OM launches Theory Seminar Series to strengthen theoretical dialogue
The Department of Operations Management has launched a new recurring Theory Seminar Series aimed at strengthening theoretical dialogue across the department and deepening conversations about the ideas that underpin research.
The initiative emerged from discussions at the department’s annual OM Summer Seminar, where questions concerning theoretical foundations have repeatedly surfaced. The department draws on a wide range of traditions, including Transaction Cost Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, Systems Theory, Sensemaking Theory, Institutional Theory, Actor-Network Theory, Network Theory, Organizational Economics, and Decision Theory.
While this theoretical diversity is a major strength, it can also make dialogue across perspectives difficult. Theories often function as shorthand labels rather than as shared points of discussion. The seminar series therefore seeks to create a continuous forum for explicit conversations about theoretical assumptions, explanatory mechanisms, and research logics.
The first round consists of four seminars featuring eight theoretical papers. Rather than focusing on specific empirical OM settings, the papers address broader explanatory frameworks and conceptual relationships. A central ambition is to place different theories in dialogue with one another, encouraging participants to read papers comparatively and explore how alternative perspectives challenge, complement, and enrich each other.
Each seminar includes two presentations followed by breakout discussions and plenary conversations. Presenters will introduce the core elements of the selected theory, discuss what it explains, and reflect on how it offers a coherent account of organizational phenomena.
By establishing a dedicated space for theoretical exchange, the OM Theory Seminar Series aims to strengthen both the department’s intellectual coherence and its capacity for collective theorizing.
