BMRI Annual Conference: Organising for Social Justice

This year the theme for the annual BMRI conference was on research that explores the potential for organisations to drive social justice.

The Centre for Leadership Innovation announced Research Events for 2025:

• 6 February 2025: 2^nd Writing Workshop: Gendering experiences of work and management through a humanistic management lens: developing new anthology: online
• 12-13 February 2025: 2-day Writing Retreat for MEU staff and PhD students: Jordan
• 11 March 2025: Researching Women in Management and Organisations: online webinar to mark International Women’s Day
• April 2025: date TBC: Research Methods workshop: Researching the future: methodological challenges and innovations: Provisional speakers Justine Van Lawick (Taos Institute, the Netherlands) and May Abuhamdia (British Council)
• May 2025: date TBC: Research Methods workshop: Tales of the Unexpected by Sheena Murdoch
• June 2025: date TBC: Researching the Gender Wars: Chistina Schwabenland and Alison Hirst: online webinar

The DARBNA project (Developing Female Academic Resilience and Building Networked Ambitions) is a one year initiative funded by the British Council in partnership with UoB and MEU.

It will offer a range of activities including a mentoring scheme for women embarking on a PhD or early career academic role, Writing Retreats, podcasts, monthly 'brown bag' lunch get-togethers for the Academic Women's Network, regular policy briefings and the creation of a Gender Equality Toolkit.

DARBNA was launched at MEU on 11 February with the Secretary General of the Jordanian Commission for Women, the President of the Jordanian Women's Parliamentarians Forum, a Former member of the Senate and an Advisor for the National Center for Human Rights alongside Professor Salam Al Mahadin, the President of MEU and Christina Schwabenland, the UoB project lead.

The packed audience included current PhD students and graduates alongside women working in universities all over Jordan and in policy making positions.

Other highlights of the trip included meeting alumnae, recording the first podcast (!) to be broadcast on 8^th March, International Women's Day, and convening the first Writing Retreat.

BMRI Annual Conference: Artificial Intelligence: utopic and dystopic visions

17 January 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) – everyone is talking about it at the moment. The speed of developments in AI is daunting and the potential implications seem huge. How is AI changing our world? Can we tame its potential and use it as a force for good or does is it an existential threat to the way we live and even understand our lives? This year the Business and Management Institute at the University of Bedfordshire will present a range of current research projects probing more deeply into these questions. We promise you an interesting day… but perhaps no answers! The day will include guest speakers from industry and research and presentations ranging from the very theoretical to the very practical!

BMRI Annual Conference 2024 Programme [PDF]

The Centre for Leadership Innovation together with the Humanistic Management Network announced a Research Webinar series for 2024 on the theme of 'good work'

Centre for Leadership Innovation hosted two academics from Ukraine: Dr Olena Iarmosh from the Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics (Kharkiv) and Dr Roman Nesterenko from Ukrainian Engineering Pedagogics Academy (Kharkiv) for a week of workshops and webinars on challenges to women's career progression in higher education.

Events included an on-line colloquium with invited speakers Professor Ilaria Boncori from the University of Essex, Anna Goral from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland) and Lamia Abuhamdia from Middle East University in Amman (Jordan). This initiative was funded by the British Council Going Global Gender Equality partnerships. 

Christina Schwabenland ran a two-hour workshop using LEGO® Serious Play® for 25 delegates at an event organised by Black Talent and Leadership in STEM.

Participants from Price Waterhouse Coopers, Amazon, Cambridge Wireless Ltd and many other technology start ups attended the workshop.

The event had a big success and received many good comments such as:

'...fantastic Christina Schwabenland took us through a brilliant session on engaging the imagination in DEI through this experiential workshop using my favourite method: LEGO® Serious Play®'

'Who knew ducks were such insightful little creatures!'

The 2023 Eleventh Annual Humanistic Management Conference

Leadership for Heritage, Legacy and Humanistic Management

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Nagpur, India

Dr Christina Schwabenland, who is the convenor of the UK Chapter of the Humanistic Management Network participated in a speaking tour of six Indian Business Schools, including a panel discussion at the Indian Institute of Management in Nagpur.

She was one of the key speakers on the topic 'Academia Industry Conclave: Leadership, Heritage, and Legacy - present and future prospects'.

Corporate heritage and legacy are increasingly seen as having strategic relevance to business organizations while approaches to managing heritage and legacy differ greatly. Consequently, the Humanistic Management Network jointly with its conference partner IIM Nagpur was aiming to raise our understanding of the topic by asking:

• What is the nexus between corporate heritage, legacy and Humanistic Management?
• How can organizations actively and productively learn about and learn from their heritage?
• How can organizational leadership build a positive legacy?

Dr Schwabenland also participated in several meetings in Mumbai, Bangalore, Lucknow and Delhi.

Read more on the Humanistic Management Network website

Keynote speaker

Lessons learned and lost during the pandemic

Dr Christina Schwabenland

The Third Arab International Conference on Strategic Awareness and Governance

Middle East University, Jordan

Webinar

Work after lockdown: What have we learnt from organisations’ crisis responses to the pandemic?

Dr Jane Parry: University of Southampton