BOOKS IN PRODUCTION

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Moving Images (Information Age Publishing)

Edited by Jon Billsberry, Julie Charlesworth and Pauline Leonard

This project is gathering together expert opinion and experience on how to teach management related subjects with films and television. Working with Julie Charlesworth (Open University) and Pauline Leonard (Southampton University) we are commissioning articles from some of the leading experts in the field. I'm delighted to say that we have agreed a deal with Information Age Publishers for the publication of the book. Chapters are flying in now and we hope to publish in 2009. Contributors include:

  • Véronique Ambrosini, Cardiff University
  • Emma Bell, Bath University
  • Jon Billsberry, Coventry University
  • Joe Champoux, University of New Mexico
  • Julie Charlesworth, The Open University
  • Nardine Collier, Cranfield University
  • Mark Easterby-Smith, Lancaster University
  • Andrés Fortino, Polytechnic Institute of New York University
  • Peter Galvin, Curtin University of Technology
  • Troy Hendrickson, Curtin University of Technology
  • Pauline Leonard, Southampton University
  • Stephen Sloane, St. Mary's College of California
  • Janet Sutherland, Curtin University of Technology
  • Richard Thorpe, University of Leeds
  • Craig Webber, Southampton University
  • Thomaz Wood, Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo

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Organizational Fit: Key Issues and New Directions (Wiley-Blackwell)

Edited by Amy L. Kristof-Brown and Jon Billsberry

Rationale

2007 saw the publication of the first book dedicated to the concept of organisational fit. This book, entitled Perspectives on Organizational Fit, was edited by noted academics in the field, Cheri Ostroff and Timothy A. Judge. It was published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates in their Organizational Frontiers Series. The book contains contributions from many of the leading authorities in the field. The chapters explore definitional, methodological and statistical issues and the final chapter, by Timothy A Judge, pulls together a state of the art review of the topic. This summary captures the argument of the book which is towards greater methodological and definitional rigour, a move away from subjective and perceived forms of fit, a separation of research into different categories of fit, and a questioning of whether fit has any value above a more general orientation to jobs and organisations. Judge ends by saying, ‘I do believe that there are some problems that are seemingly intractable. However, it is at times like this that the greatest innovations are made’ (p.441). In many ways this book marks the end of the first period in fit research. It marks a moment in time when fit researchers have honed their methodological approaches and gathered a large amount of data that has left them wondering, “What exactly is this thing called fit?”

We find ourselves intellectually provoked by this question, and our goal for this new book is to stimulate further conceptual progress on the topic of organizational fit. In particular, we want to use the book to encourage new research that explores: 1) how people form their impressions of fit, 2) how these evolve over time, and 3) how misfit differs as a psychological state from fit. Hence, we encourage grounded, constructivist and interpretivist approaches in addition to the positivist ones that dominate the mainly American literature (and the Perspectives on Organizational Fit book). And we want to explore lessons from related fields such as identity, deviance, embeddedness, belongingness and work/life balance. Importantly, we believe that fit does have a future and that to make headway we need to encourage fundamental research that re-establishes the nature and impact that people’s sense of fit has on their behaviour. We hope to use our proposed book as the catalyst that will stimulate a resurgence of interest in the concept of fit.

We are also considering an “application” section to the book, in which we would encourage papers that address: 1) how fit is measured and used in organizations, as well as 2) how the subject of organizational fit might be taught to university and professional, as well as Ph.D. students.

Although we are using the term ‘organizational fit’ in the title of the book – because it is term that most people use to label this field – we want to consider the domain broadly and we are interested in receiving submissions any dimension of organizational fit. This includes person-job, person-team, person-culture and other forms of fit. Chapters that consider fit from a multi-level perspective are also encouraged.

More specifically, over the past year we have been identifying trends in the fit literature which are going to likely set the structure for the book. At present, these trends include, but are not limited to:

  • Understanding what underlies perceptions of fit;
  • Distinguishing misfit from fit; 
  • Looking at organizational fit within its social, economic, and religious environments; 
  • Exploring organizational fit in different forms of work;
  • International perspectives on fit;
  • Assessing the impact of organizational fit on organizations and teams;
  • Assessing fit for organizational use; and,
  • Longitudinal studies of fit.

Process

This book project was formally unveiled at a caucus entitled, New Directions in Fit, at the 2009 Academy of Management. This was a first opportunity to discuss trends and possible ideas for chapters. It was attended by more than forty people. However, you do not need to have been at that caucus in order to participate in this project. This is an open call that genuinely seeks new and different voices on organizational fit.

As this book looks to the future, time is a crucial element in the production of the book and we hope to get it published in double-quick fashion. The deadlines we have outlined below are fixed and will be adhered to. We do not want this book to come out after the ‘new directions’ discussed in the book have become ‘old directions’!

The anticipated publication date is early 2012.