MAOM is pleased to announce the Paper Development Workshop, Foundations of Qualitative Research Design, which will take place on June 3–5, 2026, at Hotel Maestral in Pržno, Montenegro, as part of the 8th International Conference on Management and Organization, to be held June 3–6, 2026. The workshop is organized by Ted Paterson, Co-Editor of the Journal of Business Research (OB/HRM Track), and Ivana Milošević, Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Research (OB/HRM Track).
The purpose of the workshop is to provide guidance on developing qualitative research papers that meet the JBR quality standards. The main focus will be on discussing key flaws that limit the publishability of qualitative research studies, such as failing to specify a clear central phenomenon and to ground it in relevant theory, and using qualitative and quantitative data interchangeably. In addition, editors will discuss the standards for high-quality qualitative research: Asking appropriate research questions, carefully designing a comprehensive study that can indeed answer those questions, collecting and analyzing data following best practices, presenting findings in a clear and compelling way, and (of course) connecting those findings to a contribution to a larger theoretical conversation.
Participation in the workshop is competitive. Scholars interested in attending are invited to submit a 2-page proposal, excluding references, by April 30 2026.
Submissions must be made via email to: info@maom.org. Please include Paper Development Workshop – Montenegro 2026 in the subject line.
To be considered for the workshop, proposals must include the following elements:
- Clearly defined central phenomenon (concept, process, event). Unlike quantitative research that focuses on understanding how concepts are related, qualitative studies focus on 1 central phenomenon (See Rouse et al., 2025). What is the one key phenomenon that the study hopes to explore?
- Theoretical grounding: a brief (1-2 paragraphs) discussion of the relevant literature. What literature/theory has explored this central phenomenon, and what are the central findings (that is, what do we currently know about the central phenomenon – See Dorobantu et al., 2025)?
- Clear research question. Based on the preliminary understanding of the literature, what is the specific research question that the study will explore (See Sandberg & Alvesson, 2011)?
- Planned research methodology (case study, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, or narrative inquiry – See also Gehman et al., 2018; Howard-Grenville et al., 2021).
- Context description and sample.
We encourage scholars interested in strengthening their qualitative research designs to submit a proposal and take part in this workshop.