TAMARA JOURNAL FOR CRITICAL ORGANIZATIONAL INQUIRY
SPECIAL ISSUE
CALL FOR PAPERS
Organization Development & Diversity Consulting
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Systemic Change for Social Justice and Equity?
In the last two years, the world has been moved—at an unprecedented level—by the election of a United States President. The campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin raised interesting questions about the nation’s commitment to diversity and how we define “change.” Because of his ethnic heritage, the success of President Obama’s campaign also raised questions about the nation’s commitment to diversity in employment, given that the election was a process to employ the nation’s first man of color as President of the United States. Similarly Hillary Clinton’s and Sarah Palin’s unsuccessful campaigns raised questions about the nation’s commitment to diversity in terms of gender.
Many are curious about how the new administration and presidency will change the culture of the government as an organization and the nation as a social system. Will the Obama administration be as transformative a force in the culture of Washington and the nation as many hope or will modest changes reinforce the perception that systemic change is a lofty and illusive ideal? What does the election of the nation’s first man of color as President mean for the culture of the government as an organization and the nation as a social system? Does the election signal a national commitment to diversity? What will be the best ways to define and measure change? Systems theory, social movement history, and social change theory all have something to contribute in answering those questions.
Organization Development (OD) consultants and researchers grapple with similar questions in their work. They analyze trends in hiring practices, employee turnover, organizational culture, absenteeism, and other organizational processes to develop a picture of the organization’s commitment to and practice of diversity. They engage members of organizations in critical inquiry by asking these questions and working to find the answers. Consultants work with organizations to define and achieve their goals, priorities, and values regarding diversity. Perhaps if we understand what has been happening on the ground in organizations around the country with regard to the nature of systemic change for social justice and equity, we will be able to theorize about whether systemic change is possible in Washington DC. Therefore, it is a good time to take stock of what OD and diversity consulting has produced by way of systemic change for social justice and equity.
Only the passage of time and history will tell how broadly organizational life and theory are changing in the wake of the current political transitions. For 40 and 60 years respectively, diversity consulting and organization development—as organizational change processes—have been implemented in public, private, for-profit, and non-profit institutions in the United States. This special issue will assess that work up to the current state of organizational change efforts related to diversity. It is an invitation to critically examine the capacity of OD and diversity consulting to foster systemic change for social justice and equity within organizations. In this context, we invite stories about the opportunities, challenges, learned-lessons, pitfalls, successes, and failures of practitioners as internal and external consultants as well as the critiques of theorists and researchers to foster understanding about the topic. We seek thoughtful, critical, and theoretically-grounded work and are particularly interested in narrative forms of (re)presentation including qualitative research, creative non-fiction, histories, and storytelling.
We invite submissions that contribute to the following discourses:
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Critical Accounting
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Critical Aesthetics
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Critical Discourse Analysis
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Critical Environment Studies
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Critical Feminism
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Critical Management Studies
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Critical Marketing
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Critical Narrative Studies
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Critical Pedagogy
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Critical Postmodern Theory
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Critical Sociology
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Critical Theory
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Indigenous Knowledge Studies
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Postcolonial Theory
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Your Choice
The organizational context for the inquiry is open including schools (Pre-K to Post-Doc), health care, governments (municipal to federal), non-governmental organizations, social service not-for-profits, businesses, foundations, think tanks, etc. Analysis can be at the micro (an individual within an organization), meso (one organization), or macro (a system of organizations) level as long as it informs our understanding of organizations.
Send queries to the special issue co-editors:
H. Sharif Williams, Ph.D., M.Ed.
Adjunct Professor, Individualized Studies/Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities
Goddard College
Placida Gallegos, Ph.D., M.S.
Professor, Human and Organization Development
Fielding Graduate University
Deborah Howard, J.D., M.S.O.D.
Founder
Guiding Change Consulting
Abstracts (proposals) are due March 9, 2009
Notification of expression of interest regarding abstracts will be made by March 23, 2009
First drafts of completed articles (from accepted abstracts) are due June 15, 2009
Notification of article acceptance for submission will be made by July 6, 2009
Abstracts should be no more than 1000 words and mention theories and methods central to the proposed article. In addition to the abstract, provide your name(s), phone number(s), email address(es), and institutional affiliation(s).
First drafts of the completed work for accepted abstracts should be approximately 24-pages including references with 1.5 spacing in APA format.