2026 Online Gathering of POS Scholars
Monica Worline, Kyle S. H. Dobson, Jacoba Lilius, Hilary Hoyt, & Alaina Segura
July 15, 2026
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
Online via Zoom Meeting
In many work contexts, we have learned to treat exhaustion as evidence of seriousness. In academic life, depletion is often worn as proof of rigor. We are all familiar with late nights, an unrelenting service load, and an inbox that never empties. Yet what is coming to be known as the great exhaustion is structural, not personal. Academic environments demand more and more; the burden of grind culture is unequally distributed, and technology accelerates the pressure on both deep work and deep rest. In response, this summer, we introduce a new tradition: an annual online Summer Scholar Uplift: Gathering of POS Scholars dedicated to a blend of learning and connection that promises to sustain us as a POS community.
(Re)Ignite: Rigorous Rest as a Source of Resilience in Academic Life
Contrary to prevailing assumptions that rest is an unnecessary luxury or a private indulgence, this gathering embraces rest as a form of personal and community restoration and resistance. Drawing on contributions from a distinguished panel of POS scholars, we will ask how rest becomes a skilled practice and how it also serves as a relational and collective resource that sustains demanding work, restores adaptability, and alleviates distress in challenging environments. Following idea provocations from our panel, we will engage in small group activities, discussion, and interactive learning sessions. Please join us to connect with other POS scholars and explore the provocative idea that rest may be one of our most underused resources for (re)igniting our own resilience and our community’s energy, passion, and capacity for change.
Help us showcase our community’s work by adding your sessions, workshops, and informal meetups to our POS-Related Sessions & Workshops at AOM 2026 Form. We will share the full collection of sessions during the online gathering to help everyone jumpstart their AOM planning.
CPO Faculty Event Host:
Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations
Monica C. Worline, PhD, is the Faculty Director of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. She also teaches in the Management and Organizations group at Michigan Ross. Monica is a leading voice in translating research from the academic field known as Positive Organizational Scholarship into the practice of more courageous thinking, compassionate leadership, and designing organizations that bring people’s best work to life.
Panel Idea Hosts:
Kyle S. H. Dobson, Assistant Professor, University of Virginia
Kyle S. H. Dobson is an assistant professor of public policy and psychology at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Kyle earned his PhD in Management and Organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and has conducted hundreds of hours of field observations. His work has focused on public safety and police departments primarily, collaborating with agencies across several states across the country. In this work, he studies the ways we authentically connect, in particular across differences and in tense environments. His research process begins with immersion in organizations and ends by testing interventions in field experiments. Ultimately, his goal is to improve both scholarly and practical understanding of how to improve the effectiveness of organizations that affect others’ safety and well-being.
Jacoba Lilius, Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator, Queen’s University
While earning her PhD at the University of Michigan, Jacoba Lilius became fascinated by how workplace relationships could be an important source of compassion with significant downstream implications for individuals and organizations (www.compassionlab.com). As a faculty member in the Queen’s University Employment Relations Studies program, her research has explored how interpersonal interactions during one’s workday can offer an opportunity for recovery, motivation, and meaning. Her teaching has emphasized an evidence-based case for students to consider how they might intentionally structure their workdays (and the time between) to include opportunities for rest and recovery. At the intersection of the personal and professional (AKA “me-search”), Jacoba has become deeply interested in why rest can be particularly difficult for neurodivergent employees and how to navigate those challenges. She will bring insights to the session from her own and others’ research to help participants think through the nature and importance of rest, why it may feel difficult or hard to prioritize, and identify small, actionable steps toward intentional incorporation of rest into the rhythm of our days.
Hilary Hoyt, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Hilary Hoyt is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation. In her inductive research, she explores problems in organizational life through the eyes of participants, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to access their lived experience. Much of her work lies at the intersection of workplace relationships and organizational change. Hilary received her PhD from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, where she studied relational dynamics in three companies undergoing rapid growth.
Alaina Segura, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Alaina Segura is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. Her research examines the social processes through which organizational members construct, negotiate, and change organizational life. Primarily using qualitative methods, much of her work explores how members sustain collective agency and restore human connection within challenging organizational contexts, such as rapidly scaling firms, alienating workplaces, and democratically governed associations threatened by democratic decline. Prior to joining the Kennedy School, she received her PhD in management and organizations from the University of Michigan and her BA in psychology and French from the University of Virginia.
Questions? Please email cpo-events@umich.edu.
Learn more about the Academy of Management and its 86th Annual Meeting.
Members of our POS Community of Scholars and any interested scholars or researchers are invited to attend our Gathering of POS Scholars. Not yet a member of our Community of Scholars? Join here: https://myumi.ch/dkxRG. For more information about the Gathering of POS Scholars, contact us at cpo-events@umich.edu.