Introduction
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00776.x |
| Published date | 01 September 2011 |
| Author | David Wilson,Peter McKiernan |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
Introduction
Peter McKiernan and David Wilson
1
Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK, and
1
Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Corresponding author email: pm71@st-andrews.ac.uk
This special issue marks 25 years of the British
Academy of Management (BAM). It is quite an
achievement for an organization to survive for
such a period, and to have experienced continu-
ing growth and success. We thought it fitting that
two past Chairs of BAM were the editors of this
special issue, and also we thought it appropriate
to open this exciting issue with pieces from two
of the founding fathers of the Academy, Cary
Cooper and Andrew Pettigrew.
The Special Issue contains a mixture of shorter
pieces, which express personal viewpoints and
opinions, and traditional peer-reviewed papers.
As BAM has extended its influence far beyond
the UK shores, so the writings in this special issue
are sourced from top international scholars,
many of whom have presided over other acade-
mies or institutions.
A great deal has changed in management
education and research since BAM took its
first steps as a scholarly association. Teaching,
research and business schools have all been
subject to remarkable changes to the extent that
many younger scholars today simply take BAM
for granted (it has always been there to represent
them) – and that is one of the greatest accolades
for any association. To help map and interrogate
some of these changes, the authors in this special
issue have provided papers that reflect, describe
and analyse (sometimes critically) the content,
context and possible future development of
management education.
It is traditional in introductions like these to
summarize each paper, but we have chosen not to
do this for two reasons. First, keeping the
introduction short allowed us to include more
viewpoints and papers from a greater number of
authors. Second, we feel the authors describe
their contributions far better than we could, so
we encourage you to start reading straight away.
We would like to thank the reviewers for their
care in providing constructive critique and for
allowing the original message in each paper to be
revealed without undue strangulation. Further,
our gratitude goes to our Managing Editor
Emma Missen and the Editor in Chief Mustafa
Ozbilgin who provided endless encouragement,
editorial advice and help.
We hope you enjoy reading this di verse set of
papers. There seems to be a crystallization of
thought amongst many auth ors that manage-
ment education and researc h has reached some
destination which no-one intended but which
was steered by sometimes p owerful external
agencies. If anyone shou ld know about unin-
tended consequences, it is management research-
ers. Hence, this issue contai ns a strong voice
suggesting that significant c hange is needed if
scholarship and academe are to continue to
progress as admirably as th ey have over the last
25 years.
Some papers suggest routes forward; others
point out the difficulties; and some describe how
we got to where we are today. Whatever your
own perspective, we hope that at least some of
these papers stimulate your own thinking and
encourage reflection. After all, it is very likely
that you are going to be part of whatever future
the next 25 years of management research and
education brings.
British Journal of Management, Vol. 22, 341–342 (2011)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00776.x
r2011 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management r2011 British Academy of Management. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
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