Organization and Management Theory OMT

Dear OMT members (apologies for cross-posting),

We are pleased to announce the inaugural Liverpool Organisation Theory Workshop, to be held from September 8^th-10^th, 2026, hosted by the University of Liverpool Management School, Liverpool, UK. This year's theme is "Organisation Theory for and in Unsettled Times."

Our motivation is to showcase emerging research and facilitate discussions and debates on the present and future of organisation theory. Acknowledgement of the complexity of contemporary organisational environments marked by wicked crises, polarisation, fragmentation, and disorder, co-emerging with radically new developments in emerging technology, including artificial intelligence (Phillips, 2026), has stimulated calls for re-evaluations and reorientations of the role and direction of organisation theory and scholarship (see Meyer, 2025; Zilber & Quattrone, 2025). These developments radically challenge conceptions of the nature and role of theory (e.g. facts, inference, language); the viability of epistemic virtues (e.g. abstraction, rigour, reflexivity); the epistemic apparatus involved in theory production (e.g. methods, causality, mechanisms, boundaries); as well as the orientation of the scientific community (e.g. theorist versus activist).

We invite you to come to Liverpool to discuss and share new research seeking to explore and debate, for instance-but not limited to-the following questions and their empirical, methodological, and theoretical consequences:

•  What is the future of currently dominant organisation theories and traditions, such as practice, process, and institutional theories of organisation?
• How should we balance extensions of existing organisation theories against the generation of novel theories of organisation, specifically in the context of AI? For instance, if AI can produce plausible theoretical claims in vast volumes, what role is there for the human theorist?
• How can we theorise new organisational phenomena and processes, reconsidering the role of objects (both physical and non-physical), real-time learning, and unsupervised analysis in contemporary technological contexts?
• How can we capture both stable and fluid aspects of organisational life and attend to invisible, marginalised, forgotten, or silent phenomena?
• What is the future of interdisciplinary research on organisations? For instance, in the light of ongoing (geo-)political tensions and conflicts, what are the opportunities and pitfalls of orienting organisation theory more towards political science or foreign relations?  How can science and technology studies enrich our understanding of AI? How can philosophy and ethics inform theories on truth, facts, and peaceful co-existence in and around organisations?
• What are the possibilities, limits and alternatives to current modes of theorising (e.g. constructs, mechanisms, boundary conditions, hypotheses, narratives, taxonomies, typologies, etc.) in the context of 'unsettledness'?
• How might emerging technologies and practices (artificial intelligence, machine learning, open science) play a role in organisation theory?  Should organisational scholars take up a specific angle or perspective on such technologies and their current and future impacts on work, organisations, and institutions? And how should we, as scholars, ourselves stay abreast of developments in this space (e.g., through collaborations with computer scientists) and/or incorporate such technologies into our own scholarship and research practices?
• How might we reconsider the balance between traditional research outlets (journals) and other forms of content and dissemination? What could be new, viable pathways for research-led impact and engagement?
• How can organisation theory be impactful and what are the uses and abuses of OT? What role should dissemination, outreach, and impact activities play in the future of organisation theory, and what is their importance for early- and mid-career scholars?

We particularly welcome participants in the early stages of their career (PhD students, post-doctoral researchers, and assistant professors) who would like to deepen their engagement with organisation theory and contribute to intellectual exchange in the field. Submissions in both early and later stages of development are invited (see below). We warmly welcome all research that addresses and seeks to contribute to forward-looking organisation theory, broadly construed, to encompass a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches.

Workshop programme

The workshop will be held over two and a half days from September 8^th to 10^th, 2026. The programme will include keynotes, panel discussions, sub-plenaries, and daily research development roundtables involving a variety of local and external faculty members.

In research roundtables, workshop participants receive in-depth and individualised feedback on their manuscripts or research projects from workshop faculty and peers. Led by senior editors from several management journals (e.g., AMLE, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Organization Theory), we will also discuss the current publishing landscape in light of our workshop theme.

Participating faculty members (in alphabetical order)

Grace Augustine (University of Bath)

Jose Bento da Silva (University of Warwick)

Maximilian Heimstädt (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg)

Amit Nigam (City St. George's, Bayes Business School)

Nelson Phillips (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Lorenzo Skade (European University Viadrina)

Violetta Splitter (University of Oxford)

Kathleen Stephenson (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

With support from ULMS faculty members, including Charlotte Croft, Damian O'Doherty, and Dennis Jancsary from WOM, and Joep Cornelissen and Mike Zundel from SIBE.

Application process

The Workshop is FREE to attend, and we are now accepting applications. Submissions are possible until the end of June 15^th, 2026. Please fill out the application form and submit a maximum 500-word abstract describing your research paper here:  https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/ZSRuppCYZp

We invite i) full paper submissions and ii) emerging ideas papers-particularly from PhD students in the early stages (research design, data collection) of their dissertation research. Note that in both cases, applications should provide a 500-word abstract only. However, please also indicate which submission you are planning in the application form.

Full paper submissions (max. 10,000 words) are due two weeks before the workshop date, on August 26^th. Participants sharing emerging ideas are expected to share an extended abstract (max. 4,000 words) by the same deadline.

We have a limited number of travel bursaries available for participants. Please indicate in your application if you would like to be considered for a travel bursary.

Key dates

June 15^th: Application deadline

June 20^th: Information of acceptance

August 26^th: Workshop Full Paper / Emerging Paper deadline.

September 8^th-10^th: Liverpool Organisation Theory Workshop

Workshop venue and travel

The workshop will be held at the University of Liverpool Management School. The University of Liverpool is a Russel Group research and teaching institution founded in 1881. University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS) is home to world-leading scholarship, with 240 academic staff, a thriving doctoral community, and strong international collaborations. Its mission is to generate transformative knowledge that improves business and society. ULMS and UofL will also host the annual EGOS Colloquium in 2027 under the theme 'The Games We Play: Re-writing the Rules of Organization?'.

Getting to Liverpool

The Liverpool City Region is served by two international airports - Liverpool and Manchester. For UK travellers, rail is a great way to travel, and Liverpool is effortlessly accessible by car and various coach networks.

For more details, see below:

Travel to Liverpool | VisitLiverpool

PLEASE SEND ALL INQUIRIES TO: lotw@liverpool.ac.uk

Workshop website 

Best regards,

Liverpool Organisation Theory Workshop Organising Committee

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Tomi Koljonen
University of Liverpool
LIVERPOOL
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