Abstract
With the New Year, we have ushered in a new Editorial Team and the beginning of a new era at Group & Organization Management (GOM). Since its founding in 1976, GOM has always been a broad-based management journal that publishes cutting-edge research focused on individual behavior, groups and teams, and organizational strategy and functioning. GOM welcomes empirical and theoretical work spanning the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of analysis in organizations. Over the years, GOM has grown in reputation and scale as a management journal.
As the incoming Editor-in-Chief, it is with both excitement and some trepidation that I accepted the challenges inherent to this role. I welcome the opportunity to work with all of GOM’s constituents to continue to move the journal forward. Toward this end, and in the spirit of continuous improvement, the incoming Editorial Team, in partnership with SAGE, is in the process of implementing a number of refinements in the structure and operation of the journal. The goal of these changes is to promote a service-oriented culture that ensures a positive experience for our authors, reviewers, and readers with the ultimate goal of generating new insights into the effective management of individuals, groups, and organizations.
First, to facilitate the efficient, constructive, and timely review of an ever-expanding volume of submissions, a new position of Senior Associate Editor has been created. I am very pleased to work with Lucy Gilson of the University of Connecticut, who is serving as the Senior Associate Editor. In addition to assisting with the review process, Lucy is pursuing initiatives in partnership with SAGE to increase the visibility and accessibility of GOM authors’ research to a wider audience of scholars and practitioners.
Second, the number of Associate Editors has been expanded from three to six. As part of the process of recruiting Associate Editors, Lucy and I consulted with respected colleagues who are familiar with GOM and our ambitious goals for the journal. The team we assembled reflects highly regarded scholars of the first order. Members include Jin Nam Choi (Seoul National University), Judith Clair (Boston College), Lisa M. Finkelstein (Northern Illinois University), M. Travis Maynard (Colorado State University), Orlando Richard (University of Texas at Dallas), and Ethlyn A. Williams (Florida Atlantic University). In addition, Guido Hertel (University of Münster) will be joining our team in July 2015. This is indeed my “dream team”—as it should be for a journal that devotes so much attention to the effective functioning of teams!
Third, the size of the GOM Editorial Review Board has been dramatically expanded from 67 to 142 to further support our efforts to provide timely high-quality reviews to submitting authors. A perusal of the board membership reveals an impressive group of top scholars from diverse disciplines and geographic backgrounds—with 17 nations represented! Together, this internationally recognized collection of scholars will continue to build upon and expand GOM’s global reputation as a quality publication outlet that is receptive to research from a wide array of disciplines and all corners of the globe. Indeed, in assembling the editorial board, a concerted effort was made to ensure that top scholars in the fields of organizational behavior, organizational theory, strategic management, entrepreneurship, human resource management, among other fields, with both quantitative and qualitative research expertise, were represented. Moreover, consistent with the appearance of “group” as the first word in the journal’s title, we seek to become the go to outlet for scholars conducting research on groups and teams. Of course, as the name reflects, GOM has always been and will remain a home for high-quality “management” and “organization” research. So, one way to think of the focal interests and content of GOM is captured by the phrase, “Teams PLUS.” As this phrase implies, we are a preferred outlet for research on groups and teams, plus other topics related to organizations and their management.
Fourth, to clearly communicate our commitment to uphold the highest standards of ethical conduct as an editorial team, I and all of GOM’s Associate Editors have signed and affirmed to adhere to the Ethical Practices of Journal Editors: Voluntary Code of Conduct effective August 2014. For more information see http://editorethics.uncc.edu/. This commitment to exemplary ethical conduct constitutes a core value of GOM, and we pledge to use positive ethical values to inform all of our editorial decisions and practices.
Fifth, GOM will continue to publish a Special Conceptual Issue on an annual basis for the purpose of promoting and disseminating ground-breaking management and organizational theory. We will also publish Special Issues focused on scholarly topics that reflect emerging and impactful fields of study within the group and organizational literatures. So, if you and your colleagues have ideas for Special Issues on timely and innovative topics that will be of interest to GOM readers, please send us your proposals!
In closing, I would like to thank Gayle Baugh (University of West Florida), the outgoing Editor of GOM, and her three Associate Editors, Hongwei He (University of Strathclyde), Kok Yee Ng (Nanyang Technical University), and Sherry Sullivan (Bowling Green State University), for their dedicated service to GOM. As evidence of their commitment to GOM, they have all agreed to continue to serve the journal as Editorial Board Members. We are very grateful to you and all of the outgoing board members for your service and dedication to GOM. I also wish to thank Cynthia Nalevanko, the SAGE Social Science Journals Editor, and her entire team for their steadfast support of GOM. On behalf of the entire Editorial Board, we promise to exemplify the teamwork we promote and take GOM to even greater heights!