The Organization and Management Theory (OMT Division) prides itself on integrating depth of insight with breadth of theories, rigor with relevance, and scholarly ideas with community connections. This integration makes OMT THE PLACE TO BE. We invite you to join OMT this summer by submitting your symposium and papers AND by signing up to review.

• 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2024): 9-13 August 2024, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Submission System opens December 2023. The submission deadline is 9 January 2024 17:00 ET (UTC-5/GMT-5).
• Please submit through AOM Submission Center

Our Domain

(Should you submit to OMT? Check out the newly updated OMT Domain Statement, that highlights our inclusiveness and focus on theory – making this a great division for you to join!)

Organization and Management Theory is an inclusive community of scholars who draw on a rich intellectual heritage to build and test theory about organizations, their members, their management, organization-environment relations, organizing processes and broader markets and fields. We pursue theoretically significant and methodologically rigorous research across analytical levels and phenomena to generate impactful insights in management and organizing. We value work that advances theory and has practical implications on a broad range of organizational, managerial and societal issues.

More information about the division is available on the OMT website.

What papers and symposium fit with OMT?

OMT welcomes submissions that highlight all kinds of organizational theory. As our domain statement above notes, OMT celebrates theoretical novelty, methodological pluralism, international research collaborations, and the use of theory to address organizational and societal challenges.

Submissions can (but don’t need to!) address the AOM Conference Theme - Innovating For The Future. To quote the AOM description, “Political unrest, economic volatility, inequality, rapid technological change, environmental erosion, health crises, and pronounced societal issues across the globe continue to challenge traditional approaches to governing the organization.” We need YOUR insights about how our theories can inform these challenges. Check out the conference website to get a better sense of how your papers and symposiums can address this theme.

Submitted previously? New to OMT? We want your submissions!

As Jim March implored us in 1991, sustainable organizations need to exploit existing ideas AND explore new ones. We invite people who have submitted to OMT in the past to submit and help us sustain our robust community. We ALSO invite PhD student and faculty who have not previously submitted research to AOM or to OMT to help us expand and explore new ideas. If you have questions about the appropriateness of your submission for OMT, please feel free to contact Wendy Smith – OMT Program Chair.

PLEASE… Sign up to Review for OMT

Our division has a long tradition for providing constructive and developmental reviews of high quality.  Please sign up to review.

Here’s the deal … We need almost 800 reviewers at OMT. To get the high-quality reviews that OMT is known for, we also need you to write reviews. We also welcome PhDs and junior scholars to review. Reviewing for AOM offers you a chance to continue to hone your craft in advance of seeking to do so for our journals. If we were to add a bit of guilt here …. OMT’s collegial norms suggest that if you submit a paper, a symposium or a PDW, then you also help to develop the program by reviewing for the division. We use the keywords you supply to make reviewer assignment. The sign-up system opens in early December - Sign up to review now before you forget.

OMT Division Awards 

Each year the OMT Division presents a number of awards at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management:

• The Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes scholars who have been central to the intellectual development of the field of organization and management theory.
• The Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award recognizes scholars who have blazed trails and paved the way for new ideas during the course of their careers (given every other year; to be given in 2024).
• The Distinguished Educator Award recognizes scholars who have had a significant impact through their teaching and interactions with students (given every other year; to be given in 2025).
• The Best Published Paper Award recognizes a journal article published in the previous year that advances our theoretical understanding of organizations, organizing, and management.
• The Best Paper Award recognizes an empirical or conceptual paper submitted to the annual meeting that offers significant contributions to the field of organization and management theory.
• The Louis Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award recognizes the best paper based on a dissertation in the refereed scholarly program.
• The Best International Paper Award recognizes research regarding themes and content of interest internationally.
• The Best Paper on Environmental and Social Practices recognizes research that advances our understanding of environmental and social dimensions of organizing.
• The Best OMT Entrepreneurship Paper recognizes a paper in the scholarly program that advances understanding of entrepreneurship drawing on organization and management theory.
• The Best Student Paper recognizes a paper authored solely by students and included in the refereed program.
• The OMT Responsible Research Award recognizes a paper that offers both credible and useful knowledge that can potentially advance business practices toward a better society.
• The Best Symposium Award recognizes an event submitted to the annual meeting that stimulates, integrates, or extends discussions about organization and management theory.
• The Ned Smith Rising Star Award recognizes an OMT scholar who has established a research record of exceptional quality and creativity early in their career. The award is established in honor of Edward "Ned" Bishop Smith (1981-2021). It was awarded for the first time in 2023 and will be awarded again in 2025.
• The Research Committee Award recognizes the valuable service provided by the most dedicated members of the research committee.
• The Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Award recognizes reviewers who were deemed worthy of special acknowledgment for the helpfulness, extensiveness, and insight of their reviews.