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Editorial I
Ken Parry
Graduate School of Management, Griffith University, Nathan QLD
Article Text
Let me tell you a story. When I was asked to take over JANZAM, I took the request on board with trepidation. Almost without exception, my colleagues referred to it as a ‘dog’, or as a ‘lousy’ journal or most humiliating of all, ‘Tier 5’. I thought, as most other people thought, that taking on the editorship of JANZAM would be a career-limiting exercise.
On the other hand, the only way it could go was up. Perhaps my colleagues would see me as courageous rather than just stupid. I did have the opportunity to implement some of the improvements that I had been nurturing for some years. I did have the opportunity to make it a better journal than it was. I thought that perhaps I could do a bit for my Academy because after all, I had been promoting to junior colleagues for some years the need to do just that. Hell, it was ‘our’ journal, after all.
So, I did what all less-than-courageous people do. I took the two-bob-each-way option. I agreed to take it on for one year because I hoped to have sabbatical after that. I had an ‘out’ clause. If worst came to worst, I could disband the journal and say, ‘Enough is enough. Let’s put JANZAM out of its misery’. Sure enough, I immediately got the reaction from colleagues that I feared. With rolled eyes they said things like, ‘Rather you than me, pal’. I got a 25-item list of action plans from my colleagues on the ANZAM Executive. There was nothing surprising on the list. I just had to get a publisher to publish JANZAM for us. The big name academic publishers didn’t want to know us. Previous editors on JANZAM and previous Presidents of ANZAM knew that already. Our subscription base was too small.
With a sad heart, I was ready to go to the 2005 ANZAM conference in Canberra to announce that JANZAM was being disbanded. I felt I was letting down some wonderful colleagues who had put their hand up to help out on the editorial board. I still respect and admire them greatly, but I felt I was letting down not just them, but the whole of ANZAM.
And then, just as the future looked its darkest and bleakest, from the gloom appeared Jim Davidson, of eContent Management. Here was a publisher who was happy to take on our journal. Yes, I will say that again … happy to take on JANZAM!! Not only that, this was an Australasian publisher. And, this was a publisher who had considerable experience with Sage and Elsevier and other big academic publishing houses. Not only that, but he lived and worked not far from where I lived and worked. This story was sounding more and more like a Hollywood plot where success is salvaged at the last minute from the jaws of impending failure. I could have kissed Jim. It is between him and me whether I did kiss him or not, but the fact remains that we had a professional publisher who could help us to realise the goals that we had set for our journal.
The love-child of this seemingly chance encounter was the Journal of Management & Organization. With the help of Peter Dowling, Neal Ashkanasy and Alan Brown, we put together a new journal. Organization was spelled with a ‘z’ and not with an ‘s’, and we had an ampersand rather than ‘and’. We had a big name international editorial board. Almost immediately we had even better articles being submitted. It turned out that I did not let down my colleagues as much as I expected that I would have to. Suddenly, our journal was rescued when it appeared doomed.
If you have read this far, you will know there is a moral to this story. I won’t patronise you by telling you what it is. You are all smart people. You can work it out.
I can leave JMO knowing it is in good hands, better hands. Ray Cooksey is a grand colleague and an accomplished editor. Other accomplished colleagues also put their hand up to edit JMO. I am grateful to them. The ANZAM executive is grateful to them and will continue to support JMO. Jim Davidson will continue to publish JMO. The only way for JMO to go is still up. At the risk of pushing the Hollywood metaphor too far, I can ride off into the sunset knowing that our Academy journal is well looked after.
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