Wellington School of Business and Government

Our Vice-Chancellor, Nic Smith, discusses the increasingly important role of universities in today's public debate landscape. In this opinion piece, originally written for Stuff, he discusses Te Herenga Waka's upcoming event 'The role of universities in supporting freedom of speech’ and what his goals for the event are.

Max Rashbrooke, Senior Research Fellow, School of Government, here at Wellington School of Business and Government, offers thoughts on the cuts to the public service in his latest column for The Post: "How, then, should we think about the Government’s public-sector cuts, which at last count will cost 3700 jobs (and rising)? There is, arguably, some left-wing hyperbole about those numbers. Each potential job loss can be a source of great pain for those concerned, and for their families. (I should know: I have friends and relatives affected.) But in the last six months of 2023 alone, nearly 2600 extra public servants were employed, as agencies bulked up despite an impending change of government. The cuts currently proposed would only take us back to 2022 levels of employment. If there is something catastrophic about a 3700-strong workforce reduction, presumably things were also in a catastrophic state in 2022. Yet no-one was saying that then. The right-wing obsession with reducing state employment, though, is even more misguided."

Last night, Wellington School of Business and Government was honoured to host Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond (anne salmond), delivering the Sir Frank Holmes Memorial Lecture in Policy Studies. Examining how Te Tiriti o Waitangi and democracy can work together, and drawing on global studies of cross-cultural relations in nation states, Dame Anne, Professor of Māori Studies and Anthropology, and a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Equal Opportunity) at the University of Auckland, drew on her own research, and that of her peers. She took the audience through a timeline that moved from the democracy that existed before the signing of Te Tiriti through the land wars, the right for all in New Zealand to vote, and to the current day questions around what a fair, wise, and just government might look like; one that has the best interests of all New Zealanders at heart and in mind, and ignores the trap of “Pernicious Polarisation”. Over 150 people sat with every word Dame Anne offered, many questions were answered, with many more arising as a result of the thought-provoking, empathic and all-encompassing public lecture. #publicpolicy #Schoolofgovernment #wsbg #publiclecture #TeTiriti #democracy #academic #academia

Meet our researchers: Professor Ilan Noy: https://lnkd.in/gp93bV-V

Dr Julia Talbot-Jones, Senior Lecturer in the School of Government, tells RNZ "Many local governments have just kicked the can down the road." She warns that New Zealand is facing infrastructure problems after years of politicians and councillors not wanting to tell people to pay now to benefit the future. Wellington School of Business and Government #infrastructure #water #government #academic #schoolofgovernment #WSBG #University

“Education is like a coat that is too small, and accommodations are like they are trying to stretch it to fit.” In this second clip from Autism in Aotearoa Education, a collaboration between the Victoria University of Wellington Autism Clinic and Autism NZ, we explore how to support autistic people in education. Our interviewees, Matt, RJ, Philippa, Rei, and Michelle discuss how teachers can best help autistic learners. See the full episode here: https://bit.ly/3vRtGIJ

The most influential theory of business leadership is transformational leadership, which conceives of leaders as heroic, inspirational figures whose visions of the future inspire and galvanize employees, resulting in employees working harder, being more committed to the organization and ultimately generating higher levels of performance.   What isn't widely known is that transformational leadership theory was developed by American political scientist James MacGregor Burns in the late 1970s. Burns, in analyzing American politics, concluded the nation needed transformational leaders with visions of a better future, rather than transactional leaders who exchanged campaign promises for votes.   Democracy was central to Burns’ conception of transformational leadership: voters selected their leaders and voted them out if they failed to deliver on their visions. However, this was overlooked by those who introduced the theory to the business domain.   In this new open access paper with Lauren Eaton and Stephen Cummings we explore how and why the democratic foundation of the theory was lost, and argue that recovering it can help make our business leaders more accountable, and employees' experience of work genuinely empowering. https://lnkd.in/gc9incat

Professor Judy Brown has been made a fellow of the Academy of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. Elected for being an internationally recognised leader in critical accounting, and social and environmental accounting, Professor Brown’s long association with Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington began in 1985 when she was an undergraduate student. She has been employed by the University, as part of the School of Accounting and Commercial Law, since 1988. With research that focuses on the idea of ‘democratising’ accounting so it can engage diverse social and political perspectives, she has created a body of work developed with colleagues and emerging scholars that has become known as ‘dialogic accounting’. This work challenges the emphasis in conventional accounting on finance capital and aims to develop more pluralistic accounting and accountability theory and practices. It essentially addresses the politics of what is accounted for, how, why and on whose terms.  Congratulations from all at Wellington School of Business and Government

Todd Bridgman, Professor in Management, and head of School of Management here at Wellington School of Business and Government, shares why we need new histories of management, here on the BetaCodex LIVE show: #management #scholarship #academic #academia #NEW #historyofmanagement #histories #conversation #WSBG

Bryce Edwards, Political Analyst in Residence, Director of the Democracy Project, School of Government, here at Wellington School of Business and Government, is calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill works in the public interest, and doesn’t encourage corruption and lobbying that produces poor decisions. Read the link below, and reply to the comments on that post, or if interested, get in touch, in confidence. Contact bryce.edwards@vuw.ac.nz. And please forward this “call” to other interested people, to grow #FastTrackWatch #GovernmentAccountability #DemocracyProject #accountability #politics #Business #academics #government #