CALL FOR ABSTRACTS FOR A DEVELOPMENTAL CONFERENCE
2ND PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS CONFERENCE
UNDERSTANDING HUMAN CAPITAL AS A VALUABLE AND VARIABLE ASSET
JUNE 25th AND 26th, 2009
Location: The <st1:placename w:st="on">Wharton</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Philadelphia</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:state></st1:place>
Date: 25th and 26th of June, 2009
OVERVIEW
Dating back to the industrial revolution, scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum have recognized human capital – people – as a highly variable factor of production. The management of people in and outside the boundaries of the firm continues to be a subject of inquiry in organizational behavior, human resource management, economics, strategy, industrial relations, and sociology. We believe that progress in our understanding of human capital in organizations will result from a lively interdisciplinary exchange from which we hope a new theoretical and empirical paradigm will emerge. To this end we hope to bring together scholars who are interested in micro, meso, and macro level issues in human capital and the employment relationship in a conference workshop to share and debate early stage research.
As human capital as a research focus has evolved in organizational behavior, human resource management, economics, strategy, industrial relations, and sociology, the topic has become constrained by a discipline-bounded set of substantive questions. For example, the strategic human resource management research stream suggests human resource systems affect organizational outcomes; yet scholars struggle to theorize and model the human capital mechanisms leading to firm heterogeneity and performance. The strategy literature, while recognizing the value creation potential of human capital, overestimates the asset's manageability by failing to consider the complexity and causal ambiguity of managing an asset embedded in individuals holding free will, emotions, mobility, and collective proclivities. The organizational theory literature recognizes the value and heterogeneity of human capital in organizations but often overlooks its manageability by focusing instead on path dependencies and institutional pressures of labor forces. The industrial relations literature tends to overemphasize the macro context and ignores organizational systems and managerial choices. Economics overemphasizes incentives; sociology overemphasizes constraints. Finally, the organizational behavior literature tends to view managerial issues through the lens of individual differences with scant attention to organizational context. By taking an interdisciplinary view of human capital, we can address the limitations of discipline-bound research and expand our understanding of human capital embedded in organizations.
GOALS AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF CONFERENCE
Our goal in organizing this conference is to bring together macro, meso, and micro as well as economic and behavioral scholars broadly interested in the study of human capital in an organizational context. Authors can expect to receive feedback in a traditional presentation setting and in small break-out sessions from both senior and junior scholars from a variety of disciplines. Opportunities for organized and informal networking will abound.
SUBMISSION
We invite abstracts for conceptual and empirical papers that explore the intersection of value, variability, and management of macro to micro human capital. As this is a developmental conference, papers should be no further than the stage of early drafts with preliminary data collection at the time of presentation. Please submit an abstract of 800 words or less by the deadline of November 13, 2008. Submit on-line to tim.gardner@vanderbilt.edu.
CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
Diane Burton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, burton@mit.edu
Ben Campbell, The Ohio State University, campbell@fisher.osu.edu
<st1:personname w:st="on">Tim Gardner</st1:personname>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Vanderbilt</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:placename></st1:place>, tim.gardner@vanderbilt.edu
Shad Morris, The Ohio State University, morris@fisher.osu.edu
CONFERENCE ADVISORY BOARD
Peter Cappelli, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:placename></st1:placetype></st1:place>
Russ Coff, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Emory</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:placename></st1:place>
Scott Snell, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Virginia</st1:placename></st1:placetype></st1:place>
EXAMPLES OF WORKS IN THE CONFERENCE SPACE
Boudreau, J. W. & Ramstad, P. M. 2007. Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital. <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>: <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Harvard</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Business</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> Press.
Cappelli, P. 2008. Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in the Age of Uncertainty. <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>: <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Harvard</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Business</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> Press.
Castilla. E. 2008. "Gender, Race, and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers." American Journal of Sociology 113 (6), 1479-1526.
Coff, R. W. 1997. "Human Assets and Management Dilemmas: Coping with Hazards on the Road to Resource-Based Theory." <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Management</st1:placename></st1:place> Review, 22(2), 374-402.
Godard, J. 2001. "High Performance and the Transformation of Work? The Implications of Alternative Work Practices for the Experience and Outcomes of Work." Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 54(4), 776-805.
Groysberg, B, Lee, L-E, & Nanda, A. 2008. "Can They Take It with Them? The Portability of Star Knowledge Workers' Performance: Myth or Reality." Management Science , 54, 1213-1230.
Hatch, N. W. & Dyer, J. H. 2004. "Human Capital and Learning as a Source of Sustainable Competitive Advantage." Strategic Management Journal, 25(12), 1155-1178.
Lepak, D. A. & Snell, S. A. 1999. "The Human Resource Architecture: Toward a Theory of Human Capital Allocation and Development." <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Management</st1:placename></st1:place> Review, 24(1), 31-48.
Madsen, T. L., Mosakowski, E., Zaheer, S. 2003. "Knowledge Retention and Personnel Mobility: The Nondisruptive Effects of Inflows of Experience." Organization Science, 14(2), 173-191.
Quinn, Ryan W. 2005. "Flow in Knowledge Work: High Performance Experience in the Design of National Security Technology." Administrative Science Quarterly. 50(4), 610-641.
Vallas, S. P. 2006. "Empowerment Redux: Structure, Agency, and the Re-Making of Managerial Authority." American Journal of Sociology 111(6), 1677-1717.
Sørensen, J. P. 2007. "Bureaucracy and Entrepreneurship: Workplace Effects on Entrepreneurial Entry." Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3), 387-412.
Wright, P. M., Smart, D. L., McMahan, G. C. 1995. "Matches Between Human Resources and Strategy Among NCAA Basketball Teams." <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Management</st1:placename></st1:place> Journal, 38(4), 1052-1074.
Benjamin A. Campbell
Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources
<st1:placename w:st="on">Fisher</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> of Business, The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ohio</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>
744 Fisher Hall, <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">2100 Neil Avenue</st1:address></st1:street>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Columbus</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">OH</st1:state></st1:place>. 43210
Phone: (614) 292-1747