Fresh narratives on Management Development

Introduction

This special issue builds on and broadens management theory to enhance the field of management development, practice and research. It makes a break with the traditional format and focus found in academic journals, by publishing research in the form of Brief Reports (max. 3,000 words). These reports will offer concise overviews of emerging research that examines new and avant-guard topics related to how we can train and develop managers to survive and thrive in today’s rapidly changing business world.

Ongoing research is needed to further the understanding of management development, framed by constant change in business and society. For example, rising instability and uncertainty, triggered by ongoing geopolitical instability, rapid technological disruption and an urgent need for sustainable transition, leave managers facing new problems on a regular basis. Management studies, though academically rigorous, only partially explain the rising complexities of the modern business world, and therefore offer limited insight for understanding how to innovate training and development to equip managers to respond accordingly to these challenges. The multifaceted changes taking place both offline and online call for fresh narratives on how to extend and innovate management development.

As such, this special issue welcomes reports that ask and help answer significant and interesting questions in management development, develop or test theory, extend prior studies, explore interesting phenomena, review and synthesise existing research. All empirical methods including (but not limited to) qualitative, quantitative, field, laboratory, meta-analytic and mixed-methods are welcome. This format provides a high-impact platform for the next generation of scholars to challenge existing management paradigms and offer real-time perspectives on how to (re)design management training and development that enables managers to respond to change at both an individual- and organisational level.

The aim is to make original contributions that can be applied to different organisational contexts. We welcome new perspectives from Early Career Researchers (ECRs), including PhD/DBA scholars, on how to train and develop today’s managers, and better prepare manger for tomorrow. The objective is to test and extend established management theories, framed by constant and high-velocity changes in the business world, and thereby contribute to the enhancement of management development practices.

The originality of this collection therefore lies in its novel bottom-up approach. The focus is still on state-of-the-art works but now incorporates ‘state-of-the-future’ narratives voiced by the next generation of scholars. It gives a rare space for ECR to analyse the changes taking place, from the perspective of those who will eventually lead and influence management development.

Each submission will be required to rigorously demonstrate general application and provide practical insights that managers can implement to innovate management development. This ensures that research serves as reports (rather than anecdotes) that offer a tool-kit for cost-effective management development. Relevance and topicality are therefore uppermost. We offer scholars the opportunity to comment on how managers can transform global challenges into opportunities. We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives on how to respond to global uncertainty, technological change, sustainability pressures, and evolving socio-economic contexts. For example, the convergence of nearshoring and AI presents a huge opportunity for management development, yet managers remain largely unprepared, lacking the interdisciplinary knowledge to manage these intersecting forces. Little is known about the surge in AI adoption and nearshoring (i.e., the practice of transferring business operations to a nearby country rather than offshoring to a distant continent). In Central Europe, for example, nearshoring has transformed the region into a vital industrial hub, as companies prioritise geographic proximity, time-zone alignment, and supply chain resilience to mitigate global volatility.

Alongside the scholarly contribution, the special issue is rooted in societal impact through its alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals #4, #9 and #11. The impact is two-fold: it ensures academic sustainability by nurturing young researchers, and it offers practical applications for policymakers. In exploring how businesses can turn challenges into opportunities, these reports provide a pathway for informing management development, oriented towards building more resilient and sustainable systems both domestically and internationally.

Consistent with the mission of nurturing the field of management development, the special issue employs a mentorship-through-publication model. This process mirrors JMD’s interest in personal development and maximising potential, providing ECRs with a new format for disseminating significant original contributions to this field.

GUEST EDITOR PERSPECTIVE:

AI agent integration is already underway, yet management is operating without guidelines. Pandora’s box is open, and no one knows where we are going. Management development must step in now to uphold values and principles, and to build systems that support human interest before we crash as a society. Against this backdrop, we propose five topic areas:

1. Developing managerial competencies for leading sustainable digital transformation;
2. Responsible AI integration into management development programmes, including leadership training, upskilling and CPD;
3. Cross-cultural management development for geographically integrated teams and supply chains, including nearshoring and regional hubs;
4. Management development for inclusive and responsible entrepreneurial ecosystems, embedding DEI, well-being and AI-enabled work transformation into entrepreneurial training;
5. The critical role of human agency in managing robotic and AI integration, including developing managerial frameworks for responsible AI governance as autonomous systems outpace ethical and regulatory preparedness.

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jmd

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jmd

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 30/09/2026

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31/03/2027

Email for submissions: [email protected]