George Cairns

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Disciplines: Business and Management, Architecture

I qualified and practised as an architect in the UK before becoming an academic in management. I gained my PhD with the thesis, Glasgow School of Art: an architectural totality, in 1992.

I have been working for several decades in the following areas: developing and using scenario methods and design-led approaches to address complex organisational problems; stakeholder analysis - assessing the impacts of business decisions on remote / excluded stakeholders; international business - researching non-mainstream IB activities and impacts on society; qualitative research - applying critical management research methods; and architectural design - research into user needs for and responses to building design.

Projects in which, with others, I have applied scenario methods include: e-government futures in Scotland, economic regeneration in north-west Tasmania, farm futures in western Victoria, and post-carbon futures in the Latrobe Valley.

With George Wright, I co-authored the book, Scenario Thinking: Practical Approaches to the Future. I have co-authored numerous journal articles on scenario methods and design-led inquiry.

Experience

  • 2014–present
    International Research Fellow, Center for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies, East West University, Chicago
  • 2008–2014
    Professor of Management, Head of School of Management, RMIT University, Melbourne
  • 2005–2008
    Professor of Management, Head of School of Accounting, Finance and Management, Essex University, Colchester, UK

Education

  •  
    University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art, PhD in Architectural History

Publications

  • 2011
    Scenario Thinking: Practical approaches to the future, with George Wright, Palgrave Macmillan
  • 2008
    A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About International Business, SAGE,

Research Areas

  • Business And Management (1503)
  • Organisation And Management Theory (150310)
  • International Business (150308)

Contact George for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration