GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION QUALITATIVE ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH:

Qualitative Organizational Research (formerly Advances in Qualitative Organization Research) is an annual series devoted to the publication of qualitative research relevant to the interests of organizational scholars.  As used to define the domain of QOR, qualitative research encompasses all forms of field research performed with qualitative data, that is, data that present themselves in non-numeric form.  Such research may be conducted using methods that are qualitative or a combination of qualitative and quantitative, with the aim of developing a thick description and grounded understanding of the focus of inquiry.

Manuscripts considered for publication in QOR may concern topics derived from any of the organization sciences, including but not limited to the areas of Organizational Behavior, Organization Theory, Strategic Management, Human Resource Management, and Organization Development.  A participant-observation study of the acquisition of power during CEO succession exemplifies research fitting within the domain of QOR thus defined, as does a protocol analysis of how job seekers interpret labor market information, or an ethnographic account of a self-managing team engaged in workday reality construction. 

The need for an annual series like QOR grows out of the absence of a periodic outlet offering the physical space per manuscript required to write a meaningfully deep description of qualitative data and, at the same time, a sufficiently detailed theoretical interpretation and conceptual conclusion.  Manuscripts extending beyond the length restrictions of traditional journals are welcome, with the understanding that authors will strive to communicate their ideas as clearly and succinctly as possible.  Manuscripts ranging in length from article-length papers to book-length monographs will be considered.

Publication decisions will be made by the series editor, and will involve assessments of the value added of each manuscript in the realms of data richness, grounded insight, and conceptual advancement.  Authors should anticipate a process of developmental revision following provisional manuscript acceptance.

QOR is intended to appeal to a broad audience of organizational researchers, included those who are interested in publishing detailed qualitative studies of their own and in learning more about the methods and methodologies of qualitative research.  At the same time, purely quantitative organizational researchers should find QOR valuable as a source of grounded insights and testable hypotheses.  Prospective contributors should bear this audience in mind and prepare manuscripts using the format guidelines specified in the current volume of the Academy of Management Journal.  Manuscripts should be submitted as e-mail attachments in Microsoft Word, to:

John A Wagner III, Series Editor
Qualitative Organizational Research
Michigan State University
Department of Management
East Lansing, MI 48824
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