Call for Papers
Theme:

Institutions and Organizations: A Process View General process-oriented and theme-focused papers are invited

Conveners:

Trish Reay, University of Alberta, Canada (trish.reay@ualberta.ca)
Tammar Zilber, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (tammar.zilber@mail.huji.ac.il)
Ann Langley, HEC Montreal, Canada (ann.langley@hec.ca)
Haridimos Tsoukas, University of Cyprus, Cyprus & University of Warwick, UK (process.symposium@gmail.com)

Keynote Speakers:

Stephen R. Barley, Christian A. Felipe Professor of Technology Management, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA
Francesca Polletta, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Irvine, USA
Ted Schatzki, Professor of Philosophy and Geography, University of Kentucky, USA

Rationale: What is Process Organization Studies?

Process Organization Studies (PROS) is a way of studying organizations that is grounded on process metaphysics – the worldview that sees processes, rather than substances, as the basic forms of the universe. A process view:

• Rests on a relational ontology, a performative epistemology, and a dynamic praxeology.
• Focuses on becoming, change, and flux, and pays particular attention to forms of agency
• Prioritizes process over outcome, activity over product, change over persistence, novelty over stasis, open-endedness over determination.
• Invites us to acknowledge, rather than reduce, the complexity of the world and, in that sense, it is animated by what philosopher Stephen Toulmin called an “ecological style” of thinking.

Purpose, Venue, and Organization

The aim of the Symposium is to consolidate, integrate, and further develop ongoing efforts to advance a sophisticated process perspective in organization and management studies.

PROS is an annual event, organized in conjunction with the annual series Perspectives on Process Organization Studies (published by Oxford University Press), and it takes place in a Greek island, in June every year. Topics in the last three years have included: “Organization routines: How they are created, maintained and changed”, “Skilful performance: Enacting expertise, competence, and capabilities in organizations”, and “Dualities, dialectics, and paradoxes in organizational life” (details of all Symposia so far can be seen at www.processsymposium.com).

Around 100 papers are usually accepted, following a review of submitted abstracts by the conveners. PROS is renowned for offering participants the opportunity to interact in depth, exchange constructive comments, and share insights in a stimulating, relaxing, and scenic environment.

The Ninth Symposium will take place on 22-24 June 2017, at the Helona Resort, Kos, Greece (http://www.helona-resort.com). It will be preceded by Pre-Symposium Workshops on 21 June 2017. The Symposium venue, modern, comfortable, and situated in a beautiful location by the sea, will provide an ideal setting for participants to relax and engage in creative dialogues.

The Symposium is organized in two tracks – a General Track and a Thematic Track. Each track is described below.

1. The General Track includes papers that explore a variety of organizational phenomena from a process perspective.
2. The Thematic Track includes papers addressing the particular theme of the Symposium every year.

For 2017 the theme is:

Institutions and Organizations: A Process View

Aim

The aim of the Pre-Symposium PDW is to provide a stimulating and interactive context for researchers (especially junior and early-career scholars) to further develop their ideas and projects. More specifically, the Workshop is designed to enable participants to: (a) refine their understanding of process thought; (b) share with others some of the methodological and theoretical challenges they have encountered in conducting, theorizing, and teaching process research, or putting process insights to practice in organizations; and (c) elicit/offer suggestions about how researching, theorizing, teaching and practicing process may be further advanced.

Invitation for papers

We particularly invite submissions of extended abstracts from researchers who have papers at an early stage of writing and would like helpful feedback as to how their papers may be further developed and published. Such submissions will be presented and extensively discussed in a roundtable format.

Panel Discussions

I. Process Research Methods
Philippe Lorino, ESSEC Business School, France
Trish Reay, University of Alberta, Canada
Tammar Zilber, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

II. Making institutional theory processual

Tim Hallett, Indiana University, USA
Renate Meyer, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Mark de Rond, University of Cambridge Judge Business School, UK

Submissions

General process-oriented papers, theme-focused papers, as well as PDW papers are invited. Interested participants must submit an extended abstract of about 1000 words for their proposed contribution by January 31st, 2017 through the following link: http://www.process-symposium.com/abstractsubmitform/abstractsubmitform.html The submission should contain authors’ names, institutional affiliations, email and postal addresses, and indicate the Track for which the submission is made (General or Thematic), or whether the submission is intended for the PDW. Authors will be notified of acceptance or otherwise by March 6th, 2017. Full papers will be submitted by June 5th, 2017.

Registrations will be done online through www.easyconferences.org.