This week I participated in the EGOS annual colloquium, as well as the PhD workshop preceding it. This year, Rotterdam School of Management organized and hosted EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies).
Pre-colloquium PhD workshop
The PhD workshop was organized by Markus A. Höllerer (University of New South Wales), Ola Bergsröm (University of Gothenburg), and Magdalena Cholakova (Erasmus University Rotterdam). During this two-day event, we reflected upon the practices of academic reviewing and publishing (with Frank den Hond and Gerry George), as well as how we can make our research more interesting (with Mats Alvesson). We further discussed the different career opportunities and paths after the PhD (a.o. with Pursey Heugens, and a panel of junior and senior researchers).
I had the opportunity to discuss my dissertation research with a groups of fellow PhDs and Georg Raab from Tilburg university. The feedback really helped me in developing some ideas to further develop the last study of my dissertation, which I’ll be working on during my time in New York. Moreover, Georg invited me to visit his department after my return from NY to present my research! 🙂 The two days of sessions were quite intensive but also very inspiring and I learned many things. We had a nice group of international PhD students together, and after the dinner at the end of the second day, we went to the city centre for some drinks.
Unsettling boundaries: Practices of inter-organizational collaboration
On Thursday, my alarm went off rather early, since it would be a busy day. It was my first night at the Rotterdam Student Hotel. This is where I stayed the rest of the week, to attend the official part of the EGOS conference. After a double espresso and nice breakfast, I made the last preparations for the day. I Reviewed the last paper for which I was a discussant and went through my presentation one more time. Then it was up to RSM. I was the first presenter in the sub-stream on unsettling boundaries in practices of inter-organizational collaboration, organized by Kristina Lauche (Radboud University Nijmegen), Hans Berends (VU University Amsterdam), and Paul Carlile (Boston University).
Again we had a really nice group of researchers together. Many familiar faces… research colleagues I had met in previous conferences and summer schools. I was quite nervous from my presentation since the work of some of the people present had been a big inspiration in my research, and I didn’t know how they would respond to my presentation. After kicking off, luckily my nerves soon tempered and the presentation went well. In the discussion that followed I received some good points for further developing the paper and many enthusiastic responses!
In the different sessions we elaborated upon the different facets of inter-organizational collaboration, exploring cross-boundary practices of how and why collaboration is initiated, maintained, negotiated, and transformed. We discussed different perspectives on inter organizational collaboration, it’s emergence and decline, the role of time and space, as well as knowledge and boundaries. Next to various methodological approaches, the many interesting presentations also shed light on the various sectors where inter organizational collaboration (e.g. healthcare, emergency response, MNCs, international development, science-industry) is a well-known phenomenon.
I really enjoyed the week in Rotterdam, and hopefully we will all come back together in two years to continue our joint sense making on this important subject matter!
Greetje "Gretta" Corporaal 