Relevant AOM Divisions/Interest Groups: OMT, ODC, OSCM, MH, IM
This track invites theoretically informed and empirically robust research examining how service organisations are designed, structured, and governed in contexts characterised by relational intensity, emotional labour, professional autonomy, and temporal complexity. Contributions are encouraged that move beyond traditional structural models to explore emerging organisational forms, governance architectures, and institutional arrangements shaping contemporary service work.
Illustrative Sub-Themes
- Governance challenges in hospitality and tourism organisations, including seasonal labour, migrant workforces, and multi-site coordination
- Post-bureaucratic and hybrid organisational forms, including networked, platform-based, and multi-lateral structures in service settings.
- Self-managing, team-based, and professional service organisations, with attention to coordination, accountability, trust, and distributed authority.
- Historical evolution of service organising, including archival, comparative, and longitudinal examinations of how service organisations and management models have developed over time.
- Institutional complexity and governance mechanisms, including plural institutional logics, stakeholder accountability, and cross-sectoral governance in service ecosystems.
Indicative Research Questions
- How should organisational structures be designed to support relational, emotional, and time-intensive forms of work?
- To what extent are classical bureaucratic models viable in contemporary service environments?
- How have historical trajectories of service organising shaped present-day management practices and structural assumptions?
- How do service organisations navigate institutional complexity, conflicting logics, and multi-stakeholder governance demands?