What is it about?
Stepping into the five year leadership role of the Academy of Management Organization and Management Theory Division (OMT), I asked, “Is the primary purpose of an academic conference to curate the best current work in the field for dissemination?” Perhaps it was in the past, and the institutional processes in place certainly appear to be designed to accomplish that goal (even if they fail to do so at times). But nowadays all of the technical communication advances built into emerging community-based organizational forms (C-Forms) (Seidel & Stewart, 2011) can accomplish such dissemination of individual working papers much more quickly and effectively. The curation roles of conferences are now secondary, as much work formally presented at conferences has already been seen by others in the field through other faster dissemination mechanisms. But has the conference outlived its usefulness for the field? No. In fact it may be more important now than ever as the profession reaches a crossroads requiring cultural shift. The institutional work necessary to reinvigorate the developmental culture of the profession can and should start with conferences.
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Why is it important?
I argue that as a field we should view conferences as a developmental opportunity with a strong focus on inclusivity and creating environments for people to meet and learn from others who share similar interests whom they may not meet otherwise. The intellectual connections a well executed conference can create are immense. When conferences provide free space to discuss and develop ideas, instead of just disseminating completed work, they can provide an opportunity to foster collective empowerment (Rao & Dutta, 2012). They can have long term impact on the way an entire field operates through both the diffusion of norms (Scott, 2010), and the creation of an empowered community culture welcoming in newcomers to feel both included and accepted in joining the conversation. It is one of the biggest opportunities of building the future direction of the field through collective action.
Perspectives
We plan to continue and expand upon this effort at OMT going forward. One of the benefits of the five year executive rotation is that institutional knowledge is transferred smoothly over time from year to year. But OMT is clearly not enough. I note that these efforts are thoroughly in line with the stated objectives of the Academy of Management Strategic Plan around improving inclusion and tending to the next generation of scholars through building supportive community. We have been in communication with the division leadership of several other divisions to discuss our experiences with these experiments. Our understanding is that several other Academy divisions are now planning similar informal off-site activities in future years, and citing the OMT communication around these activities as a best practice. If that does in fact come to be, it would signal the success of this initial institutional work in diffusing cultural changes. I am personally committed to helping them accomplish that in any way I can, and am happy to discuss possible collaborations for future years to help diffuse the practices and institutionalize them in appropriate ways for other divisions and conferences. We all are in this together.
Marc-David L. Seidel
University of British Columbia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Role of Conferences in the Emergence of Developmental Professional Culture, Journal of Management Inquiry, September 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1056492617726271.
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