Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion DEI

86th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM 2026)
July 31–August 4, 2026 | Philadelphia, PA, USA
Symposium on Grievance Management in the Workplace

Workplace mistreatment, ranging from incivility and exclusion to bullying, harassment, and discrimination, remains a pervasive yet often misunderstood feature of organizational life. Employees differ widely in how they interpret, internalize, and respond to these experiences, as well as in the organizational responses they encounter.

This symposium seeks to bring together scholars examining the psychological, interpersonal, and institutional processes that shape how employees navigate experiences of interpersonal mistreatment and the grievance processes through which organizations respond, whether constructively, neglectfully, or harmfully. By bridging insights across organizational behavior, social psychology, and human resource management, this session aims to advance understanding of how employees and institutions make sense of, manage, or mismanage workplace harm.

We invite submissions that address topics such as:

• How employees experience and respond to mistreatment, including bullying, harassment, discrimination, or exclusion.

• The dynamics of formal and informal grievance processes and their organizational consequences.

• Psychological, relational, and career effects of speaking up, staying silent, or seeking justice.

• Leadership, power, and cultural factors that influence institutional responses to mistreatment.

• Cross-level or cross-cultural perspectives on organizational justice, retaliation, and repair.

This symposium welcomes conceptual, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method contributions that deepen our understanding of how employees and institutions navigate grievance-related harm and what justice, fairness, and safety mean in practice.

If you are interested in participating, please send a short abstract (1–2 pages) outlining your research question, theoretical framing, methods or planned approach, anticipated contribution, and fit with the symposium by Saturday, November 9, 2025.

Final long abstracts (up to 5 pages) will be due Friday, November 23rd, 2025.

For more information or to join the symposium, please contact Rose Brown at arb354@cornell.edu.