Cummings Early to Mid-Career Scholarly Achievement Award

Sponsored by an OB Division endowment in the name of Larry Cummings, the Organizational Behavior Division recognizes the significant scholarly achievement during the early- to mid-career stage with the OB Division Cummings Early to Mid-Career Scholarly Achievement Award. This award, created in honor of the late Professor Larry Cummings, recognizes the scholarly achievement of an early- to mid-career scholar.

Sponsored by the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

The OB Division places a high value on Rigor, Relevance and Relationships. These guiding principles are relevant as criteria for the OB Division Career Awards for Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA) and Cummings Early to Mid-Career Scholarly Achievement Award (Cummings Award) in that we expect nominees to demonstrate the high standards expected in the field.

Rigor

The scientific quality and methodological soundness of the work. Our field is based on robust, reliable, and valid methodologies and results.

  • The stature of the nominee as a scientist vis-à-vis other prominent scientists in the field.

Relevance

The impact of their work on the field and society.

  • Centrality of their research to field of OB
  • Influence of the nominee’s contributions to the science of Organizational Behavior
    • The importance/significance of the contribution
    • Publishing high-impact articles in the very best journals
    • The impact that the work has had on the work of students and colleagues
    • Dissemination Recognize efforts to disseminate research findings to a wider audience, including industry professionals and the public

Relationships

Collaborative efforts, leadership and involvement within the field and community.

  • Engagement in Academic Community: Active participation in academic discussions, conferences, and collaborations with other scholars.
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Consider contributions of bridging academic disciplines and spanning boundaries between research traditions, scholarly conversations, or between different societal stakeholder groups.
  • Leadership & Service to the Profession: Evaluate contributions to the field, such as:
    • Leadership roles in the OB division and/or AOM
    • Editorial roles (serving as an action/associate editor of leading journals, serving on editorial boards of top journals)
    • Involvement in professional organizations related to organizational behavior
    • Involvement in community organizations that apply organizational behavior expertise
  • Mentorship: Recognize the mentorship of students and junior faculty, as well as the fostering of a collaborative and supportive research and learning environment.

Ethical Conduct

Nominees are expected to not violate AOM's values in their professional or personal behavior. If allegations of ethical misconduct are identified, nominees will be asked to defer until the issues are resolved and apply in a later year.

The winner for 2025: Jackson G. Lu (MIT Sloan School of Management)

Jackson G. Lu, Sloan School Career Development Associate Professor at MIT, is the recipient of the 2025 Cummings Scholarly Achievement Award. He exemplifies early-career excellence through groundbreaking research that has fundamentally challenged conventional understanding of workplace diversity and organizational behavior. Professor Lu's research on the "Bamboo Ceiling" has revolutionized understanding of Asian American workplace experiences. His work has revealed why East Asians face leadership underrepresentation despite educational success, identifying cultural assertiveness rather than discrimination as the primary mechanism. This work has been featured in over 300 media outlets including BBC, The Economist, and New York Times, demonstrating exceptional translation of academic insights to public discourse. 

Professor Lu’s work was characterized by the committee as rigorous, highly impactful, well-rounded and multidisciplinary, crossing wider topics of organizational behavior with culture and diversity. He has published extensively in our top journals and is the lead author on most of the articles, showing great thought leadership. His work puts communities to the forefront, highlighting their challenges and thereby adds impact to organizational behavior research, and his research has received high levels of media cover in the past. He has been very active in helping the profession, for example as senior editor at Organization Science. In the words of the committee, “If we are wanting to reward academics who excel in research, teaching, and service—then Jackson exemplifies this and then some. He is an excellent representative of our field.”

Past award winners: