Montreal, August 6-10, 2010

Dare to Care: Passion and Compassion in Management Practice and Research

What does the Meeting Theme mean: The theme of the 2010 meeting in Montreal is to encourage members of the Academy of Management to consider the role of “caring，passion, and compassion ” in our activities of teaching, research, service, and practice.

The economic crisis that engulfed the world in 2008 made evident the ways in which many corporations and their managers have not shown enough care of their stakeholders, including not only employees, customers, suppliers, the communities, and the environment, but also their shareholders. At the same time, the contributions of millions of hard working, honest, decent, and caring managers and companies have gone unnoticed and unappreciated. The theme encourages us to consider the implications for research and practice if the manager’s role is to enhance the wellbeing of, and generate value for, all the stakeholders (including customers, employees, investors, and the public) and not only for themselves. What possibilities can we imagine if and when managers truly integrate passion for their work with compassion for others impacted by their work? What kinds of teaching content and pedagogy might we experiment if we are to motivate our students to think about contribution or value creation rather than salary as a measure of career success? How would we approach service to or in our professional communities if passion and compassion define our mission? How would our scholarly pursuit be different if passion and compassion define our scholarly endeavors?
How you can contribute to the 2010 program:  You can contribute by submitting scholarly papers, symposia, caucus, and professional development workshops that discuss and debate the role of passion and compassion, or caring, in management practice and management research. Papers might explore how the world of business might be different when leaders have compassion for their followers, when managers have compassion for their customers, when employees have compassion for their fellow workers and their leaders, or when firms have compassion for the communities that support them. Symposia might consider how the nature of competition and cooperation between and within industries may change when compassion becomes a factor in inter-firm relationships. Professional development workshops might address how the world of scholarship could be different if researchers have passion for their studies and routinely incorporated compassion for managers and students in their choice of research topics. How do passion and compassion commingle in the classroom? What are the antecedents and consequences (positive or negative) of decisions or actions that integrate passion and compassion by employees, managers, teachers, or scholars?

Consider putting together a symposium that can inform managers and students who wish to better understand why and how “passion and compassion” matters or not. Write a paper that proposes new research directions for people in your area of specialization. Organize a Professional Development Workshop (PDW)  to consider the implications of the theme for educational activities. Organize a Caucus to launch a new research project that examines outcomes that may emerge when a firm cares about its customers, employees and the community at large. Do you have connections to a “compassionate” organization in or near Montreal, where the conference will be held? Consider involving them in our 2010 conference. For example, you might invite a manager to participate in a symposium or propose an off-site PDW to be held at the organization to share its unique practices.

Divisional and All Academy Theme Programs: If your proposals are of particular relevance to the members of a division, interest group, or committee (teaching, practice, or international), you should submit them to the appropriate Program Chair or PDW Chair. Proposals that are theme-related but of interest to colleagues from a very broad range of divisions and interest groups should be submitted to the All-Academy Theme (AAT) Program Chair, Joshua Margolis ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) For more details about All-Academy Theme program, see Joshua Margolis’ article  in this newsletter. 

Montreal as a city of passion and compassion: Montreal is an ideal city to reflect the theme. It is a city whose citizens are passionate about life as well as compassionate in their actions. Montreal is known for its gourmet tastes, world class Festivals- including the International Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, Osheaga Music and Arts Festival and numerous international movie festivals- and laid back “work to live not live to work” culture. In addition to a passion for food and the arts, Montreal also presents residents and visitors with an array of sporting events to attend including Montreal Canadians hockey games, Montreal Impact soccer matches, Montreal Alouettes football games and the annual Rogers Cup Masters tennis tournament (played directly after the Academy conference in 2010). Montreal is also a compassionate city, with a deep rooted social consciousness and tradition of supporting the less privileged. Further, Montreal is leading the way in its concern about the environment, as it becomes one of the most bicycle friendly cities in North America with over 5,000 bicycles available for rent. The Local Arrangements Committee is hard at work putting together opportunities for AOM 2010 attendees to participate in both the culture that Montreal residents are so passionate about as well as to give back to the community through exciting service projects.

2010 Theme on AOMConnect: Interested but not sure how to get started? We have created an AOM Connect group for all things related to the 2010 Annual Meeting. The group name is 2010 AOM Annual Meeting . You can ask a question, provide an answer, make a suggestion, start a discussion, write a blog, form a group, develop a proposal, or find a collaborator.  The possibilities are endless in using this professional network tool to identify and develop ideas for the 2010 meeting in all aspects. 

Submission Deadline: The deadline for submission is January 14, 2010, at 5:00 PM EST (New York Time) for PDW proposals, papers and symposia.  The deadline for caucus proposals are March 9, 2010 at 5:00 PM EST.  To submit or learn more about plans for the 2010 conference in Montreal, go to AOM 2010 Annual Meeting website.

I hope you are as excited about the 2010 theme as I am. Let us work together to make the next year’s meeting in Montreal a special one that we will all remember for years to come. Your creative and active participation will ensure it, so get involved now! Let us put our passion into it and let our compassion shine!

Anne S. Tsui
Vice President and Program Chair
Arizona State University and Peking University