Organizational Discourse, Strategy and Change Group
About us
The Organizational Discourse, Strategy and Change Group comprises a cluster of researchers at the University of Sydney Business School. The group is associated with the International Centre for Research in Organisational Discourse, Strategy and Change (ICRODSC).
ICRODSC links international researchers who share an interest in developing and applying discourse methods to the study of organisations. In line with the ICRODSC, our objectives are to:
establish a leading group of world class scholars to facilitate research on organisational discourse, strategy and change
encourage collaborative research projects among leading universities in the field of organisational discourse
disseminate research findings on discourse analysis and its applications through academic publications, seminars and conferences
facilitate research and teaching interchanges among scholars
increase opportunities for researchers interested in discourse analysis to interact through specific initiatives, such as workshops, conferences, etc.
facilitate collaborative links for research and postgraduate training in the field of organisational discourse.
We hold regular workshops and exchanges that bring leading international scholars to Australia, providing opportunities for academics and doctoral students to engage with institutional partners. Our members have contributed to an ongoing stream of collaborative research on the role of discourse in organisations.
Our people
Professor Steven Maguire (Director)
Associate Professor Jane Andrew
Dr Mattia Anesa
Dr Max Baker
Professor Suresh Cuganesan
Professor Leanne Cutcher
Dr Gaia Grant
Associate Professor Catherine Hardy
Professor Jane Lê (WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management)
Associate Professor Stefan Meisiek
Dr David Oliver
Dr Helen Parker
Professor John Roberts
Associate Professor Tom van Laer
Professor Chris Wright
Dr Jeaney Yip
Dr Ying Zhang
Mina Askovic (PhD Candidate)
Jed Austin (PhD Candidate)
Maegan Baker (PhD Candidate)
Fannie Couture (PhD Candidate)
Donna Denyer (PhD Candidate)
Stephanie Dunk (PhD Candidate)
Caitlin Gardner (PhD Candidate)
Jan Kucic-Riker (PhD Candidate)
Juvina Lai (PhD Candidate)
Bonnie Stanway (PhD Candidate)
The activities of ICRODSC are overseen by an International Advisory Board made up of Co-Directors from each of the associated institutions, and senior academics from a range of institutions. The group is a valuable resource in that they both advise on and participate in new research initiatives.
Current membership of the International Advisory Board is as follows:
Mats Alvesson, Lund University
Kevin Barge, Texas A&M University
James Barker, Dalhousie University
Stanley Deetz, University of Colorado
Peter Fleming, Queen Mary, University of London
Cynthia Hardy, University of Melbourne
Tom Keenoy, University of Leicester
Tom Lawrence, Simon Fraser University
Steve Maguire, McGill University
Joanne Martin, Stanford University
Tim Morris, University of Oxford
Kamal Munir, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
Cliff Oswick, Cass Business School, City University London
Gill Palmer, RMIT, Melbourne
Nelson Phillips, Imperial College, University of London
Linda Putnam, University of California, Santa Barbara
Masayasu Takahashi, Meiji University
Robyn Thomas, Cardiff Business School
Hari Tsoukas, Warwick Business School / Athens Laboratory for Business Administration (ALBA)
Hugh Willmott, Cardiff Business School
Sierk Ybema, VU University
Events and workshops
If multimedia communication of a strategy enables more effective learning, why don’t more organizations do it?
- 19 June 2018
- Professor Stephen Cummings, Victoria University of Wellington
In this session, we outlined how to teach strategy more effectively, in different ways depending on the nature of the stakeholder group and the benefits sought.
Institutional Aesthetics: Embodied Ways of Knowing and Institutional Processes
- Professor Douglas Creed, The University of Rhode Island
- 17 May 2018
This presentation, in collaboration with the Discipline of Strategy, Innovation & Entrepreneurship offered a cross-level theory of the role in institutional processes of the sensory and evaluative forms of knowledge.
Between community and corporate: How the top management team in a refugee advocacy organization experience and respond to paradoxical demands in strategizing
- Gaia Grant, University of Sydney Business School
- 25 May 2017
Exploring how individuals in the top management team identify with the team and with the organisation through times of change, and how paradoxical challenges in identity can be embraced as the organisation goes through transition, provides greater clarity around how top management team's can successfully negotiate times of change.
The Practice of Broking in Competitive Markets: Reinsurance Brokers as Self-interested Organizations
- Professor Paula Jarzabkowski, Cass Business School, City University of London
- 8 March 2017
Professor Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor in Strategic Management, CASS Business School City University of London, presented the studies examining the practices of brokerage work in competitive markets.
Workshop: Organisational Paradox: Rethinking Discourse, Strategy and Change
16 and 17 February 2017
This workshop brought together leading and emerging scholars on paradox, focusing on the areas of discourse, strategy and change. Notable speakers included:
- Professor Marianne W. Lewis, Dean of Cass Business School and Professor of Management delivered a keynote on paradox theory and its application. Download presentation (pdf, 3MB)
- Professor Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Strategic Management at Cass Business School delivered a keynote on paradox, practice and rhetoric. Download presentation (pdf, 3.4MB)
- Professor Haridimos Tsoukas, Distinguished Research Environment Professor of Organization Studies at Warwick Business School and the Columbia Ship Management Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Cyprus, joined a panel of the value of the paradox lens.
Managing Complexity Workshop
- Dave Snowden, Cognitive Edge
- 17 June 2016
Our research group, in partnership with the National Disability Service, co-hosted a workshop on managing complexity with Dave Snowden from Cognitive Edge. The workshop introduced members of both the Organizational Discourse, Strategy and Change Group and the National Disability Service to concepts such as Snowden’s Cyefin Framework for navigating complexity in social systems. The workshop also enabled our members to explore the complex world of disability service providers.
People try to put us down: Young professionals’ identification processes and sensemaking of aged and generational archetypes
- Dr Steven Hitchcock, University of Sydney Business School
- 25 May 2016
In this seminar, Steven Hitchcock explored how young professionals in Sydney, Australia made sense of aged and generational archetypes in their day to day work.