2024 Organization & Society Network Conference

The 2024 Organization & Society Network Conference will take place in Hobart, Tasmania, on November 18-20, 2024. As in all O&S Network events, the main purpose is to bring together academics (and practitioners) to discuss big ideas – and to bring those ideas into action. The conference uses several formats, including keynotes, idea development workshops, project presentations, and other interactive discussions, offering both the time and the space for in-depth discussion of ideas to be developed, and for collaborative bonds to be created or strengthened.  

At our conference, no idea is too grand or too bold. We discuss the most pressing societal issues that organizations face, and critically examine the role of organization(s) in tackling these issues, including, for example, addressing climate change, poverty alleviation, overcoming polarization and divides in society, harnessing artificial intelligence, ongoing urbanization, preparing for aging populations, and many more.

We chose Tasmania as our meeting place this year for multiple reasons. Tasmania is recognized globally for its special biodiversity and geological features, its quality of living, and how it has been balancing all those with the socio-economic developments over the past decades. It does not only offer a stunning setting for scholars and practitioners to discuss and develop ideas but equally is an important metaphor for the world we are becoming. Tasmania’s remote location provides the perfect anecdote for our ongoing discussion about how we prepare for our global future. In one of our sessions, in particular, we will invite local entrepreneurs, politicians, and policy experts to discuss how the changing world is impacting the local ecosystem and society-at-large – and how this can serve as a barometer for the future elsewhere.

We welcome all ideas, papers, and projects that explore the dynamic and complex relationship between organization(s) and society. Example topics include, but are not limited to:

• Dynamics of societal impact
  • How are changes in the cultural, political, legal, economic, technological, or physical environmental sphere (re)shaping the contemporary organization (e.g., wars, pandemics, AI, climate change)?
  • How are these changes similar (or different) across space and time – at local, national, and global levels of analysis?
  • How do recent societal trends force us to rethink existing organizational theories?
• How do organizations co-create ‘change-for-good’ in the environment?
  • Why are organizations assuming new responsibilities?
  • How do organizations address these responsibilities?
  • Who is responsible/accountable?
  • What is the role and impact of the institutional environment?
• Where and why do organizations and organizational networks fail to create positive impact?
• What conceptual lenses can we use to examine the relationship between organizations and society?
  • Organizational theories (e.g., institutional theory, organizational ecology, paradox theory, performativity, practice theory, etc.)
  • Insights from other disciplines (e.g., economics, geography, philosophy, psychology, the natural sciences, etc.)
• Methodological trends and innovations for the study of organization and society
  • Qualitative interpretive research, case studies, ethnographies
  • Mixed methods, QCA, etc.
  • Quantitative and qualitative AI-enabled methodologies
  • How to measure impact? Why measure, and does measuring improve outcomes?