REFLECTIONS ON THE 2016 DECADE AWARD: INCORPORATING CONTEXT IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH

This is a reflection on my 2006 article, The Essential Impact of Context on Organizational Behavior, which received the 2016 Academy of Management Review Decade Award. I review some studies supporting my earlier contention that the impact of context has been underappreciated in management research and then recount the genesis of the article, particularly emphasizing the capacity of context to explain anomalous and counterintuitive research findings. I offer conjectures as to why the article has been cited and present evidence that contextual appreciation is increasing in management, and that this is part of a general trend in the social and behavioral sciences. I discuss some newer theories and measures of context and consider the desirable properties of theories that incorporate context. Finally, I argue that it is not easy to control away context, that context is about similarities as well as differences and about change as well as stability, and that variables and relationships vary in their sensitivity to context.