Best Paper Award
Each year, as part of its ongoing effort to promote top quality research on organizational issues concerning professionals, the Journal of Professions and Organization selects an outstanding paper, along with two runners up. The Best Paper Awards, along with a $500 prize for the winner and $250 for each for the runners up, are sponsored by the Professional Service Firms hub at Oxford Saïd.
JPO’s editors and editorial board members select the best papers from those submitted in the past year and the winners are usually announced at the Professional Service Firms annual conference.
In selecting the winner, the editorsreflect on JPO’s ambitions to combine perspectives of professionalism and organization, and take into consideration the technical quality of the paper, the contribution to theory, and the empirical significance of the paper’s findings. They will also consider such factors as innovation, significance to the research community, impact, and the clarity of presentation.
Find out more about JPO's mission and scope
2022/2023
We are excited to announce the winners and runners up for this year’s JPO Best Paper Award:
Winner
“Future of Professional Work: Evidence from Legal Jobs in Britain and the United States”, by Mari Sako, Matthias Qian, and Jacopo Attolini.
Runners up (alphabetical order)
“Drivers of regulatory reform in Canadian health professions: Institutional isomorphism in a shifting social context”, by Tracey L Adams.
“Professional Service Firms and the Manufacturing of the Corporate Nobility”, by Felix Bühlmann.
Congratulations to the authors of these great papers!
We are grateful to Michael Smets, Mari Sako, and the Oxford PSF Hub for sponsoring and enabling the award.
See this link for details of the award.
And a special thanks to the Sub-committee of JPO editorial board members who vetted the shortlisted papers:
Paul Adler, Mike Dent, James Faulconbridge, Na Fu, Lara Maestripieri, Bob Nelson, Amalya Oliver, Mark Pickering, Juani Swart, and April Wright
2021/2022
The winner and runners-up of the 2021/2022 Best Paper Award have been announced by the Editors of JPO:
Winner
"Accepting the future as ever-changing: professionals’ sensemaking about artificial intelligence" by Masachi Goto
Runners-up
"Counter-professionalization as an occupational status strategy: The production of professionalism in Israeli child-care workers’ identity work" by Netta Avnoon and Rakefet Sela-Sheffy
"No longer second-class citizens: Redefining organizational identity as a response to digitalization in accounting shared services" by Dirk Klimkeit and Markus Reihlen
Congratulations to the authors of these great papers!
We are grateful to Michael Smets, Mari Sako, and the Oxford PSF Hub for sponsoring and enabling the award.
And a special thanks to the Sub-committee of JPO editorial board members who vetted the shortlisted papers:
Paul Adler, Laurie Cohen, James Faulconbridge, Na Fu, Royston Greenwood, Ellen Kuhlmann, Bob Nelson, Amalya Oliver, Mark Pickering, Mike Saks, and Juani Swart
2020/2021
The Editors of JPO are delighted to announce the winners and runners up of the 2020-2021 Best Paper Award.
Winner
Logic fluidity: How frontline professionals use institutional logics in their day-to-day work by Eline M ten Dam and Maikel Waardenburg
Runners up
Professional fission in medical routines: medical scribes and physicians in two US hospital departments by Ann L Bryan and John C Lammers
Women in extraordinary times: the impact of external jolts on professional women’s careers by Laurie Cohen and Joanne Duberley
Congratulations to the authors of these great papers!
2019/2020
The Editors of JPO are delighted to announce the winner of the 2019-2020 Best Paper Award. The Award was officially announced at a ceremony during the (online) Oxford PSF conference, July 5-7, 2020.
Winner
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AI-enabled business models in legal services: from traditional law firms to next-generation law companies? by John Armour and Mari Sako
Runners up
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Professionalization through symbolic and social capital: Evidence from the careers of elite consultants by Matthias Kipping, Felix Bühlmann, and Thomas David
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Professional judgment and legitimacy work in an organizationally embedded profession by Roy Suddaby, Frans Bévort, and Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen
Shortlist
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Collegiality as political work: Professions in today’s world of organizations by Jean-Louis Denis, Gianluca Veronesi, Catherine Régis, and Sabrina Germain
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Stuck in defensive professionalism: Undermining organizational change in an intellectual property law firm by Helena Heizmann, Emmanuel A Mastio, and Sumati Ahuja
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Beyond ‘blue-collar professionalism’: Continuity and change in the professionalization of uniformed emergency services work by Leo McCann and Edward Granter
Congratulations to all the authors and our wonderful reviewers on their wonderful contribution to the field of Professions and Organization. Many thanks to the JPO Editorial Board members who contributed to this decision process: Paul Adler, Forrest Briscoe, David Cooper, Royston Greenwood, Ellen Kuhlmann, Bob Nelson, Amalya Oliver, Mark Pickering, Mitt Regan, and Mike Saks.
2018/19 Award
The 2018/19 award was announced during the Professional Service Firms Conference held in Boston, MA, 13-15 August 2019.
Award winners
- Marie Louise Mors, Michelle Rogan, and Susan E Lynch - "Boundary spanning and knowledge exploration in a professional services firm".
Volume 5, Issue 3, October 2018, Pages 45-57
Runners up
- Sundeep Aulakh and Ian Kirkpatrick - "New governance regulation and lawyers: When substantive compliance erodes legal professionalism"
Volume 5, Issue 3, October 2018, Pages 167-183 - Valérie Boussard - "Professional closure regimes in the global age: The boundary work of professional services specializing in mergers and acquisitions"
Volume 5, Issue 3, October 2019, Pages 279-296
Congratulations to all the authors and our wonderful reviewers on their wonderful contribution to the field of Professions and Organization.
- Many thanks to the JPO Editorial Board members who contributed to this decision process: David Cooper, Na Fu, Royston Greenwood, Ellen Kuhlmann, Seok-Woo Kwon, Bob Nelson, Mitt Regan, Amalya Oliver, Mike Saks, and Juani Swart.
- Many thanks to the Oxford PSF Hub for sponsoring the $1,000 prize for the Best Paper Award.
- Many thanks to Michael Smets and his team at the Oxford PSF Hub, organizers of the PSF conference in Boston this year, for a wonderful conference and for the unforgettable setting for making these awards.
2017/18 Award
The winning papers was announced during the Professional Service Firms conference in Oxford, 8-10 July 2018.
Award winner
- Swethaa Ballakrishnen - "‘She gets the job done’: Entrenched gender meanings and new returns to essentialism in India’s elite professional firms"
Volume 4, Issue 3, October 2017, Pages 324-342
Runner up
- Thomas Andersson and Roy Liff - "Co-optation as a response to competing institutional logics: Professionals and managers in healthcare"
Volume 5, Issue 2, July 2018, Pages 71-87 - Said Liu - "Boundaries and professions: Toward a processual theory of action"
Volume 5, Issue 1, March 2018, Pages 45–57
Congratulations to all the authors and our wonderful reviewers on their wonderful contribution to the field of Professions and Organization.
- Many thanks to the JPO Editorial Board members who contributed to this decision process: David Cooper, James Faulconbridge, Ellen Kuhlmann, Mitt Regan, Amalya Oliver, Juani Swart, Mike Saks, and Michael Smets.
- Many thanks to the Oxford PSF Hub for sponsoring the $1,000 prize for the Best Paper Award.
- Many thanks to Michael Smets and his team at the Oxford PSF Hub, organizers of the PSF conference in Oxford this year, for a wonderful conference and for the unforgettable setting for making these awards.
2016/17 Award
Award Winners
- Sumati Ahuja, Natalia Nikolova, and Stewart Clegg - "Paradoxical identity: The changing nature of architectural work and its relation to architects’ identity"
Volume 4, Issue 1, March 2017, Pages 2–19
Runners Up
- Michael W. Lander, Pursey P. M. A. R. Heugens, J. (Hans) van Oosterhout - "Drift or alignment? A configurational analysis of law firms’ ability to combine profitability with professionalism"
Volume 4, Issue 2, July 2017, Pages 123–148 - Marieke van Wieringen, Peter Groenewegen, Majolein I. Broese van Groenou - "‘We’re all Florence Nightingales’: Managers and nurses colluding in decoupling through contingent roles"
Volume 4, Issue 3, October 2017, Pages 241–260
Congratulations to all the authors and our wonderful reviewers on their wonderful contribution to the field of Professions and Organization!
- Many thanks to the JPO Editorial Board members who contributed to this decision process: Len Bierman, James Faulconbridge, Na Fu, Ellen Kuhlmann, Bob Nelson, Mitt Regan, Amalya Oliver, Matthias Kipping, Juani Swart
- Many thanks to the Oxford PSF Hub for sponsoring the $1,000 prize for the Best Paper Award.
- Many thanks to Frida Pemer, Tale Skjølsvik and Andreas Werr—organizers of the PSF conference in Stockholm this year—for a wonderful conference and for the unforgettable setting for making these awards.
More from JPO
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- Read the author guidelines and submit your paper
- Browse through a collection of high impact papers from JPO