July 24-29 in Copenhagen, Denmark
The annual Academy of Management Meetings will be held in Copenhagen this summer. RCC members belong to many divisions, including Organization Development and Change, Health Care Management, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, Organization and Management Theory, Conflict Management, and more.
If you are attending, feel free to join us for the following activities hosted by and recommended by the Relational Coordination Collaborative. In particular, please join us for a Welcome to Copenhagen Gathering at Radisson Blu Scandinavian Hotel Friday evening - hosted by the RCC and our Scandinavian colleagues! See below for more information!
Copenhagen is a highly bike-friendly city in a highly bike-friendly country. See here for How to Cycle in Denmark.
Friday, July 25
Bringing Research (and Researchers) to Life Through a Systems Psychodynamic Approach
Integrating Relational Coordination and Social Networks as Complementary Methods
Time and Location: Friday, 2:00 - 4:00 pm in Bella Hall B-B6-m3We live in an increasingly interdependent world - socially, emotionally, economically, physically, environmentally, biologically and evolutionarily. As a result of interdependence, we need relationships to achieve our desired outcomes, especially in the context of growing complexity. However, relationships are at risk around the world due to the rise of remote work, technologically mediated communication, economic inequality, and political polarization. In this workshop, we focus on two approaches - Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Relational Coordination (RC) - that offer theories and methods for exploring relational challenges and solutions.
Dynamic Approaches to Context and Change - Moving the Theoretical and Methodological Goalposts
Time and Location: Friday, 3:00 - 5:00 pm in Bella Center: Hall B-B1-m3This PDW aims to move empirical research and theorization of organizational change forward by foregrounding the significance of dynamic approaches to context. We seek to advance contextual studies of organizational change processes by focusing on context as dynamic and changing over time. To do this, we need to shift our focus away from what context is to why it matters how we understand, study and work with context as an integral part of our research and theorization processes. By inviting participants to join us in an interactive two part workshop linked to an upcoming special issue in the Journal of Change Management, we will focus on how the context-action-change relationship can be operationalized, studied, and theorized in ways that take this relationship’s dynamic and processual nature into account.
Sponsoring Divisions: Organization Development and Change, Organization Management and Theory
Strategy Conversation with the Organization Development and Change Community - Making Sense of the Data
Time and Location: Friday, 5:00 - 6:30 pm in Bella Hall B-B6-m3
What are our strategic priorities for the Organization Development and Change Division going forward? Practice? High impact research? Both? Professors Richard Stackman and Patrice Rosenthal will share the data from a recent division-wide survey and invite the community to make sense of those data together.Welcome to Copenhagen - Gathering of the Relational Coordination Collaborative and Friends
Time and Location: Friday, 7:00 - 8:30 pm at Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel Copenhagen, Amager Blvd. 70
Saturday, July 26
Making Relationships Visible - How to Study Relational Aspects of Organizational Change
Time and Location: Saturday, 10:45 am - 12:45 pm in Bella Center: Hall B-B0-m5
Co-Chair: Ninna Meier, Aalborg University
Co-Chair: Lauren Hajjar, Suffolk University
Panelist: Jody Hoffer Gittell, Brandeis University
Panelist: Claus Jebsen, BI Norwegian Business School and AS3
Panelist: Helle Sofie Wentzer, Aalborg University
Panelist: Francesca Dakin, University of Oxford
It is well established in the change literature that relationships are central elements of organizational change processes, i.e., coordination, leadership, or sensemaking of change within and across organizations. And yet without methods for assessing the quality and strength of relationships, they can disappear from our hypotheses, our research designs and our findings. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss how different methodological approaches and methods can be used to “make visible” and investigate relational aspects of organizational change.
Seeing the Whole Together - Relational Mapping for Theory, Research and Practice
Time and Location: Saturday, 2:00 - 4:00 pm in Bella Center: Hall B- B1-m3
Session Chair: Jody Hoffer Gittell, Brandeis UniversityFacilitator: Lauren Hajjar, Suffolk University
Facilitator: John Paul Stephens, Case Western Reserve
Facilitator: Olawale Olaleye, Relational Coordination Analytics; Deloitte Human Capital
Facilitator: Claus Jebsen, BI Norwegian Business School; AS3
In this workshop, we introduce relational mapping as a method for engaging in theory-driven research and practice. For researchers, we propose relational mapping as a method to theorize about a complex system in order to develop more nuanced, testable hypotheses than are likely without visualizing the system. For practitioners, we propose relational mapping as a method to facilitate change in complex systems. We invite participants to use a case from their own context to practice relational mapping. Based on the relational map they produce, we will guide them to engage in theorizing and hypothesis development in small groups.
Sunday, July 27
Gathering of POS Scholars at AOM Presented by the Center for Positive Organizations
Time and Location: TBA
This breakfast experience organized by the Center for Positive Organizations gathers together the community of scholars applying the concepts and theories in the field of Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) in their research. Please, join us for the POS gathering to build community, connect with research collaborators, learn about new developments in the field, and generate energy about the possibilities created by using the POS lens.
R2: Amplifying Rigor and Relevance to Address Today’s Grand Challenges
Time and Location: Sunday, 2:00 - 4:00 pm in Bella Center: Hall D- D3-m2
Chair: Jill Paine, IE Business SchoolSponsoring Division: Organization Development and Change
Rigor-Relevance Awards: In Conversation with Mats Alvesson and Ann Langley
Time and Location: Sunday, 4:00 - 5:30 pm in in Bella Center: Hall D- D3-m2
This event brings together eminent scholars who share their experiences in the pursuit of both rigor and relevance in their research. The Rigor and Relevance Award, sponsored by INSEAD, represents the core values of the Organization Development and Change Division - research that is both highly rigorous and highly relevant. We do not see rigor and relevance as an either/or - we see them as a both/and. Join us to hear this year's awardees - Mats Alvesson (Lund University) and Ann Langley (HEC Montreal), in a conversation facilitated by Quy Huy (INSEAD) about how they have achieved rigor and relevance in their research.
Monday, July 28
Relationships Across Differences (RADs) Community
Time and Location: Monday, 8:00-9:00 am in TBA
Sponsoring Division: Organizational Behavior
ODC Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony
Time and Location: Monday, 4:00 - 5:00 pm in Bella Center: Hall D- D1-m3
ODC Distinguished Scholar Sandra Janoff - Everybody Improving Whole Systems: Reclaiming the Basics of ODC … and Ancient Wisdom
Time and Location: Monday, 5:00 - 6:00 pm in Bella Center: Hall D-D1-m3
The 2025 ODC Distinguished Scholar, Dr. Sandra Janoff of Future Search Network, has dedicated her career to developing methods to enable system change through multi-stakeholder relationships at multiple levels of action to build thriving organizations and communities. In her address, Dr. Janoff will describe some of the multi-stakeholder challenges we face in organizations around the world, and why ODC methods and theories are critically important right now.
She'll share her methodology for bringing large groups together to solve complex problems they face. She'll show how Future Search methods are grounded in Org Development and Change principles, how they are designed to foster high quality relationships, and how they can help to move the field forward. Dr. Janoff will conclude by suggesting where ODC might go from here, then open up for a lively discussion with and among participants, facilitated by Program Chair Jody Hoffer Gittell.
Sponsoring Division: Organization Development and Change
Organization Development and Change Social!!
Time and Location: Monday, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Danish Architecture Center, Bryghuspladsen 10
Host: Patrice Rosenthal, Fielding University
Host: Michael Jarrett, INSEAD
Host: Jody Hoffer Gittell, Brandeis University
Host: James Vardaman, Memphis University
Host: Richard Hall, Monash University
Join the Organization Development and Change Division to celebrate our time together in Copenhagen! We are thrilled to be hosting the ODC Social on Monday evening at the Danish Architecture Center following Dr. Janoff's talk. Local ODC member Ninna Meier (Aalborg University) says the Danish Architecture Center [aomi.informz.net] is very bikeable and trainable from the Bella Center, with a lovely view of the Harbor. Several of our local ODC members have offered to lead small groups by bike or train from the Bella Center to the Danish Architecture Center.
Please know you may bring friends and family members to the ODC Social. We will announce the best paper awards there once again and offer a toast of congratulations. We will be serving drinks and appetizers including Cava, a Spanish sparkling wine that’s popular in Denmark.
The DAC is close to good restaurants in the Copenhagen City Hall neighborhood and in the Christianshavn neighborhood for people who want to go out for dinner afterwards.
Sponsoring Division: Organization Development and Change
Tuesday, July 29