Broad College’s Frederick Morgeson wins prestigious AMR Decade Paper Award — A first for MSU

Frederick Morgeson, the Eli Broad Professor of Management, has been awarded the 2025 Academy of Management Review (AMR) Decade Paper Award. He is the first professor at MSU to win.

The Broad College of Business at Michigan State University is proud to announce that Frederick Morgeson, the Eli Broad Professor of Management, has been awarded the 2025 Academy of Management Review (AMR) Decade Paper Award. This prestigious honor recognizes a paper’s contribution to academic research and its lasting impact on the field of management.

The AMR Decade Paper Award is given annually to an article published at least ten years ago that has received the most citations, a key measure of influence in academic research. The award is considered one of the most prestigious honors the journal bestows, celebrating scholarship that has helped shape the direction of management research and practice.

Morgeson received the award for his 2015 article, “Event System Theory: An Event-Oriented Approach to the Organizational Sciences,” co-authored with Terence R. Mitchell, professor emeritus of management at the Foster School of Business, and Dong Liu, professor of organizational behavior at the Scheller College of Business. The recognition was presented at this year’s Academy of Management Annual Meeting, held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The article establishes Event System Theory (EST), a framework created by Morgeson that examines how events, defined by their novelty, disruptiveness, and criticality, affect organizational behavior across levels and over time. EST has become a cornerstone for research exploring how significant occurrences, from internal changes to global disruptions, impact people and organizations in a significant number of ways, ranging from individual decision-making and leadership behavior to long-term organizational outcomes.

Morgeson was honored with the award at the Academy of Management meeting in Copenhagen. Pictured here with Kris Byron (left), editor in chief of the AMR.

Morgeson is the only professor at Michigan State University or the Broad College to receive this award, marking a historic moment for the institution. He is an industrial and organizational psychologist who is internationally recognized as a leading scholar (his research impact places him in the top .23% most highly cited scholars in the world out of over 10.2 million scientists across 20 scientific disciplines) and award-winning educator. He has worked with over 100 organizations, including multiple Michigan businesses, Fortune 500 organizations, dozens of acute care hospitals, and governmental agencies including NASA and the Department of Defense, helping them address real-world challenges. He also serves as the founding editor of the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior.

“I’m deeply honored to receive this award and to see the lasting influence of Event System Theory on the field,” said Morgeson. “This recognition highlights the kind of high-impact research we strive for at the Broad College, work that advances theory and helps organizations make sense of the complex world around them. Many thanks to the diverse range of scholars who have found EST to be useful in their own work. I look forward to reading many more event-oriented studies to come.”

This recognition reinforces the Broad College’s commitment to advancing globally recognized, high-impact research that informs real-world challenges and through this award, Morgeson has helped elevate the academic standing of Michigan State University.