(Re)constructing Leadership

This chapter elucidates Keith Grint's model of leadership as a viable dynamic option in our complex world. By locating the model within a social constructionist frame, this chapter demonstrates how far we have come in the evolving stream of leadership research. Seven main characteristics of the Grint's model of leadership are discussed to demonstrate how the model can help us to understand wicked problems, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. The author also identifies two weaknesses of Grint's model: (1) organisational culture and (2) followership. Lastly, to address the two weaknesses, the author proposes an integrated model of leadership that combines the understanding of an adhocracy culture based on the competing value framework and Kelly's effective followership model. In conclusion, the integrative framework of leadership offers leadership researchers a model with more explanatory power in understanding the leadership phenomenon within the social constructionist supposition.

A Complex Systems Account of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Illustrations from India

The Covid-19 pandemic in India and the rest of the world was followed by tremendous health and social consequences. Worldwide the pandemic created challenges that were unpredictable and elusive to our existing ways of thinking. The paper posits that a complex systems thinking is needed to make sense of the society-wide ramifications of a ‘wicked’ problem like the pandemic and devise appropriate resolutions. A complex systems thinking conceptualizes our society as emergent from irreducible interdependencies across individuals, communities and systems and the pandemic as a complex systems problem that has consequences both immediate and future. The paper uses the complexity lens to explore the unanticipated repercussions of the pandemic control measures that further accentuated pandemic induced socio-economic disruptions, and secondly, the domain of Covid-19 treatment in India, as examples, to demonstrate that while devising a response to complex phenomena like the pandemic more needs to be accounted for than what meets the eye. It thus calls for a more caring science that understands and respects our shared existence and wellbeing and makes use of diverse, democratic and decentralised processes to forge shared pathways for navigating our complex world.

A Simple guide to complex world of overtone and combination bands: Theoretical simulation and interpretation of NIR spectra – summary of the workshop at NIR-2021 Beijing Conference

Between 18 and 21 October 2021, the 20th International Conference on NIR spectroscopy in Beijing took place. Despite this time being held as a virtual event, it was a highly successful symposium met with high interest from the wide audience – as evidenced by many excellent presentations, around which numerous vivid discussions developed. During the conference, four workshops were offered, focused at discussing few areas essential for NIR spectroscopy and its applications. Excellent workshops were provided by Professors Heinz Siesler, Hui Yan, Dolores Pérez-Marín and Tom Fearn, in which invaluable knowledge was shared with the participants of the conference. Among these renowned experts, I had the honour to offer my contribution with the workshop aimed at the physicochemical foundations of NIR spectroscopy, an area that seldom is exhaustively presented in the textbooks. The workshop aimed at shedding light on the complex world of overtone and combination bands and was met with a considerable interest from the participants. As many questions have been asked both during the dedicated Q&A session, as well as through other channels and private correspondence, I would like to provide a short recapitulation of the workshop in the form of this brief article. Some of the most essential ‘take home messages’, such as the origin of the intensity variation of the overtone bands and the famous ‘selection rule’ of the harmonic oscillator, among others will be briefly outlined here.

Complex World: um jogo para auxiliar o aprendizado de inglês como segunda língua utilizando a abordagem pedagógica do Pensamento Complexo

Este artigo apresenta Complex World, um RPG digital criado para auxiliar no ensino-aprendizado de Inglês como segunda língua. Complex World utiliza uma abordagem pedagógica baseada no Pensamento Complexo e possui um chatbot como interlocutor. Estudantes do ensino médio e superior utilizaram Complex World e os resultados desse experimento apontam que o RPG desenvolvido impactou positivamente na motivação, na experiência do usuário, nos quesitos de interlocução e aprendizagem. Foi possível verificar que Complex World se mostrou uma opção viável para auxiliar no ensino-aprendizagem de uma segunda língua.

What Privacy Isn’t

This chapter cuts through some of the common myths about privacy in our digital society. First, privacy isn’t about hiding dark secrets. Saying that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear ignores that we all have aspects of our selves we don’t want shared indiscriminately, ignores that privacy matters because privacy is about power, and incorrectly focuses on privacy as an individual rather than a social matter. Second, privacy isn’t about creepiness. Using socially contingent psychological reactions as a trigger for whether privacy is menaced is a trap because it is underinclusive, overinclusive, and malleable by those who collect data. Third, privacy isn’t about “controlling our data.” In our complex world, control of data is an illusion that actually cedes control to powerful companies, thereby completing the creepy trap. Fourth, privacy isn’t dying; it’s the ongoing social conversation about the social power that human information confers.