941: Expertise in and Around Organizations: Taking Stock and Moving Forward (15923)

Management scholars have a long-standing interest in expertise, a phenomenon, and a concept with significant consequences for important individual, group, organizational, occupational, and institutional practices and outcomes. Organizational research has so far approached the topic from various perspectives that draw on rich and varied traditions of studying expertise across social and behavioral sciences. However, challenges around conceptual and definitional clarity, as well as unclear distinctiveness from related concepts like knowledge, skill, and learning, may hinder the value of the concept in studying important contemporary phenomena that shape and are shaped by expertise. Experts and expertise also face significant contestation and change, due to phenomena including, but not limited to, emerging technologies like generative artificial intelligence and automation; media issues like mis- and disinformation; and political trends such as populism and polarization. It is, therefore, imperative to take stock of how expertise has been considered in organizational research, and further, chart a way forward for future research. By taking stock of previous research and exploring new avenues for inquiry in contemporary organizations, our PDW thus aims to focus on how management and organization scholars can study expertise in and around organizations and contribute to organization and management theory. Our PDW will stimulate discussion and reflection on this question through presentations and a panel discussion. Through facilitated roundtables, we will encourage new scholars to engage with the study of expertise, and throughout the program, build community around the study of expertise in and around organizations.