:

Writing Process Reengineering

Maximizing the discursive impact of research in organizational symbolism
A pre-conference workshop with Thomas Basbøll, at SCOS 2012

Barcelona, Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 10:00-18:00

Thanks to the Sobey PhD (Management) at St. Mary's University for sponsorship of this event.

This one-day pre-conference workshop will approach the problem of publishing work on organizational symbolism in practical, concrete terms. It will show participants how to manage the writing process and develop the written product. This workshop, which Thomas has run at institutions around Europe in various formats, has been be refitted especially for SCOS. It has four parts.

1. Research as a Second Language. Even researchers who have English as their native language find themselves struggling with the idiom of their chosen field. In this introductory lecture, Thomas will define academic writing both in terms of the knowledge it communicates and the conversation that it informs. He will emphasize that your prose style is a crucial part of your skill set as a scholar and that the challenge is simply to become an articulate member of your scholarly community. This challenge is particularly interesting in our field, of course, where a good deal of “discursive breaching” is called for. As Jo Brewis has put it, there must be a good balance in our work between discourse and duende.

2. Discursive Impact. Your ability to speak and write knowledgeably is conditioned by the "discursive formation" or "disciplinary matrix" in which you participate. Thomas will talk to participants about how the exemplary work that has already been done in their traditions can be used to inform their own efforts to write more effectively. He will also show participants how to use our growing knowledge of citation networks to give their writing the impact it deserves. The examples discussed in this part of the workshop will be selected and analyzed in collaboration with central figures in the SCOS community, including input from the editors of Culture and Organization. But the aim is, of course, to increase our impact beyond this particular community, and this particular journal. The focus will be on the construction of the SCOS ethos (its “dwelling place”) in the broader field of organization studies.

3. Time Management. One of the most common explanations that scholars give for not writing is that there is no time to do so. Thomas dismantles some common myths about the time that is required to write effectively and provides a number of simple tools to help participants secure the time they need to work. These tools can be used by individuals, but can benefit greatly from a supportive collegial environment.

4. Space Management. The "space" for writing must be thought of both physically and conceptually. It is important to structure both the environment in which writing goes on (i.e., that it be sequestered enough from everything else that is going on at the same time) and the manuscript that is being developed. If you begin with a blank page in an open space you are not likely to work effectively. Thomas will show participants how to get organized to avoid this problem with the structure of a typical SCOS-like article in mind (see part 2).

To register, please send an email to thomas@basboell.com with "WPRSCOS" in the subject field.

About Thomas

Born in Denmark and raised in Canada, Thomas is a native speaker of two languages. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Calgary, a master’s (cand.mag.) in philosophy from the University of Copenhagen, and a PhD in business administration from the Copenhagen Business School.

After receiving his PhD, he was assistant professor at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy of the Copenhagen Business School, where he then served as resident writing consultant from 2007 to 2011.

In addition to running his own consultancy (Thomas Basbøll, Philosophical Investigations) he is external lecturer at the Copenhagen Business School and honorary teaching fellow at the University of St Andrews. In addition to teaching courses in both philosophy of science and contemporary organization and management theory, he has been invited to hold writing seminars at the University of Leicester, the University of St. Andrews, the University of the West of England, the ESADE Business School, Corvinus University Budapest, the University of Constance, and the University of Copenhagen.

Thomas is also a publishing scholar in his own right, with papers appearing in the Journal of Economic Methodology, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Culture and Organization, Journal of Organizational Change Management, and Social Epistemology (forthcoming).

He has been blogging about academic writing since 2005 at www.secondlanguage.blogspot.com