Critical Essay

Wicked problems in the Age of Uncertainty

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9890409
AutoresKeith Grint (0000-0002-5796-8990, Warwick Business School, UK,, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume75
Fascículo8
Páginas1518-1532
Data de publicação2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHuman Relations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00187267211070770
OpenAlexW4206260980
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas21
Referências citadas33

We are, apparently, living in unprecedented times, an Age of Uncertainty, when wicked problems whirl all around as we struggle to cope with Covid-19, environmental catastrophe and the right-wing populism that threatens to unravel all kinds of international agreements. In this personal reflection, 15 years after I wrote an article on wicked problems and the social construction of leadership, I take a look back, and forward, to see whether there ever was an Age of Certainty when only tame problems temporarily troubled us, or whether our understanding of the world is itself a social construction, open to dispute and thus we have always lived in uncertain times. In the process of this evaluation, I consider whether collaborative leadership, often associated with wicked problems, is as ubiquitous and effective as some proponents make out, and if it isn’t, what this says about our ability to address such problems

Certainty · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Law and economics · Management · Political science · Populism · Process (computing · Reflection (computer programming · Sociology · Wicked problem · Computer Science · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology