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Practice Theme Committee: A Brief Introduction   

 

The Practice Theme Committee (PTC) of the Academy of Management is a strategic All Academy committee of the Academy and represents the entire Academy of Management.  Its role is to celebrate, promote and innovate the way in which scholarly research contributes to a better society by engaging with people beyond the academy and by promoting dialogue and collaboration among different professionals in the public, private and non-government sectors. 

The PTC aims to develop greater awareness of what practice means and how various conceptualizations and views of practice and practice phenomena can inform research and teaching to increase the update of the management scholarship for practical uses in real life settings. Linking practitioners and scholars, the committee identifies exemplar individual, work, and organizational practices that inform and broaden our understanding of the entrepreneurial ways that practices give shape to one another and to the condition of interdependence within an ecology of practices in the state of mutual negotiation, influence, and reconfiguration. 

In particular, we exemplify teaching and research practices that engage practitioners and academics in the co-creation of actionable knowledge that impacts beyond the narrow confines of scholarly publications. Practice-oriented research methods such as action research, participative observation, intervention-research, and appreciative inquiry are some examples of generative practices that helps build evidence-based research, grows practice-based evidence, and generates application-relevant knowledge.

Serving the bridging role that enhances the impact of scholarship on practice across divisions and committees, the PTC creates various practitioner, industry, and scholar platforms that facilitates ongoing engagement and collaboration among academics, business practitioners and policy makers. We aim to more systematically account for the impact of management scholarship and to generate excitement and purposes for sharing interests and bridging gaps among different communities of practice. In addition to providing platforms, the PTC also builds a network of scholars skilled in multi-stakeholder innovation and communication and works toward providing skill-based workshops that train people to interface deftly in various kinds of practice-related discourses such as policy-making, media interfaces, press releases, consulting, and co-creation of knowledge among professionals.

Sample PTC Activities and Initiatives

1. The design and delivery of Professional Development Workshops that promote the AOM’s practice agenda. 
2. Sponsoring or co-sponsoring events at the Annual Meeting of the AOM that emphasize the practice impact agenda.
3. Designing strategic doing initiatives that advance our knowledge about understanding, measuring and making sense of impact.
4. Creating industry and scholarly platforms that generate excitements, interests, and purposes for sharing insights and bridging gaps between practitioners and scholars.
5. Creating and participating in the creation of Practice Impact Awards across divisions and committees through PTC division and committee liaisons.

Committee Charge: (as currently stated on the AOM website

 http://aom.org/About-AOM/Committee-Charges.aspx#PRACTICE

1. Encourage the Academy to become exposed to and provide exposure for application-oriented professional development opportunities.
2. Raise the visibility of management practice as an important professional focus within the Academy.
3. Coordinate support for the "scholarship of application" activities of Academy members.
4. Assist the membership committee in its charge to expand the presence of practitioners in the Academy and integrate them. 

 

News

In the year 2013-2014

We injected new leadership and collaborated with a growing number of divisions and committees while maintaining connections and collaborations with our past leadership by continuing to inform and work with immediate past chairs, Tyrone Pitsis and Elena Antonacopoulou. We improved our Awards process, with new leadership and a redesigned international sub-committee and practices; refined the structure of our PDWs; and continued to create opportunities for interactions and engagement with the greater AOM community at before, during, and after the conference. In addition, we create task force directors as a governance structure to allow PTC committee members to take self-initiatives to dream, develop, and executive a number of strategic initiatives under the rubric of various task forces.


Proposal to modify the wording of the PTC Charge  

In addition, we propose modifying the wording of the PTC Charge. We recommend these changes in order to make explicit the importance of collaboration across the AOM between the PTC and other AOM groups

• Expose the Academy to practice-oriented professional development opportunities.
• Raise the visibility of management practice as an important professional focus within the Academy.
• Coordinate support for the "scholarship of application" activities of Academy members.
• Liaison with other Academy divisions and committees to use dialogue and collaboration to enhance rigor and relevance of practice-related teaching and research.
• Assist the Membership Committee and Diversity & Inclusion Theme Committee in their charge to develop the presence, impact, and inclusion of practitioners and insure their hospitality and nourishment in the academy.

 
PDWS Sponsored and Co-Sponsored by the PTC 2014

Practice Theme Committee (PTC) as Lead Sponsor of PDWs:

(PTC)

What Words provide effective consulting-research feedback in practice? The case of elites [60]

 (PTC)

Bridging the Research-Practice Gap though Evidence-Based Management and Systematic Review [109]

 

(PTC, MED, MC, OB, ODC, OCIS)

Translating the Results of Scholarship into Actions by Practitioners [239]

 

(PTC, ODC, MSR, SIM, MED)

Connecting Inner Transformation as a Leader to Corporate and Societal Change: The Power of Words [279]

 

(PTC, OCIS)

Professional Doctorate Programs: Sharing Success Stories and Secrets [332]

 

(PTC)

DBAs Critical Success Factors: Spanning Research and Practice [424]

 

Practice Theme Committee (PTC) as Co-Sponsor of PDWs:

(CMS, SIM, PTC)

Getting Out of the Hotels: Words and Action in Philadelphia [180]

 

(OB, PTC, ODC)

Research in Practice: Connecting Theory and Work Through Academic / Practitioner Collaborations [267]

 

(ODC, MC, PTC)

Internal Consulting: Exchanging “Words” between Research and Practice [350]

 

(ONE, PNP, ODC, PTC)

Living Planet @ Work: Bold Talks and Walks for Bettering Our World [354]

 

(IM, PTC)

The Power of Words: Assessing the International Impact of Research [378]

 

(OB, MOC, OMT, PTC, ODC)

Researching Organizational Mindfulness and Mindful Organizing: Theory, Method, and Practice  [463]

PTC Executive Team Members

PTC Executive Team

 

PTC Co-Chair: Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, Alliant International University

PTC Co-Chair: Kuo Frank Yu, City University of Hong Kong

PTC PDW Co-Chair: Marc Bonnet, Iseor, University of Lyon

PTC PDW Co-Chair: Tom Mierzwa, University of Maryland University College

The executive team is consisted of PTC co-chairs and PTC PDW co-chairs of the particular year. Sometimes directors of task forces are invited if expertise is needed in certain decision-making processes. It works together on PTC PDW selection, annual report to the board, as well as preparing for and hosting the PTC events in the AOM annual conference. It allocates work across various PTC strategic initiatives, generally with at least the PTC Co-chairs serving in most task forces.

It provides guidance, help, and oversight to the strategic initiatives instigated by the PTC special task forces and PTC liaisons to other divisions and committees. The outgoing PTC Chair or Co-chairs make recommendations of future leadership to the board of governance of AOM based on individuals’ past and present contribution to the PTC and their promise in leading the PTC community cohesively and productively. One needs not to serve the role of the PTC PDW Chair to assume the role of the PTC chair, or the PTC Co-chair. One needs to demonstrate ongoing participation and significant contribution to the PTC before one assumes the PTC chair or PTC co-chair role.  

  

 

 

A Note of Appreciation after the 2014 AOM Conference in Philadelphia from the Executive Team. 

Dear PTC Community,

 

A big thank you for those who attended the 2014 PTC reception on Saturday, the 2014 PTC lunch meeting at the Academy, and other PTC events. We had one of the largest turn-outs in years.  So many things came together this year for us: well-attended quality PDWs that spread the words of the impactful work that the PTC has been doing; much anticipated historical narratives by Tom Cummings and Elena Antonacopoulou about the PTC’s founding and evolution in the changing context of the AOM; the coherent programming that mobilized crowds to the right places at the right moments (especially the film showing of “Fire in the Blood” and the follow up dialogue with Cipla CEO Subhanu Saxena); the star-studded cast of award winners and judges; and the continuing support from our sponsors enlisted by Tyrone Pitsis over the years, allowing the PTC members to engage in constructive dialogues and actionable plans through a lunch buffet, champagne, and catered indulgences.  

The successful PDWs and social events helped to generate excellent volunteers to assume key functions and to produce synergistic action plans. Fulfilling the linking role that the PTC plays in bridging gaps between communities, we have organized the upcoming PTC strategic initiatives in the form of task forces. We welcome the directors of various task forces: Usha Haley (Scholarly Impact); Tyrone Pitsis (Public Engagement and Development); Fedor Ovchinnikov (Practitioner Empowerment); Gigi Johnson (Online Collaboration); Chris Dembek (Industry Engagement); Jochen Schweitzer (Awards); and Guillaume Carton (Student Outreach). Some strategic initiatives may involve formal application for funding from the AOM headquarters. For example, Usha’s strategic initiative (under development) is to run a pre-conference professional skill development workshop to train researchers and practitioners to interface deftly in various kinds of practice-related discourses such as policy-making, media interfaces, press releases, consulting, and co-creation of knowledge among professionals. There is also a planning discussion on a strategic initiative to consider developing a doctoral consortium for DBAs. Most of our task force directors, however, will probably not need to apply for money.

Members of various divisions and committees have volunteered to serve as liaisons to the PTC: Janet Salmons (Ethics Education Committee Co-Chair); Jean Neumann (Management Consulting Doctoral Consortium Chair); Maris Martinsons (Organizational Communication and Information System Division); Christina Sue-Chan (Diversity and Inclusion Theme Committee); Emmanuel Monod (Teaching Theme Committee), and Fedor Ovchinnikov & Tom Mierzwa (Entrepreneurship Division). We look forward to turning some of these liaised roles into strategic actions that will be comparable to what was accomplished in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Division in the development of their Entrepreneurship Impact Award. 

We aim to have an online collaborative space ready as soon as possible to facilitate lively ongoing interaction and planning.There are always new possibilities for generating greater impact. Please share your dreams and collaborate, organize, and execute your visions with the PTC with self-initiated roles, task forces, and suggestions. See you next year!

 

Best,

PTC Co-Chair: Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, Alliant International University

PTC Co-Chair: Kuo Frank Yu, City University of Hong Kong

PTC PDW Co-Chair: Marc Bonnet, Iseor, University of Lyon

PTC PDW Co-Chair: Tom Mierzwa, University of Maryland University College