Special Issue CFP (Management & Organizational History) on Company Magazines, Work and Organizations
Editors
Michael Heller, Queen Mary College, University of London (UK)
Stefan Schwarzkopf, Queen Mary College, University of London (UK)
This special issue of Management & Organizational History (M&OH) aims to examine the origins, content and socio-theoretical significance of company journals and overview current historical and theoretical discussion on the topic from an international perspective. We seek to address company magazines from a variety of viewpoints, including the historical origins and development of these media in organizations, their role in the creation and evolution of industrial welfare and personnel management, their usage as PR tools and the role of company magazines in the creation of corporate identities.
We are interested in papers that use a historical perspective on company journals as a springboard to cast a critical light on the question of the nature of organizations. By applying a historical focus, this special issue attempts to show that businesses are more than mere profit-maximizing economic entities but also function as cultural and social units with problems and structures that often move beyond the borders of pure economic reasoning and concerns. Contributors are therefore encouraged to engage with theories on corporate culture and theories from marketing, communication studies and organizational studies backgrounds.
Submitted papers might consider, but are not limited to, the following issues:
* company journals as part of a wide-ranging system of "soft" supervision which facilitate the internalization of corporate control mechanisms by employees
* the changing uses of mediated communication (magazines, bulletins, newspapers) by organizations in an attempt to foster and manipulate organizational culture
* how magazines have been used by organizations over time to negotiate their internal and external boundaries in order to manage their relationships with various stakeholder groups
* the position of company magazines within the debate of the "crisis of control" in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century corporation
* company journals as a response to the challenges of growth of industries in scale and scope
* company journals as a source for historians and management theorists for the study of issues of power, control and legitimacy within organizations
* company journals as an important part of organizational design and corporate modes of self-representation
* magazines and journals as a medium for the creation of a "corporate soul" (Roland Marchand)
Submission Procedure:
Papers must be sent electronically to m.heller@qmul.ac.uk and s.schwarzkopf@qmul.ac.uk
before January 1st 2007 as Word e-mail attachments, indicating Company Magazines Special Issue in the subject line.
Manuscripts
must be prepared according to the guidelines published in every issue of Management & Organizational History (also available in more detail at the journal's web site http://moh.sagepub.com/). Papers should be between 5000 and 8000 words (inclusive) and will be blind reviewed following the journal's standard procedure. For further information contact either Michael Heller or Stefan Schwarzkopf.
