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We are delighted to announce that the fourth biannual International Meaningful Work Symposium will be hosted on 29th June 2021 by King's College London, following previous events in Oxford, Auckland and Amsterdam. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this will be a virtual symposium and will take a different format compared with previous years. This one-day event brings together leading international academic and practitioner experts to debate where we go next in meaning and purpose.

Keynote speakers

  • Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma, AUT New Zealand
  • Professor Christopher Michaelson, University of St Thomas, USA
  • Sarah Moore, PwC Partner in People & Organisation and Chief People Officer for the Deals business
  • Jonny Gifford, Senior Advisor for Organisational Behaviour, CIPD
  • Dr Kamini Gupta, Lecturer in International Business & Comparative Management, King's College London

Schedule

10.00-10.15 Welcome and introductions, Katie Bailey

10.15-11.00 Marjo Lips-Wiersma, 'Meaning and Hope'

11.00-11.45 Christopher Michaelson, 'A Modern Moral Agenda for Meaningful Work'

11.45-11.50 Screen break

11.50-12.15 Panel discussion

12.15-13.00 Lunch and screen break

13.00-13.45 Sarah Moore, 'The Power of a Purposeful Organisation'

13.45-14.30 Jonny Gifford, 'Meaningful jobs in the UK: an occupational analysis'

14.30-14.45 Tea and screen break

14.45-15.30 Kamini Gupta, ‘How ‘purpose’ ambassadors can help champion social impact and avoid mission drift’

15.30-16.00 Panel discussion

16.00 Close

Keynote Speakers

Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma, Auckland University of Technology

Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma: 'Meaning and Hope'

Professor Marjo Lips-Wiersma has done research into meaningful work since the early 1990s. Over the past 15 years, Marjo’s work has jumped off the page and is used in community, corporate and not-for-profit organisations.

She set up the Map of Meaning International. This charity organisation has certified practitioners around the world which help people to stand strong in their own meaning and transform society. At present her research focuses on the intersection of meaning, hope and sustainability.

Professor Christopher Michaelson, University of St. Thomas

Professor Christopher Michaelson: 'A Modern Moral Agenda for Meaningful Work'

Professor Christopher Michaelson is a professor in the department of Ethics and Business Law at the University of St. Thomas and is also affiliated with the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota and the Business and Society program at New York University.

For much of his academic career, he has kept a foot in practice, helping to launch a business ethics advisory practice with a Big Four firm and serving as its Strategy Officer to the World Economic Forum.

Sarah Moore, People in Deals Lead partner for PwC UK

Sarah Moore, 'The Power of a Purposeful Organisation'

Sarah Moore is the PwC Partner in People & Organisation and Chief People Officer for the Deals business

Sarah has over 20 years of people consulting experience and advises global corporate and private equity clients on the people implications of transactions, restructuring and change. Her areas of expertise are people strategy, culture, pre / post deal integration and workforce transformation. As PwC Deals’ Chief People Officer, Sarah is also responsible for delivering on our firm-wide and Deals people strategy. 

Jonny Gifford, Senior Advisor for Organisational Behaviour, CIPD

Jonny Gifford: 'Meaningful jobs in the UK: an occupational analysis'

Jonny Gifford is Senior Advisor for Organisational Behaviour at CIPD. Jonny’s work centres on linking academic research and HR practice, including through evidence reviews and the CIPD Applied Research Conference. He also runs an annual UK survey of job quality, the Good Work Index. His PhD currently centres on a systematic review on work autonomy.

Dr Kamini Gupta, Lecturer in International Business & Comparative Management, King's College London

Kamini Gupta: ‘How ‘purpose’ ambassadors can help champion social impact and avoid mission drift’

Dr Kamini Gupta is a Lecturer in International Business & Comparative Management, King's College London.

Dr Gupta’s research interests include social entrepreneurship, multiple goal pursuit and stakeholder management. She studies how organizations simultaneously pursue multiple and conflicting goals, focusing especially on the domain at the intersection of business and society. 

Steering Committee

Katie Bailey, King’s College London

Marjo Lips-Wiersma, Auckland University of Technology

Evgenia Lysova, VU University Amsterdam

Adrian Madden, University of Greenwich

Christopher Michaelson, University of St Thomas

Ruth Yeoman, University of Oxford and King’s College London

At this event

Katie Bailey

Emerita Professor of Work and Employment

Kamini Gupta

Lecturer in International Business & Comparative Management (ICBM)

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