The Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award is an annual prize of £5,000 awarded to innovative scholarship demonstrated within a PhD or DBA thesis in any discipline within management and organisation studies. The two runners-up receive £1,000. The award is supported by the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), a charitable organisation which supports capacity building in business and management research. Grigor McClelland was the founder of SAMS, and the founding editor of the Journal of Management Studies.
Scope
The Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award aims to promote and recognise innovative PhD or DBA research in management and organisation studies. The Award does not specify any preference towards topic or method; its primary focus is to recognise and award doctoral research that is expansive and imaginative in that it covers significantly new terrain, counters existing thinking and has the potential for significant impact on managerial practice and society.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the 2026 Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award, candidates must have completed their doctoral dissertation and received the final award of their PhD or DBA within 2025.
Application process
Candidates who wish to be considered for the award are asked to submit:
- One fully completed online application form.
- One digital copy of their entire dissertation in English.
- An extended abstract of up to 5 pages, single-spaced, (any tables or references are included in the page limit). The abstract should:
- summarise the thesis and detail the originality of the theory development and empirical results as well as the implications for research and practice.
- be a separate document that does not mention the author’s name, degree-granting university, or current employment.
- identify the 3 to 5 most important findings.
- not state that some sections of the dissertation have been published, reviewed favourably by journals, or submitted for publication.
- Proof of the final award of their qualification (i.e. certificate/transcript, or similar).
- Supporting statement from their supervisor.
Any enquiries and documents relating to your application for the award should be electronically submitted to James Totty, (business.sams@durham.ac.uk) before 24:00 GMT on Saturday, 28th February 2026.
Application form available here: https://forms.office.com/e/DkSWvt1hE1
Award Committee and Judging Process
The shortlisting and selection of the award winner will be carried out by a panel of senior scholars within management and organisation studies, who act as representatives of SAMS. The judging process has three basic phases: the panel reviews the extended abstracts to create a shortlist; the panel then reviews the full theses of all those that make the shortlist, from this the three finalists are identified. Ultimately the prize will be awarded to the work that, in the opinion of the panel, is truly novel and significant in its theory development, and rigorous in the use of methods or the empirical contexts covered in the dissertation.
The winner will be announced during a special session at the 2026 EURAM conference in Kristiansand, Norway. In this session the shortlisted candidates for the award will present their research. Reasonable expenses including travel, accommodation and subsistence will be covered to allow the finalists to attend the session. These will be reimbursed after the event.