MANAGEMENT CONSULTING DIVISION (MC)

Management Consulting Division (MC) is a division of the Academy of Management. The membership of MC comprises scholar-practitioners in public and private sectors, including higher educational institutions spread around the world. The mission of MC is to bridge the gap between theory and practice in all areas of management through a pluralistic approach to understanding and applying management knowledge. The purpose of the MC is to advance the knowledge and understanding of management consulting through teaching, research and publication, and active consulting practices. The division recognizes the vast disciplinary fields related to consulting, including human resources management and management of human potential, organization behavior, change management, leadership, supply chain management, health care management, digital transformation, financial management, project management, risk management, entrepreneurship, education, public policy development and governance, strategy, philanthropy, globalization, and a host of other fields. The division promotes scholar-practitioners (the consultants, the discipline of consulting, and the consulting industry with the underlying goal of elevating the intersection of scholarship and practice. The division also encourages the adoption of interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to consulting for maximum benefits to consumers of consulting services and products. MC brings experienced and emerging management consultants together as scholar-practitioners to co-create, co-learn, and co-transfer knowledge with appropriate tools, techniques, technologies, frameworks, and methodologies to prepare our society for current and future challenges and opportunities.

AOM 2024 Theme: Innovating for the Future - Policy, Purpose, and Organizations

The priority of MC in 2024 aligns with the AOM’s 2024 theme, “Innovating for the Future - Policy, Purpose, and Organizations,” which allows for exploring all aspects of innovation. This year is the perfect occasion to present your works, papers, PDWs, and symposia, as you belong to a dynamic organization.

Call for Submissions

This call is open to all researcher-practitioners worldwide, including MC members, members of other AOM divisions, and broader management consulting community members. Professional Development Workshops (PDWs) are a unique opportunity to create scientific knowledge through guided interactions around Academy of Management themes between participants and experienced presenters. In line with this orientation, the Management Consulting Division's PDWs are a space for dialogue and cross-fertilization between academics and practitioners, as well as with other divisions, whose collaborations enable our members to enrich exploitable knowledge in the fields of transformative intervention dynamics, research methods, strategic management, organizational change, social responsibility, among other exciting topics.

Submitters may consider various submissions that address issues in all facets of the discipline of management consulting and issues connected with the AOM’s Annual Meeting theme: Innovating for the Future - Policy, Purpose, and Organizations.

This year, the Academy of Management Annual Meeting theme gives us the opportunity to explore the interplay of innovation, policy, and purpose as a lens for rethinking conventional ways of leading, managing, organizing, and consulting. The Management Consulting Division invites you to reflect on these questions:

• What innovations have there been in consulting organizations? What practices and challenges do consultants encounter in their organizations?
• How can we innovate consulting for companies such as pure players, VSEs, start-ups, NGOs, and Public Agencies?
• The relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Consultants: What is the consultant's added value in the face of digital innovation and artificial intelligence? How can we better integrate digital and AI tools into our practices?
• What are the challenges of maintaining an ethical practice while using innovation, especially from the Consultant's perspective?
• What are the innovative processes to discover and practice in our VUCA world?
• How do you innovate with the client? What is at the interface between the Client and the Consulting Company?
• How to integrate Open innovation methodologies in consulting practice, such as ambidextrous innovation processes incremental and radical innovation processes?
• How to pursue doctoral studies while being a consultant?
• How do you connect workers, managers, top managers, and CEOs in innovation practices?
• DEI challenges in consulting companies or consulting work in the 21st Century.
• How to manage innovation inside organizations in a connected world?

We provide NINE themes that will help you shape your propositions (the following themes are common for scholarly and professional development workshop submissions).

1. Cross-section of consultancy organizations
2. Innovations in Consulting Practices around the globe;
3. IA and consulting
4. Consulting for “special” companies
5. Doctoral Studies (PhD, DBA, DM, Exec-PhD …)  and Consulting Practice
6. Innovating as scholar-practitioner
7. Ethical practices and innovations
8. Innovation methodologies
9. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion perspectives in Management Consulting

Types of Submissions

We invite submissions that fit any of the ten categories in the table below. You should indicate the type of submission you choose directly in the request, beside the abstract.

Methodologies

The MC Division is open to different theoretical and methodological submissions based on quantitative studies, qualitative studies, quantitative-qualitative mixed methods, critical reviews, and submissions establishing new positions. These methods may include correlational, descriptive, quasi-experimental, survey-based, or secondary data studies. They may also have phenomenological studies, action research, ethnography, case studies, organizational or institutional reflective narratives, or studies using grounded theory and other methods.

Submission Review Methods

All paper submissions are double-blind reviewed. In this case, the author or submitter’s information is unknown to the reviewers, and the reviewers’ information is anonymous to the author or submitter. Three reviewers will be recruited to ensure a fair assessment of all submissions: academics, practitioners, and industry executives. These reviewers will review submissions based on the categories they belong to.

A specific committee will review all symposia submissions according to their relevance to the Annual Meeting Theme. Symposia are single-blind reviewed. The reviewers see the names of the presenters, participants, and organizers. Proposals for symposia are judged based on overall quality, interest to AOM members, relevance to the Management Consulting Division, innovation, and contribution.

All professional development workshop submissions will be reviewed according to their relevance to the Annual Meeting Theme, their ability to provide an enhanced experience for our members, and their compliance with the criteria of the Management Consulting Division. Please refer to the Professional Development Workshops Call for Submissions for further information.

Please note that NO information considering the acceptance or rejection decision will be announced before the official reviewing period.

Submission Contacts

• Contact the MC Program Chair, Jérémy C. Salmeron for all inquiries on submissions regarding items 1 to 8 in the table.
• Contact the MC PDW Chair, Carole Bousquet for all inquiries on submissions regarding items 9 to 10.

Important Dates and Deadlines

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, 9 January 2024 at 17:00 ET (UTC-5/GMT-5). Requests should be made online (open for submissions from early December 2023). Early submissions are encouraged.

Please note that the “Rule of 3” applies to paper submissions. Therefore, no one can submit or participate in more than three paper submissions.