Showcase Symposium
Designing the Future of Business Schools:
Persistent Problems in Changing Contexts
Program Session #: 1221 | Submission: 11785 | Sponsor(s): (MED, BPS)
Scheduled: Monday, Aug 10 2015 1:15PM - 2:45PM at Vancouver Convention Centre in East Ballroom A
Organizer and Moderator:
Victor Z. Chen Assistant Professor of International Management Belk College of Business University of North Carolina, Charlotte | |
Roundtable Panelists: |
William H. Glick Dean and H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Management Jones Graduate School of Business Rice University, USA Chair Elect of the Board, AACSB International |
Peter Lorange President, Lorange Institute of Business, Switzerland Former President, IMD, Switzerland Board Member, EFMD |
Henry Mintzberg, OC OQ FRSC John Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies Desautels Faculty of Managementc McGill University, Canada |
John-Christopher (JC) Spender Research Professor Kozminski University, Poland |
We would like to welcome you to this forward-looking, thought-provoking, and action-seeking symposium. In his 1967 JMS article, Herbert A. Simon argued that the central problem of designing a business school is to find ways to integrate disparate bodies of knowledge and skills into a synergistic relationship for the goal of improving managerial practice. Such knowledge and skills come essentially from two relatively isolated bases of information: "the world of practice" through business participation, and "several sciences" through multi- and inter-disciplinary academic activities (Simon, 1967: 2). This article, along with Simon's philosophy of organizations (Spender, 2013), has made a profound impact on the design of modern business schools hereafter (Khurana & Spender, 2012).
Although Simon is a giant exemplar himself of such knowledge integration within one individual, the design problem of knowledge integration for improving managerial practice remains an insurmountable challenge for most of today's business schools (Lorange, 2010). It is for this purpose that this symposium is proposed to revisit some key problems Simon (1967) raised about fifty years ago that remain relevant today and to explore feasible solutions in today's new contexts.
In 90 minutes, this symposium will take the style of a moderated, primarily spontaneous roundtable conversation. Victor will kick off the workshop with a 10 minutes introduction, focusing on the objectives of the workshop. The next 50 minutes will be an open discussion among all the panelists. Spontaneous thoughts, interruptions, and interactions are all welcome in the workshop, although the focus should be on developmental ideas and actions rather than critics. The last 30 minutes will be devoted to a genuine and interactive discussion with the audience. More details about this symposium can be found at http://www.chenzitian.com/pub_files/futurebschool.pdf. If you would like to suggest any ideas for the symposium discussion to me, you are most welcome to do so.
We look forward to seeing many of you there.
Best regards,
Victor
VICTOR ZITIAN CHEN, Ph.D.
T: +1 (980) 636-9207| E: EMGP.Editor@gmail.com | W: http://www.chenzitian.com/
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Assistant Professor of International Management
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHARLOTTE | The Belk College of Business | 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 | http://belkcollege.uncc.edu/
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Fellow, Global Coordinator and Editor, Emerging Market Global Players (EMGP) Project
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment* | Columbia Law School - The Earth Institute | 435 West 116th Street, New York, NY 10027 | http://ccsi.columbia.edu/
* formerly known as Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable Internatonal Investment
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Co-founder and Associate Editor
TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS REVIEW | 《跨国公司评论》
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