Dear OB Division Members,

If you have ever wondered about how to launch, join, or grow a micro-community of likeminded scholars, we invite you to join a virtual fireside chat on April 17th. This live, virtual one-hour session will host organizers of existing OB micro communities sharing practical guidance and lessons learned along the way. Our session will feature a stimulating conversation between the panelists followed by audience Q&A.

The Micro-communities initiative is one way the OB Division shrinks our big community down to human scale. Through it, our division supports small, self-organized groups around shared interests, identities, regions of the world, or professional goals—creating space for meaningful conversations, ongoing engagement, and a stronger sense of belonging. Micro communities are a way for members to find “their” people and stay connected throughout the year.

Date: April 17
Time: 12:00–1:00 PM EST
Registration Link: https://aom-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/538TNJ9ITXmwwC7YzExFLg#/registration

Event Speakers

Bobbi Thomason, Professor, Pepperdine University
Bobbi Thomason hosts the Women of Organizational Behavior Writing Retreat, now in its 4th year in Malibu, California. The annual retreat creates a unique space where “the retreating is just as important as the writing. Where we don’t need to perform but rather have the chance to fill our cups. Where we welcome each other with nods and hugs and laughs and listening”. Bobbi will share invaluable insights on how to seed a community for yourself and others when there may not have been one in your home institution.

Jon Jachimowicz, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School.
Jon is the co-organizer of the May Meaning Meeting, a community of 30-50 meaning(ful) work scholars that has, to date, been referenced in the acknowledgements of over 100 publications. The community stays connected by meeting annually for a 3-day retreat in rotating, inspiring locales (e.g. a Colorado Dude Ranch in May 2026). Jon can especially offer advice on sustaining communities during transitions, as he recently took over the responsibility from Amy Wrzsesniewski who launched the micro community in 2003.

Rita Shea-Van Fossen, Professor, Nova Southeastern University
Rita Shea-Van Fossen is one of the organizers of the Women of OB Group. What started out as Facebook group to bring women scholars in our field together has since grown to include in person events such as the Join the Women of OB (WOB) roundtable, an in-person gathering to allows women in Organizational Behavior and related disciplines (like management, I/O psychology, leadership, etc.) to connect and discuss topics such as mentorship, career trajectory, and research in a safe space. Rita can share guidance on meeting in virtual spaces and how to keep such a large and diverse community flourishing.

Contact: For any questions or concerns about this event or the micro communities initiative please contact OB executive representatives Kira Schabram (schabram@psu.edu) or Chris Myers (cmyers@jhu.edu).

We hope you will join us for this engaging and practical discussion on strengthening our division through micro communities.

Dear OB Division Members,

We are seeking nominations for the 2026 AOM OB Doctoral Consortium (OBDC), which will take place in person at the Annual AOM conference in Philadelphia. It is tentatively scheduled for August 1, 2026, from 8:00 AM-5:00 PM local time. The Organizational Behavior Doctoral Consortium is designed for students who are entering the final year of their doctoral program, but who have not yet defended their dissertation (i.e., students who will be on the job market in Fall 2026 and who have made significant progress on their dissertation/thesis research).

The consortium includes a mix of presentations, panel discussions, and interactive sessions that have been designed to launch doctoral students into their academic careers. These faculty presentations, interactive panels with journal editors, and roundtable sessions will cover topics such as crafting the right academic job, acing the job talk, succeeding in research and publishing from the perspective of a panel of editors, and starting or participating in effective and inclusive collaborations. More than 50 faculty members have volunteered to speak and/or host roundtable discussions.

Selection Criteria Guiding Admissions Decisions. Admission priority will be given to students who:

• Will be actively on the academic job market during the 2026-2027 academic year,
• Have successfully completed all coursework (or equivalent) required by their doctoral program,
• Have successfully completed their program's required milestones such that they have reached the dissertation stage (e.g., passed qualifying/prelim/comprehensive exams, fulfilled paper or teaching requirements),
• Have demonstrated tangible progress toward their dissertation (e.g., collected data, defended their proposal, or have an estimated/scheduled date that is prior to the annual meeting), and
• Have the endorsement of their advisor(s) and/or the Ph.D. program leadership in their department.

Nomination Requirements. Nominations should be submitted by the students’ advisors or their Ph.D. program leadership, via the survey linked below. Only nominations submitted via this survey will be considered. There is no formal restriction on the number of students a program may submit. To promote inclusion and avoid unnecessary comparisons, we will accept multiple nominations from the same program. However, we request that programs only nominate students that meet the selection criteria (e.g., only nominate students who are in the final year of their doctoral program, as opposed to early-stage students who would be better served in a future year). In the case of space limitations, admission decisions will be made based on demonstrated progress toward the applicants’ dissertation and their research record.

The nomination survey will ask nominators to provide the following

1. The nominee’s one-page vita/bio in PDF format (longer documents may be rejected). Please name the file with the nominee's last name followed by ShortCV (e.g., BanduraShortCV.pdf).
2. The nominee’s one-page summary of dissertation/thesis research in PDF format (inclusion of title and abstract is fine; longer summaries may be rejected). Please name the file with the nominee's last name followed by Research (e.g., BanduraResearch.pdf).
3. Responses to questions related to admission criteria.
4. Confirmation of advisor/program endorsement.

Nomination Survey: When ready, please submit nominations here.

Nomination Deadline: Friday, April 24th, 2026 (11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time).

Please note that students may only attend the OBDC once during their Ph.D. studies. For questions, please contact Andreas Richter at a.richter@jbs.cam.ac.uk and/or Amy Bartels at amy.bartels@unl.edu .

We look forward to meeting and welcoming many of you to the 2026 OB Doctoral Consortium at AOM in Philadelphia!

Andreas Richter & Amy Bartels, Co-Chairs