Ziyun Fan
Associate Professor in Responsible Management

Profile

Biography

Ziyun joined the School for Business and Society as Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Responsible Management in September 2021. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Professor in Organization Studies in Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, where she led the research interest group ‘critical perspectives in management studies’.

Ziyun has explored initiatives for sustainable transition and responsible management at different levels, such as the nexus of transparency and secrecy and responsible leadership. She co-convened a conference sub-track at the EGOS Colloquium in 2023 on secrecy and transparency to reflect on the under-explored complexity between secrecy and transparency and the rising challenges of various sustainability and public good initiatives. Her current research focuses on the emerging innovation initiatives to tackle climate change, particularly in our food system.

Ziyun serves the editorial boards of Human Relations, Organization, and Management Learning. She is part of the Executive Leadership Team of the Management History division at the Academy of Management. She is a member of the Academy of Management and of the European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS).

Ziyun is the Deputy Director of the PhD programmes in the School for Business and Society, including the PhD in Management programme and the PhD in Social Policy and Social Work programme. She is the module lead for Research Methods (postgraduate level).

Research

Overview

Ziyun’s research interests have a sociological and historical focus and draw on qualitative and ethnographic approaches. Her current research focuses on different types and practices of social value judgement (such as secrecy/transparency, gossip, meaningful work, responsible leadership) and their mechanisms of actualization (such as communication, temporality, and space) in organizations.

Publications

Selected publications

Prescott, R., Fan, Z, Elsahn, Z. & Mordue, T. (forthcoming). How does a public policy fail? Creative city policy and its tensional space of artist-led organizations. Research in the Sociology of Organizations

Vu, M., & Fan, Z. (forthcoming). Exploring religious practice in crisis: A non-Western tension-centered approach to meaningful work. Organization Studies.

Fan, Z., & Christensen, L. T. (2024). The dialogic performativity of secrecy and transparency. Human Relations, 77(4), 484-504.

Fan, Z. & Bettin, C. (2023). Reinventing intellectual craftsmanship through book review. Management Learning, 54(4), 441-444.

Liu, Y., & Fan, Z. (2023). Spatializing gossip as chaotic and multiple liminal space. Human Relations (CABS 4), 76(11), 1714-1738.

Suddaby, R., Manelli, L., Fan, Z. (2023). Corporate purpose: A social value judgement. Strategy Science, 8(2), 202-211.

Fan, Z., & Dawson, P. (2022). Gossip as evaluative sensemaking and the concealment of confidential gossip in the everyday life of organizations. Management Learning (CABS3), 53(2), 146-166.

Fan, Z., & Liu, Y. (2022). Decoding secrecy as multiple temporal processes:Co-constitution of concealment and revelation in archival stories. Human Relations (CABS 4), 75(6), 1028-1052.

Vu, M. & Fan, Z. (2022). Sounds of silence: The reflexivity,self-decentralization, and transformation dimensions of silence at work. Journal of Management Inquiry (CABS3), 31(3), 307-325/

Fan, Z. (2022). Bullshit jobs: A theory. Organization Studies, 43(2), 311-316.

Fan, Z., Grey, C., & Kärreman, D. (2021). Confidential gossip and organization studies. Organization Studies (CABS 4), 42(10), 1651-1664.

Fan, Z. & Grey, C. (2021). Everyday secrecy: Boundaries of confidential gossip. Culture and Organization (CABS 2), 27(3), 209-225.

Fan, Z., Costas, J. & Grey, C. (2017). Secrecy and communication: Towards aresearch agenda. Corporate Communications: An International Journal (CABS 1), 22(4), 562-566.

Örtenblad, A., Fan, Z., Peng, C., Li, B., Li, Z., Cong, X., & Zhou, J. (2013) Putting the learning organization into context: Contributions fromprevious works. In: Örtenblad, A., ed. Handbook of Research on the Learning Organization: Adaptation and context. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp.35-50.

Ziyun Fan Associate Professor in Responsible Management