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Proceedings of the British Academy of Management Conference BAM 2022. Manchester, UK
Reimagining business and management as a force for good.
Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals confronts us with the need to re-imagine the purpose of business.
These profound shifts challenge the way we think about and practise business and management, raising fundamental questions about whether sustainable and inclusive productivity growth is possible and - if it is - the new roles business, the public sector and third sector will have to play in attaining it. However, as if these challenges weren’t big enough, there is a world of difference between the pre and post COVID business landscape within which they will need to be addressed. Changes to work patterns and supply chains, combined with labour and skills shortages are converging on firms, managers and employees in ways that could change the world of business for ever. Does the post-pandemic world provide us with new opportunities to plan for new organisational futures? Will we be able to reimagine a new workplace that enhances the health and wellbeing of our workforces, creating ‘good work’ for all? Or will standard economic and business thinking stifle our ability to reimagine and innovate?
In this new era where the wider societal impact of our research, teaching, and scholarship has never been more important, the current business and management research ecosystem seems to be getting in the way of producing knowledge that is ultimately helpful in addressing the challenges facing business and society. There remains a world of difference between the kind of partnerships and co-produced research that is required to address these challenges and what we currently do. If business and management scholars are to have a role to play in creating ‘the best of all possible world’, do we also need to change the way we understand, measure and reward good research and good teaching? How will we produce the business and public leaders, managers, engaged scholars and agents for change that we need?