Careers CAR

I am writing to ask whether you can introduce me to someone who may be interested in co-authoring an article with me and a colleague, Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith from the University of Surrey in the UK. Eugene and I presented the original article to the Careers Division at the AoM in 2006/7 entitled 'Cognitive Style and its Relevance for the Management of Careers'

(attached). Our own areas of expertise are in the field of individual differences psychology in the context of management and organizational

behaviour and we are not experts in the careers field. We are therefore

seeking a third author from the careers field to help us develop the attached article before submitting it to a journal.

There is a forthcoming special issue of Human Relations that focuses on 'Interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary career studies' edited by Svetlana Khapova & Michael Arthur. The deadline for submissions is 30th November 2008 with publication expected in mid 2010. See:

(http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/careers.html) I am not sure whether this deadline is achievable but if not we have other journals in mind.

We have already sought feedback from some reviewers and they have provided us with some useful ways in which the article can be further developed. For

example:

1. There needs to be a clearer statement of the purpose of the article.

2. We may need to shorten the extended literature review on cognitive

style.

3. The article is weak on the core career management literature.

4. To make a contribution to career management literature we need to

engage right from the outset with the conundrums that scholars of careers face.

5. There needs to be a theoretical framework or model to integrate and

guide the discussion.

6. Alternatively, we could propose a theoretical model that contains

all the major elements discussed and then elaborate on each part of the model.

7. The article needs to be more prescriptive than descriptive.

8. Propositions need strengthening and need to be testable empirically.

9. There needs to be a stronger justification of why further research

would be beneficial.

Eugene and I are confident that we can deal with points 1, 2, 7, 8 & 9. We would need help with developing points 3, 4,5 & 6.

Thank you for taking the time to read this correspondence.

Best wishes

=============================

Steve Armstrong

Director of Research &

Professor of Organisational Behaviour

The Business School,

The University of Hull,

Hull, HU6 7RX, United Kingdom

Email: s.j.armstrong@hull.ac.uk

Telephone: +44(0)1482-463388

Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Management Reviews http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ijmr