Abstract
As I embark on the journey of editorship of Management Communication Quarterly (MCQ), I feel not only honored and privileged, but also challenged. The first issue of MCQ was published in the year in which I began my PhD studies, then knowing nothing about organizational communication. I have benefitted enormously from reading MCQ articles, have grown intellectually together with the journal, and have witnessed the positive contribution it has made to organizational communication studies as the area has matured and developed over the decades. Past editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and numerous readers have built MCQ into “the journal” for organizational communication and management communication scholarship. To sustain and improve the journal’s high quality and make it better is a tall order and a challenge also adding to the excitement I feel in being a major part of something remarkable.
In thinking about what I can do as the incoming editor to continue the enterprise, several things come to mind. I outline my ideas below for readers and potential contributors, who expect no less than the same high standard that MCQ has upheld through the careful selection of the submitted articles. My criteria are essentially the same as those that have long been followed in academia and at MCQ, and include a strong conceptual foundation, sensible and convincing reasoning, clear methodological position, rigorous procedure and analysis, and insightful discussion with theoretical and pragmatic contributions. In this regard, it does not matter what theory is utilized or how conceptualization is explored or conducted; it matters that a study clearly relates to relevant theory in a broad sense and that it contributes to and advances current thinking on organizational or management communication in a systematic way. The contribution to thinking, in my view, includes both scholarship and knowledge of best professional practices, while authors are asked to enter into a dialogue with scholars, professionals, researchers, and other readers, and to engage organizational and management communication literature and theories.
I intend for the journal to continue to help strengthen and develop the core subject areas of organizational communication as being interdisciplinary with a definable area identity, thus addressing two of the three “Is” identified by the next generation of scholars (Koschmann, 2012). A journal is only as good as the best works submitted to it, and MCQ will continue to publish high quality papers regardless of the disciplinary perspective or academic affiliation of the author. MCQ is interested in and calls for works that aim to understand organization and management in terms of communication and symbolic interaction. Interdisciplinary approaches and cross-disciplinary submissions are welcome when the work focuses on the role, operation, and/or effect of the communication process in organization and management, or on the management and organizational issues and/or processes examined in the light of communication principles and practice. I should also say that it does not matter what the topic is as long as it is important to organization and/or management although it does matter that the topic is discussed and the exposition developed in relation to communication in significant ways. The same goes for the submission of works on communication issues, which should also be of relevance to organization or management in substantial ways.
Today, a global outlook is imperative for organizations in both public and private sectors. One of my initiatives will be to encourage scholarship on issues arising from large-scale social interaction and the exchange and flow of information across geographical areas, societies or cultures, at all levels of organizations, directly or indirectly. This pertains to internationalization, or globalization, the third of the three “Is” alluded to above. For some time now, for example, the whole world has been experiencing increased connectivity that brought about historic changes, and many societies have been undergoing momentous transformations, in both the developing and the developed worlds. The ways in which people, organizations, management, and communication are adapting to these changes require responses that juxtapose global aspirations with local priorities and balance global demands with organizational needs. Organizational and management communication scholars are uniquely positioned to study all this with fresh insights, and MCQ is more than ready to publish such works.
On a related note, I intend to continue increasing the diversity of authors from widely spread geographical locations and societies. My goal is to raise the interest and increase quality submissions from scholars everywhere, to develop broader participation in scholarly discussion, and to advance our knowledge of the role and the process of communication in organization and management. Moreover, diversity is even more valuable in relation to topics and issues concerning the communication of organization and management from different societies and societal contexts. I would like to see works on topics relevant to communication for organizing and organizations in diverse societies and cultures. Authors are thus asked to be mindful of MCQ’s readership around the world in their prose and to make their insights more accessible.
MCQ will celebrate its 30th year in 2016. In the Chinese tradition, 30 is an important milestone that marks one’s coming of age and being established. The mark of being established, in my view, is something that MCQ has already surpassed. Nevertheless, with humility, diligence, and the help of our associate editors, reviewers, and readers, I will strive to play a positive and proactive part in MCQ reaching that symbolic milestone.