Abating debates: On the merits of Constructive Confrontations
"If someone says it's raining and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the f&@$%ing window and find out which is true."
- Quote often attributed to Jonathan Foster, though origins & version vary
The above quote was aimed at journalists, to prod them to find facts rather than report opposing sides of an issue. But it could easily be adapted for management journal editors. If one scholar writes a paper that concludes that firms do better when they do more of something and another scholar writes a paper that concludes that firms do better when they do less of it, perhaps our job shouldn't be to publish both papers, but to find a f&@$%ing way to figure out which is true.
Academic debates can be fun. Our field is awash in them. But often they prove inconsequential and inconclusive. Opposing authors tend to talk past each other, agreeing to disagree while leaving core issues unresolved. Especially germane to Academy of Management Perspectives (AMP), practitioners and policy makers become more confused, gaining no actionable insights.
For our work to matter to managers, we must abate debates, not proliferate and prolong them. AMP offers a novel format to do so. Constructive Confrontations bring opposing sides together as co-authors to jointly conduct a novel study that firmly establishes key facts about important managerial issues. Debaters work with each other rather than talk past each other.
Constructive Confrontations is an engaging format and AMP, with an ABS ranking of 4, a 5-year impact factor of 9.4, and the status and infrastructure of the 20,000-member Academy of Management backing it, is a premier outlet. So why haven't you taken advantage of this awesome opportunity yet? We've abated the risk by offering to review proposals and providing a suggested format for full articles. Details are on the AMP website and directly linked to here.
It may be awkward approaching someone with whom you've openly debated, to suggest working together. But what an opportunity for meaningful collaboration! If you'd like, we are willing to break the ice by playing the role of matchmaker or peacemaker. Just ask! And we further ask of you, as you see interesting debates about important managerial issues play out in the journals, please encourage the debating authors to consider Constructive Confrontations.
AMPly yours,
Michael L. Barnett, Editor-in-Chief
Academy of Management Perspectives
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Michael Barnett
Professor
Rutgers University
Newark NJ
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