We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of Dean G. Pruitt, a pioneering social psychologist, esteemed colleague, and mentor, who passed away peacefully on July 12, 2024, at the age of 93. Dean’s work transformed the fields of negotiation, cooperation, and conflict resolution. Known for his innovative “Decomposed Prisoner’s Dilemma Game” experiments, Dean explored the motivational elements that drive cooperation. His Dual-Concern Theory, developed with his student Steve Lewis, remains foundational in understanding negotiation tactics and the dynamics of win-win outcomes. His “goal-expectation” theory is still one of the most influential frameworks for examining trust in mixed-motive settings. His studies of mediation – laboratory experiments, field experiments, and case studies – stand today as landmarks. And so on. 

Dean’s contributions extended beyond research. As the first elected president of IACM in 1990, he played a crucial role in shaping the organization’s structure, helping establish the constitution, bylaws, and conference framework that continue to support IACM today. His warmth, insight, and inclusive approach have left a lasting impact, inspiring generations of scholars and practitioners alike.

We will celebrate Dean’s legacy and his vision for the field with a special tribute at IACM Vermont 2025. His intellectual contributions and the values he instilled within IACM will continue to guide us forward. 

Please join us in welcoming our newly appointed Treasurer of the Association, Daisung Jang. Daisung’s role on the Board as Treasurer will include financial oversight, budget development, tax filing and annual report reviews, and financial reporting to the Board of Directors. The term of this role will run through the conclusion of the IACM 2027 conference. Welcome, Daisung!

Get to know Daisung…

I am an Assistant Professor at Melbourne Business School and have been a member of IACM since 2013. Over the years, I have found the IACM community to be an invaluable source of friendships, mentorship, and professional collaborations. It has become my 'home' conference, and I am excited to contribute to its continued success in my role as treasurer.



My research focuses on the negotiation process, with a focus on the planning and implementation stages. I also explore how individual differences and emotions shape negotiation processes.

Before joining Melbourne Business School, I served as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois. I received my PhD from Washington University in St. Louis.

Edward Chang has had what many would consider an atypical path to the professoriate. However, it's exactly this path that paved the way for his success. Edward is currently an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and he is the most recent recipient of the IACM early career award. Last month, we had the opportunity to chat with Edward; We learned about how he got to where he is, what inspires his work, and what advice he would give to those in the early stages of their careers as doctoral students and junior faculty members.

As an undergraduate math and philosophy major, Edward did not know that he would end up getting a PhD in business, let alone that he would someday be working at one of the best business schools in the world. While working in the tech industry post-graduation, he started asking himself what other career options might be out there and what he would do if he didn’t prioritize making money. After considering a few different career paths, and even applying to teach math in Malawi through the Peace Corps, he stumbled across an Op Ed article by his future PhD advisor, Katy Milkman at the Wharton School, and her colleagues about bias in academia. After reading the article, things started to click. Edward had always had an interest in social justice, and looking around him, he could see the stark gender and racial disparities within his own organization. He was puzzled that such inequalities were so pervasive, especially in a place that purportedly espoused progressive values. So, with the goal of wanting to reduce inequity in organizations, he left the world of tech to attend graduate school.

Edward credits his early success to his supportive cohort and advisor at Wharton. However, it’s also clear that he worked hard and took advantage of opportunities that were given to him. He had some amazing opportunities to get involved in large-scale field experiments as a doctoral student, and it’s through that research that his path unsurprisingly crossed with that of IACM. Edward views his work very much in line with the goals of IACM and sees a lot of opportunities to ask questions around DEI that inform conflict management processes more broadly. As a professor, he’s also noticed that his MBA students are eager to learn how to manage conflict across differences, so one of his goals in the near future is to develop pedagogical materials to help people manage diversity in organizations. 

In terms of advice to early career scholars, Edward said that he encourages his own students to be ambitious and think big in terms of ideas. For those interested in field work, it’s important to find business leaders that are also interested in building knowledge and to frame your research question in a way that speaks to business concerns. Finally, a few practices that he believes contributed to his success are goal setting and structuring time for deep work and productivity. In graduate school, Edward treated his PhD as a job, setting regular hours for himself. Now, as a professor, he continues to maintain a good work-life balance, making sure to take time to recharge by rock climbing at the local gym or by eating durian. Edward is an avid fan of the durian and traveled to Southeast Asia almost every year during grad school specifically to eat fresh durian! This past year at IACM in Singapore, he even served as an informal ambassador of durian, introducing his colleagues to the odorous fruit at hawker market stalls between sessions. With hundreds of varieties of durian in existence, Edward is a firm believer that there is a durian for everyone. 

Overall, Edward Chang is a phenomenal person and scholar – a role-model for conflict management scholars, DEI scholars, and East Asian scholars alike – who champions the causes he studies. He recognizes the privilege, responsibility, and opportunity that comes with his position, noting that it’s rewarding to be able to do research that can have a real impact on people's lives. Further, as a DEI scholar and one of only a handful of East Asian American scholars at Harvard Business School, he’s a firm believer that underrepresented scholars from all backgrounds should support each other. He embodies this value by including the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on his faculty and personal webpages. Thus, even as he conducts large-scale interventions to develop solutions that address the racial disparities in corporate America, he also serves as an agent of change in his own organization. 

Dejun “Tony” Kong, Ph.D.

Program Chair-Elect, Academy of Management Conflict Management Division

Fellow, Association for Psychological Science

Associate Editor, Journal of Management

Associate Editor, Journal of Organizational Behavior

Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership and Information Analytics

Leeds School of Business

University of Colorado Boulder, USA

Tony.Kong@colorado.edu



Sarah Jensen

Ph.D. Candidate

Management & Organizational Behavior

David Eccles School of Business

University of Utah, USA

sarah.jensen@eccles.utah.edu