18th Annual People and Organizations Conference

The People and Organizations Conference brings together leading scholars from across disciplines to explore cutting-edge, macro-level research on the nature of work and employment. Now in its 18th year, the conference continues to serve as a vibrant forum for interdisciplinary exchange among researchers in organization theory, industrial relations, economics, political science, sociology, and strategy.

We aim to support a growing community of scholars who are advancing theory and empirical insights around the evolving world of work. The conference has become known for both its scholarly rigor and its commitment to fostering thoughtful dialogue across fields.

— Topics and Themes —

Representative papers from past years have included studies exploring the effects of workplace practices on organizational performance, the causes and consequences of worker mobility, the nature of inequality within workplaces, the impact of gender on employment outcomes and careers, and the role of social networks in shaping employment outcomes. Human and social capital issues related to business strategy and performance have also become a common theme.

Among topics of particular interest are:

• New developments in work and employment relationships
• The effects of organizational employment practices on firm performance and worker outcomes
• The structure and determinants of careers in and across modern workplaces
• New insights on inequality in the workplace

In addition to a plenary program, we plan to continue our practice of roundtable sessions for specialized topics or works in progress.

Submission Instructions: Your abstract (maximum 800 words) should summarize your theoretical or empirical argument, discuss how it relates to the relevant literature and/or an extant debate, spell out the quantitative or qualitative methodology (if your paper is empirical), and highlight your key findings and/or the implications of your work. For empirical papers, a brief overview of at least preliminary results will help our process.

We select papers from the conference through a process of blind review. Unfortunately, space constraints mean we cannot accommodate all submissions.

Authors of accepted submissions will be notified by the end of July.

— Event Timing and Format —

The conference will take place over two days, beginning with registration and refreshments on Friday, September 19 from 9:30 to 10:30 AM ET. Programming continues on Saturday, September 20, starting with breakfast at 8:00 AM ET, followed by a full day of presentations and concluding with a conference wrap-up at 4:00 PM ET.

Questions? For questions about the conference or submissions, please contact center-for-hr@wharton.upenn.edu.