Jennifer Howard-Grenville.

Social sciences honour

1 October 2021

The article at a glance

Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville of Cambridge Judge Business School is named a Fellow at the Academy of Social Sciences, citing her work on sustainability and other grand global challenges.

Professor Jennifer Howard-Grenville of Cambridge Judge Business School is named a Fellow at the Academy of Social Sciences, citing her work on sustainability and other grand global challenges.

Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Diageo Professor in Organisation Studies at Cambridge Judge Business School, has been named a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, which champions the vital role played by social sciences in education, government and business, it was announced on 30 September.

The Academy also conferred Fellowships on two other University of Cambridge professors: Elisabete Silva, Professor of Spatial Planning at the Department of Land Economy, Director of the Lab of Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis (LISA) and a Fellow of Robinson College; and Bhaskar Vira, Head of the Department of Geography, Professor of Political Economy and a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College.

The announcement noted that Jennifer is currently Deputy Editor for one of the management field’s top journals, the Academy of Management Journal.

“In an effort to understand how businesses can adapt their actions and strategies to effectively meet the challenges of sustainability, Howard-Grenville’s research focuses on how people generate and navigate change within and beyond their organisations. She is a leading voice, through her writing and editorial work, in encouraging management and business scholarship that considers societal grand challenges, including sustainability. Reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary understanding to drive change in these areas, Howard-Grenville is involved in the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, Cambridge Zero, and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.”

Jennifer said: “I am delighted and honoured to be elected to the Fellowship. I am particularly grateful to the community of scholars in organisation studies and more widely in the social sciences who are working to contribute our collective knowledge to tackling some of the most urgent issues facing business and society. As someone with training across disciplines, it is especially heartening to see the increasing engagement of researchers across career stages with others outside their disciplinary boundaries, and to see the increasing importance of social science insights in decision making about global challenges.”