amj special research forums
Brayden
The Academy of Management Journal is issuing a call for papers for two special research forums that might be of interest to readers of this blog. The first forum will explore how organizations deal with their institutional environments.
Since Meyer and Rowan’s (1977) classic paper, much research has focused on how organizations adapt to institutional pressures. Research in this tradition has shifted from an early focus on explaining organizational similarity, to a more recent emphasis on how institutional pressures affect organizational change. While this research has generated an impressive volume of work, the ‘new’ institutionalism has been criticized because “it does not have the guts of institutions in it” (Stinchcombe, 1997: 17). That is, most research focuses on how the institutional environment affects organizational form and function, without also attending to the values, beliefs and meanings that underpin form and function. The ‘guts of institutions’ is the understanding that institutional pressures only work because they impact the collective understandings and commitments of individuals inside both organizations and institutions.
Our goal in this Special Research Forum, thus, is to understand how social structures and practices inside organizations “acquire meaning and stability in their own right rather than as instrumental tools for the achievement of specialized ends” (Lincoln, 1995: 1147).
You have lots of time to work on your papers for this issue. The due date is not until August 31, 2008. The second special issue will look at the public policy implications of management research.
In a recent Editors’ Forum in AMJ (December, 2005), Rynes & Shapiro raised the question of whether management and organizational research should have more impact on public policy. Most of the forum’s participants answered with a resounding “yes.” In an attempt to address the challenges researchers face in seeking to have such an impact, we are now organizing a Special Research Forum in AMJ. Our goal is to illustrate how scholarly research can address issues relevant to the societies we serve in a way that generates useful implications for public policy debate and decision-making.
Submissions for this forum are due September 30, 2007.
