COMM1000

Creating Social
UNSW Business School
Change

Welcome to Week 2!
Today’s Agenda
• What’s the problem?
• Why do we need change?
• Wicked and not so wicked problems
• To-do list for week 2
 resources

exclusion power
Social
Inequality
Differences
in levels of
inclusion income

Warwick-Booth, L.
(2019). Social social
Inequality. India:
capital status
SAGE Publications.
 For
individuals

For Planet For groups

Negative
outcomes

Social
Inequality
Impacts
most
Inequality Political
vulnerable leads to Instability

Warwick-Booth, L.
(2019). Social Slow
economic
Inequality. India: growth
SAGE Publications.
 Adapted from
Maslow, 1943
Self-Actualisation
Realising potential, self-fulfilment, etc.

Esteem
Achievement, mastery, independence, etc.

Belonging
Work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.

Safety
Protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, etc.

Biological and Psychological

Air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep, etc.
 “A Wicked Problem is complex, rather than just
complicated, it is often intractable, there is no unilinear
solution, moreover, there is no ‘stopping’ point, it is novel,
any apparent ‘solution’ often generates other ‘problems’,
and there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer, but there are
better or worse alternatives. In other words, there is a huge
degree of uncertainty involved …”
(Grint, 2005)

Grint, K. (2005), “Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of leadership”. Human Relations, 58 No’ 11, pp 1467- 1494.
Wicked and not so wicked problems…

• Clear problem and definition

• Single organisation
Tame • Regular leadership, implement existing solution.

• Clear and finite problem definition and urgent need for a solution
• Need for new solutions, more permission for action & innovation
Crisis • Directive leadership, demand for action & someone taking control.

• Unclear problem definition, ambiguity, unpredictability

Wicked • Requires innovation and learning, as well as multiple agencies
• Adaptive leadership, multi-stakeholder, interconnected
environments & experiments.

Grint, K. (2005), “Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of leadership”. Human Relations, 58 No’ 11, pp 1467- 1494.
“Complex or ‘wicked’ problems are affected by, and affect,
multiple stakeholders whose individual actions impact each
other. This means there is usually no agreement on what the
source of the problem is or what the solution might look like. The
resources and skills needed for a long-term solution are also
often spread across various stakeholders and are not known or
difficult to identify. Because different players each hold a piece
of the solution, complex problems require the affected parties to
collaborate to achieve something that would not be possible on
their own.”
https://www.csi.edu.au/media/Travel_Companion_v2.pdf
 Examples of wicked v Complicated problems
Complicated/critical…
Australian Bushfire crisis
Measles outbreak in a town
Los Angeles riots (1992)
Overflowing refugee camps
Tent city in central city
Wicked…
Climate change
COVID 19 pandemic
Inequality and systemic racism
Mass displacement of people due to
war, food shortages and climate
change
Access to affordable housing

Can you think of others?

The Sustainable
Development Goals
(SDGs), also known
as the Global Goals,
were adopted by the
United Nations in
2015 as a universal
call to action to end
poverty, protect the
planet, and ensure
that by 2030 all
people enjoy peace
and prosperity.
Grint, K. Leadership: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press 2010:21
Let’s look at one example
The Climate ‘Crisis’….
• Changes in the hydrological cycle
• Warmer land and air
• Warming oceans
• Melting ice
• Rising sea levels
• Ocean acidification
• Global greening
• Changes in ocean currents
• More extreme weather
What are the possible impacts of
glabal warming?
It is estimated by 2100 with a 4C temperature rise:
• We would have lost 50% of the planet’s species
• Sea levels would have risen by 50mm. For example, about half of
Bangladesh (current pop. 155m), and most of the worlds coastal
cities partially flooded
• The migration levels that presently stand at 1:120 people on the
planet (circa 80 million) would have increased significantly
• Large portions of the populations of US, Mexico, India, Middle East
and most of China would be suffering catastrophic droughts
cleanet.org/resources
Climate.gov
 Some other impacts:
• Risk to water supplies
• Conflict and climate migrants
• War, corruption and civil unrest
• Mass movement of people
• Health issues
• Extremism
• Localised flooding
• Flooding of coastal regions
• Damage to marine ecosystems
• Fisheries failing
• Loss of biodiversity
• Change in seasonality
• Heat stress
• Habitable region of pests
expands
• Forest mortality and increased
risk of fires
• Damage to infrastructure
• Food insecurity
Four primary ways of organising social
life
High

Fatalism Hierarchy
Grid: rules Malaise Military
and roles

Individualism Egalitarianism
Market Meeting

Low Group orientation High

Grint, K. Leadership: A very short introduction.

Oxford University Press 2010:22
 What does this look for the climate crisis?
Questions not
answers
High
Fatalists Hierarchists Relationships
Rules are inadequately not structures
There’s nothing that Permission
enforced.
can be done. Get someone in charge giving
AKA: we’re all doomed to sort it out
Grid: rules
and roles
Individualists Egalitarians
Facilitate individualism We need to rethink our
consumption & Collective intelligence
Positive deviance not & competition.
decentralize to self- not individual genius
negative acquiescence Innovation will
sustaining communities Community of fate not a
Negative capability resolve the problem
fatalist community
Constructive dissent not
Empathy not egotism
destructive consent
Low
Group High
orientation
Grint, K. Leadership: A very short introduction.
Oxford University Press 2010:24
Clumsy solution for the wicked problem of
climate ‘crisis’

Individualists
Technical innovations to Hierarchists
address global warming Stronger global
at every level and… regulation of carbon
emissions and…
Clumsy
solution space

Egalitarians
Change in consumption patterns & more
sustainability and…

Grint, K. Leadership: A very short introduction.

Oxford University Press 2010:25
Any questions or comments about
the module 2 topics?
 Assessment 1

Critical Analysis
You’ll be workshopping this in your tutorial
sessions…and your tutor will answer any
questions you have.
 To do this week
• Attend your tutorial
• Access the Module 2 resources
• Access the Moodle quiz (Assessment 2) and answer
the first question
• Read the assessment 1 guidelines carefully and make
a start.