Welcoming Macro-Oriented Research at OBHDP: Adding a new "macro" AE
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (OBHDP) is taking steps to be a more welcoming home for research that examines macro-relevant phenomena-such as firms, top management teams, and strategy-when the core dynamics are psychological. This effort aligns with OBHDP's core mission: publishing research on the psychological processes underlying human attitudes, cognition, judgment and decision-making, and behavior in organizations.
OBHDP's authors and readers span multiple disciplines, and we regularly see submissions focused on higher-level organizational phenomena (e.g., firms, top management teams, governance, analysts). Although such work is often labeled "macro" because of its level of analysis, the theoretical engine in these papers is often "micro"-psychological processes that explain how individuals and groups interpret information, make decisions, and translate cognition and affect into behavior. In the past few years, OBHDP has published several macro-oriented papers that do exactly this. Likewise, much of the work we publish is "meso," exploring the intersection of micro and macro dynamics.
We recognize, however, that OBHDP may not be top-of-mind for scholars working in macro-oriented areas, even when their work is closely aligned with OBHDP's identity. To make this fit more visible and to strengthen our editorial expertise for manuscripts that bridge macro phenomena with micro foundations, we are adding a macro-oriented Associate Editor: Mike Mannor (University of Notre Dame).
Mike has extensive experience publishing with both micro and macro scholars, positioning him to help macro-oriented manuscripts speak to OBHDP's audience while preserving the aspects that make them valuable and interesting to macro/strategy communities.
What kinds of "macro" submissions are we inviting?
We are inviting papers that examine macro-relevant phenomena while making a fundamental contribution to psychological theory in organizational contexts. Some illustrative (but not exhaustive) examples include:
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Strategic decision-making as human judgment and choice: how executives and teams interpret signals, weigh tradeoffs, rely on heuristics, or experience bias under uncertainty
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Managerial cognition and attention: how leaders notice, interpret, and prioritize issues; how attention shapes commitment, escalation, or strategic change
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Top team information processing and dynamics: how conflict, diversity, power, status, and cohesion influence the quality and speed of collective decisions
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Strategic leadership and governance research focused on core psychological processes that shape firm strategy and decision-making
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Executive identity, emotion, and motivation: how identity threats, moral emotions, or motives shape strategic action and stakeholder-related choices
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Microfoundations of organizational adaptation: psychological mechanisms linking environment/organizational conditions to behavior and performance
If a manuscript's core contribution is psychological processes in organizations, we encourage authors to consider OBHDP as a great home for their work. Many submissions that are positioned for Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, or Strategic Management Journal would fit OBHDP's focus with little or no changes to the manuscript. We do want to assure our current audience that OBHDP's "Aims and Scope" are not changing (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/organizational-behavior-and-human-decision-processes/about/aims-and-scope). In other words, we are not expanding into a general strategy journal.
As noted in our "Aims and Scope," OBHDP places a premium on manuscripts that (a) demonstrate an interesting behavioral / psychological phenomenon, (b) make a significant theoretical and empirical contribution, and (c) identify and test an underlying psychological mechanism (for empirical papers). Conceptual papers that offer a substantively new contribution are also welcome. Manuscripts that do not fit within this framework will be identified at the desk review stage.
Submitting to OBHDP
If your macro-oriented research fits this scope, we encourage you to consider OBHDP as a home for your work: https://www.editorialmanager.com/obhdp/default.aspx
Best,
Mike Baer & Maryam Kouchaki
Editors-in-Chief, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
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Mike Baer
Dean's Council Distinguished Professor
Arizona State University
Co-Editor, OBHDP
mikebaer@ASU.edu------------------------------