My Presidency of the Academy of Management: Moral Responsibility, Leadership, Governance, Organizational Change, and Strategy

Abstract

I was the President of the Academy of Management (AOM) in 2016-2017 when U.S. President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order banning immigration and travel to the United States by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries (EO13769). While I immediately sought to condemn EO13769 as immoral and as a threat to the AOM, I was only able to issue a condemnation in my own name and not in the name of the AOM because the Board’s Executive Committee correctly determined that a condemnation would have violated the AOM Constitution. This put me in the untenable position of leading an organization operating under principles that conflicted with my personal beliefs about an immoral act of government. The article is a case study on this situation. In it, I explain how EO13769 and other attacks on science threaten the purpose and functioning of the AOM. The case explores a relatively understudied aspect of leadership: the identity of an organization as distinct from the identity of its leader. It also underscores the importance of strengthening democratic institutions of science. I argue that the issuance of statements of condemnation—while important—does not exhaust our responsibilities in society as scholars for investigating, reporting, defending, and protecting the truth about what is going on in the world around us. I conclude by calling us to redouble our commitment to a defining purpose of the AOM, which is to support the scholarship necessary to overcome polarizing politicization of complex social issues.