The most creative organization in the world? The BBC, 'creativity' and managerial style

The managerial styles of two BBC directors-general, John Birt and Greg Dyke, have often been contrasted but not so far analysed from the perspective of their different views of 'creative management'. This article first addresses the orthodox reading of 'Birtism'; second, it locates Dyke's 'creative' turn in the wider context of fashionable neo-management theory and UK government creative industries policy; third, it details Dyke's drive to change the BBC's culture; and finally, it concludes with some reflections on the uncertainties inherent in managing a creative organisation

The Slow Violence of Business As Usual Planning: Racial Injustice in Public Health Crises

This thesis is a critical analysis of the normative planning practice in relation to the aspirational principles of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) (especially Section A, Part 1: Overall Responsibility to the Public). By exploring several dimensions of typical, or Business As Usual, planning practices in a local planning department in Springfield, Massachusetts and contextualized within larger planning concerns in the United States, I illustrate that socio-spatial, racialized oppression is deeply embedded in these common practices. Through a multimethod approach that includes historical survey, archival research, interviews, and direct observation, I argue that most professional planning operates from within antiquated frameworks that prioritize professionalism and expertise over genuine community engagement, relationality, and collective agency. This structure contributes to weakened trust in government and inequitable allocation of attention and resources, thereby reproducing inequity, particularly in disaster contexts. While these are my findings from site-specific research, I contend that such outcomes are evident in planning departments more generally. Thus, I conclude that the exacerbation of inequity during crises is not isolated, but instead a result of deeply embedded neoliberal planning practices. Specifically, I identify key barriers to equitable planning as 1) absence of care, 2) over-reliance on economic development, 3) disconnects between research and implementation, 4) degraded linking social capital and top-down public participation, and 5) illusions of objectivity in planning. These patterns contribute to what I, following Rob Nixon (2011), call slow violence against vulnerable populations through professional silence about and complicity in violent structures. Associating these trends with the violence of COVID-19 and racism, I find that planning may be participating in structural slow violence against communities of color, especially in Legacy Cities such as Springfield, Massachusetts. Finally, I call for a shift in planning practice, wherein we acknowledge and take responsibility for the unavoidable political role of the planner. I propose five steps to redirect our practices: 1) acknowledge our past, 2) reject illusions of objectivity, 3) identify injustices and define resilience collectively, 4) center care frameworks, and 5) invest in the implementation of research finding

Global Risks 2015, 10th Edition.

The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year's report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. Not only do we set out a view on 28 global risks in the report's traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological) but also we consider the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, we have selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which we hope will inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communitie

Leader Development for Dangerous Contexts

Looking back, it was almost funny how we were all detached emotionally from the emergency we were responding to. Our marked police van, with its lights and sirens blaring, was racing down the center lane of the FDR Drive. We, the officers inside, were trying to consider what type of stupendous pilot error landed an aircraft into the wrc tower. As the van screeched to a halt near the site, our therapy -or was it avoidance-of nervously joking about the incident ended quickly as the severity of the event became apparent. Now, it wasn\u27t just one tower burning, it was two. People were running scared; the NYPD radio was filled with a mixture of orders, screams, and confusion; and the towers in the distance had small items dripping off their sides, like drops of glue out of a bottle. One officer cleared his throat and said what we already knew: Holy shit, those are people jumping out of the windows! I quickly lost all sense of time and purpose; I think we all did. Our sergeant offered the one and only instruction of that day: Everyone stay together. What else could she say? Each of us was trying to remember the ride in the van ... . Did we talk tactics? Did we have an emergency response plan for this, an obvious terrorist attack? Or should we just go on a quick search and rescue mission, a mission for which we really didn\u27t have enough training either? It didn\u27t matter in the end; just a few minutes after our arrival, the majestic south tower collapsed. The memory of civilians scampering for their lives, humans seeking cover in any nook and cranny available, dust and debris filling the air and our lungs, was a sure indication that if there was a hell on earth, we were in it at that moment. -Officer Walsh, New York City Police Department, assigned to respond to the World Trade Center, September 11, 200

Leader Development for Dangerous Contexts

Looking back, it was almost funny how we were all detached emotionally from the emergency we were responding to. Our marked police van, with its lights and sirens blaring, was racing down the center lane of the FDR Drive. We, the officers inside, were trying to consider what type of stupendous pilot error landed an aircraft into the wrc tower. As the van screeched to a halt near the site, our therapy -or was it avoidance-of nervously joking about the incident ended quickly as the severity of the event became apparent. Now, it wasn\u27t just one tower burning, it was two. People were running scared; the NYPD radio was filled with a mixture of orders, screams, and confusion; and the towers in the distance had small items dripping off their sides, like drops of glue out of a bottle. One officer cleared his throat and said what we already knew: Holy shit, those are people jumping out of the windows! I quickly lost all sense of time and purpose; I think we all did. Our sergeant offered the one and only instruction of that day: Everyone stay together. What else could she say? Each of us was trying to remember the ride in the van ... . Did we talk tactics? Did we have an emergency response plan for this, an obvious terrorist attack? Or should we just go on a quick search and rescue mission, a mission for which we really didn\u27t have enough training either? It didn\u27t matter in the end; just a few minutes after our arrival, the majestic south tower collapsed. The memory of civilians scampering for their lives, humans seeking cover in any nook and cranny available, dust and debris filling the air and our lungs, was a sure indication that if there was a hell on earth, we were in it at that moment. -Officer Walsh, New York City Police Department, assigned to respond to the World Trade Center, September 11, 200

Supporting Adaptive Workflows in Advanced Application Environments

The need for supporting adaptive workflows (WFs) is widely recognized. For many business processes (BPs) it is nearly impossible to consider all possible task sequences already at the design level. Besides this, ongoing business cases may also have to be adapted to organizational and functional changes in their environment. A basic step towards adaptive workflow management systems (WfMSs) is the support of run-time WF specification as well as of dynamic WF changes. Such changes may affect only a single active WF instance or may affect multiple instances of a particular WF type. To adequately support adaptive WFs, it is important to understand why processes change and which kinds of changes may occur. In this paper we use clinical application scenarios to explain and to elaborate the functionality needed to support dynamic WF changes in an advanced application environment. The paper addresses conceptual issues related to ad hoc changes of a single WF instance on the one hand, and it discusses issues related to WF schema changes and their propagation to its active instances on the other hand. We show that the different levels of changes must be considered in conjunction and we use the ADEPT concepts to illustrate how an integrated approach could look like

Entangled Mobilities in the Transnational Salsa Circuit

With attention to the transnational dance world of salsa, this book explores the circulation of people, imaginaries, dance movements, conventions and affects from a transnational perspective. Through interviews and ethnographic, multi-sited research in Havana and several European cities, the author draws on the notion of ‘entangled mobilities’ to show how the intimate gendered and ethnicized moves on the dance floor relate to the cross-border mobility of salsa dance professionals and their students. A combination of research on migration and mobility with studies of music and dance, Entangled Mobilities in the Transnational Salsa Circuit contributes to the fields of transnationalism, mobility and dance studies, thus providing a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of gendered and racialized transnational phenomena. As such it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in migration, cultural studies and gender studies