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Why all work and no play makes managers dull

Is the work ethic redundant?

Management experts from the Universities of Leicester and Warwick are gathering to assess not only a new way of working, but of living.

Pat Kane - a musician, broadcaster, writer, consultant, activist, founding editor of Scotland’s Sunday Herald and recently appointed Visiting Fellow at York University's School of Management- will discuss why the work ethic is ill-suited for the modern world.

The University of Leicester Management Centre and Warwick Organisational Theory Network have organised the event, The Play Ethic, at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick on March 8th 2006 from 11am to 4 pm.

Professor Martin Parker, Professor of Organsiation and Culture at the University of Leicester Management Centre, said:

"Pat Kane is known to many people as one half of the soul/jazz duo Hue and Cry. More recently, he has become a writer, and in 2004, his book The Play Ethic: A Manifesto for a Different Way of Living was published.

"The Play Ethic is a call for a new way of not only working, but living. Drawing on wide and varied sources - from the Enlightenment to Eminem and Kierkegaard to karaoke - Pat argues that play is fundamental both to society and to the individual, and that the work ethic which has dominated the last three centuries is ill-equipped to deal with the modern world."

On March 8th 2006 Pat Kane will be at Warwick Business School to discuss these ideas and just how they might inform critical ways of thinking about work, management and organisation.

The day will commence at 11am, and will consist of a presentation by Pat, a chance to question him about his ideas and vision, and will culminate in a roundtable discussion between Pat and critical management academics from the University of Leicester Management Centre and Warwick Business School.

Places are limited - to register to attend, please send e-mail to:

Dr Philip Hancock, Warwick Organization Theory Network, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL. E-mail: philip.hancock@wbs.ac.uk

Note to Newsdesk:

For interviews, please contact professor Martin Parker, University of Leicester, on:

• Mob: 07930 852218
• Work: 0116 252 5183