A Tribute
by Professor Raymond Miles
(Former Haas School Dean)
Raymond Miles, professor emeritus and former Haas School dean, pays tribute
to the California Management Review on its 50 th anniversary:
The California Management Review (CMR) has withstood many challenges
during its lifetime and is in better shape today than perhaps at any other point – a
tribute to David Vogel's leadership and the continued support of its most loyal constituents.
The CMR lived much of its life on a very thin budget, with the bulk of its
financial support from the Haas School, whose faculty, outside of OBIR and PSLE,
saw little benefit from it.
Among David's achievements is maintaining a diverse, comparatively prestigious
multi-University editorial board, while claiming the Review as a Berkeley
(Haas) publication. This is much more manageable than the joint Berkeley, UCLA model
that it had in its early days or a multi-UC campus model that some have argued it
should attempt (to recognize the newer campus business programs).
Despite its challenges, CMR has maintained a solid hold on its place
among the journals in the field. It is clearly placed within the top three of the
journals with a focus on issues of appeal to managers, Harvard Business Review (HBR)
and MIT Sloan Management Review, being the others. Among these three, CMR probably
publishes more pieces with some research base and with authors whose primary reputation
is within their scholarly disciplines.
In the early days of OB, Business Policy, and Business Environment, there were
fewer prestigious journals aimed primarily at research reporting. In the sixties,
my research reports on managerial behavior and leadership got more attention in HBR and CMR than
in the journals of my professional society, (The Academy of Management). Today, there
are probably at least five prestigious scholarly journals covering topics on business,
management, leadership, strategy, etc. Nevertheless, CMR, without much compromise,
has remained a viable choice for authors who would like to publish sound, research-supported
material that has a more practical bent than might be attractive to the top five
scholarly journals. CMR frequently gets the authors’ second, more
applied piece from the same research project –that at least has often been
my practice.
It is my view that CMR articles (certainly true of many of mine) are
frequently sought by those putting together a book of readings on particular topics
(for classes on leadership, strategy, etc.). This is a good test of the extent to
which the journal is known and valued. Moreover, articles in CMR are cited
widely across the field, even in more scholarly journals. This is a good indication
of their quality.
In sum, the California Management Review has survived hard times, maintained
its rather unique niche of the most research-based managerial journal, and, in recent
years, built a fairly firm base of support across the Haas Faculty. It is clearly
the best in the West, a journal of choice for the research-based piece that doesn’t
fit precisely in the current scholarly categories, and, if nothing else for attractiveness
and readability. As a scholar I have valued it as a publication outlet and been happy
to serve as a reviewer. As a professor I have used its reprints in my classes.
As a Dean I felt it was an asset worthy of support and had unrealized potential.
My regret is that I didn’t steal more money for its support.
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