2016

March - Melbourne

Seminar on the Business of Business Schools

Open University's Professor David Wilson gave a seminar on his research into how and why business schools have displayed remarkable resilience over the past decades, with more than 13,000 now operating worldwide.

Professor Wilson's presentation summarized some of the major critiques of business schools and suggested that continued resilience be interpreted from a number of theoretical perspectives, including institutional theories, resource dependence, a lack of professionalization and relatively low academic standards.

The presentation also argued that the institutional ‘presentation of self’ is highly developed in the context of business schools and is a major factor in their continuation and survival.  The presentation also identified some ways in which business schools might change, challenging the widely held neo-institutional view that schools have developed in an inevitable, path-dependent way.

February - Melbourne

Workshop on Developing Publishing Skills

This workshop was attended by early career researchers and doctoral scholars from Melbourne and Sydney wanting to know more about the publishing process and how it works. The workshop covered the different stages involved in publishing papers in international journals. Participants had the opportunity to practice reviewing a paper, formulating a response to reviewers, and structuring a paper effectively.

The interactive format enabled participants to reflect on and practice these skills by working through the reviews and revisions of an actual manuscript, as well as through Q&A sessions.

The workshop was attended by Professor David Wilson, who is Associate Dean for Research at Open University and a former editor-in-chief of the journal Organization Studies. He is the author of 10 books and more than 80 scholarly articles and a former chairman of the British Academy of Management and president of the European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS).