ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE (ODC)

Program Chair: Linda Rouleau, HEC Montreal; lindarouleau.odc@hec.ca

Sunday, August 9 through Tuesday, August 11 of the Annual Meeting.

The ODC division invites submission of innovative empirical or conceptual papers and symposia that are relevant to research on strategic and organizational change. We especially encourage submissions that align with this year’s AOM theme, 20/20: Broadening our Sight. This theme invites researchers and practitioners to build bridges between multiple dichotomies that shape the way we see the world around us (e.g. episodic or continuous change, individual or organizational change, micro or macro theories, qualitative or quantitative methods, research or practice, and so on). These dichotomies prevent us to come up with powerful contributions to address the major professional, organizational and societal challenges we are facing. As stated in this year’s theme, “broadening our sight creates synergies, increased value-added, and positive results for individuals, organizations, society, and the field of management and organizations”. Therefore, we invite researchers and practitioners to break down dichotomies we currently often come across in our research, teaching and consulting practice in order to broaden the way we “see” not only organizational development and change but also our own profession.

This theme is especially relevant to the values the ODC Division endorses. ODC scholars have long sought to enlarge our understanding of both change and changing. The Division always had an enduring interest in building bridges between theory and practice, research and teaching as well as between rigor and relevance in knowledge we produce around strategic and organizational change. The theme therefore encourages us to consider questions such as, but not limited to the following:

  • How can we find convergence across different models and processes to tackle common theoretical and practical problems related to the dynamic of stability and change?
  • How may we generate creative tensions and dialogues between the traditional dichotomies used in organizational development and change (e.g. radical and adaptative change, retrospective and prospective analysis of change, realist and interpretive model of organizational development and change, and so on)?
  • How can ODC practitioners and consultants contribute to and enable the creation and dissemination of a broader range of innovative conceptions and metaphors of change and changing?
  • How revisiting leadership theory and practice can offer new options to consider organizational change and come up with innovative action aimed at renewing organizations and society?
  • What research methods and practices may advance the way we explore, understand and positively impact the challenges directly or indirectly related to change and changing in management and organization?
  • In what ways, and to what extent, can ODC scholars and practitioners reinvigorate and advance an agenda that contributes to bridge our respective worlds?
  • How may ODC scholars and practitioners help to navigate in organizational pluralism and find ways to reconcile contradictory pressures and expectations between social and economic goals, control and creativity, exploitation and exploration, ethical and iniquitous values, and so on?

These questions are aligned with the ODC Division’s identity as a community who is engaged with change and changing. To submit to the ODC Division, please review the submission instructions and refer to the section on information for papers and symposia. The submission deadline is Tuesday, January 14, 2020 at 5:00 PM ET (NY Time), but earlier submissions are strongly encouraged. Before writing your submission, we also encourage you to review the ODC Division domain and mission statements. Please contact the Program Chair, Linda Rouleau (lindarouleau.odc@hec.ca) with any questions.

If you would like a paper to be considered for an award, please indicate it at the time of submission by making a note on the title as well as in the accompanying email making sure  to indicate the award for which you want the paper to be considered.  Division Awards, some with an honorarium, will be given for the best paper in the following categories:

  • Best Paper Overall
  • Rupe Chisholm Best Theory-to-Practice Paper
  • Best Paper based on a Dissertation (student must be the sole author)
  • Best Student Paper (student must be first author, but paper can be co-authored)
  • Best Action Research Paper

Papers based on a dissertation must be written by students as first author. Papers written about action research may include any study in which research and practice co-occur. The ODC Division also recognizes a Best Reviewer Award. All award winners will be celebrated at the ODC business meeting, which will be held during the Atlanta meeting. Please refer to our website for additional detail on all awards.