Academy of Management: Why conversations matter more than ever

Each summer, thousands of management researchers from around the world gather for the Academy of Management (AOM) annual meeting. It is the largest and most influential conference in the field, bringing together researchers whose work shapes the future direction of businesses and organisations. 

Our academics will be presenting at this year’s conference, the 86th AOM, hosted in Philadelphia. It’s always an achievement having a research paper accepted, such is the rigorous review process, and importantly, the value of attending and presenting at AOM is not only about conveying new ideas but having those ideas tested, challenged and developed through conversation.

Bringing together experts allows those debates to happen in real time. New collaborations emerge, assumptions are questioned and unexpected research directions form. That exchange of ideas is one reason that conferences like AOM continue to play such an important role in advancing knowledge.

For our business school, these conversations matter because they ultimately improve the research we produce and the impact it can have beyond academia. Strong international networks enable researchers to tackle increasingly complex challenges that no single institution or discipline can solve alone, generating new perspectives and greater ambitions.

This year’s conference also comes at a particularly significant moment for management as a discipline. Few topics loom larger than artificial intelligence. AI is already changing how organisations allocate resources, make decisions and support employees. It presents enormous opportunities, but also profound questions about leadership, judgement and responsibility.

At the University of Exeter Business School, these are questions we believe must be addressed alongside another defining challenge of our time: environmental sustainability. Political priorities may shift, but the climate crisis has not disappeared. The wildfires in Europe this summer and the extreme weather experienced in the UK only underlines the importance of building organisations that are resilient, responsible and capable of responding to long-term environmental change.

These two themes – technological transformation and environmental sustainability – are deeply connected. And as organisations increasingly adopt AI and other emerging technologies, the need for responsible leadership, another central focus for research at the University of Exeter Business School,  becomes even greater. Technology can deliver answers quickly, but good leadership requires more than speed. It demands judgement, empathy and an understanding of the wider consequences of decisions.

That is why our mission remains unchanged. We will continue to champion responsible leadership and the thoughtful application of new technologies in the context of environmental change. Conferences such as the Academy of Management provide an invaluable opportunity to test our ideas with leading scholars from around the world, while learning from their perspectives in return and collectively searching for better answers to the complex problems organisations face.