Journal of Organizational Behavior special issue call for papers:
"New Directions for Boundaryless Careers"
The editors of the Journal of Organizational Behavior intend to publish a
special issue of the journal on the subject of "New Directions for
Boundaryless Careers".
Guest Editors:
Svenja Tams, University of Bath, and
Michael B. Arthur, Suffolk University
This special issue will be devoted to exploring new directions for
boundaryless career research and practice. Since its inception in the mid
1990s, the concept of the boundaryless career has been established as an
empirical lens for studying career opportunities and experiences that
transcend organizational boundaries. The boundaryless career concept has
been applied to a range of industries - e.g. IT, biotech, cultural,
professional services - and to issues such as entrepreneurship, flexible
workers, globalization, knowledge-based careers, and women's careers.
The boundaryless career perspective explores the interrelationship between
career actors' objective and subjective experiences. While boundaryless
careers are not without boundaries, this perspective invites attention to
how career actors can both respond to and influence the boundaries that they
face, including organizational, occupational and institutional boundaries,
as well as boundaries related to individual circumstances.
For this special issue we invite papers that break new ground. Arthur and
Rousseau's (1996) original formulation of the boundaryless career
perspective responded to the challenges posed by a transition to more
temporary employment arrangements, and from an industrial to a
knowledge-based economy. The beginning of the 21st century directs our
attention to new issues. A career lens may be useful for examining wider
social, economic and environment changes within and across societies and
nations. This applies, in particular to those issues requiring the
development and movement of human talent. Among these are: globalization,
cultural diversity, sustainability, an aging work force in economically
advanced nations, and people's needs at the 'bottom of the pyramid' of
social and economic development.
In addition to fresh perspectives on well established career themes, we are
interested in inter-disciplinary perspectives giving attention to the
dynamic relationship between context and individual's response.
Contributions can be based on or link across psychological, sociological and
economic theories or other applied disciplines. Contributions can suggest
new ways of seeing the unfolding, often nonlinear processes through which
contemporary careers evolve. We encourage articles that link the
boundaryless career perspective with themes such as:
Changing demographics
Culture, community, and identity
Emotions
Entrepreneurship and economic development
Globalization
Knowledge and life-long learning
Leadership and organizing
Place, geographic clusters, mobility
Responsible business and social/sustainable enterprise
Wellbeing and work/life balance
The above list is illustrative rather than exhaustive. The co-editors of the
special issue encourage authors to contribute other papers consistent with
the theme outlined in this call for submissions. A section of the paper must
address the implications for boundaryless career theory for interested
parties, both individual and collective.
Authors are urged to pose research that makes significant contributions to
the literature. Papers can be theory or research-focused empirical articles
and case studies. We encourage papers that break new ground and outline new
directions for future research from a boundaryless career perspective. Such
research includes developing and testing core elements of existing theories;
resolving conflicting predictions from multiple theories; or integrating
different theories, propositions, contributions and findings.
Contributors should note:
- This call is open and competitive, and the submitted papers will be blind
reviewed in the normal way.
- Submitted papers must be based on original material not under
consideration by any other journal or outlet.
- For empirical papers based on data sets from which multiple papers have
been generated, the editors must be provided with copies of all other papers
based on the same data.
- The editors will select a number of papers to be included in the special
issue, but other papers submitted in this process may be published in other
issues of the journal.
The deadline for submissions is 15 August 2008. The special issue is
intended for publication at the end of 2009.
Papers to be considered for this special issue should be submitted online
via
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/job (selecting 'Special Issue Paper' as
the Manuscript Type). Please direct questions about the submission process,
or any administrative matter, to Managing Editor, Kaylene Ascough,
k.ascough@uq.edu.au
The editors of the special issue are very happy to discuss initial ideas for
papers, and can be contacted directly:
Svenja Tams, School of Management, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Tel: +44 1225 386 683, Email:
s.tams@bath.ac.uk
Michael B Arthur, Suffolk University, 8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108,
USA, Tel: +1 978 474 0950, E-mail:
marthur@suffolk.edu