Introduction
Welcome to our first issue as editors of Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal (QROM). We are delighted to follow in the footsteps of Albert Mills and Jean Helms Mills (Co-Editors-in-Chief, 2016–2024) and Catherine Cassell and Gillian Symon (Co-Editors-in-Chief, 2006–2016). We thank them publicly for their years of service.
Through the respective tenures of these editors, QROM has established itself as a valuable and popular publication within the field of organization and management studies. At a time when some journal publishers and editors face scrutiny for undesirable reasons, and against a backdrop of educidal violence around the world, particularly in Gaza, critical work that engages qualitatively with the experiences of the dis/organised and un/managed is more valuable than ever. We proudly reaffirm QROM’s commitment to encouraging and publishing critical qualitative work from researchers and practitioners worldwide. Our hope, aligned with that of our predecessors, is that the journal continues to provide a forum for qualitative researchers to share their work and discuss significant issues of research practice. In this editorial, we explain why we believe there is still a need for this journal and set out our own critical imagination, which we hope will inspire your work.
Why do we still need QROM?
In their inaugural editorial, Cassell and Symon (2006) highlighted that although qualitative research has provided valuable insights in organization and management studies, it is still not widely published in top journals. They argued that this lack of visibility limited the development and acceptance of qualitative methods in the field. Through QROM, they created a space for high-quality qualitative research, supporting researchers and enhancing the credibility of qualitative inquiry in organization and management studies. As the journal approaches its 20th anniversary, we reflect on the presence of qualitative research in the “top” journals today and consider why QROM’s mission remains crucial.
The evolution of qualitative research’s visibility calls for a rethinking of what constitutes a “top” journal. The demand for highly ranked publications with immediate relevance and engagement has pressured researchers to conform to dominant discourses, often at the expense of deep and imaginative critical engagement. This trend towards superficial academic work underscores the importance of journals like QROM that celebrate rigorous, reflective and critically engaged qualitative research. By maintaining a dedicated space for qualitative inquiry, QROM seeks to uphold the intellectual virtues of patience, discipline and meticulousness, countering the tendency towards superficiality and speed.
Further, the credibility of qualitative inquiry remains a crucial issue. While there has been progress in recognising the value of qualitative research, it still struggles for parity with quantitative methods in many “top” journals. Qualitative inquiry provides deep understandings of the ways in which people interpret their world and navigate different challenges while allowing researchers to capture the richness of individual and collective experiences in diverse contexts. Furthermore, qualitative research contributes to a more empathetic understanding of complex human experiences and social phenomena. QROM continues to play a vital role in affirming the legitimacy and importance of qualitative approaches, providing a robust platform where such research can thrive and be respected on its own terms.
The wider acceptance of qualitative research necessitates an understanding of diverse perspectives from around the world and evolving notions of value. The changing role of the contemporary university highlights the tensions inherent in public intellectuals working within private institutions. These tensions manifest in our own research – how we conduct it and how others ascribe value to it. Recognising this, QROM actively seeks contributions from diverse geographical and cultural contexts, challenging the traditional boundaries of academia, promoting global inclusivity and ensuring diverse perspectives are represented. QROM also acknowledges the pressures faced by researchers in market-driven university sectors, emphasising the need for journals to address real-world problems and societal challenges. Our commitment to interdisciplinary engagement and addressing issues such as inequality, ecological responsibility and social justice aligns well with this need. By fostering research that critiques existing structures and imagines alternatives, QROM supports a broader and more impactful understanding of value in academic research. These priorities are shared by our publisher, Emerald, which is passionate about driving social change aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
As a journal, we aim to balance research that begins with explicit goals and that embraces open discovery. QROM will strive to embrace both disciplined critique and critical engagement. This is not about reconciliation but about celebrating both the rigour of academic inquiry and its connection to the broader world. By valuing structured research alongside explorative, open-ended inquiry, we aim to foster a dynamic and inclusive academic environment. As editors, trying to live our values (and not just write about them), our intention is that QROM grows as a journal that does not reproduce the same patterns of behaviour that its authors critique in the organization and management they research. If we succeed, we might be able to claim the journal as both a repository of inclusive and diverse knowledge and an agent of transformational social change.
The critical imagination
Launching our stewardship of the journal and renewing its editorial stance, we believe the critical imagination offers a powerful framework for embracing the future through both disciplined critique and critical engagement. By “renewing its editorial stance,” we mean re-emphasising QROM’s commitment to innovative and inclusive qualitative research, expanding its focus to include a broader range of methodologies and perspective and encouraging a balance between rigorous analysis and creative exploration.
We are not alone in looking to the future. Gümüsay and Reinecke (2024) emphasise that given the impending planetary crisis, the future will not be a continuation of the past. Thus, organization and management researchers must find ways to conceptualise and theorise about what is not yet observable or existent. While Gümüsay and Reinecke advocate a shift towards active imagination and values-driven theorising, our response evokes the critical imagination. The critical imagination refers to the intellectual capacity to transcend conventional thinking and engage with ideas that unsettle the taken-for-granted. This practice necessitates a blend of creativity, critical thinking and reflective analysis, enabling new possibilities and perspectives. For academics, a crucial aspect of the critical imagination entails creating pedagogical spaces that mobilise affect and empathy alongside criticality. Embodied literacy work across different modes and genres can play a significant role in facilitating the critical imagination by enabling others to enact, perform and immerse themselves in different discourses, generating new insights and ways of seeing. Our emphasis on the critical integrates ethics, human experiences and socio-political awareness into research. By engaging with social imaginaries, both shared and observer-relative, the critical imagination fosters innovative thinking that challenges oppressive systems and envisions more equitable futures.
We recognise that, in an era where mainstream theoretical trends appear to fall into denialism, accelerationism or solutionism, there is a profound need for a renewed critical imagination that can transcend these limitations. Denialism rejects existing problems and the sciences that diagnose them; accelerationism opts for rapid, often reckless advancement, assuming contradictions will self-resolve, and solutionism narrows the world’s complexity to technical problems with swift fixes. Each of these trends signifies a collapse of imagination, reducing our capacity to envision alternative futures. The critical imagination resists this collapse by refusing to see limits as absolute endings but as points of departure for new inquiry and understanding. It calls for a critical engagement with the present, informed by a historical awareness that connects past, present and future. This engagement is not merely theoretical but demands practical implications, encouraging researchers to participate actively in setting their own limits and contributing to the transformation of social structures. By fostering a living relationship with time and embracing the power of imaginative strangeness, the critical imagination offers a pathway to more equitable futures, aligning with QROM’s commitment to interdisciplinary, inclusive and context-sensitive research.
To ground our approach, we briefly point to some influential works that have shaped critical thinking in social sciences while also encouraging others to reflect their own practices. Our consideration of the critical imagination draws from C. Wright Mills’ (1959) work, The Sociological Imagination, particularly in advocating for more socially engaged research. Although Norman Denzin (1990) described the book as written “vaingloriously” (p. 2), with “dubious ethics” and “filled with both upward and downward hypocrisy” (p. 4), we appreciate later attempts by Mir and Mir (2002) to introduce new readers to Mills’ work. We share their critique of grand theory and abstracted empiricism, favouring a critical social science that integrates ethics, human experiences and socio-political awareness.
Like Weick (2005), we recognise that the “imagination is empirically anchored” (p. 427). Additionally, Weick’s distinction between a primary imagination, which “orders and unifies what we perceive”, and a secondary imagination, which takes those perceptions and “reorders, fuses, and moves” them (p. 428), further catalyses our search for the critical imagination. This prepares the researcher to step beyond normal modalities of knowing to the depths and heights that are beyond the literal and explicit. Gümüsay and Reinecke (2024, p. 7) describe imagination as “the faculty of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses nor presently realised”. This guards against the sinister symbolism of organizations and management, which, as Kostera (2022) warns, can invade and colonise. Rather than engendering research that enlightens, it manifests in a hegemony that “focuses inward, on the individual but does not lead to knowing oneself or to the development of an imaginative mind” (p. xi). Think how much more vibrant the field of organization and management studies would be if we unlocked the critical imagination – new things could be born out of it as we move closer to the possible yet unattainable future.
The unattainability of the future is pertinent, and we are also mindful of how critical theories have adapted to various socio-political contexts, signalling how the critical imagination is in constant evolution. QROM is open to these evolutions. Historically, critical theories have benefitted from their adaptability, enriching our understanding of organizations and management through diverse traditions, including critical political economy, feminism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, psychoanalysis and ecology. Today, as we confront the socio-environmental injustices of climate breakdown, we must evolve our critical theories to address practices that provoke polycrises, limit human creativity and reinforce systemic inequalities. Taylor’s (2007) concept of the social imaginary helps us understand how individuals and groups envision their social existence, providing a foundation for reimagining these structures. The critical imagination must engage with these social imaginaries, both shared and observer-relative, to foster new ways of thinking that challenge oppressive systems and envision more equitable futures.
In this context, the critical imagination involves several key dimensions essential for effective critique and transformation of social structures. It involves shifting from the individual to the dividual, recognising new forms of control, integrating emotional responses and developing context-specific narratives. By embracing these dimensions, the critical imagination can effectively critique and reimagine social structures. Emotions and narratives play a crucial role in this process. By leveraging emotional engagement and storytelling, the critical imagination can connect with broader audiences and drive transformative action. This approach aligns with QROM’s commitment to interdisciplinary, inclusive and context-sensitive research.
The notion of the critical imagination is not just theoretical but has practical implications for how we conduct and present research. We see the critical imagination to encourage researchers to push the boundaries of organization and management studies. By engaging actively with organizational forces and elite actors, researchers can promote radical intellectual and social transformation. This approach aligns with our vision for QROM, inspiring rigorous, reflective and impactful research that challenges the status quo. As John Dewey (1934/1987, pp. 271–272) insightfully put it:
When old and familiar things are made new in experience, there is imagination. When the new is created, the far and strange become the most natural inevitable things in the world. There is always some measure of adventure in the meeting of mind and universe, and this adventure is, in its measure, imagination.
Looking back through previous issues of the journal, we see the critical imagination as a long-time, perhaps albeit unspoken, driving force behind QROM research. We suggest that six key moves typify this imagination: challenging, exploring, foregrounding, emphasising, modelling and connecting. QROM research might be known for challenging assumptions (McDonald, 2017; Spector, 2023) by questioning and deconstructing the taken-for-granted beliefs and practices within organizational life (Gherardi, 2023; Mok et al., 2023). It is typically engaged in exploring alternatives (Dupret and Pulz, 2021; Varkarolis and King, 2017) by imagining and theorising new ways of understanding and engaging with organizational phenomena (Agarwal and Sandiford, 2021; McKenna and Richardson, 2016; Della Porta and Pavan, 2017). An important commitment of QROM researchers is to foreground ethics by emphasising the ethical implications of research (Bull et al., 2020; Johnson, 2014; Lorenzo-Afabile et al., 2021) and addressing issues of power (Liyanagamage and Fernando, 2022; Mishra et al., 2021; Patterson et al., 2018; Styrhe et al., 2022), inequality (Niemistö et al., 2020), justice (Walker et al., 2021) and care (Okkonen et al., 2021; Segarra et al., 2023). This demands skill in emphasising context by situating research within its historical and structural settings (Barros et al., 2019; Farooq, 2018; Mollan, 2019; de Oliveira Lacerda et al., 2023) to ensure studies are grounded in the lived realities of individuals and communities (Díaz-Parra and Roca, 2017; Holmquist and Sundin, 2022; Jedličková et al., 2022; Li et al., 2019). So, too, in modelling inclusivity by embracing diverse perspectives and experiences (Holck, 2018; Long et al., 2015; Shigihara, 2018), valuing contributions from marginalised and under-represented groups (Christensen et al., 2023; Grandy et al., 2015). The radical and transformative value of QROM publications sees researchers connecting praxis through scholarship and activism (Böstrom, 2017; Mason and Simmons, 2019; Varkarolis and King, 2017) to ensure research contributes to tangible social change (Akella and Khoury, 2022; Jemime et al., 2020; Simsa and Totter, 2017).
Our message for authors seeking to have manuscripts accepted for review in QROM for the first time is that the texts cited above demonstrate the emergence of the journal’s critical imagination. Together, we will celebrate what qualitative methods make available for individual and collective acts of critique – always underscored by imaginative engagement. Understanding the role of critical imagination is crucial because it explains why engaging deeply with phenomena at the heart of organizations and management is rewarding, and it helps readers understand how the research was conducted and communicates its value beyond this journal’s pages. Following Murray and Ozanne (2006), we see how the use of critical theories embodies both a negative moment, critiquing actions that contradict fundamental values, and a positive moment, imagining alternatives – thus pushing the boundaries of management and organization studies, engaging with hegemonic institutional forces and promoting radical intellectual and social transformation. For QROM’s authors, the critical imagination is not just a methodological tool but an intellectual virtue that enriches theory and praxis.
Editorial policy and journal content
As we revisit the path set out by the journal’s founding editors, we want to set out how the critical imagination sits at the heart of our editorial policy. Let us return to Cassell and Symons’ first editorial (2006) and the three key issues they identify.
First, there is the thorny issue of what is meant by qualitative research. The critical imagination encourages us to view qualitative research not merely as a set of methods but as a dynamic and evolving practice rooted in the pursuit of understanding complex social realities. This perspective calls for us to challenge methodological boundaries, embracing innovative and hybrid methods that push the limits of traditional qualitative research. Today, this might include integrating arts-based methods (Ward and Shortt, 2020), socio-digital worlds (Snee et al., 2016) and/or engaging in alternative modalities of writing (Gilmore et al., 2019). This demands reflective practice, encouraging researchers to continuously reflect on their positionality, the power dynamics inherent in the research process and the ethical implications of their work. Additionally, it underscores the need for contextual sensitivity, emphasising the importance of situating research within specific historical, cultural and social contexts to capture the richness of lived experiences.
Second, the scope of organization and management studies can be fully expanded through the lens of critical imagination. This involves embracing interdisciplinary engagement and encouraging research that draws from and contributes to a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, political science and cultural studies. In so doing, this approach enriches our understanding of organizational phenomena. It allows us to focus on critical issues and themes, prioritising research that addresses pressing global challenges such as inequality, ecological responsibility and social justice. By focusing on these critical issues, we can contribute to meaningful and impactful change. It also opens our attention to diverse organizational forms, exploring a wide array of organizational settings beyond traditional corporate environments, including social enterprises, grassroots organizations and informal networks. This broadens our scope and enhances our understanding of varied organizational dynamics.
Third, the critical imagination urges us to rethink what it means to be an international journal in a truly inclusive and equitable manner. This entails a commitment to global inclusivity, actively seeking contributions from scholars around the world, particularly from under-represented regions and marginalised communities. This ensures a diverse and global perspective in our published work. It invites cross-cultural dialogue, facilitating meaningful exchanges between researchers from diverse cultural and geographical contexts. This fosters mutual learning and the co-creation of knowledge that transcends national boundaries. Moreover, it sets equitable representation as a gold standard, ensuring that editorial and review processes are inclusive and representative of the global scholarly community. This involves addressing epistemic blindness and promoting equity in all aspects of the journal’s operations.
By engaging with these key issues through the lens of critical imagination, we set out how we hope to be custodians of, curate, and care for a journal that is reflective, inclusive and impactful. We want rigorous and innovative qualitative research to thrive, addressing the complex challenges of our time and contributing to the advancement of organizational and management studies.
The critical imagination, as we envision it, is not merely a spontaneous act of creativity but a disciplined practice of engaging with the limits of what we know and what we can imagine. Spivak (2013) emphasises the necessity of training the imagination to prepare knowledge and reorganise desires. This process of preparation is crucial, as it counters the collapse of imagination by fostering an art of relating to the unknown and the unrecognised. Imagination, therefore, becomes an instrument for welcoming otherness, transforming our relationship with both our own world and the worlds of others. By cultivating a sense of strangeness within our own experiences, we might learn to navigate the coexistence of multiple temporalities and perspectives, which seems essential in addressing the complexities of our shared socio-environmental crises. This approach aligns with our commitment to an ecology of the imagination, where learning involves not only acquiring knowledge but also embracing the limits of what we know. This dynamic tension between the known and the unknown encourages critical inquiry and challenges the fixed meanings imposed by current dominant narratives. By fostering a critical imagination, we aim to empower researchers to reinterpret reality, question prevailing assumptions and envision more equitable and sustainable futures.
Contributions to this issue
We are pleased to introduce the articles in this issue, marking our first as editors of QROM. In “‘Difficulty mentioning the M word’: Perceptions of a woman disclosing negative menopause symptoms in the workplace”, Daly et al. (2024) examine how menopause is perceived and understood within the workplace. Their research explores how participants make sense of menopause and the perceptions of menopausal women in the workplace. The authors advocate for a shift in societal and organizational discourses on menopause, emphasising the need for more inclusive research, particularly those of LGBTQIA+ and ethnically marginalised backgrounds. In “Past is prologue: from human relations to social exchange theory”, Joullié et al. (2024) explore the historical roots and development of social exchange theory (SET) within organizational behaviour. They argue that SET is deeply influenced by the human relations movement, particularly the work of Elton Mayo and the Hawthorne Studies, as well as by logical positivism and behavioural psychology. Peralta-Borray et al. (2024), in “A grounded theory of tolerance of corruption in public organizations: emotion, rationalization and whistleblowing – the Colombian case,” investigate why civil servants in public organizations in Bogotá, Colombia, often choose not to report corrupt activities, despite being aware of them. The research theorises the process by which civil servants tolerate corruption, which contributes to the understanding of public corruption by illuminating the emotional and rational processes that underlie corruption tolerance and underscores the importance of considering emotions in the study of corruption and ethical behaviour in organizations.
Renewed invitation to contribute
Having outlined our renewed vision for QROM, it seems clear to us why there is an ongoing need for a journal like this and why we would take on the opportunity to lead it through the coming years. We invite you to submit your work to QROM and join us in pushing the boundaries of organization and management studies through innovative and inclusive qualitative research. Detailed information about the journal and the submission process can be found at https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/qrom.
We seek papers that reflexively deploy the critical imagination, aiming to deepen our understanding of key issues in the organization and management field or to develop innovative qualitative methodologies. We are particularly interested in papers that offer insights from diverse cultural contexts around the world, as well as those that provide cross-disciplinary perspectives on relevant topics. We commit to supporting those writing in English for the first time, those at the start of their careers, those trying something new and indeed all who engage with us and our community.
There are already established formats for publishing conventional accounts of your research (up to 10,000 words), “insider accounts” of your method (6,000 words) and book reviews. We are invigorating the “viewpoints” format (6,000 words), which creates space for high-quality essay writing, and we plan to introduce new formats to expand the opportunities for engaging with various writing modalities. Please accept the invitation to submit special issues proposals and help shape the next 20 years of QROM.
By stewarding this journal, we aim to enhance the recognition and value of qualitative inquiry in our field, fostering its development both methodologically and epistemologically. The success of this endeavour relies on the contributions of researchers dedicated to qualitative research. We are eager to read your excellent work.
