Prof Peliwe Mnguni, acting Research Manager of the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL)
Prof Peliwe Mnguni, acting Research Manager of the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) was awarded the Center for the Study of Organizational Change (CSOC) Excellence in Organizational Scholarship Award for 2013, for her paper on “Anxiety and defense in sustainability”
Prof Mnguni will officially receive the award during a ceremony at the CSOC’s flagship campus of the University of Missouri (MU) in Columbia. As part of her visit to the university she will present her paper to and meet with CSOC associates, MU students and faculty. She also intends to explore research collaboration opportunities between Unisa SBL and CSOC during her visit.
The CSOC Excellence in Organizational Scholarship Award is a competitive award and winning it represents international recognition for Prof Mnguni’s work. The publicity that the award will receive in America, through both a press releases and a feature on the website of the Centre for the Study of Organizational Change will help strengthen the international profile of Prof Mnguni as a scholar, as well as the SBL and Unisa as a whole.
This is the first paper to be published from Prof Mnguni’s doctoral thesis which was completed in 2008 at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. The study explored the psychodynamics of partnering for sustainability.
The news of Prof Mnguni’s achievement came on the eve of the SBL’s inaugural Research and Innovation Day on 15 March 2013. Improved research and innovation is a key strategy among the SBL’s goals for 2013 and the future. In order to continue to be one of the leading business schools in Africa, the SBL would pioneer research that forged knowledge and innovation in business and leadership.
Abstract
Social defense theory is used to explore the nature of anxiety and defense in sustainability initiatives. Taking seriously the suggestion that people use social institutions for both creative and defensive purposes, I examine how the organisational processes of a consortium case study seemed to be mobilised to cope with anxiety. The insights contained herein are useful if those working in that domain are to guard against the very wastefulness they ostensibly seek to redress. The data that inform the discussion come from a qualitative research project that sought to explore the psychodynamics of partnering for sustainability.
