Managing Rural Industries in the Anthropocene: Why Strategy and Adaptation Go Hand in Hand

Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem, My Country, encapsulates both the beauty, and the unforgiving nature of our ‘wide brown land’- the driest inhabited continent on Earth. It was from agriculture that Mackellar’s beloved country prospered. What would she say if she knew that due to Climate Change, her ‘sunburnt country’ would soon be even more unforgiving? Australia is getting hotter, and drier…

The Earth’s population has exploded. Food security is becoming a major problem worldwide. As demand for Australian agricultural products increases, so too do threats from an army of new pests and diseases brought about by changing weather conditions. How do managers achieve higher yields, from less arable land, in an increasingly tempestuous climate?

New strategies are required, which means current production methods, and organisational procedures, will have to change radically. How do the wide range of organisations involved in rural and agricultural industries, adopt these changes as seamlessly as possible?

Professor Melanie Bryant is an expert on change adoption with a view to promoting dynamic rural industries. With a focus on management, her primary research question would be, how do we sustain industry in rural and regional areas?

“We’re trying to find the most effective ways to adopt the changes that need to happen to ensure the longevity of agriculture, and food production in Australia,” explains Professor Bryant. “I’ve invested my research career in this area.”

“Digitilisation, globalisation, increasing global population, climate change, water scarcity and new technologies are just some of the issues that rural organisations are facing.”

“I’m not focused on strategy,” explains Professor Bryant. “I focus on how to adapt to new strategies and get all stakeholders to adopt change successfully. Strategy and adaptation go hand in hand.”

“As academics, we sometimes underplay our potential to contribute to these big important questions,” says Professor Bryant.

“As a discipline, management academics can really make a difference in the world. The agricultural industry is so important to Australia, but we could easily tip it out of balance if we’re not careful. We have to move forward sustainably.”

Management: the gap between vision and outcome:

“Sometimes there’s a disconnect between how management sees a problem, and how that vision is implemented,” explains Professor Bryant. “This can also be the case when an industry is faced with a problem; the various organisations within that industry usually want the same outcome, yet they all speak a different language.”

Professor Bryant investigates, in detail, the management process from vision to outcome. She looks at the implementation of new technologies, workplace procedures, the points of view and interplay between all stakeholders and financial, economic and social barriers to change.

Australian agriculture has always worked alongside scientists; new technologies are being invented all the time. Professor Bryant and her team are adding value from a social science point of view, and building on scientific knowledge.

“Change affects people as well as industry,’ says Professor Bryant. “Industry is people and sometimes we lose sight of that. An intellectual approach to change adoption helps ensure that both institutions, and the people who make them tick, transition as smoothly and effectively as possible.”

“At the end of the day, we need dynamic rural industries and communities in Australia. It’s a significant part of our economy and our way of life. We have to ensure that we remain competitive and we look after our environment at the same time,” says Professor Bryant.

“This question really affects humanity and society. Management as a discipline has an opportunity to contribute significantly.”