Administrative Sciences Association of Canada
Professor of Management, Middle Georgia State University
Simone T. A. Phipps, PhD, is a Professor of Management in the School of Business at Middle Georgia State University (USA), and a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School's Centre for Social Innovation (UK). She is also a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2021 and a winner of the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award. Her research interests include Management History, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Social Innovation, Social Sustainability, and relationships between the organization and society. Her research usually involves the exploration of gender, racial, and ethnic minorities, with the aim of highlighting their struggles and contributions, as well as finding possible solutions to improve the minority experience in business and society. She has published in a number of scholarly outlets including the Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and the Journal of Management History. She and her co-author have been recognized by the Academy of Management for publishing “ground-breaking African-American Management History research,” and have also written a book entitled African American Management History: Insights on Gaining a Cooperative Advantage.
The challenging experiences of the last few years including but not limited to a global pandemic, the Great Resignation, and events that led to the Black Lives Matter movement worldwide, have heightened the recognition of the need for organizations to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, social innovation, and sustainability. Business and society do not exist in a vacuum, but influence each other, and thus the former must do its part to positively impact the latter. Often, to find the way forward, we must look to the past for context, information, and inspiration. This keynote will address cooperation as a strategic paragon that was historically utilized for business success among the Black community, and provide some insight about how cooperation can still be used in business to tackle contemporary organizational and societal issues, and to shape a better future for all communities.