Dear AFAM Family,

A couple of months ago we shared with you information on a partnership between AFAM and University of Michigan (see 1 below). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a face-to-face session could not be held. As a result, a virtual ICOS seminar was held in October (see 2 below). The recorded seminar may be watched as a group (preferably) or individually to stimulate reflection and discourse. You may then send questions to the Directors. If you plan to have a watch-party as a group, please let the Directors, particularly Jim Westphal, know.

The increasingly uncertain and turbulent environments foreshadowed by a raging Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, migration crisis, increased organizational restructuring, rapid and disruptive technological advances, intense competition, and globalization have intensified the call for employees’ developing receptive attention to and awareness of present events i.e. mindfulness (Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007; Haun, Nübold, & Bauer, 2018; Hülsheger, Walkowiak, & Thommes, 2018) and the building of high-quality relational systems, such as strong relational attachments (Ehrhardt & Ragins, 2019) within the work milieu. This certainly can safeguard against threats posed by present and future events, job demands, as well as unanticipated organizational changes (e.g., job retrenchment) and policies (e.g., preference for young workers or so-called millennials). Moreover, these changes have also increasingly shifted the responsibility of human functioning and well-being from organizations to employees (McCauley & Hezlett, 2001; Zoogah, 2010). Yet, while mindfulness and relational systems represent fundamental parts of human functioning and well-being in contemporary private, public and nongovernmental organizations, we know little about when, why and how the two constructs can jointly and interactively advance psychological and social understanding and impact of management in organizations.

The purpose of this PDW session is to assist early career scholars focusing on management in Africa who have limited experience in publishing high impact research to complete a high quality research paper for later submission. The PDW will help early career scholars to understand the key elements of writing an empirical paper for publication through one-to

-one developmental feedback in a supportive environment. Second, these developmental relationships will continue after the 2021 Academy of Management meeting as both members work toward the goal of getting the manuscript submitted and published in a top-tier journal. Thus, a unique aspect of this initiative is that the developmental relationship is goal-directed; it is focused on a specific task (improving a drafted manuscript) that leads to critical short- term results (publication), more publications on management in Africa, and ultimately participants’ long-term productivity as a management scholar.