NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS
Management Learning aims to publish work that advances our understanding of knowledge, knowing and learning in management and organizations. Submissions to the journal must have two defining characteristics: they engage in critique, and are thought-provoking. These characteristics suggest a processual, provisional and potentially contested view of knowledge and learning, and emphasize the need to open-up existing ways of thinking to scrutiny. In doing so, they promote new perspectives and interpretations. Authors should therefore move beyond the descriptive to reflect upon, analyse and critique the process of learning; be explicit about their philosophical and/or theoretical perspective; and explain and justify their methods and data analysis. Conclusions should be clear, well-developed, and fully justified.
Manuscripts should be situated within a relevant body of literature, connect to important conversations in the field and the journal, make a significant and substantial contribution to the development of management and organizational learning, and be coherent, clear and compelling. Authors should carefully and persuasively craft their argument by clearly stating their contribution and ensuring that their philosophical and/or theoretical perspective, the method, analysis, discussion and conclusion are consistent. Papers should convey commitment and excitement, and use accessible and direct language. While many of our readers are scholars and researchers, Management Learning addresses a wider audience with an interest in management learning. Esoteric language should therefore not stand in the way of effective communication and discussion.
Management Learning is:
1. Inclusive: covering all aspects of learning in management and organizations, encouraging interdisciplinaryoss-functional dialogue as well as a range of different approaches;
2. Innovative: publishing high-quality work derived from creative, committed and critical inquiry which builds new ideas and developments relating to theory, pedagogy and practice;
3. International: addressing international and cross-cultural aspects of learning, with an international base of readers, authors, reviewers and editorial board members;
4. Integrative: linking research, theory, methods and practice;
5. Impactful: papers published in the journal should aspire to being influential both within the field of management and organizational scholarship, and in the wider arena of organizational life and learning.
We welcome contributions from management and organization studies and related fields and disciplines, as well as multi-disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. Papers might address a number of topics, for example, culture, identity, leadership, business strategy, marketing, information technology, or organizational change - but the link with learning and managing organizations must be made explicit. Papers on research methods, culture, leadership, or strategy per se which do not consider implications for learning would not be appropriate.
Authors may adopt positivist, interpretive, critical, poststructuralist, social constructionist, postmodern, or other philosophical positions. Manuscripts drawing on field research may involve a wide variety of data sources and research methods, including ethnographic, discursive, deconstructive, narrative, survey and case study methodologies. The common theme is that contributions are written with the readership of Management Learning in mind - a readership that expects high quality, thought-provoking, innovative, thoughtful papers that make a clear contribution to the field.
THEMES
Management Learning includes work on topics relating to:
1. Nature of learning in management and organizations, for example: the changing nature of management, organizations and learning; relationships between individual and organizational learning; learning and change; learning and theorising organizations.
2. Processes of learning, for example: different approaches and new perspectives on learning; pedagogy, learning methods and techniques; relationships between learning and experience; formal and informal learning; and the roles of language, symbols, narratives and metaphor in learning and knowing.
3. Learning and knowledge, for example: the nature of knowledge and knowing; the management of knowledge and learning; approaches to management and leadership training, education, and development; and new modes of education.
4. Wider issues, for example: the relationship between learning and culture, gender, ethics, power, emotion and other issues; critical and postmodern approaches to management learning.
MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
Management Learning publishes theoretical and research based papers. Submissions should be no more than 7000 words in length (inclusive of all supplementary materials). A member of the editorial team will review each paper and if it is judged as suitable to the aims of the journal the manuscript will be sent to expert reviewers for double blind review. The decision will be made as to whether the paper be accepted, invited for further minor or major revisions and subsequent reviews, or rejected based on the reviewers' recommendations.
All submissions should be made online at the Management Learning SAGETRACK website: http:/mc.manuscriptcentral.com/management_learning
Please log onto the website. New users will first need to create an account. Follow the instructions and please be sure to enter a current and correct email address. Creating your account is a simple process that takes a matter of minutes to set up. Log-in information is sent via email immediately. Please edit your user ID and password to something more memorable by selecting 'Edit Account' at the top of the screen. If you have already created an account but have forgotten your details type your email address in the 'Password Help' to receive an emailed reminder. Full instructions for uploading the manuscript are provided on the website.
Please ensure that you submit editable/source files only (Microsoft Word or RTF) and that your document does not include page numbers; the Management Learning SAGETRACK system will generate them for you and will automatically convert your manuscript to PDF for peer review. It is imperative that authors remove from their submissions any information that will identify them or their affiliations to reviewers. All correspondence, including notification of the Editors decision and requests for revisions will be by email.
If you would like to discuss your paper prior to submission, please contact the Management Learning editorial office at the following email address: ml@management.bath.ac.uk.
Manuscripts should be written in English, double-spaced throughout, and should not have been published or submitted for review elsewhere. Reviewing will be on an anonymous basis and authors should prepare the paper in such a way that their names do not appear in, and cannot be associated with, the manuscript. All papers require an abstract of 100-150 words and five to eight keywords. References are represented in the text by (author, date) and collated into a reference list at the end of the article, in the following Harvard style:
Fineman, S. (1993) Emotion and Organizations. London: Sage.
Hearn, J. and Parkin, W. P. (1992) 'Gender and Organizations: A Selective Review and a Critique of a Neglected Area', in A.J. Mills and P. Tancred (eds) Gendering Organizational Analysis, pp. 41-9. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Morris, C. (1992) 'Logical Creativity', Theory and Psychology 2(1): 89-107.
For electronic sources the full URL should be should be given, along with the date accessed.
Footnotes (do not embed) should be kept to a minimum and presented at the end of the paper before the references.
Books for review should be sent to the reviews editor: Dr. Carole Elliott, Department of Management Learning and Leadership, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YX, UK. email: c.j.elliott@lancaster.ac.uk
English Language Editing Services: Please click here for information on professional English language editing services recommended by SAGE.
