Dr Sally Riad

Senior Lecturer/PhD Director,
Victoria Management School

Introduction

Sally Riad has a background in science and the arts, building on both in her work. Her research interests have increasingly focused on analyzing the social facets of organization and difference. Her published work is based on critical approaches to organizational topics such as mergers and acquisitions, culture, and ethnography.

Sally has extensively researched mergers, both public and private, and has published papers and presented seminars on various aspects of their processes. Her doctoral research on merger integration had received two international awards in 2004 (US) and 2005 (UK). In 2006, she was awarded a Marsden grant for new research into the dynamics of difference in organizational mergers and acquisitions.

Other research interests include non-traditional forms of representation (she is co-editor of the First Person section of Organization Management Journal), as well as critical analysis of organizational and leadership engagements with the ancient world.

Sally teaches strategic management, knowledge management and research methods, contributing to post-graduate, post-experience, executive and undergraduate programmes. Earlier in her career, she was a management practitioner, an experience that lends a pragmatic emphasis to her research and teaching roles.

Qualifications

MBBCh (Cairo); PhD (VUW)

Research Interests

Critical perspectives on:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Organizational strategy
• Organizational knowledge
• Culture and communication
• Identity and difference

Publications and Presentations

Articles

Riad, S., Vaara, E., & Zhang, N. ‘The intertextual production of international relations in mergers and acquisitions.’ Organization Studies, DOI: 10.1177/0170840611430601

Riad, S. (2011) ‘Terms of engagement: On the differential effects of metaphoric utterances in relational stories of organization.’ Culture and Organization, 17 (5): 373-388.

Riad, S. (2011) ‘Invoking Cleopatra to examine the shifting ground of leadership’. Leadership Quarterly, 22: 831-850.

Riad, S. and Vaara, E. (2011) ‘Varieties of national metonymy in media accounts of international mergers and acquisitions.’ Journal of Management Studies, 48 (4):  737-771.

Riad, S. (2008) ‘Organization's engagements with ancient Egypt: Framing and claiming the sublime?’ Organization, 15 (4): 475-511.

Riad, S. (2009) ‘Acculturation in mergers and acquisitions: A bicultural perspective’, Problems and Perspectives in Management, 7 (1); 173-183.

Riad, S. (2007) 'Under the desk: On becoming a mother in the workplace', Culture and Organization, 13, 3 , pp. 205-222.

Riad, S. (2007) 'Of mergers and cultures: ‘What happened to shared values and joint assumptions?’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 20, 1.pp. 26-43.

Riad, S. (2005) 'The power of 'organizational culture' as a discursive formation in merger integration', Organization Studies, 26, 10 , pp. 1531-1556.

Book Chapter

Cummings, S. and Riad, S. (2007), 'M&A as warfare: Warspeak in mergers and acquisitions', in D. Angwin (ed), Mergers and Acquisitions, Images Series (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2007), pp. 87-115.

Editorials

Riad, S. (2011) The mundane and the unusual in academic work: ‘knit your bit’. Organization Management Journal, 8: 180-181.

Riad, S. and Elmes, M. (2010) ‘Measure for measure? Navigating judgment and taboos in teaching and research’, Organization Management Journal, 7, 2-4.

Riad S, ‘Editorial: Introduction to First Person research: on teaching and becoming.’ Organization Management Journal, 5, (2008), pp. 187-188.

Elmes, M. & Riad, S. (2007) “Editors' introduction to First Person”. Organization Management Journal, 4 (2): 118-119.

Conference Papers

Riad, S. & Jones, D. ‘Invoking the Black Athena debates: Lessons for organization on diversity, race and culture.’ Proceedings of the Conference on Leadership and Management in a Changing World: Lessons from Ancient East and West Philosophy, Athens, 12-14 June 2011.

Riad, S. & Campbell, C. ‘Conspicuous consumption and tryphe: Lessons for leaders from the moralizing tales of Cleopatra and Antony.’ Proceedings of the Conference on Leadership and Management in a Changing World: Lessons from Ancient East and West Philosophy, Athens, 12-14 June 2011.

Riad, S. ‘Exploring the dynamics of metaphoric utterances in relational stories of organization,’ Paper presented at the 25th European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, (Barcelona, 2-4 July 2009).

Riad, S. ‘Invoking Cleopatra to read leadership.’ Proceedings of the International Conference for Studying Leadership, Auckland, 8-9 December 2008.

Liu, C., and Riad, S. ‘Kicked by the same kangaroo? On metaphor’s effects in tragic tales of acquisition.’ Proceedings of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference, Auckland, 2-5 December 2008.

Riad, S. and Vaara, E. 'Mergers, difference and ‘human resources’, Paper presented at the 23rd European Group for Organization Studies, (EGOS) Colloquium, (Vienna, 4-6 July 2007).

Zhang, N., Riad, S. and Vaara, E. 'A critical discursive analysis of nationalism in Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's personal computers', Paper presented at the Academy of Management Conference, (Philadelphia, 5-8 August 2007).

Zhang, N., Riad, S. and Vaara, E., 'The once-red China takes a bite out of Big Blue: Nationalism and media representation of cross-border acquisition,' Paper presented at the 22nd European Group for Organization Studies, (EGOS) Colloquium, (Bergen 6-8 July, 2006).

Riad, S., 'Of Mergers and Cultures: Between cohesion and pluralism', full refereed paper in proceedings at the 19th Annual Conference of Australia New Zealand Academy of Management Conference (Canberra, 7-10 December 2005).

Riad, S. 'Ancient Egypt: Scribes, Empire and Organization', Paper presented at the 21st European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) Conference, (Berlin 30 June - 2 July 2005).

Riad, S. and Daellenback, U., 'Revisiting Urgency in Merger Integration', in Graham Elkin (ed), Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (Dunedin, ANZAM, 2004), Cd-ROM, 17pp.

Riad, S., 'Organisational culture as a discourse of merger integration' presented at the 19th European Group for Organization Studies Conference, (Copenhagen, 3-5 July 2003).

Riad, S. 'In the world, but not of that world: Positioning the social constructionist ethnographer', Proceedings Annual Conference of the Australia New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM), (Auckland, New Zealand, December 2001).

Conference Presentations

Bednarek, R., Blumenfeld, S. & Riad, S. ‘Union/division: Purpose and scope within union amalgamation.’ Paper presented at the 14th Labour, Employment and Work (LEW) Conference, Wellington, 30 Nov – 1 December 2010.

Bednarek, R., Blumenfeld, S. & Riad, S. ‘Union/division: Purpose and scope within union amalgamation.’ Paper presented at the 14th Labour, Employment and Work (LEW) Conference, Wellington, 30 Nov – 1 December 2010.

Riad, S., 'Acculturation in Mergers: a bicultural perspective', presented at the Mergers and Acquisitions Summit, Strategic Management Society Mini-Conference, (Calgary, Canada, June 2002).

Millad, S. and Riad, S. 'Representing representation', presented at the Art of Management and Organisation Conference, (London, UK, 3-6 September 2002).

Riad, S. and Millad, S. 'Under the Desk', presented at the Art of Management and Organisation Conference, (London, UK, 3-6 September 2002).

Riad, Sally and Millad, S., 'Timeless Classics: Musings on Freewill and Management', Academy of Management Conference, (Toronto, Canada, August 2000).

Brocklesby, John, Jones, Deborah and Riad, Sally, 'What's at Stake? The Hazards of Turning to Language for Organisational Research', Standing Conference for Organisational Studies, (Athens, Greece, July 2000).

Edited Collections

Riad, Sally, Taking Pines to Pasture: Merging the Ministries of Agriculture and Forestry: Case 10 in Cases in Public Sector Innovation, (Wellington, Victoria Link Ltd, 2001), 48pp.

Theses

Riad, Sally, 'Managing the Merger Integration Process: A Social Constructionist Perspective'. PhD