The event was chaired by Dr Penny Simpson (Principal Lecturer in the Centre for Research on Management and Employment at Brighton Business School).
The first author was Professor James McCalman (Portsmouth Business School, University of Portsmouth) who talked about:
Leading Cultural Change: The Theory and Practice of Successful Organizational Transformation (James McCalman and David Potter, 2015)
Professor McCalman highlighted the importance of an initial analysis and diagnosis of the current organisational culture in leading a cultural change programme. He used a longitudinal case study of Cordia, a public sector organisation going through a significant transition to illustrate the thesis of the book.
The second author was Professor Dennis Tourish (Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London) who talked about:
The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective (Dennis Tourish, 2013)
Professor Tourish used powerful visual imagery to confront the orthodoxy of transformational leadership illustrating how such approaches can encourage narcissism, megalomania and poor decision-making on the part of leaders.
The third author was Dr Mark Hughes (Reader in Organisational Change in the Centre for Research on Management and Employment at Brighton Business School) who talked about:
The Leadership of Organizational Change (Mark Hughes, 2015)
Dr Hughes critically reflected upon thirty-five years of studying leadership and organisational change in terms of what we know and, importantly, don’t know about how leaders influence organisational change.