John Amis, an Associate Professor in the Department of Management in the Fogelman College of Business & Economics, has had his manuscript, Variations in practice adoption: The roles of conscious reflection and discourse, accepted for publication in the prestigious journal, Academy of Management Review.

 

Amis and recent FCBE PhD graduate Maria Gondo of the University of New Mexico argue in the paper that a key, and neglected, aspect of understanding how new practices are adopted concerns appreciating the level of conscious engagement of those involved in the adoption process. This differs from the prevailing view that variations in adoption stem from consciously made decisions.

 

Amis, originally from England, has been with the University for 11 years and works primarily on issues of organizational and institutional change. “We’ve got other articles in the pipeline that hopefully will come out reasonably soon,” Amis said. “Maria and I are working on papers from her dissertation and I’ve got other research, as well, with other colleagues. You’ve always got projects at different stages and it’s nice when they finally come out.”

 

Amis has previously been published in various journals including Academy of Management Journal, American Journal of Public Health, Human Relations and Organizational Research Methods. In 2009 he won the University of Memphis’s Distinguished Teaching Award. His current work on childhood obesity was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.