MANAGEMENT CONSULTING DIVISION (MC)

The Management Consulting Division (MCD) is a division of the Academy of Management (AOM). MCD members are scholar-practitioners in the public and private sectors, including higher educational institutions, consulting firms, and industries from around the globe. The MCD’s mission is to bridge the gap between theory and practice in all management areas through a pluralistic approach to understanding and applying management knowledge. MCD’s purpose is to advance the knowledge and understanding of management consulting through teaching, research, publications, and active consulting practices. The division recognizes the multidisciplinary 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 management consulting and practices 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 the benefit of researchers and managers in organizations and clients of consulting services and products.

Overall, the MCD brings experienced and emerging management consultants and managers 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 2023 Theme: Putting the Worker Front and Center 

MCD’s priority in 2023 is to align with AOM’s 2023 theme, “Putting the Worker Front and Center,” This theme provides the community of managers and consulting scholar-practitioners the opportunity to focus on labor, workforce, human resource, and workforce development as the critical engine of any economy. It also allows us to demonstrate various consulting scholarships and practices used or may be used to improve management functioning in human resource development and workers’ relations, labor, service, and technological transformation.

Call for Submissions

MCD’s priority in 2023 is to align with AOM’s 2023 theme, “Putting the Worker Front and Center.” This call is open to all scholars and practitioners around the globe, including the members of MCD, members of other divisions of AOM, members of the larger management consulting community, and managers in organizations. MCD welcomes submissions that are developed through both inductive and deductive processes. MCD believes that submissions drawing on practice, even in their early stages, would add value to management knowledge. 

• Understanding compassion-centric organizational behaviors and their implication for digital transformation. 
• The practices and processes we teach our clients that contribute to a more inclusive society and the health and well-being of diverse communities. 
• How we help organizations deal with increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the workplace.  
• What can consultants do to assist clients in leveraging digital technology and Artificial Intelligence to serve better the life and well-being of both customers and employees?  
• How consultants and managers can assist with organizational and systems design for job crafting, work procedures, and processes that improve performance. 
• Reconciling the true meaning and value of people, technology, and leadership in the organization through consulting lenses.  
• How consultants and managers can assist with the interplay of societal productivity demand, quality of life, and increased stress levels and implications for human families. 
• What do we know about the health and wellness of people and the professionals assigned to treat and provide healing and wellness to the clients and patients seeking health care? 
• How do we, as scholar-practitioners, build “improving lives” into our consulting, management, and teaching practices? 
• Is the relationship in an organization between people and Artificial Intelligence a conflict, a tension, or a good ‘dance’?  

Please note that all submissions involve a commitment to register and present or participate in the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Types of Submissions

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

• This allows submitters to present their research ideas, conceptual frameworks, research questions, problems of practice, research methodologies, work in progress and study plan, etc. The goal of the poster session is to provide feedback that helps the authors to develop their research studies further. 
• The poster submission consists of an extended abstract (1.5 pages maximum) formatted in Research Object, Question, Hypothesis, Theoretical Framework, Methodology Used, Results or Expected Results.  Accepted poster presenters will be required to present three slides maximum, 10 minutes per panelist.  The poster session will appear in the AOM program as a regular submission, and the rule of 3 + 3 will apply. 

Methodologies

The MCD is open to different theoretical and methodological submissions based on quantitative studies, qualitative studies, quantitative-qualitative mixed methods, critical reviews, and recommendations 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 study, organizational or institutional reflective narratives, or studies using grounded theory and other methods.

Submission Instructions

The guidelines for all submissions are available. Please read all instructions carefully before submission. 

Submission Review Methods

All 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 sets of 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.

Important Dates and Deadlines

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, 10  January 2023 at 17:00 ET (GMT-5/UTC-5). Submissions should be made online at the Submission Center (open for submissions from early December 2022). Early submissions are encouraged. 

Important Requirements

Submission Contacts

Contact the MCD Program Chair, Dr. Shola Ajiboye, for all inquiries on submissions regarding items 1 to 9 in the list above.