Societal Impact Award

Sponsored by The University of Exeter 

Scholarly work with societal impact is both scientifically credible and useful to society; it produces societally beneficial knowledge that aims to make the world a better place.  This work will often address, but is not limited to, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, for example: health and well-being, income and social inequality, and the preservation of the environment. In order to both recognize and incentivize such work in organizational behavior, the OB Division is inviting nominations for the OB Division Award for Societal Impact.

 

This award recognizes a body of work, rather than a single conference submission or published article, given that scholarship addressing grand societal problems is often incredibly challenging, unfolding over many years of persistence. The work may be published in traditional research outlets; however, it can also be evidenced in monographs, policy papers, books, curriculum, or interventions that may not receive recognition in other forums. Yet, through its application of organizational behavior scholarship, it has the potential to change the world. The award winner will be announced at the Academy of Management conference.

 

To be eligible for this award, the scholar’s work must:

(1) Use organizational behavior knowledge to address problem(s) that relate to timely and important societal challenges in the business, economic, societal or environmental spheres

(2) Demonstrate strong credibility through rigorous methods, analysis, and/ or application

(3) Inform and provide actionable insights for policies or practices to improve the wellbeing and performance of people (employees, managers, customers, suppliers), organizations, and/ or societies.

The winner of 2024: Connie Wanberg

Connie’s research is marked by its approach to engaged scholarship, wherein she has worked with various government and organizational affiliates to conduct rigorous research that has been published in top journals while at the same time producing tools and approaches that have been adopted by government agencies, foreign countries, businesses, and consulting firms, and has thus had a direct impact on innumerable employees.


Past award winners: