Call for Submissions
Organization Development and Change Division (ODC)
2026 Call for Scholarly Program Submissions
Division Program Chair: James Vardaman, University of Memphis, USA
Division Program Vice Chair: Richard Hall, Monash University, Australia
The Organization Development and Change Division (ODC) invites your scholarly submissions for the 2026 Annual Meeting, with all symposia and paper sessions to be scheduled Sunday, 2 August through Tuesday, 4 August. As a Division, our focus is on how organizations develop and change. This year, we are particularly interested in exploring the implications of disruptive times for organizational development and change. At this year’s meeting, hosted in the vibrant city of Philadelphia, a place long associated with renewal, transformation, and even revolution, our collective exploration of development and change during disruptive times is a fitting tribute.
We invite you to consider questions such as the following:
- How do disruptive times constrain or enable the capacity for change?
- How do disruptive times facilitate or hinder organizational development?
- How do disruptive times influence the ways in which change recipients interpret organizational change?
- How do disruptive times influence the ways in which change recipients can or cannot be engaged in the process of organizational change?
- How do internal dynamics such as leadership, culture, or power structures influence the initiation and trajectory of change processes?
- In what ways do perceptions of urgency or necessity shape how organizations respond to external pressures for change?
- How do organizations balance reactive and proactive approaches when facing conditions that demand transformation?
- What role do values, identity, and purpose play in motivating and effectuating organizational change?
- How do organizations interpret and make sense of signals from their external environment that suggest a need for change?
- What mechanisms link micro-level experiences of employees to macro-level organizational or system-level transformation?
Paper submissions to the ODC division may address these and other topics at the macro, meso, or micro levels.
Successful submissions will feature innovative scholarship and/or applied ideas in keeping with the value our division places on rigor and relevance.
To submit to the ODC Division, please review the Submission Guidelines. The submission deadline is Tuesday, 13 January 2025 at 17:00 ET (GMT-5/UTC-5), but earlier submissions are strongly encouraged. Before writing your submission, we also encourage you to review the ODC Division domain and mission statements. Please contact the Program Chair, James Vardaman, and Vice Chair, Richard Hall, with any questions about scholarly submissions. There will be an online submissions workshop on Tuesday, 25 November 2025 at 11:00 ET that is welcome to all.
Finally, we encourage all those submitting scholarly proposals to sign up as reviewers for ODC! We are grateful to all who contribute to our community and the quality and vibrancy of our program by acting as reviewers for the ODC Division.
Most of all, we look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia!