CfP: ISSWOV Conference, Brașov, 2020

The International Society for the Study of Work & Organizational Values Conference „Work Values at the Confluence of Five Generations in the Workplace” will take place in Brașov, Romania from Sunday June 28th to Wednesday July 1st of 2020.

There is a growing concern about the gap between academic research and practice in the arena of Management. Researchers in the field are supposed to provide useful knowledge and tangible tools to practitioners that can help them to achieve the goals and missions of their firms, but some analysts suggest this is not happening nowadays. Academics develop knowledge and focus on topics not relevant to practitioners, and in the other side, practitioners develop solutions to the problems they face in the day-to-day of their organizations without considering the contributions of academic research. Clear evidence of these divergent paths is the case of what has been done regarding the multi-aged work force that exists in most organizations around the world.

Practitioners from their trenches have developed tools for boosting age diversity and enhancing intergenerational understanding, such as: facilitating cross-generational mentoring to improve knowledge transfer or raising awareness of intergenerational differences to improve team functioning. Academics from their side, had explored the existence of generational differences across age groups on widely studied variables in our field such as: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intent to turnover, or work ethics. Once a substantial body of research was accumulated, these studies were meta-analyzed and the results showed that meaningful differences among generations probably do not exist on these variables, and that the differences that appear to exist are likely attributable to factors different from generational membership, such as stereotypes employees develop about their peers in other age groups, or the conceptions regarding others’ beliefs about us based on our age group, called meta-stereotypes. All demographic trends suggest that the confluence of different generations in the workplace will be a constant in the coming decades, being this scenario a great opportunity for Organizational Science researchers to explore the role of values and work values on these biased perceptions about peers from different age groups. This potential body of knowledge could help practitioners to deal with their constant challenge of boosting age diversity and improving intergenerational convivence.

Following the tradition of ISSWOV conferences, our 2020 conference in Brasov will welcome all research initiatives related to our central theme, but also to any other current topic related directly or indirectly to work and organizational values, such as: (but not limited to): ethics, organizational culture, job attitudes, human resource management, leadership, diversity, future of work, etc., as well as methodological papers that provide new tools or approaches to improve research designs, data collection and analysis, etc.

Scholars interested in presenting their empirical papers in the conference are required to submit an extended abstract of their proposals before midnight of January 24th 2020.

Proposals submissions will be done through the Conftool platform. Submit your abstract here.

More information on conference website.