Practical Wisdom Leadership And Culture

Despite the growing attention towards the importance of practical wisdom in business today, little research has been done about the concept of practical wisdom in the Indigenous, Asian and Middle-Eastern traditions. Contemporary studies of wisdom are dominated by the philosophical traditions of Western thought, which is based on the ancient Greek concepts of wisdom. Much less is known about how practical wisdom, as illuminated by these other traditions, can be implemented in today’s organizational settings. This book thus fills an important gap in understanding wisdom and how it is applied in a poly-cultural world. Wisdom is culturally bound. Wisdom is poly-cultural and interweaves individuality and communality. Practical wisdom is inextricably connected to many needs of contemporary personal and professional life. Moreover, the increasingly growing poly-culturality around the world requires a better understanding of how practical wisdom is understood in different cultures and traditions. Accordingly, there is a need for a) poly-cultural understanding of the concept of wisdom and b) the role of practical wisdom in a world crying out for wisdom. This book underlines the importance of developing a poly-cultural and interdisciplinary understanding of the concept of practical wisdom in today’s complex environment. The book offers significant insight into the implications of the non-Western traditions of wisdom and how such an understanding of the non-Western traditions can help us better and more critically understand and appropriately address new multi-faceted complex emerging phenomena. While the Western traditions offer valuable insight into the implication of wisdom in modern life, an integrated view that brings together the Western and non-Western traditions can provide a more critical and practical insight into how to apply practical wisdom in a contemporary poly-cultural environment.

The current financial and on-going ecological crises have taught us that without practical wisdom, business, organisations and leadership cannot be sustainable. In response to this situation, the Handbook of Practical Wisdom presents a critically informed understanding of wise practices, contributing to more integrative organizational and leadership studies and practice. The focus on integration emphasises the interdependencies of practical wisdom in relation to members, groups and cultures of organisations in their socio-cultural spheres. Wisdom has long slipped from the scholarly map, and so this handbook provides revived and new mappings for today and the future. Seeking to actualize creative potentials of practical wisdom, this book and series aspires to contribute to the contemporary odysseys and quests for orientation in organisation and management research and practice. Wisdom research, as presented in this book, provides bridges to underestimated, neglected or forgotten knowledge and offers transformative passages between Scylla - the rocks of dogmatic modernity - and Charybdis - the whirlpool of dispersed post-modernity. Practical wisdom allows for a better equipped and more experiential and reflexive journey and fosters the art of mindful travelling, beyond a reactive, moralizing sentimentalism. Accordingly, this handbook serves as a medium for reassessing and rearticulating more responsible ways of ’praxis’ in the field of organization and management. In this spirit, each chapter opens a space for dialogue and debate, inviting further inquiries, conversations and explorations by and among its readers: students, academics and practitioners.

The Handbook of Practical Wisdom presents a critically informed understanding of wise practices, contributing to more integrative organizational and leadership studies and practice. The focus on integration emphasises the interdependencies of practical wisdom in relation to members, groups and cultures of organisations in their socio-cultural spheres.

Practical Wisdom in Management is the first in-depth case-study book to explore how practical wisdom from spiritual and philosophical traditions inspires corporate culture and leadership. The outcome of the Practical Wisdom Initiative, between The Academy of Business in Society (ABIS) and Yale University Center for Faith and Culture, it seeks to construct a bridge between the worlds of management and the spiritual and philosophical traditions. Covering ten major worldwide religions, Theodore Malloch provides an overview of the practical wisdom of the major faith traditions for management. It includes case studies of over twenty multinational corporations focusing on their values, spiritual inspiration and business strategy. It features case studies on corporations including: Ascension Health; Michelin; DANONE Group, Walmart; TOMS; Marriott; HSBC; Four Seasons; Guangzhou Eversunny Trading and Toyota. It is essential reading for business leaders, researchers and students of business ethics and spirituality courses and includes full teaching guidance.

The progressive convergence of global economic and social structures calls for a rethinking of management practices as they relate to cultural diversity and moral values. A key element for coping with this transformational phenomenon is the Aristotelian concept of Practical Wisdom, which helps us to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time and for the right reasons. Expert academics and practitioners share their insights into contemporary theories and conventions for ethical decision-making in diverse cultural contexts. About the Editors Martina Stangel-Meseke – professor of business psychology. Christine Boven – professor of intercultural management. Gershon Braun - lecturer of business ethics. André Habisch – professor of economics. Nicolai Scherle – professor of intercultural management and diversity. Frank Ihlenburg – managing partner of a change management consultancy.

In traditional business circles, wisdom is viewed with a certain scepticism, which is in part due to its historical associations with wisdom traditions and spiritual cultures. However, in business today, wisdom is emerging not only as a viable but also a necessary organizational and management practice. In particular, practical wisdom is being updated and retranslated for today’s issues and concerns in organizations. In recent years, leadership and organizational studies have initiated important changes in the way in which business-as-usual is conducted. In response to the increasingly complex and uncertain conditions of our international business environment, a growing community of ‘scholar-practitioners’ are pushing the boundaries of traditional organizational and leadership thinking and acting, making inroads into processes and applications of practical wisdom and ways of wise leading and managing. Given the unprecedented levels of challenges, dynamics and uncertainties that today’s organizations are exposed to, there is a need for a more integrative and sustainable approach to managing. Following the need for a reconsideration and revival of the meaning of wisdom, the editors explore vitalizing possibilities for the learning of wise practices in organizing and leading. This expansive range of domains where wisdom is currently being explored suggests a promising number of perspectives and possibilities for future inquiries and explorations into the nexus of wisdom and organization, leadership/management education and learning that benefits from cross-disciplinary synergies. This book will be of interest to those seeking to understand the growing significance of wisdom in relation to learning and teaching, especially in business and management education.

Acting on his belief that you get the most done in the first twenty minutes of a meeting, the authorAllan invites Britain's top businessmen and women to spend just twenty minutes talking about their views on leadership. The result is a 360 degree view of what it takes to be a business leader in the global economy.

Co-published with This series of essays written for trustees and administrative leaders of universities and colleges draws on the authors’ extensive consulting experience, research into the dynamics of boards, and service as trustees, to focus on practical insights that will help readers improve governance. The authors have contributed a series of essays on governing well to Inside Higher Education, which formed the inspiration for this volume.The primary aim of the book is to provide insight that boards can use to enhance their governing practices. The author’s take is not a “how to do” book but rather one on “how to think.” Their basic premise is that too many boards are underperforming because they adopt or continue ineffective practices. However, thinking in more intentional if not new ways about not only what they do as boards, but how they go about their efforts, will help boards add value to the institutions and state systems they govern. The authors use thought provoking-titles and a conversational tone to engage the readers, get them to reflect on their work, and broaden their horizons.