Impactful Research in Work and Organizational Psychology

Call for a Special Issue Proposal on Impactful Research in Work and Organizational Psychology

In recent years, there have been questions and debates about the usefulness of work and organizational psychology research and related disciplines. An associated set of debates concern the integrity of the science and the conduct of research. Questions concerning the relevance of ours and related disciplines and who benefits from the discipline are not new and can be traced back decades (e.g., Anderson, Herriot & Hodgkinson, 2001; Hambrick, 1994). Moreover, there are clear and longstanding examples of where work and organizational psychologists have made outstanding contributions to public policy and/or the functioning of organisations (for summaries of such initiatives, see e.g., MacKay, Cousins, Kelly, Lee & McCaig, 2004, Wilson, 1921).

However, that the debates have continued raises questions about the effectiveness of the solutions that have been offered.

Accordingly, the editorial team at European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology would like to advance the debates on the topic of how to make work and organizational psychology research more impactful. To do so, we would like to invite submissions from suitably experienced teams to propose a special issue on the topic.

By calling for proposals for a special issue, we are allowing potential editorial teams to be creative in how they assemble papers and on the content of the papers. For example, proposers may choose to focus on examples of empirically impactful primary research to illustrate the conduct of impactful research; to focus on thought pieces and policy papers addressing fundamental issues; or to have a mixture of these types of contribution. Proposers may also like to select papers on a purely competitive, peer reviewed process or to invite contributions that would go through a rigorous yet developmental review process.

However, we do expect editorial teams to:

a)              Have demonstrable editorial experience with peer-reviewed outlets;

b)             Engage meaningfully with debates around what societally impactful research is, the different levels of impact – from individual through organisational to societal, who decides what impactful research is and who should be the beneficiaries;

c)              Be able to link debates about the impact of research to the integrity of our science, either in an editorial to the special issue or in the call for papers;

d)             Demonstrate a clear interest in moving work and organizational psychology forward through impactful research;

e)              Demonstrate a clear and nuanced understanding of the issues and be able to take an international perspective on the issues.

We would encourage proposals from international teams. Multidisciplinary proposals are also welcome, provided the key focus is on making work and organizational psychology research more impactful.

We would like to receive proposals by 9am Central European Time, 31^st October, 2017. Proposals should be emailed to the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Kevin Daniels at kevin.daniels@uea.ac.uk.

Proposals should be no longer than 2000 words, and contain the following:

i)               A statement of the aims of the special issue;

ii)             A statement of the type of papers they would like to attract and indicative content;

iii)            A statement of the approach to advertising and soliciting papers;

iv)            A statement of how the review process will be conducted;

v)             A summary of the editorial experience and research track record of the editorial team.

Proposals may be appended with a two-page CV for each team member.

References

Anderson, N., Herriot, P., & Hodgkinson, G. P. (2001). The practitioner?researcher divide in Industrial, Work and Organizational (IWO) psychology: Where are we now, and where do we go from here? Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74(4), 391-411.

Hambrick, D. C. (1994). What if the Academy actually mattered? Academy of Management Review, 19, 11-16.

MacKay, C. J., Cousins, R., Kelly, P. J., Lee, S., & McCaig, R.H. (2004). ‘Management Standards’ and work-related stress in the UK: Policy background and science. Work & Stress, 18, 91-112.

Wilson. D.R. (1921). The work of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board and its applications to industry. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 70, 3-20