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Strategic Management and Leadership

Introduction

This cluster addresses strategy research in its widest sense.

We have an inclusive and broad perspective on strategic management and leadership. In contrast to strategy groups in other business schools, we do not just focus on commercial organisations and the private sector, but also consider strategy in public service organisations – including the public sector and not-for-profit organisations – which better reflects the make-up of our student population and society in general. Being culturally diverse, we have a global perspective on strategy and leadership, and we conduct research in Africa and Asia as well as the UK and Europe.

We have incorporated our research insights, including our own case-based material, into Open University teaching materials, including B302 Strategic Management and the compulsory MBA module B873 Effective Strategic Management in Business and the Public Sector and have promoted doctoral research in this area, through several recent studentships.

Strategy researchers can make a contribution to society by investigating how business and public service organisations are responding to major societal challenges, including globalization, climate change and Covid-19. Our members have conducted research in areas such as sustainability and environmental management, solar energy sector in Africa, the role of alliances in innovation and open innovation, among others.

You can also read Prof Frynas’ short summary from conversations with 12 business leaders on how they coped and innovated during the COVID-19 pandemic (1-minute read). Also links to videos from our C19 Innovation and Leadership webinars are provided here. 

Research and news

  • Prof George Frynas co-edited a special issue of the Journal of World Business (AJG 4*) on “Strategic agility in emerging and transitional markets” (with Geoffrey Wood, Western University, Canada, Shlomo Tarba and Yipeng Liu, University of Birmingham, UK, and Riikka Sarala, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA), forthcoming in 2023.
  • Dr Charles Mbalyohere is founding chair of the Open Impact Conference first co-hosted in December 2019 in Kampala, Uganda by The Open University, Makerere University, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. The theme of the conference was ‘Extending the frontiers of access to higher education in Africa: strategies for leveraging online and distance learning programs’. 
  • Dr Anna John is a presenter in Covid-19 webinar series of the British Academy of Management. Her most recent co-presented webinar ‘Teaching Online Practical How-to Tips and Pedagogical Underpinnings’ was offered to the members of the strategy interest group and to the wider BAM community on 21 April 2020. 
  • Dr Anna John is a production chair and author of a new short course ‘Strategic Management’ on OpenLearn. One of the open education initiatives of The Open University, this course will be offered to a wider audience including those without formal training in strategy disciplines. The course will launch in the beginning of the Autumn Semester 2020.
  • Dr Giacomo Carli is the Academic Lead of the new MOOC by Future Learn - Project Management: Beyond the Basics which has been attended by more than ten thousand students in its first presentation. 
  • Dr Giacomo Carli is an invited speaker at a series of webinars on online teaching organised by the Graduate School of Business of the Politecnico di Milano with Fondazione CRUI, to support European colleagues in designing and delivering online teaching - with other speakers from the University of California, Berkeley, Imperial College London and Cass Business School. 

Selected recent publications

People

Membership is open to anyone in The Open University with an active research interest in strategic management. We also welcome associates from other institutions. If you are interested in joining, please contact us.

Cluster members