Welcome to a new edition of the "Using Philosophical Methods in Management Scholarship" PDW!
At the AOM Annual Meeting 2026, we will be meeting on Sunday, Aug 2, 8:00AM - 9:30AM ET (GMT-4/UTC-4) at Loews, in Commonwealth B.
This Professional Development Workshop explores how philosophical methods can advance management scholarship by offering new ways to think about decision-making, responsibility, and moral agency in organizations. Drawing on moral theory, political philosophy, and applied ethics, the workshop will examine how the value of choice can inform fair and transparent managerial practices such as hiring and interviewing; how republican conceptions of liberty can reorient corporate social responsibility from performative dialogue toward genuine corporate accountability and restraint; and how ethical principles of rescue and moral obligation can extend to domains of leisure and stakeholder engagement. By engaging these philosophical perspectives, participants will explore how methods such as conceptual analysis, normative reasoning, and thought experiments can enrich empirical research and stimulate innovative approaches to organizational challenges. The workshop invites scholars to collectively reimagine the role of philosophy in shaping management theories, policies, and practices that respond to complex societal problems.
The Organizers are Marian Eabrasu (EM Normandie) and Cristina Neesham (Swinburne University / Newcastle University UK).
Our Guest Speakers this year are:
· Vikram R. Bhargava (George Washington University): What remains important for managers to do-even if AI becomes better than them?
· Matthew Caulfield (Fordham University): Reinterpreting the governance and deployment of CSR initiatives through the value of republican liberty and the political philosophy of constitutional restraint
· Carson E. Young (SUNY Brockport): The methodology of an 'ecumenical' approach to applied philosophical ethics, with a focus on pluralism and reflective equilibrium.
Our Facilitators will be Amy Sepinwall and Michaela Lobo (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania).
We look forward to seeing you there! Don't miss out!
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Cristina Neesham
Newcastle University Business School /
Swinburne School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship
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