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JMSR: Where are we now – where arewe going?Robert A. GiacalonePublished online: 03 Mar 2010.

To cite this article: Robert A. Giacalone (2010) JMSR: Where are we now – where are we going?,Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 7:1, 3-6, DOI: 10.1080/14766080903497276

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Journal of Management, Spirituality & ReligionVol. 7, No. 1, March 2010, 3–6

ISSN 1476-6086 print/ISSN 1942-258X online© 2010 Association of Management, Spirituality & ReligionDOI: 10.1080/14766080903497276http://www.informaworld.com

EDITORIAL

JMSR: Where are we now – where are we going?

Taylor and FrancisRMSR_A_450145.sgm10.1080/14766080903497276Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion1476-6086 (print)/1942-258X (online)Original Article2010Taylor & Francis71000000March 2010BobGiacaloneragiacal@temple.edu

The start of a new editorial team provides the opportunity to refine the directionof a journal, whether the journal is 5 years old or 50 years old. Particularly in thecase of an emerging field of study like management, spirituality, and religion(MSR), the refinement of direction comes with the territory of a growingdiscipline. As the field develops, adjustments are made based on changing expec-tations in methods and theory; approaches that were acceptable even five yearsago become inappropriate due to advances in the field of study. Indeed, some ofthe refinement is also based on the lessons learned from the previous editorialteam, whose gracious sharing of their experiences, both the good and bad,provide for a way to help advance the team that follows. In this regard, I amindebted to the counsel and experience of the previous Editor-in-Chief, YochananAltman, and the founding Editor, Jerry Biberman.

As the incoming Ed-in-Chief, I had the opportunity to consider for an entireyear what a continuing refinement of JMSR could be. Using Yochanan’s andJerry’s experiences (and their gracious feedback), my own editorial experience,and reviewing what had emerged over the past decade in MSR research, Ireflected on some basic questions: What is scholarship in management, spiritual-ity, and religion all about? What types of manuscripts are we looking for? Whatis the present state of MSR research? Clarifying these is important, not solely forthe sake of the editorial direction, but for those who submit papers to JMSR, whospend a great deal of time and effort writing papers with the hope that they willbe accepted.

While the answer to these questions may be clear to many, an overview ofsubmissions and queries indicates that there is some confusion as to the currentstate of MSR theory and research, its underlying foundation, and the types ofmanuscripts we seek to attract. In order to help clarify these to all potentialauthors, let me try to make clear what is a tacit understanding of this editorialteam.

Clarifying our tacit understandingAs the years have passed, scholars in management, spirituality, and religion haveembraced their identity as a social science. We are not an advocacy group forpeople’s religious or spiritual beliefs, armchair philosophers, or activists. Indeed,if the past years have clarified anything, it is that the fate of our scholarship restsin our ability to follow the broad research and methods that define social science

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research. This does not deny or minimize other ways to understand spiritual andreligious beliefs, faith, or practices. Rather, it recognizes that these ways are thepurview of another domain – theology. Such an approach does not deny or affirmthe need for advocacy, missions, or conversion practices. It respects that these arethe province of religious and spiritual groups and whatever activism is inherentto their work. JMSR is not a forum for attracting converts or publicizing thespiritual and religious beliefs of any person or group. So, while JMSR will onlypublish articles reflecting the social science tradition, its intent is not to slighttheological and activist pursuits, but to remain true to the scholarly traditions thatwe hold dear.

Like any social science journal, we therefore welcome the work of scholarswho demonstrate empirically the impact of spirituality and/or religion onmanagement and organization. We also welcome the work of those who criticallydemonstrate that spirituality and religion may be co-opted for destructive ordysfunctional purposes in workplace contexts. The intent of JMSR is to get at asubstantive understanding about the role that spirituality and religion play inorganizational life, whatever that might be.

How we get at that substantive understanding is to do as other social sciencesdo – through theory and methods that are generally accepted in the socialsciences. We no longer argue whether facets of religion and spirituality areassessable – they are. Indeed, this was determined long ago by the psychologists,sociologists, and health researchers who assessed spirituality and religion fordecades. Methodological approaches used (qualitative or quantitative) may vary,and the types of data analyzed will be predicated on the approach, but JMSR willonly publish articles whose approach is solidly based in social science research.While a public forum allows for a non-scientific, opinion-driven discussion ofthe grand and/or destructive outcomes that spirituality and religion, JMSR willnot be that forum unless the arguments are grounded in rigorous, scientificconceptualization.

Whose work we seek is perhaps less clear, largely because it is moreexpansive. In a general sense, we seek manuscripts with a social scienceorientation whose focus is on basic research, education or practice. As theeditorial board demonstrates, such scholarship is not limited by geography ordiscipline. We seek manuscripts from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds,cultures, and research paradigms whose context is within a diverse range oforganizational settings. While our base remains management scholars in thearea of MSR, there is a wide range of scholarly contributor groups to JMSR.As an example, our contributors are just as likely to be management or publicadministration researchers as they are to be psychologists from any of thepsychological sub-disciplines (e.g. industrial/organizational, clinical, social,psychology of religion). They may have a sociological orientation or ananthropological one. They may be focused on understanding spirituality andreligion from a macro organizational perspective, or on a micro level, whereissues of health, well-being and individual differences may be the focus.Indeed, scholars such as those in liberation theology, critical management

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Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion 5

studies, spiritual ecology, and indigenous religion would find a welcome homein JMSR.

The present of JMSRToday, JMSR seeks manuscripts that not only demonstrate theoretical and empir-ical manifestations of the relationship that MSR has for organizational life, butthat also integrate into or challenge the mainstream conceptualizations andmethods that characterize the state of current organizational science. There islittle doubt that the organizational sciences are characterized by a focus on thephysical and social realities of our world, and that MSR researchers find a focuson these realities limiting. But it is not enough to simply state that there is aspiritual reality that other scholars are missing. We must go further, joining theongoing “conversation” that is in the mainstream literature.

JMSR will be a specialty journal in the organizational sciences that investi-gates the impact of a connectedness of humanity and transcendent reality onmanagerial decisions, behaviors, values, and attitudes. It is also interested in themore macro-level organizational and societal level impacts that are intercon-nected to and interdependent on to these managerial inputs. We will focus on theorganizational values evidenced in the organizational culture that promoteemployees’ experience of transcendence through the work process, facilitatingtheir sense of being connected in a way that provides feelings of compassion andjoy. But the work we publish cannot be insular in its orientation. Critically, wecannot dismiss the financial realities of organizational life, or the more material-istic orientation of the organizational world around us and within which we work,but the manuscripts we seek must also challenge this reality, and based on carefultheoretical arguing, pose alternative futures. We must remain vigilant in ourrecognition that what we study is necessary in helping us understand organiza-tional life, but without connecting to the world as it is, we will remain outsidersto both practitioners and scholars.

More and more, the challenge we will face is to demonstrate relevance to theacademy and practitioners at large while challenging the current academic andapplied management practice. We must create connections to the scholarly workothers in organizational and other social sciences have done, not only using theirconceptualizations and methods, but by working within, challenging fromoutside, and, where possible, integrating into their worldview. If we do not dothis, we shall soon find ourselves in a scholarly vacuum, having lost the noveltyof our beginnings and having left ourselves irrelevant to those inside or outsideour domain.

More and more, we must invite the work of those outside of mainstream MSRareas, inviting them to share their perspectives, their approaches, and theirwisdom in the service of developing both our field and helping to expand thedomain from which they work. Let me state clearly that this editorial board willdo all that is possible, both formally and informally, to welcome these interdis-ciplinary voices into this journal.

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But as we refine the direction of this journal, let us also remain clear thatJMSR is about people, and our clinical focus on good theory and methods mustbe matched by a concern for real-life significance. While researchers sometimessee the world through F tests and structural equation models, it is critical that wenot forget these help to explain and model reality, they are not reality itself.

Reality itself is comprised of beating hearts that toil each day to make a livingand live a life. It is lived by individuals who love and hate, are grateful andresentful, forgiving and vindictive, and who cannot be reduced to the numbers weput on a page. It is a world where workers and managers have a life outside theorganization, and where that life increasingly is impacted by work after hours; aworld where children and spouses are stakeholders in organizational decisions,although we might forget. Each day in organizations across the world, there areacts of great courage and cowardice, people with incredible integrity and shame-ful morality, and organizations who care about their people and those who simplyuse them.

We are dedicated to understanding that reality, entrenched in the methods andtheories that have long defined the social sciences, and ever hopeful that what wepublish may transcend the careers and disciplines of the authors who grace ourpages.

Robert A. Giacalone

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