Enhancing responsibility and authority as citizens and leaders

Since Covid, there is less travel and integration between faculties and students across the globe; there seems to more ‘othering’ of foreigners or misfits in ‘our space’; and all this despite great efforts to encourage inclusivity and diversity. 

Businesses, face greater tensions between serving their immediate stakeholders (investors, customers, employees) and wider publics likely to be affected by their company’s activities – including as-yet unborn generations and distant eco-systems. What should leaders be responsible for? The SDGs attempt an answer, but actual priorities for any particular organisation are often conflicted and more a matter of judgement than calculation.  

INGOs and public organisations face parallel dilemmas: As well as the polarising tendencies in global politics, the post-colonial turn towards localisation creates serious challenges to established hierarchies. What constitutes legitimate authority is shifting, along with trust in institutions and the agency that is willingly granted to traditional forms of expertise. All this puts greater emphasis on listening, understanding and wise responsiveness. 

 This is a program that brings together managers from across the world with a focus on the lived experiences of taking up responsibility and authority as managers and as citizens in different parts of the world.