MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT (MED)

2024 Division PDW Program: Call for Submissions

Program Chair: Margaret Heffernan, RMIT University, School of Management, College of Business and Law

The Management Education & Development Division (MED) invites you to submit a Professional Development Workshop (PDW) proposal to the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024) held in person, 9-13 August 2024 in Chicago, IL, USA.

• PDWs including consortia held Friday-Sunday, 9-11 August 2024.

Conference Theme: Innovating for the Future - Policy, Purpose and Organizations

Innovating for the future beckons scholars to broaden their thinking and creativity about what needs to change within organizations to address the persistent problems and opportunities of our time. The unparalleled level of complexity in today’s environment provides an opportunity for AOM’s ecosystem of scholars, educators, and practitioners to make a compelling difference.

Invitation

MED invites PDWs that are centered around the conference theme and meet the following:

1. focus on professional development through sharing skills or tools that will improve the participant’s practice.
2. interactive, inclusive, innovative, and energizing.
3. relevant to other divisions within the Academy of Management.

Who/What is MED?

The education theory, practice, and policy research division of AOM.

We welcome research insights that address challenges and opportunities that educators, leaders, students, and administrators face, including:

• education and learning research on practices and policies that drive learning and student engagement, technology supported learning challenges and opportunities, business school governance and accreditation, leadership development, pedagogic theory development (e.g., design-based research), course/program curriculum, and pedagogy.
• assessment designs, innovative technological solutions, effective teaching or learning tools, case studies, and experiential learning exercises, and scholarly writing and publication processes relevant to undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral, executive and non-credit bearing management education programs.

Content

The AOM 2024 conference theme of Innovating for the Future - Policy, Purpose and Organizations calls for PDWs to examine the interplay of innovation, policy, and purpose as a lens for rethinking conventional ways of leading, managing, and organizing.

Dramatic technological shifts coupled with amplifying environmental and public concerns serve as the backdrop for the 2024 theme. The unprecedented complexity underscores the importance of innovation and policymaking (at macro, meta, and micro levels) in shaping organizations in pursuit of sustainable growth.

PDW Design

Designed to support the development of our members’ professional skills in collaborative research, learning, teaching, or professional practice, and envisioning our future as educators, developers, and disseminators.

We are seeking PDWs with novel and provocative ideas, tools, techniques, concepts, and perspectives that explore issues within the MED domain and that also cross divisions and geographies.

• Your PDW will share breakthrough ideas and perspectives that reimagine the organization from the inside out and considering the interplay of innovation, policy, and purpose indispensable to leading, managing, and organizing in management education.
• Through your PDW MED seeks to unlock a wave of innovative insights and evidence-based contributions that pave the way for a brighter future for workers, managers, organizations, and society at large.

Theme-related questions to consider as you prepare your PDW proposal:

• What is the relationship between policy, purpose, and innovation in management education?
• How can we navigate tensions between these three elements as management educators?
• How can we innovate educational policies to embrace technological advances in the future?
• What policy changes are required in Management Education to enable innovation in learning and teaching?
• How can we innovate management education to serve organisations purposefully in the future?
• How can we support policy development that ensures innovation in management education remains purposeful and future oriented?
• What theories are needed to drive policy development and innovation in management education and learning that aids organisations and future leaders?
• What innovative practices are needed to ensure management education remains purposeful?

PDW Format

Minimum of 1-hour in duration, recommended maximum 90 minutes.

• Imaginative and innovative non-lecture formats. For example, but not limited to, workshops, town hall meetings, debates, panels, tours, roundtable discussions, case study exercises, simulations.
• Ideally facilitate international and diverse participation; take an interdisciplinary approach; and/or include an awareness of practitioner concerns alongside researchers and educators. 
• Each PDW will allocate at least half of its time to engaging participant interaction and dialogue (e.g., discussion, experiential activities).
• Early career stage individuals may self-nominate their proposal for the inclusion of your PDW proposal in our Doctoral Student /Junior Faculty Consortium showcase. 

Criteria

The PDW proposals should meet the following criteria: 

1. Value: What is the “unique value proposition” of the PDW? How will the PDW provide real value to the attendees? What will be the take-away for attendees?
2. Creativity: How is the PDW delivering novelty and originality?
3. Interaction and integration: How does the PDW enable communication, exchange between participants, and cross-fertilization across fields and methodologies?
4. Design and formal quality: Does the PDW follow the guidelines for the text, the quality of the writing, and the required information? How well is the logistical component of the PDW described?
5. Engagement: Ability to draw an audience: Will the PDW interest a large diverse audience?

Submissions

Submit your proposal via the AOM Submission Center.   

• Follow the 2024 general submission guidelines for PDWs.
• Click this link for more information on the AOM 2024 conference theme.
• Other questions, contact the 2024 MED PDW Chair-elect, Margaret Heffernan.
• PDWs submitted to MED should specifically target the MED domain, as described above, rather than be an “all academy” submission.

Important Submission Notes

Submitters do NOT need to be AOM members to submit a proposal to the Annual Meeting. However, if a proposal is accepted, participants must register to attend the Annual Meeting.

• All participants attending the Annual Meeting must be AOM Members and registered for the Annual Meeting.

It is recommended that you contact the MED division PDW Chair to discuss your proposal prior to submitting. Please contact Margaret Heffernan by 15 December 2023 so you have enough time to finalize your proposal / submission and submit it by Tuesday, 9 January 2024 at 17:00 ET (UTC-5/GMT-5).

Session Orientations

As a submitter, you may indicate the general orientation of your proposal. The AOM Annual Meeting program includes these orientations to help attendees identify sessions of interest. The types of orientations are:

• Diversity
• International
• Practice
• Research
• Teaching
• Theme, “Innovating for the Future” 

Key Dates

• Submission Center Opens: Early December 2023
• Submission Center Closes: 9 January 2024 | 17:00 ET UTC-5/GMT-5

Reviewer

2024 PDW Chair-elect: Margaret Heffernan

• The PDW chair may shorten the submission without contacting the submitters to manage the overall program and to maximize appeal to the greatest number of members and to better serve the division’s member experience.

Award

“Best AOM MED Division PDW Award” to the PDW that is judged to make the most significant contribution, in relation to the terms of reference offered here.

FAQ

Deadline: when is the deadline to submit a proposal for the AOM Annual Meeting?

• The deadline for ALL submissions is Tuesday, 9 January 2024 at 17:00 ET (UTC-5/GMT-5).
• All submissions must be entered in the Submission Center by this time, i.e., a 5-digit submission ID is assigned to your proposal. No exceptions!

AOM Membership: Do I have to be a member to submit a proposal?

• You do not need to be a member to submit a proposal for the Academy of Management’s Annual Meeting.

• If you are not an Academy member, you must still create an account with basic contact information which will be linked to your submission(s).
• If your submission is accepted, and you attend the conference to participate in a session, you will need to join the Academy and register for the conference.