Dr. Efrosyni Konstantinou delivers keynote address on Project Management Education

Dr. Efrosyni (Effie) Konstantinou, Associate Professor in Strategic Management of Projects delivered a keynote at the 2nd LSBU Project Management Conference on “Re-thinking Project Management Education”. The keynote entitled ‘Project Management Education: who is it for, and why?’ focused on the potential of students in project management, based on an analysis that highlighted the political and ethical dimensions of project management education.

Dr Konstantinou’s research focuses on the politics and ethics of identity and knowledge in the context of professionalism. Throughout her research career, Effie has interviewed more than 300 senior practitioners who have been involved in making strategic decisions in 11 industries. 

In this keynote Effie built connections between insights from these interviews, her experience in education, and from the philosophies of Maurice Blanchot, Fredrick Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, John Stuart Mill, Emmanuel Levinas, Michel Foucault and Nicholas Rescher. She proposed that students in project management education have infinite potential, that is urgently needed to address the Grand Challenges that the world and humanity are facing. She called for better integration of the different aspects of education, based on the study of traditional educational paths in established professions. 

Effie commented: “It was an honour to deliver this keynote address for the LSBU PM conference. I was delighted to share ideas that have been previously presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2019 in Boston USA. The keynote also built on ideas developed in the paper “More than a list: The Grand Challenges approach and legitimate agents of social change” which won the Best Paper Award at the Project Experiences track at the 2020 British Academy of Management Conference (co-authored with Professor Ralf Müller). This was another opportunity to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of the potential of our students by bringing together insights from philosophy, the sociology of the professions and organisation studies. The keynote further established the connection between philosophy and project management, following on from the Special Issue of the Role of Philosophy in Project Management which was co-edited in collaboration with Professor Ralf Müller for the Project Management Journal”.

Dr Konstantinou is Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Chair of the Knowledge and Learning Special Interest Group at the British Academy of Management.