Extremity in Organisations: Conceptualising and Managing the Spectrum of Extreme Conditions

No longer accepting new abstracts

Introduction 

Contemporary organisations increasingly face conditions of extremity, from acute crises and disasters to the mundane extremity embedded in everyday operations (Fan et al., 2024; Hällgren et al., 2018). This special issue seeks conceptual papers that advance theoretical understanding of extremity as a distinct organisational phenomenon. While existing research examines  extreme events in specific contexts, we lack  conceptual foundations of how extremity manifests, evolves, and impacts organisations holistically (Garavan et al., 2024) beyond extreme contexts research. This issue aims to consolidate knowledge across human resource management, psychology, organisational behaviour, amongst others to develop frameworks for understanding extremity from different standpoints with different disciplines and fields (Wright et al., 2023). Accordingly, we welcome papers that conceptualise extremity from diverse theoretical perspectives (Shepherd & Suddaby, 2017), examine processes through which organisations and individuals cope with extreme conditions (Lübcke et al., 2025), explore the role of technology in creating or mitigating extremity (Bloomfield & Dale, 2015), and analyse how extremity manifests across occupational contexts (Fruhen et al., 2023). By establishing extremity as an emerging domain of inquiry, this issue will provide conceptual foundations with practical implications for managing high-stakes environments.

Important: This special issue welcomes conceptual papers only. Empirical and review papers will not be considered.

Note: We implement a two-step submission process. Interested authors should first submit abstracts (maximum 500 words) to the Lead Guest Editor. Selected authors will then be invited to submit full papers. This approach ensures alignment with the special issue’s conceptual focus and allows for early developmental feedback.

List of topic areas

• Conceptualising extremity in an organisational context
  • We invite conceptual papers that bring theoretical clarity to the construct of extremity in organisations (Wright et al., 2023), and open new pathways for future research. Such work may examine the attributes that render a phenomenon extreme, articulate its boundaries, and develop conceptualisations of extremity from diverse theoretical perspectives (Corneliessen, 2017; Shepherd & Suddaby, 2017). For example, papers could explore how equivocality at the extremity shapes the experiences of individuals and groups within and across organisations (Dwyer et al., 2021). Specifically, how and why do circumstances become ambiguous, and how does this ambiguity prompt improvisation as individuals and groups seek to make sense of expectations that have been breached or disrupted in?   By addressing these questions, we aim to advance more nuanced understandings of extremity as an organisational phenomenon.
• Processes or mechanisms that organisations use to cope with extremity
  • In today’s rapidly changing world, the capacity of individual and groups to respond  events and the challenges that arise from them is central to maintaining organisational capacity and capability. Extremity exerts profound implications for individuals and groups which comprise organizations—implications that often remain invisible beyond the quantifiable damages and losses from crises and disasters that have been a feature of extreme context research to date (Skade et al., 2025). Conceptualising extremity requires scholars to understand how individuals and groups within organisations to adapt in the moment (Lübcke et al., 2025) while also recognising how difficult circumstances can act as a catalyst for improvisation amongst practitioners that transforms practice worlds and ameliorates, if not averts, adverse outcomes (Dwyer, 2022). We welcome conceptual papers that theorise the processes and mechanisms through which organisations cope with, adjust to, and potentially transform themselves in the face of extremity (Cloutier & Langley, 2020).
• The impact of extremity on individuals
  • Extremity, whether arising from work contexts, tasks, work design, or critical events, significantly shapes employees’ cognition, behaviour, embodied reactions, wellbeing, and performance (Rauch & Ansari, 2025; Sele et al., 2025). We welcome conceptual papers that theorise these impacts and advance understanding of how individuals cope with extremity and leverage challenges to generate novel sensemaking that challenges conventional approaches to meaning-making in extreme circumstances (Chaudhry & Amis, 2025).
• Conceptualising extremity in occupational contexts
  • Extremity manifests in distinctive ways across different occupational domains (Fruhen et al., 2023; Luczak, 1991). We welcome conceptual papers that examine how the unique features of occupational contexts advance theoretical understanding of extremity and enrich its development in the organisational literature (Fan et al., 2024). Specifically, we welcome works theorising how extremity can be part of the everyday, normal, and mundane contexts that practitioners working in various professions and human resource management must navigate in their organisational and operational environments (Ferrer et al., 2024).
• Extremity caused by advanced technologies
  • Technological change is transforming work at unprecedented speed, altering both the intensity of work and the ways in which it is performed. Emerging technologies blur the boundaries between what is considered extreme and what is considered normal, for instance by enhancing human capacities to undertake tasks of previously unmanageable intensity (Bloomfield & Dale, 2015). While different technologies may produce divergent effects and the future remains uncertain, we invite high-level conceptualisations that theorise the relationship between technology and extremity and explore how technological change, AI, and technological innovation are reshaping organisational life.

Key References

This special issue builds on two complementary streams of scholarly work:

• Foundation literature on extremity in organisational contexts
  • This special issue draws upon emerging scholarship examining extremity across diverse organisational settings and levels of analysis. Key foundational works include conceptual frameworks for understanding extremity (Hällgren et al., 2018; Wright et al., 2023), research on leadership in extreme contexts (Hannah et al., 2009), studies of mundane extremity in professional work (Fan et al., 2024; Ferrer et al., 2024), examinations of extreme work arrangements (Burger, 2020; DeSimone, 2020; Fruhen et al., 2023;), investigations of organisational responses to crises (Skade et al., 2025; Tham et al., 2024), and analyses of cognitive, emotional, and embodied experiences under extreme conditions (Chaudhry & Amis, 2025; Lübcke et al., 2025; Rauch & Ansari, 2025; Sele et al., 2025). Additional work explores technological dimensions of extremity (Bloomfield & Dale, 2015), extreme work in emergency services (Mather & Seifert, 2017; Luczak, 1991), and synthesises research agendas for extreme work scholarship (Garavan et al., 2024).
• Guidance for developing conceptual contributions
  • Given this special issue’s focus on conceptual papers, we encourage authors to consult methodological resources on theory building and conceptual scholarship, including work on crafting theoretical contributions (Shepherd & Suddaby, 2017; Thatcher & Fisher, 2022), developing propositions and process models (Cloutier & Langley, 2020; Corneliessen, 2017), building typologies (Doty & Glick, 1994; Fiss, 2011), structuring conceptual arguments (Lange & Pfarrer, 2017), and establishing robust conceptual foundations (Gerring, 1999).

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

This Special Issue is now open for submissions

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/09/2026

Closing date for abstract submission: 30/01/2026    

Email for abstract submissions: [email protected] 

Guest Editors

Dr Xi Wen (Carys) Chan, Griffith University, Australia, [email protected] 

Associate Professor Shea Fan, Deakin University, Australia, [email protected]

Associate Professor Graham Dwyer, The University of Dublin, Ireland, [email protected]

Professor Margaret A. Shaffer, University of Oklahoma, USA, [email protected]