Wisdom Learning ─ Perspectives on Wising-up Business and Management Education

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 re-translated for today's issues and concerns in organisations. 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 re-consideration 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 organisation, leadership/management education and learning that benefits from cross-disciplinary synergies.

Wendelin KA?pers, Ph.D. is Professor of Leadership and Organization Studies at the Karlshochschule - International University, Karlsruhe, Germany.Combining a phenomenological and cross-disciplinary orientation, his research focuses on embodied, emotional and creative dimensions in organizations and leadership. In his current research and teaching he focuses on more responsible and wiser forms of organizations and leadership which encourage more integral and hence sustainable practices. He has published, among other topics, on integral forms of learning in organisations, and various publications on practical wisdom. He is the co-editor of the book series on Practical Wisdom Leadership, Organization and Integral Business Practice at Gower. He serves at various editorial boards, reviewer of academic journals, organisier and convenor of international conferences. Olen Gunnlaugson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in Leadership and Organizational Development within the Department of Management in the Business School at Universite Laval, in Quebec City, Canada. Olen finds teaching and research to be deeply rewarding and views business education as a key societal vehicle for developing and transforming the next generation of self-aware, sustainably-minded leaders and managers. He brings an increasingly multidisciplinary background to his research and consulting interests in conversational leadership, collective intelligence forms of communication in groups and teams, and executive coaching, which have been published across several books as well as numerous peer-reviewed academic journals and presentations at international conferences.