Conference on Coordination within and among Organizations

ASQ          HEC, Paris          OMT division

June 13-14 2011, in Paris

Coordination has long been seen as an integral part of the fields of organizational theory and strategy. It has been with ASQ from the start, as the initial issue contained articles by Litchfield, Dale, Parsons, Thompson, and Berliner that all raised the issue of coordination within the organization either in its full form or in a narrower conception of coordination and control. 16 years later, ASQ was instrumental in launching resource dependence theory, with its focus on inter-organizational dependence and coordination, and an early entrant in the move of organizational theorists into inter-organizational relations. Given this history, it seems suitable that ASQ hold a conference to further develop research on coordination within and among organizations. The usefulness of such a conference is especially high because the field may need some revitalization. Work on hierarchical control in organizations has produced useful findings, but is less relevant to issues of horizontal coordination in organizations or coordination among organizations. Work on the effects of structures that have a role in coordination (such as networks) has significantly advanced our knowledge, but has come to a point in which more work on coordination activities is needed. Thus the time has come to encourage research that advances thinking and produces new evidence on coordination activities. Therefore, this conference seeks to gather contributions coming from different perspectives that provide both theoretical and empirical content to the central topic of coordination between and across organizations. Perspectives include theories of control, bureaucracy, roles and functions, inter-organizational relationships, resource-dependence, this list being non-exhaustive. Examples of phenomena of interest are coordination activities, governing institutions, permanence (or not) of structures, diffusion and translation of coordination, impact of trans-organizational coordination mechanisms on performance, legitimacy, or norms. For example, how are information and communication technologies used in organizational coordination? What structures and activities do organizations put in place to coordinate inter-organizational collaborations? The conference will be held as a developmental conference, so each paper will have a senior scholar as a discussant, as well as receive feedback from peers with overlapping research interests. Thus, it is of special interest for colleagues recently graduated from their Ph.D. with manuscripts under development. It is most suitable for papers that are based on research that has come far along, but would benefit from presentation, commentary, and discussion. Thus, papers should fit the conference theme and the stage of development. Selection of papers will be done through submission of extended abstracts (4-5 pages) to an organizing committee that includes members of the ASQ editorial board, HEC Paris, and the OMT division. ASQ, the leading North-American journal in organizational theory and management, is delighted to organize jointly this conference, the first of its kind, with a European institution. It is intended to help the intellectual exchange between European scholars of organization theory and their peers in the US and elsewhere. It is part of the conference initiatives sponsored by HEC’s “Society and Organizations” Research Center in the recent years, such as the Medici Summer School and the Workshop on social movement in June 2010, events that help and ease trans-Atlantic dialogue. It is an important goal of the OMT Division of the Academy of Management to develop the young scholars and Ph.D. students of the division through mini conferences, and OMT sees support of this conference as the start of a series of mentoring conferences. HEC, Paris will host the event and sponsor participant accommodations and meals. The OMT division will sponsor travel for up to 5 PhD students, advanced in their research, who can attend the conference. The conference will consist of around 40 young faculty and student participants and senior colleagues who will discuss papers and offer developmental advice. The atmosphere is expected to be collegial, informal, but centered on making working papers progress and deepening our understanding of coordination within and across organizations. ASQ’s editorial team will discuss the “Do’s and Don’ts” of top publications and share their experience of the publication process. Deadline for submissions: January 30 2011 Contacts for questions on the conference and submission of abstracts: Henrich R. Greve, henrich.greve@insead.edu Rodolphe Durand, durand@hec.fr