Crises Unbound: Institutions, Occupational Groups and the Construction of Omnicrises
14 Mar 2025
12:30 -14:00
Times are shown in local time.
Open to: All
Room W4.05 (Cambridge Judge Business School)
Trumpington St
Cambridge
CB2 1AG
United Kingdom
Join our Strategy and International Business seminar
Speaker: Professor Maxim Voronov, York University
About the seminar topic
Omnicrises are systemic disruptions that transcend organisational boundaries, rapidly escalating across institutional domains and reshaping societal order. Unlike conventional crises, which are often contained within specific entities, omnicrises expose the interdependencies of institutions, destabilising lived experiences and generating jurisdictional contestation over expertise and response. This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding omnicrises as institutional phenomena, emphasising their emergence through contagion mechanisms, the contestation of expertise among occupational groups, and the role of institutions in restoring social order.
We argue that omnicrises reveal both the fragility and adaptability of institutions, as communities negotiate new forms of normalcy. By integrating insights from institutional theory, and occupational dynamics, we offer a novel perspective on the conditions under which crises escalate into omnicrises and how they are ultimately reinterpreted and contained. This work advances our understanding of crisis governance and institutional resilience in an era of pervasive uncertainty.
Speaker bio
Maxim Voronov is Professor of Sustainability and Organisation at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto.
He conducts research on the dynamics of social change at organisational, industry and societal levels, with a particular interest in how people and organisations deploy cultural resources to bring about or resist social change. He has studied the role of emotions in social change, the role of social movements in creating popular support for local products, and organisations’ efforts to promote new ideas. He is currently conducting several projects that examine the role of authenticity in business and in society at large. He is also studying organisational and societal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. His work appears or is forthcoming in such leading journals as Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Harvard Business Review and Scientific American, among others.
He is a Senior Editor at Organisation Studies and currently serves on the editorial boards of Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies and Research in the Sociology of Organisations. Professor Voronov is a recipient of the Schulich Research Excellence Fellowship. His awards and distinctions include Best Article of the Year from Academy of Management Review (2023, with Trish Ruebottom, Sean Buchanan and Madeline Toubiana), Emerald Citation of Excellence Award, and Best Paper from International Small Business Journal. His 2022 and 2012 Academy of Management Review articles were finalists for the Academy of Management’s OMT Division’s Best Published Paper Award. He has received Best Reviewer Awards from Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal and Journal of Management Studies.
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No registration required. If you have any questions about this seminar, please email Luke Slater.