This paper argues that the application of values-based leadership increasingly challenges leaders... more This paper argues that the application of values-based leadership increasingly challenges leaders in rules-based organisations, particularly in bureaucratic organisations such as the military, publ...
This study builds on the relatively limited work examining police officer identity, dedication, a... more This study builds on the relatively limited work examining police officer identity, dedication, and organisation citizenship behaviours (OCB), by connecting illegitimate tasks to these outcomes. From the textual analysis of focus group responses by members of an Australian state police service, a clear social identity of ‘copper’ emerged among constables, and when this copper identity was threatened, the constables' dedication and levels of OCB depleted. The most serious threat to that identity was the need to perform illegitimate tasks based on perceived time-wasting activities. However, a new negative phenomenon, tasks reducing professional discretion, emerged as a third type of illegitimate task. The study also indicates that future studies of police dedication and OCB depletion need to consider the negative socio-political aspects of managerialism.
This paper analyzes the discursive contestation among online news media about women in leadership... more This paper analyzes the discursive contestation among online news media about women in leadership roles within a Muslim majority society, Indonesia. Indonesian women have established a substantial leadership role in which the “ideal” modern woman has been the image of “wanita karir,” a commingling of various Indonesian feminist discourses and Western (post)feminist discursive formations. Despite the progress, women's leadership in Indonesia has recently been challenged by reactionary Islamist forces. Using a critical poststructural discourse perspective, we identify a range of four forms of femininity and female leadership in Indonesian online media that reside at the intersections of competing discourses. This paper offers two areas of contributions. First, we identify the leadership challenges faced by women in a South‐East Asian context, in particular within a democratic Muslim society like Indonesia. Second, we contribute to the theorization of women's leadership challen...
BACKGROUND: In the last 15 years, theoretical discussions, and empirical research on the domain o... more BACKGROUND: In the last 15 years, theoretical discussions, and empirical research on the domain of business models have grown significantly. Different authors understand and focus on either constituencies of business models or narratives. The question remains what the predictive value of business model is. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this interdisciplinary conceptual paper is to investigate and discuss business models as scientific models. METHODS: This article is conceptual, although previous studies on business models enrich this discussion. RESULTS: A narrative perspective on business models shows that they also have a predictive value that is expressed through language not in numbers, maps, and diagrams. The process of reflexivity that is contextualised and bounded in the form of a narrative lies at the centre of designing and changing the business model. The article provides substantial discussion on business models as scientific models, and their predictive power. These concept...
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 2009
While it is blatantly obvious that the primary audience for this book was the author’s dissertati... more While it is blatantly obvious that the primary audience for this book was the author’s dissertation committee—the transition from dissertation to publication leaves much to be desired—the content is relevant to practicing professional writers (whether or not the role of “writer” appears in their job descriptions) and to researchers and teachers in the fields of technical communication and editing.
... these authors have articulated what it is that needs to be done for a more equitable knowledg... more ... these authors have articulated what it is that needs to be done for a more equitable knowledge-based economy. This is a worthwhile achievement, and governments would do well to read and contemplate. Bernard McKenna, Prometheus The style is refreshing; the authors cut through a great deal of the nonsense written in recent times about knowledge management; and take the ball away from the IT crowd and try to give it to the social thinkers. Donald M. Lamberton, Australian National University, Australia Knowledge is a ...
Rhetoric has three colours: white, black, and grey. White rhetoric is the Grecian Agoric ideal an... more Rhetoric has three colours: white, black, and grey. White rhetoric is the Grecian Agoric ideal and black rhetoric is its mockery in the form of cheap point-scoring and open deceitfulness. Both are commonly used and obvious. A third, grey, rhetoric, however, is the most pervasive and devious kind of rhetoric in contemporary political discourse, which has developed in response to changing patterns of journalistic inquisition in the 24/7 news and public affairs era. This paper describes the three types of rhetoric, and argues that the Fourth Estate has an important democratic role in counteracting black and grey rhetoric. 1.
We use smart power as a means to articulate relationships between the concepts of power, culture,... more We use smart power as a means to articulate relationships between the concepts of power, culture, and virtue. Following this exposition, we propose that the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance can be considered as foundations of virtuous leadership behaviour within the framework of smart power. Although applying general principles across cultures can be problematic, we present evidence from the GLOBE studies that some types of leader behaviours are considered effective in most cultures. Using smart power as an organising principle we then examine connections between these cross-culturally effective leadership behavioural categories – integrity, inspiration, vision, performance orientation – and the cardinal virtues. Connections between virtue and choice are also examined in respect to how ethical leaders behave when they exercise smart power. Finally, we discuss implications and predictions regarding the use of virtuous leadership behaviours and smart power in management settings based on major world trends such as the growth of globalisation. This chapter concludes by suggesting conceptual connections between individuals’ moral capabilities, applications of smart power, and cross-culturally applicable dimensions of leadership behaviour.
Wise leadership is increasingly attracting attention in organizational, management and leadership... more Wise leadership is increasingly attracting attention in organizational, management and leadership literature (Mumford 2011). However, the notion of wisdom is still diverse and ambiguous. Determining what constitutes wisdom turns us in the directions of psychology and philosophy: Rooney, McKenna and Liesch (2010) claim that there is considerable overlap between Aristotelian philosophy and the work of contemporary wisdom psychological theorists. While some may find it inappropriate, incommensurate, even disturbing to attempt to measure a concept like wisdom because of its ineffable and transcendent quality (Case and Gosling 2007), there is considerable evidence to show that people believe that they ‘know’ wisdom when they see it (Pasupathi and Staudinger 2001). We propose, then, that to attempt to find human characteristics that might predict the likelihood of wisdom is not an inappropriate practice. For example, most would agree that a reasonable level of intelligence and knowledge i...
This paper argues that the application of values-based leadership increasingly challenges leaders... more This paper argues that the application of values-based leadership increasingly challenges leaders in rules-based organisations, particularly in bureaucratic organisations such as the military, publ...
This study builds on the relatively limited work examining police officer identity, dedication, a... more This study builds on the relatively limited work examining police officer identity, dedication, and organisation citizenship behaviours (OCB), by connecting illegitimate tasks to these outcomes. From the textual analysis of focus group responses by members of an Australian state police service, a clear social identity of ‘copper’ emerged among constables, and when this copper identity was threatened, the constables' dedication and levels of OCB depleted. The most serious threat to that identity was the need to perform illegitimate tasks based on perceived time-wasting activities. However, a new negative phenomenon, tasks reducing professional discretion, emerged as a third type of illegitimate task. The study also indicates that future studies of police dedication and OCB depletion need to consider the negative socio-political aspects of managerialism.
This paper analyzes the discursive contestation among online news media about women in leadership... more This paper analyzes the discursive contestation among online news media about women in leadership roles within a Muslim majority society, Indonesia. Indonesian women have established a substantial leadership role in which the “ideal” modern woman has been the image of “wanita karir,” a commingling of various Indonesian feminist discourses and Western (post)feminist discursive formations. Despite the progress, women's leadership in Indonesia has recently been challenged by reactionary Islamist forces. Using a critical poststructural discourse perspective, we identify a range of four forms of femininity and female leadership in Indonesian online media that reside at the intersections of competing discourses. This paper offers two areas of contributions. First, we identify the leadership challenges faced by women in a South‐East Asian context, in particular within a democratic Muslim society like Indonesia. Second, we contribute to the theorization of women's leadership challen...
BACKGROUND: In the last 15 years, theoretical discussions, and empirical research on the domain o... more BACKGROUND: In the last 15 years, theoretical discussions, and empirical research on the domain of business models have grown significantly. Different authors understand and focus on either constituencies of business models or narratives. The question remains what the predictive value of business model is. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this interdisciplinary conceptual paper is to investigate and discuss business models as scientific models. METHODS: This article is conceptual, although previous studies on business models enrich this discussion. RESULTS: A narrative perspective on business models shows that they also have a predictive value that is expressed through language not in numbers, maps, and diagrams. The process of reflexivity that is contextualised and bounded in the form of a narrative lies at the centre of designing and changing the business model. The article provides substantial discussion on business models as scientific models, and their predictive power. These concept...
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 2009
While it is blatantly obvious that the primary audience for this book was the author’s dissertati... more While it is blatantly obvious that the primary audience for this book was the author’s dissertation committee—the transition from dissertation to publication leaves much to be desired—the content is relevant to practicing professional writers (whether or not the role of “writer” appears in their job descriptions) and to researchers and teachers in the fields of technical communication and editing.
... these authors have articulated what it is that needs to be done for a more equitable knowledg... more ... these authors have articulated what it is that needs to be done for a more equitable knowledge-based economy. This is a worthwhile achievement, and governments would do well to read and contemplate. Bernard McKenna, Prometheus The style is refreshing; the authors cut through a great deal of the nonsense written in recent times about knowledge management; and take the ball away from the IT crowd and try to give it to the social thinkers. Donald M. Lamberton, Australian National University, Australia Knowledge is a ...
Rhetoric has three colours: white, black, and grey. White rhetoric is the Grecian Agoric ideal an... more Rhetoric has three colours: white, black, and grey. White rhetoric is the Grecian Agoric ideal and black rhetoric is its mockery in the form of cheap point-scoring and open deceitfulness. Both are commonly used and obvious. A third, grey, rhetoric, however, is the most pervasive and devious kind of rhetoric in contemporary political discourse, which has developed in response to changing patterns of journalistic inquisition in the 24/7 news and public affairs era. This paper describes the three types of rhetoric, and argues that the Fourth Estate has an important democratic role in counteracting black and grey rhetoric. 1.
We use smart power as a means to articulate relationships between the concepts of power, culture,... more We use smart power as a means to articulate relationships between the concepts of power, culture, and virtue. Following this exposition, we propose that the four cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance can be considered as foundations of virtuous leadership behaviour within the framework of smart power. Although applying general principles across cultures can be problematic, we present evidence from the GLOBE studies that some types of leader behaviours are considered effective in most cultures. Using smart power as an organising principle we then examine connections between these cross-culturally effective leadership behavioural categories – integrity, inspiration, vision, performance orientation – and the cardinal virtues. Connections between virtue and choice are also examined in respect to how ethical leaders behave when they exercise smart power. Finally, we discuss implications and predictions regarding the use of virtuous leadership behaviours and smart power in management settings based on major world trends such as the growth of globalisation. This chapter concludes by suggesting conceptual connections between individuals’ moral capabilities, applications of smart power, and cross-culturally applicable dimensions of leadership behaviour.
Wise leadership is increasingly attracting attention in organizational, management and leadership... more Wise leadership is increasingly attracting attention in organizational, management and leadership literature (Mumford 2011). However, the notion of wisdom is still diverse and ambiguous. Determining what constitutes wisdom turns us in the directions of psychology and philosophy: Rooney, McKenna and Liesch (2010) claim that there is considerable overlap between Aristotelian philosophy and the work of contemporary wisdom psychological theorists. While some may find it inappropriate, incommensurate, even disturbing to attempt to measure a concept like wisdom because of its ineffable and transcendent quality (Case and Gosling 2007), there is considerable evidence to show that people believe that they ‘know’ wisdom when they see it (Pasupathi and Staudinger 2001). We propose, then, that to attempt to find human characteristics that might predict the likelihood of wisdom is not an inappropriate practice. For example, most would agree that a reasonable level of intelligence and knowledge i...
Today there are more technology, technologists, knowledge and experts than at any time in human h... more Today there are more technology, technologists, knowledge and experts than at any time in human history; but from a global perspective, it is difficult to argue that this accumulation of knowledge and technology has put the world in an unambiguously better position than it was in the past. Business is not getting any easier to do and major corporate collapses based on poor decisions, poor conduct, and poor judgement continue to occur. In public administration too, basic institutions and services (education, health, transport) seem to be continually undergoing “crises” of inadequate delivery and excessive pressure. Wisdom and Management in the Knowledge Economy explains why unwise managerial practice can happen in a world characterized by an excess of information and knowledge.
Drawing on Aristotle’s idea of practical wisdom, the book develops a theory of social practice wisdom that addresses important social psychological and sociological dynamics that underpin wise management and organizations. As well as providing a detailed theory of social practice wisdom, this book considers practical issues in organizational communication, behavior, culture, change and knowledge as well as in HRM, leadership, ethics, strategy, international business, business education, and wisdom research. By introducing the notion of social practice wisdom, aspects of social structure, organizational culture, and organizational communication needed for wisdom to flourish are for the first time rendered visible in a way that opens new possibilities for wiser management, wiser organizations, and wisdom research.
Uploads
Papers by Bernard McKenna
Drawing on Aristotle’s idea of practical wisdom, the book develops a theory of social practice wisdom that addresses important social psychological and sociological dynamics that underpin wise management and organizations. As well as providing a detailed theory of social practice wisdom, this book considers practical issues in organizational communication, behavior, culture, change and knowledge as well as in HRM, leadership, ethics, strategy, international business, business education, and wisdom research. By introducing the notion of social practice wisdom, aspects of social structure, organizational culture, and organizational communication needed for wisdom to flourish are for the first time rendered visible in a way that opens new possibilities for wiser management, wiser organizations, and wisdom research.