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From: Jean Neumann [mailto:jean.neumann@btinternet.com]   

Below please find a call for papers. It is a JABS initiative regarding 'international OD&C', with a deadline of March 15^th 2008. I would like papers from people who are well steeped in the international R&D as well as those who have been doing international OD&C but not necessarily informed by the international literature.

 Call for Papers

"Managing International Organizational Development & Change"

Special Issue, The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

Jean E. Neumann, Chung Ming Luang & Christopher G. Worley

Guest Editors

We invite submissions to a special issue focused on how organizational development and change (OD&C) is managed in international contexts. Referring to implementation of established change and development models across boundaries and within different cultural contexts, national or geographical settings, and organizations with international, trans-national or multi-national memberships – we encourage rich, thick descriptions of how a change process unfolds, how change processes are adapted, how change processes can be evaluated, and how emerging change models can be noted for further development. These descriptions could be supported or underpinned by quantitative data if desired.

We are keen to demonstrate unique factors that impact current ways of managing OD&C. Papers are invited that (a) show how OD&C principles and practices proved readily applicable in international contexts or that (b) uphold the idea that application without modification proved unethical outside of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place> or European cultures. What does successful OD&C look like around the world and how does it differ on various dimensions? For example, papers may address such variables as: pace of change; degree of active or emergent planning and management; type of infrastructure for governing change; roles played by participation, involvement, command and direction; impact of corporate cultures, national identities and organisational designs on readiness to change. Also, we are keen that papers illustrate the changes that occurred, what was different, how the intervention or change process resulted in that change. What would be the implications of emerging theories or models based on these international OD&C findings or results?

While all types of methodologies are welcome, we would like comparative data from action research and applied research relevant to OD&C programs, projects and interventions that reflect the spirit of OD&C across boundaries and within different sites. It is necessary for authors to declare their frameworks about international OD&C: do they see diversity or homogeneity in human affairs, are there universally true and applicable theories or culturally bound but sometimes generalizable theories? Data needs to take into consideration the people involved, their learning and development through the OD&C processes, and the roles of change managers and change agents within and across the implicated sub-systems. As long as the paper incorporates rich, thick descriptions of the change process, we welcome a variety of levels of change: societal, organizational, cross-level and individual.

Please follow JABS guidelines; submit manuscripts by email prior to <st1:date year="2008" day="15" month="3" w:st="on">15 March 2008</st1:date>, to: