Introductory Guide to AOM and the Annual Meeting
The following guide is a brief overview and user manual for first-time attendees of the Academy of Management’s Annual Meeting. This guide was first written by AOM member Alan Meyer in 2012 as “A Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Academy of Management” to orient a group of 25 young African scholars who were about to make their first visit to the Annual Meeting, and assumes that the reader had no familiarity with AOM or attending a large, academic conference.
Thank you Alan for your inspiration in guiding our new members!
The Invisible College
The Academy of Management mirrors the concept of an Invisible College, a philosophy that dates to the 17th century as a small community of interacting scholars who often met face-to-face, exchanged ideas, and encouraged each other. AOM’s global members often meet and network virtually but come together in person at the Annual Meeting, promoting scholarly relationships and discussions that elevate members’ voices and seek to amplify their ideas. This collective engagement of members makes AOM a valuable professional network.
Get to Know Your Community
Divisions and Interest Groups (DIGs)
AOM is designed as a “big tent” with many “small houses”. AOM is home to 26 Divisions and Interest Groups (DIGs) that represent the main areas of management theory, research, teaching, and practice. Each DIG organizes its own specialized set of activities that align with member interests.
Membership allows you to join two Divisions and/or Interest Groups with the option to join additional DIGs at a nominal cost. DIGs reflect a broad range of member interests within various management disciplines and provide collegial collective relationships among members within a particular subject area who share similar aspects of research, interests, and professional scholarship.
Many new members find it useful to join a large home disciplinary DIG and a smaller, specialized DIG.
The biggest DIGs are Organizational Behavior (OB), Strategic Management (STR), and Organization and Management Theory (OMT). But there are lots of smaller, more specialized divisions as well.
DIGs offer resources such as professional development opportunities, recognition programs, career mentoring, virtual events, and member communications specific to each DIG. If you don’t immediately spot a DIG that resonates with your own interests, read each DIG’s domain statement to get a better understanding. You may find that the DIGs have a wider, and more inclusive, scope than their names first suggest.
A DIG is the “intellectual home” for AOM members, and there are nearly 30,000 member connections between AOM’s DIGs.
Following the Meeting, Connect@AOM provides virtual access to enhanced engagement, knowledge-sharing resources, and a centralized calendar of events.
How the Annual Meeting Program is Created
Pulling It All Together
Session Types
Volunteering
AOM is a volunteer-driven organization. More than 7,000 volunteers contribute to the network that drives AOM’s journals, governance, annual meeting, and other activities.
Volunteers are responsible for most of AOM’s governance. AOM is governed by 14 elected officers and the Executive Director, who serve on the Board of Governors, and each DIG is governed by its own group of elected leaders.
As a new member, keep an eye out for opportunities to get involved with your DIGs. DIGs are always looking for people who are willing to review papers submitted for presentation or publication, serve on small committees (e.g., awards committees) or who have a skill they’d like to put to use (e.g., editing the DIG’s newsletter or serving as a DIG treasurer).
