Call for Papers for the 9th International Workshop on Insights in Organizational Justice and Behavioural Ethics (IWOJBE)

Organizational justice, fairness at work and behavioral ethics are central concerns in management scholars’ understanding of workplace dynamics and efforts to create sustainable workplaces. Justice and fairness perceptions are intricately linked to power dynamics (Cook & Hegtvedt, 1986). Power shapes the distribution and framing of rewards in social systems, driving both outcomes and concerns related to organizational justice (Bashshur et al., 2023; Fortin & Fellenz, 2008; Monin, 2013). Despite the understanding of its importance, the integration of power and justice research remains sparse. In 1986, Cook and Hegtvedt observed that “few studies address the link between power and justice” (p. 32). A decade later, Molm et al. (1994) pointed out that “social psychologists have been curiously silent about the relation between structural power and perceptions of justice” (p. 98). While some studies on power and justice have started to fill this important gap (cf., Brockner et al., 2021; Tripp, 1993; Blader and Chen, 2012), our understanding remains relatively limited. To address this long held call and pull the field toward areas where they can answer these longstanding questions, we want to create a space that energizes the study of power and dependencies in relation to fairness, justice and ethics.

The theme of the 9th Workshop on Organizational Justice and Behaviorial Ethics focuses on these power dynamics. We currently live in a world that has both made incredible strides to address power imbalances in certain domains, while also facing fierce and growing differences and inequalities. Given this evolving landscape, we think the time is right to explore more deeply how issues related to various forms of power influence ethical outcomes and perceptions of justice and fairness. Power dynamics are important in how they can be investigated at the individual level, at the group and organizational level, and at a wider social and institutional level. The motivation behind this conference is to find ripe areas and novel ideas that help contribute to concerns regarding the “right” or “fair” thing to do as various social, economic, and political issues divide individuals and communities. Here are a few examples of topics of interest:

• How do individuals, employees, workers, and consumers make sense of power differentials, understand or reason about their relative (lack of) power, and manage power dynamics?
• How are social exchanges within teams, departments, organizations and markets impacted by power concerns and how do these power dynamics shape conceptualizations of justice or ethics?
• How do managers and leaders as justice recipients and actors, and others in positions of power and influence, navigate their discretion, responsibility and power?
• How do NGOs, governments, and social institutions understand and pursue justice in their operations or struggle with ethical perspectives in their work?
• How can justice and behavioral ethics scholars make sense of the dire state of democracy, the “age of cynicism” in which we live in, and widespread feelings of powerlessness, xenophobia, neo-fascist beliefs, and social unrest?
• How do changes in social and economic inequality influence power dynamics that individuals might feel and seek to address?

Our call is open to various ideas related to social, environmental, and organizational justice and ethics. This call is intentionally broad, allowing researchers from different domains, backgrounds and methods to exchange perspectives and develop new and important insights to help address issues and developments we are grappling with broadly as a society. We invite contributions with different empirical approaches (qualitative, quantitative, experimental) and across multiple disciplines (psychology, sociology, business etc.). Theoretical papers are also welcome if they make a novel contribution that helps develop ideas related to justice, fairness, and behavioral ethics more broadly. 

The workshop will be limited to a small group of active scholars and provide a dynamic setting for discussion, feedback, development of new research ideas, and building collaborative relationships. We consider early- stage papers as well as fully developed manuscripts. The most important requirement is a willingness to share ideas and learn from one another.

Submissions and Key Dates

• 30 January 2026: Submission of paper title, author list, and an abstract of around 500 words.
• End of February 2026: Notification of acceptance/rejection of abstracts.
• 15 May 2026: Submission of final papers – full papers (15-20 pages) are invited, although given the nature and aims of the workshop, more developmental papers (8-10 pages) are also welcome.

All submissions, and any other enquiries, should be done electronically and directed to Constanze.Eib@hhs.se and Wiley.Wakeman@hhs.se.

(No!) Registration Fees

There is no fee for attending and presenting at the workshop. However, we ask all who have a paper accepted, and who intend to be present at the workshop to formally register. 

Organizing committee

Constanze Eib and Wiley Wakeman, Stockholm School of Economics

Scientific committee

Chris Bell, Schulich School of Business, Canada

Marjo-Riitta Diehl, Aalto University School of Business, Finland

Constanze Eib, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

Marion Fortin, TSM-Research, Toulouse Capitole University, France

Caroline Manville, TSM-Research, Toulouse Capitole University, France

Marc Ohana, Kedge Business School, France 

David Patient, Vlerick Business School

Abiola Sarnecki, Wiesbaden Business School, Germany

Wiley Wakeman, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden