2018 QSRA Conference Programme
21 June 2018
Proposed running order, abstracts and presentation titles
9.00 – 9.15 Welcome
9.30 – 11.00 Session 1 (Session Chair: N Burton)
John Kimberley – Quaker employers and industrial democracy
This paper is historical in that it will pick up on a key theme of the conference: The Quaker relationship with employees and/or trade unions. The inaugural conference of Quaker Employers in 1918 considered this relationship throughout the four days of the conference, but particular attention was given to it on the second day in the session on 'The Status of the Worker’. After a brief introduction setting the theme in its historical context, discussion and analysis will focus on the content of the paper presented and the comments that followed. Particular attention will be given to the questions asked and the final report agreed. Notions of employee involvement and participation in the workplace had been stimulated by the Whitley Council proposals, and discussion considered how forms of industrial democracy might be introduced into the workplace. One company that had already made significant progress in introducing employee involvement in the workplace was Cadbury. A suggestion scheme had been introduced in 1902, and shop committees began in 1905. Work had already begun in setting up Works Councils in the company by the time the Quaker Employers met for their conference. By the end of 1918 the first Works Councils in the company had already met. The final section of the paper will use the minutes of the first year of the Works Councils to illustrate the way in which the ideas considered at the 1918 Conference were being put into practice at Cadbury.
Andrew Fincham - The Social Gospel: Christian values & Quaker practice in the era of 'Industrial Betterment’
In 1852 the Reverend William Arthur produced a biography of Samuel Budgett under the title 'The Successful Merchant' (Arthur, 1852). This portrayal of a 'paragon who combined devoutly held Christian ethics with a natural talent for business'(Wardley,
2004) went into 42 editions over the next 25 years, suggesting an extraordinary and enduring contemporary interest in the subject. In the second half of the century the Social Gospel movement grew in scale and concerns included many aspects of 'Christianised Commerce' (Walker, 1888), not least the effective relationship between employer and employed. Beyond industry, wider concerns included housing conditions- congregational minister Andrew Mearns produced his 'The Bitter Cry of Outcast
London' (1883) and Henry Solly, (1813-1903) clergyman founder of Working Men's Clubs, created the Society for the Promotion of Industrial Villages. Simultaneously, interest in profit sharing drove research in North America (Gilman, 1889) and England (Sedley, 1884). This paper introduces the Social Gospel movement, and identifies key themes within it in respect of Industrial Betterment. This will enable a comparison with the approaches typically used by previous historians to identify and define 'Quaker' business practices. A direct comparison between Samuel Budget and George Cadbury will help not only
illuminate common ground, but also to isolate the key differences between these men, thereby bringing both context and sharpness to the definition of Quaker business practices during the nineteenth century.
Georgeanne Lamont - Transforming Contemporary Businesses: The Impact of Quaker Practice and Insights on Business in a Volatile World
It is well-known that the insights of early Quakers make a significant contribution to ethics and governance of business. Less well known is the unique gift that flows from the discoveries of early Friends about how to tap into the fullest potential – the light- within oneself. In so doing, the individual and the organisation are transformed. In this presentation we will look at twelve Quaker principles and practices and see how they have impacted on businesses between 2002 -2015. We will look at how the Quaker practice of turning within can turn soul-destroying workplaces into places that nourish the human spirit in organisations that have become dull in the drabness of a functional, materialist world and conflictual in an environment of constant change. The impact of Quaker insights, used with tact, can be seen to have life- changing impact on a business
at a very practical level. Staff engagement goes up, as does customer satisfaction, and along with these, the financial turnover and profit increase dramatically. The method by which this occurs has yet to be widely understood and accepted. Quaker spirituality - the emphasis on stillness, silence, inner discovery, cheerfulness, journalling – touches on what makes people tick, brings out the very best in ways that are subtle and profound. It enables us to become more of who we truly are. In the
process, business flourishes, as the Quaker business leaders of the 18th , 19th and early 20th centuries have demonstrated, in very concrete ways. But how does the impact work now in the turbulence of the 21st century? We will briefly look at 12 Quaker insights and practices and show how they bring value to current business, and then look at how three of these practices have impacted on specific companies. Now in the 21st century with its volatility and chaotic change, businesses are waking up to working in new ways. In these case-studies we will look specifically at a process that is inspired by the practices and insights of early Friends and explore the practical results for business. We will look at how Quaker principles at work in secular, non-Quaker organisations is a valuable phenomenon in the industrialised world.
11.30 – 1.00 Session 2 (Session Chair: N Sleapwood)
Martyn Dyer-Smith - The Obstacle is the Way
Mike King in his book Quakernomics (King 2014) remarks on the scale of Quaker enterprise at the height of the industrial revolution in Britain. For example, Quakers, less than 1% of the general population, appear to have accounted for up to 60% of national iron production. This despite being constrained to abhor military-related work: no guns, no battleships. Capacity theory (Jaques, E. 1982) suggests to me that less than ½ % of any population can successfully operate a nation-wide business successfully. Even allowing order-of- magnitude errors in my calculations the scale of Quaker involvement in trade then was astonishing. Can the persecution that excluded Quakers from orthodox education and career-paths really have produced this? Could it be that Quakers practices induced group-effects that made them collectively more effective than the sum of their parts? The TM movement has particularly studied these effects (Cavanaugh & Dillbeck, M.C. 2017). 1 % of a population in this tradition is thought to effect the whole. In 2005, on the cusp of retirement, I became involved in a business, initially offering
strategy advice to a friend. I had no technical knowledge or particular interest in the trade. We were thrown together by circumstance: a mutual interest in motorbikes and mountain-biking. I detected in him both Capacity and Opportunity, but his self-image was as A Lancashire Lad, albeit a 45 year-old one, which might have threatened some obstacle. On Capacity I was, at the time, an authority on Jaques's theory. I knew him, and been the visiting Professor (1995) at The George Washington University on this topic. I saw Opportunity too. Colin Gray, then head of Enterprise Development at The Open University Business School, was a close of mine friend. I knew Colin's work intimately (Gray 1998). My friend's business stood a high likelihood of success. The potential seen in 2005 was realised in 2012 with the incorporation of his company. It remained dormant for one year. I had the resources to help if needed but had no intention of acquiring any stake in it. I was interested first in my friends success; then to see if my assessments of the individual and his situation were correct. Though a psychologist by profession I had been much involved in business (Head of Newcastle Business Research 1991-95). I was somewhat embarrassed that, although I had talked (and indeed taught) a good deal about business, I had never run one. I wondered if, and
how I could induce an essentially self-centred person, who had no interest in my faith, to follow 'right' practices. These derived from my Quakerism: 'the right conduct of meetings', 'the particular manner of minute-taking', 'the duty of speaking the truth,
particularly to those in power'. My involvement was not as a researcher. My analysis is post-hoc and does not qualify as even the loosest of quasi- or time-series experiments, but it is informed by notes and diaries. Behaviour was moved in a desired direction. From 1 January 2012 to January 2018 the agency grew from £0 to £3.4 million sales in 4 years.
Stephen Allen - 'Weighty Friend', not just a joke! Exploring power and authority in contemporary Quaker organising
The Quaker 'business method' can be understood as 'alternative' organisational practice because it is intended to be a non-hierarchical form of organising that can offer possibilities for more inclusive, equitable and ethical ways of managing (Allen, 2017; Parker, Cheney, Fournier, & Land, 2014). To develop greater understanding of dynamics of power and authority involved in contemporary performances of the Quaker business method, which may inhibit its emancipatory potential, this exploratory study considers the concept of 'Weighty Friend'. Whilst existing sociological studies of
Quakerism recognise the potential significance of the concept 'Weighty Friend' to understanding Quakers' alternative forms of organisation, to date it has only been a peripheral interest (for example, Bradney & Cownie, 2000; Dandelion, 1996; Plüss,
1995). The concept of 'Weighty Friend', although having a range of associations including being a term of endearment and hilarity, in general relates to individual Quakers (or 'Friends') whose views are understood in various ways to have greater
importance in decision making than other Quakers. As Dandelion suggests "those whose words carry weight, are 'disguised'; as leaders by the fact that their contributions are not differentiated in time or place from any other Friend's contribution" (Dandelion, 1996, p. 212). From qualitative analysis of interviews with twenty Quakers across meetings in the North of England, I suggest some emergent themes which help to develop appreciations for the significance of often overlooked dynamics relating to power and authority in Quakers' alternative forms of organising.
Antony Froggett - What is essential is invisible to the eye - an exploration of what is meant by Quaker Leadership.
There is an extensive, secular literature about leadership, but what do Quakers mean when they talk about "leadership"? Do Quaker ideas mirror conventional leadership discourse or do Quakers have something distinctive to say? Can we talk about a model of "Quaker Leadership" and if so, is this just another "brand" that sits alongside other models of leadership, such as values-based leadership or authentic leadership, or might Quakers have something radical to say that disturbs conventional understandings? This paper discusses the differences between notions of "command" (linked the power of the individual), "management" (linked to the authority of structures) and "leadership" (linked to engagement and vision). It explores the increasing preoccupation with the intangible nature of what is most valued by organisations. These "intangibles" are often
hoped to be captured by articulating mission statements and corporate values, and a preoccupation with "transformation". The concept of the "spirit of the organisation" is used to articulate the idea that something is always just beyond our grasp, and that exploring leadership inevitably leads us to the paradox that "what is essential is invisible to the eye" (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).
Whilst Quakers in the USA have a lively engagement with the idea of leadership, these discussions appear to be largely absent amongst Friends in the UK. This theoretical paper aims to stimulate such a discussion.
LUNCH – 1.00 – 2.00pm
QSRA AGM – 2.00 – 2.30pm
2.30 – 4.00 Session 3 (Session Chair: B Pink-Dandelion)
Charles Tackney: Barking up the better tree: an exploration of Quaker-sourced prophetic research method
This exploratory report concerns the potential role of criterion – predictor variables (CV/PV) for explanatory modelling in social science, an approach consistent with and supportive of the social witness of the Religious Society of Friends long tradition in business practice and societal advocacy. We are familiar with criterion – predictors for assessing the likelihood of academic success. UCAS (U.K.), SAT and GRE scores (U.S.), high school grade point averages, are all routinely used as predictors of subsequent academic performance. In contrast, management studies and business research have yet to recognize the utility of criterion / threshold style research approaches for normative empirical assessment. The basic approach of business
statistics texts is to explain empirical research in terms of dependent variables, which may have variance according to the effect of independent, antecedent variables (DV/IV). However, this approach, with its presumption of experimental or quasi-experimental design conditions, essentially opts out of any prophetic dimensions in research: the perfectly plausible, if overlooked, role of social science as a compelling tool for speaking truth to power. The CV/PV approach will be explored and correlated to Friends history, to see what resides in the Friends tradition that might open the way for a strengthening
or rejuvenation of management and business social policy engagement (Tackney, 2018). As a networking contribution, this Abstract and paper will link to research and methods efforts in the Management, Spirituality, and Religion Interest Group of the Academy of Management (MSR/AOM 2018; Tackney, Chappell, Egel, Finney, Harris, Major, Pavlovich, and Stoner, 2017).
Stephen Angell - Frederick Winslow Taylor and Quaker Faith and Practice
I would like to investigate the writings of Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) in the light of the books of Quaker Faith and Practice (focusing on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting – Orthodox and PhYM – Hicksite) that existed during his lifetime, especially his youth, in order to try to understand how his thought either aligned, or gathered strength, from Quaker teachings, or, alternatively, came into conflict with them, and, in either case, ask “why” questions. Taylor was the son of a Quaker Hicksite father and a Quaker Orthodox mother, but because Hicksites were not welcome during his youth in Orthodox meetings, and vice versa, he grew up without attending meeting and without the religious instruction that would have accompanied his being a part of the meeting. The hypothesis that guides my study, then, presumes that he would have had ethical or religious
instruction from either or both of his parents, or possibly other childhood mentors, and that such guidance would have been related somehow to the religious teachings that they had imbibed when they had been actively Quaker. I see studying books of Faith and Practice from the period, and relating them to Taylor’s thought, as a possible way to begin to understand what that influence had been.
Karen Tibballs – The Turn of Thought among Early Quakers about Debt
Early on Quakers were vehemently against taking on debt, quoting Romans 13:8, “owe no man anything but love”. As the sect matured, the demands of living in seventeenth century England led some Quakers in trade to borrow money. In order to be true to their faith and still be able to continue to feed and clothe themselves, Quakers developed a set of principles for when it was acceptable to borrow money, or when it was a “just debt”. However, this didn’t eliminate all the problems, both because of human nature and because the world was a risky place during this early phase of capitalism. The issue of Quakers not keeping their word and paying back all the debts they had owed caused a major conflict with a key early Quaker bible verse, “Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.” (Matthew 5:37) To deal with this, they developed a further set of principles for how to respond to bankruptcy and also how to prevent it. This paper will trace the turn of Quaker thought from outright prohibition of debt to acceptance of “just debt” to how it dealt with challenges including bankruptcy.
4.00 – 4.30 Tea
4.30 – 6.00pm Session 4 (Session Chair: R Grant)
David Lingelbach - Conceptualizing Contemporary Quaker Management Education
How can Quaker thought and practice make a significant contribution to contemporary management education? This question has unsettled me for over thirty years as an attender of various meetings, as a senior executive, and now as a business school
academic. Quaker-founded businesses have played important roles in both the United Kingdom and the United States (King, 2014). Yet the distinctive business practices underlying these businesses (Fincham, 2017) have had little impact on management
education, and Friends educational practices (Caldwell, 2005) have not had a significant influence on business education pedagogy. Management education critiques have argued for greater attention to self-conception (March, 2003) and less emphasis on atomistic “gloomy visions” of human behavior (Ghoshal, 2005), both of which support an enhanced role for a Quaker management education. Thus, this paper seeks to conceptualize Quaker management education. It describes the key tenets of Quaker business practices and Friends education as they relate to management education, placing both in the context of the conversation about spirituality in management. It conceptualizes Quaker management education as the nexus between
Quaker business and educational practices. Updating Brinton (1967), it argues that a Quaker management education should prepare students who are at once “priests, scholars, and workers” (p. 100) in a small, monastic setting. Its curriculum should
inculcate the distinctive practices that contributed to the past success of Quaker enterprises, and comprises four elements: reflection; financial prudence; the Quaker business method (Burton, 2017); and sustainable product innovation.
Steven Brooks - Using Jürgen Habermas to investigate Quaker business methods
For the majority of his career, Jürgen Habermas was considered primarily a political philosopher who has written extensively in a variety of disciplines and widely considered as a secularist in the tradition of the Enlightenment, following and expanding the work of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. In which religion and religious discourse was not expected to survive the on-going rationalization and secularization of modernity. However, over the past two decades or so, Habermas has been reconsidering the role of religion within what he terms as a “post-secular” age, in particular the impact and uses of religion within the realm of public sphere. It is these revisions and the dialogues that they have opened up with contemporary scholars that this paper will use to consider and investigate the business methods as used locally by The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in their church governance. Although the Quaker business method can be seen as fulfilling the need for unity via discernment without making a decision reached by majority vote, while Habermas’s ideal model emphasizes rational-critical debate to reach a consensus, this paper will argue that the Quaker practices contain elements of not only the Habermasian idea of the public sphere, but also his Theory of Communicative Action and in particular the notion of the “ideal speech” situation.
Penelope Cummins - After the Charities’ Act: Governance and decision-making in Britain Yearly Meeting
The organisational changes within the Religious Society of Friends in Britain over the past twenty years have been largely informed informed by the requirements of the 1993 and the 2006 Charities Acts. Both Acts can be identified as a response by the British legislature to increasingly-specific international accounting requirements, which have themselves been grounded in the accounting and governance recommendations formulated in the Cadbury report of 1992. This paper examines the effects within Britain Yearly Meeting of these changes, notably the introduction of trustees. It takes up the challenge posed by Chandler in his study of the workings of the Anglican Church Commissioners, and also by Bruce and Wilson, to broaden the discussion of secularisation from an examination of changing beliefs to that of tracing the changes in religious organisations in response to the demands of the secular state. It makes use of case studies to explore the practice of transparency and accountability in decision-making since the advent of trustees; and asks to what extent the introduction of trustees has freed up the Yearly Meeting, perhaps to embrace a more visionary role. Or have the changes disempowered it? Have changes in the locus of leadership and authority fundamentally affected the character of the Society of Friends, which has hitherto identified itself as a faith group which celebrated the participation of its members in decision-making?
7.30pm –The George Richardson Lecture
Andrew Murphy - WILLIAM PENN AFTER 300 YEARS: PARADOXES AND
LEGACIES OF A BOUNDARY SPANNER
9.00 – 9.15 Welcome
9.30 – 11.00 Session 1 (Session Chair: N Burton)
John Kimberley – Quaker employers and industrial democracy
This paper is historical in that it will pick up on a key theme of the conference: The Quaker relationship with employees and/or trade unions. The inaugural conference of Quaker Employers in 1918 considered this relationship throughout the four days of the conference, but particular attention was given to it on the second day in the session on 'The Status of the Worker’. After a brief introduction setting the theme in its historical context, discussion and analysis will focus on the content of the paper presented and the comments that followed. Particular attention will be given to the questions asked and the final report agreed. Notions of employee involvement and participation in the workplace had been stimulated by the Whitley Council proposals, and discussion considered how forms of industrial democracy might be introduced into the workplace. One company that had already made significant progress in introducing employee involvement in the workplace was Cadbury. A suggestion scheme had been introduced in 1902, and shop committees began in 1905. Work had already begun in setting up Works Councils in the company by the time the Quaker Employers met for their conference. By the end of 1918 the first Works Councils in the company had already met. The final section of the paper will use the minutes of the first year of the Works Councils to illustrate the way in which the ideas considered at the 1918 Conference were being put into practice at Cadbury.
Andrew Fincham - The Social Gospel: Christian values & Quaker practice in the era of 'Industrial Betterment’
In 1852 the Reverend William Arthur produced a biography of Samuel Budgett under the title 'The Successful Merchant' (Arthur, 1852). This portrayal of a 'paragon who combined devoutly held Christian ethics with a natural talent for business'(Wardley,
2004) went into 42 editions over the next 25 years, suggesting an extraordinary and enduring contemporary interest in the subject. In the second half of the century the Social Gospel movement grew in scale and concerns included many aspects of 'Christianised Commerce' (Walker, 1888), not least the effective relationship between employer and employed. Beyond industry, wider concerns included housing conditions- congregational minister Andrew Mearns produced his 'The Bitter Cry of Outcast
London' (1883) and Henry Solly, (1813-1903) clergyman founder of Working Men's Clubs, created the Society for the Promotion of Industrial Villages. Simultaneously, interest in profit sharing drove research in North America (Gilman, 1889) and England (Sedley, 1884). This paper introduces the Social Gospel movement, and identifies key themes within it in respect of Industrial Betterment. This will enable a comparison with the approaches typically used by previous historians to identify and define 'Quaker' business practices. A direct comparison between Samuel Budget and George Cadbury will help not only
illuminate common ground, but also to isolate the key differences between these men, thereby bringing both context and sharpness to the definition of Quaker business practices during the nineteenth century.
Georgeanne Lamont - Transforming Contemporary Businesses: The Impact of Quaker Practice and Insights on Business in a Volatile World
It is well-known that the insights of early Quakers make a significant contribution to ethics and governance of business. Less well known is the unique gift that flows from the discoveries of early Friends about how to tap into the fullest potential – the light- within oneself. In so doing, the individual and the organisation are transformed. In this presentation we will look at twelve Quaker principles and practices and see how they have impacted on businesses between 2002 -2015. We will look at how the Quaker practice of turning within can turn soul-destroying workplaces into places that nourish the human spirit in organisations that have become dull in the drabness of a functional, materialist world and conflictual in an environment of constant change. The impact of Quaker insights, used with tact, can be seen to have life- changing impact on a business
at a very practical level. Staff engagement goes up, as does customer satisfaction, and along with these, the financial turnover and profit increase dramatically. The method by which this occurs has yet to be widely understood and accepted. Quaker spirituality - the emphasis on stillness, silence, inner discovery, cheerfulness, journalling – touches on what makes people tick, brings out the very best in ways that are subtle and profound. It enables us to become more of who we truly are. In the
process, business flourishes, as the Quaker business leaders of the 18th , 19th and early 20th centuries have demonstrated, in very concrete ways. But how does the impact work now in the turbulence of the 21st century? We will briefly look at 12 Quaker insights and practices and show how they bring value to current business, and then look at how three of these practices have impacted on specific companies. Now in the 21st century with its volatility and chaotic change, businesses are waking up to working in new ways. In these case-studies we will look specifically at a process that is inspired by the practices and insights of early Friends and explore the practical results for business. We will look at how Quaker principles at work in secular, non-Quaker organisations is a valuable phenomenon in the industrialised world.
11.30 – 1.00 Session 2 (Session Chair: N Sleapwood)
Martyn Dyer-Smith - The Obstacle is the Way
Mike King in his book Quakernomics (King 2014) remarks on the scale of Quaker enterprise at the height of the industrial revolution in Britain. For example, Quakers, less than 1% of the general population, appear to have accounted for up to 60% of national iron production. This despite being constrained to abhor military-related work: no guns, no battleships. Capacity theory (Jaques, E. 1982) suggests to me that less than ½ % of any population can successfully operate a nation-wide business successfully. Even allowing order-of- magnitude errors in my calculations the scale of Quaker involvement in trade then was astonishing. Can the persecution that excluded Quakers from orthodox education and career-paths really have produced this? Could it be that Quakers practices induced group-effects that made them collectively more effective than the sum of their parts? The TM movement has particularly studied these effects (Cavanaugh & Dillbeck, M.C. 2017). 1 % of a population in this tradition is thought to effect the whole. In 2005, on the cusp of retirement, I became involved in a business, initially offering
strategy advice to a friend. I had no technical knowledge or particular interest in the trade. We were thrown together by circumstance: a mutual interest in motorbikes and mountain-biking. I detected in him both Capacity and Opportunity, but his self-image was as A Lancashire Lad, albeit a 45 year-old one, which might have threatened some obstacle. On Capacity I was, at the time, an authority on Jaques's theory. I knew him, and been the visiting Professor (1995) at The George Washington University on this topic. I saw Opportunity too. Colin Gray, then head of Enterprise Development at The Open University Business School, was a close of mine friend. I knew Colin's work intimately (Gray 1998). My friend's business stood a high likelihood of success. The potential seen in 2005 was realised in 2012 with the incorporation of his company. It remained dormant for one year. I had the resources to help if needed but had no intention of acquiring any stake in it. I was interested first in my friends success; then to see if my assessments of the individual and his situation were correct. Though a psychologist by profession I had been much involved in business (Head of Newcastle Business Research 1991-95). I was somewhat embarrassed that, although I had talked (and indeed taught) a good deal about business, I had never run one. I wondered if, and
how I could induce an essentially self-centred person, who had no interest in my faith, to follow 'right' practices. These derived from my Quakerism: 'the right conduct of meetings', 'the particular manner of minute-taking', 'the duty of speaking the truth,
particularly to those in power'. My involvement was not as a researcher. My analysis is post-hoc and does not qualify as even the loosest of quasi- or time-series experiments, but it is informed by notes and diaries. Behaviour was moved in a desired direction. From 1 January 2012 to January 2018 the agency grew from £0 to £3.4 million sales in 4 years.
Stephen Allen - 'Weighty Friend', not just a joke! Exploring power and authority in contemporary Quaker organising
The Quaker 'business method' can be understood as 'alternative' organisational practice because it is intended to be a non-hierarchical form of organising that can offer possibilities for more inclusive, equitable and ethical ways of managing (Allen, 2017; Parker, Cheney, Fournier, & Land, 2014). To develop greater understanding of dynamics of power and authority involved in contemporary performances of the Quaker business method, which may inhibit its emancipatory potential, this exploratory study considers the concept of 'Weighty Friend'. Whilst existing sociological studies of
Quakerism recognise the potential significance of the concept 'Weighty Friend' to understanding Quakers' alternative forms of organisation, to date it has only been a peripheral interest (for example, Bradney & Cownie, 2000; Dandelion, 1996; Plüss,
1995). The concept of 'Weighty Friend', although having a range of associations including being a term of endearment and hilarity, in general relates to individual Quakers (or 'Friends') whose views are understood in various ways to have greater
importance in decision making than other Quakers. As Dandelion suggests "those whose words carry weight, are 'disguised'; as leaders by the fact that their contributions are not differentiated in time or place from any other Friend's contribution" (Dandelion, 1996, p. 212). From qualitative analysis of interviews with twenty Quakers across meetings in the North of England, I suggest some emergent themes which help to develop appreciations for the significance of often overlooked dynamics relating to power and authority in Quakers' alternative forms of organising.
Antony Froggett - What is essential is invisible to the eye - an exploration of what is meant by Quaker Leadership.
There is an extensive, secular literature about leadership, but what do Quakers mean when they talk about "leadership"? Do Quaker ideas mirror conventional leadership discourse or do Quakers have something distinctive to say? Can we talk about a model of "Quaker Leadership" and if so, is this just another "brand" that sits alongside other models of leadership, such as values-based leadership or authentic leadership, or might Quakers have something radical to say that disturbs conventional understandings? This paper discusses the differences between notions of "command" (linked the power of the individual), "management" (linked to the authority of structures) and "leadership" (linked to engagement and vision). It explores the increasing preoccupation with the intangible nature of what is most valued by organisations. These "intangibles" are often
hoped to be captured by articulating mission statements and corporate values, and a preoccupation with "transformation". The concept of the "spirit of the organisation" is used to articulate the idea that something is always just beyond our grasp, and that exploring leadership inevitably leads us to the paradox that "what is essential is invisible to the eye" (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).
Whilst Quakers in the USA have a lively engagement with the idea of leadership, these discussions appear to be largely absent amongst Friends in the UK. This theoretical paper aims to stimulate such a discussion.
LUNCH – 1.00 – 2.00pm
QSRA AGM – 2.00 – 2.30pm
2.30 – 4.00 Session 3 (Session Chair: B Pink-Dandelion)
Charles Tackney: Barking up the better tree: an exploration of Quaker-sourced prophetic research method
This exploratory report concerns the potential role of criterion – predictor variables (CV/PV) for explanatory modelling in social science, an approach consistent with and supportive of the social witness of the Religious Society of Friends long tradition in business practice and societal advocacy. We are familiar with criterion – predictors for assessing the likelihood of academic success. UCAS (U.K.), SAT and GRE scores (U.S.), high school grade point averages, are all routinely used as predictors of subsequent academic performance. In contrast, management studies and business research have yet to recognize the utility of criterion / threshold style research approaches for normative empirical assessment. The basic approach of business
statistics texts is to explain empirical research in terms of dependent variables, which may have variance according to the effect of independent, antecedent variables (DV/IV). However, this approach, with its presumption of experimental or quasi-experimental design conditions, essentially opts out of any prophetic dimensions in research: the perfectly plausible, if overlooked, role of social science as a compelling tool for speaking truth to power. The CV/PV approach will be explored and correlated to Friends history, to see what resides in the Friends tradition that might open the way for a strengthening
or rejuvenation of management and business social policy engagement (Tackney, 2018). As a networking contribution, this Abstract and paper will link to research and methods efforts in the Management, Spirituality, and Religion Interest Group of the Academy of Management (MSR/AOM 2018; Tackney, Chappell, Egel, Finney, Harris, Major, Pavlovich, and Stoner, 2017).
Stephen Angell - Frederick Winslow Taylor and Quaker Faith and Practice
I would like to investigate the writings of Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) in the light of the books of Quaker Faith and Practice (focusing on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting – Orthodox and PhYM – Hicksite) that existed during his lifetime, especially his youth, in order to try to understand how his thought either aligned, or gathered strength, from Quaker teachings, or, alternatively, came into conflict with them, and, in either case, ask “why” questions. Taylor was the son of a Quaker Hicksite father and a Quaker Orthodox mother, but because Hicksites were not welcome during his youth in Orthodox meetings, and vice versa, he grew up without attending meeting and without the religious instruction that would have accompanied his being a part of the meeting. The hypothesis that guides my study, then, presumes that he would have had ethical or religious
instruction from either or both of his parents, or possibly other childhood mentors, and that such guidance would have been related somehow to the religious teachings that they had imbibed when they had been actively Quaker. I see studying books of Faith and Practice from the period, and relating them to Taylor’s thought, as a possible way to begin to understand what that influence had been.
Karen Tibballs – The Turn of Thought among Early Quakers about Debt
Early on Quakers were vehemently against taking on debt, quoting Romans 13:8, “owe no man anything but love”. As the sect matured, the demands of living in seventeenth century England led some Quakers in trade to borrow money. In order to be true to their faith and still be able to continue to feed and clothe themselves, Quakers developed a set of principles for when it was acceptable to borrow money, or when it was a “just debt”. However, this didn’t eliminate all the problems, both because of human nature and because the world was a risky place during this early phase of capitalism. The issue of Quakers not keeping their word and paying back all the debts they had owed caused a major conflict with a key early Quaker bible verse, “Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.” (Matthew 5:37) To deal with this, they developed a further set of principles for how to respond to bankruptcy and also how to prevent it. This paper will trace the turn of Quaker thought from outright prohibition of debt to acceptance of “just debt” to how it dealt with challenges including bankruptcy.
4.00 – 4.30 Tea
4.30 – 6.00pm Session 4 (Session Chair: R Grant)
David Lingelbach - Conceptualizing Contemporary Quaker Management Education
How can Quaker thought and practice make a significant contribution to contemporary management education? This question has unsettled me for over thirty years as an attender of various meetings, as a senior executive, and now as a business school
academic. Quaker-founded businesses have played important roles in both the United Kingdom and the United States (King, 2014). Yet the distinctive business practices underlying these businesses (Fincham, 2017) have had little impact on management
education, and Friends educational practices (Caldwell, 2005) have not had a significant influence on business education pedagogy. Management education critiques have argued for greater attention to self-conception (March, 2003) and less emphasis on atomistic “gloomy visions” of human behavior (Ghoshal, 2005), both of which support an enhanced role for a Quaker management education. Thus, this paper seeks to conceptualize Quaker management education. It describes the key tenets of Quaker business practices and Friends education as they relate to management education, placing both in the context of the conversation about spirituality in management. It conceptualizes Quaker management education as the nexus between
Quaker business and educational practices. Updating Brinton (1967), it argues that a Quaker management education should prepare students who are at once “priests, scholars, and workers” (p. 100) in a small, monastic setting. Its curriculum should
inculcate the distinctive practices that contributed to the past success of Quaker enterprises, and comprises four elements: reflection; financial prudence; the Quaker business method (Burton, 2017); and sustainable product innovation.
Steven Brooks - Using Jürgen Habermas to investigate Quaker business methods
For the majority of his career, Jürgen Habermas was considered primarily a political philosopher who has written extensively in a variety of disciplines and widely considered as a secularist in the tradition of the Enlightenment, following and expanding the work of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. In which religion and religious discourse was not expected to survive the on-going rationalization and secularization of modernity. However, over the past two decades or so, Habermas has been reconsidering the role of religion within what he terms as a “post-secular” age, in particular the impact and uses of religion within the realm of public sphere. It is these revisions and the dialogues that they have opened up with contemporary scholars that this paper will use to consider and investigate the business methods as used locally by The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in their church governance. Although the Quaker business method can be seen as fulfilling the need for unity via discernment without making a decision reached by majority vote, while Habermas’s ideal model emphasizes rational-critical debate to reach a consensus, this paper will argue that the Quaker practices contain elements of not only the Habermasian idea of the public sphere, but also his Theory of Communicative Action and in particular the notion of the “ideal speech” situation.
Penelope Cummins - After the Charities’ Act: Governance and decision-making in Britain Yearly Meeting
The organisational changes within the Religious Society of Friends in Britain over the past twenty years have been largely informed informed by the requirements of the 1993 and the 2006 Charities Acts. Both Acts can be identified as a response by the British legislature to increasingly-specific international accounting requirements, which have themselves been grounded in the accounting and governance recommendations formulated in the Cadbury report of 1992. This paper examines the effects within Britain Yearly Meeting of these changes, notably the introduction of trustees. It takes up the challenge posed by Chandler in his study of the workings of the Anglican Church Commissioners, and also by Bruce and Wilson, to broaden the discussion of secularisation from an examination of changing beliefs to that of tracing the changes in religious organisations in response to the demands of the secular state. It makes use of case studies to explore the practice of transparency and accountability in decision-making since the advent of trustees; and asks to what extent the introduction of trustees has freed up the Yearly Meeting, perhaps to embrace a more visionary role. Or have the changes disempowered it? Have changes in the locus of leadership and authority fundamentally affected the character of the Society of Friends, which has hitherto identified itself as a faith group which celebrated the participation of its members in decision-making?
7.30pm –The George Richardson Lecture
Andrew Murphy - WILLIAM PENN AFTER 300 YEARS: PARADOXES AND
LEGACIES OF A BOUNDARY SPANNER