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The Impossibility of Management - Help to Grow Alumni Event

When: —
Venue: Birkbeck Central

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Join us for this Help to Grow: Alumni event on Thursday 6th July at Birkbeck. We will be joined by Mark Stringer, Head of Organizational Psychology, Birkbeck University of London who will present a talk on the Impossibility of Management. 

During this session, we will delve into the role of leadership in organizational change. While the question of leadership's significance may seem broad, we'll examine how various events and interactions in the workplace take on unique forms.

There will be opportunities to put your questions to Mark and network with fellow alumni of the Help to Grow: Management program. There will also be a drinks reception held during the event. 

Abstract 

A short excursion into organizations and culture

What is the role of leadership within organizational change? 

This is, perhaps, too broad a question. The singularities of each and every event or interaction will be necessarily take on differing forms at work. What we can tentatively say is that how we conduct ourselves and interact with others, to be prepared to recognise and work with ambiguity, dissonance, incoherence with compassion for others and ourselves, confers upon us a demand to shape a more inclusive and human paradigm for the performance of management. 

Is this (im)possible? 

If we take the impossibility of management as a provocation, then we may have the opportunity to move towards developing theory practice that provides a liminal space to explore both/and options rather than the dualism and reductive nature of either/or. Challenging the ideological fantasies that abound within organizational discourses of mastery over systems, nature, and humanity, of what is meant as evidence, performance, and success in relation to change can then become part of our critical mindset and practice at work. 

Biography

Mark Stringer has spent nearly forty years working within organisations in several areas. This has included roles as varied as financial accountancy, Head of Product Management and Marketing, Head of OD, the management of L&D functions and latterly as a Director of both HR and Operations. Along the way, he has won several internal and external facing People related awards, most recently being placed within HR Magazine's 2023 Most Influential Thinkers listing.  

Within the Department of OP at Birkbeck since 2014 and currently Head of Department, Mark both convenes and teach on several modules, including Organizations and Change Perspectives, HRM Professional Development & Learning and Work and Well Being and continues to supervise numerous MSc Op and HRM Research Projects. 

Through teaching, supervision and research, his consistent aim, hope, and focus is to promote the use of interdisciplinary and critical tools to provide new readings and thus, in a small way, support those aiming to change organizational issues for the better.  

His PhD research looked at interpreting Employee Engagement via a Lacanian psychoanalytic lens. Mark has a research project nearing completion on the stories of women’s journeys to reach Board level positions and has a chapter looking at differing academic career journeys published via Routledge July 2023. He is also currently undertaking clinical training as a psychoanalyst. 

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