While producing this issue of RAE, we were surprised by the intense transformation caused by the spread of COVID-19 worldwide. It is impossible not to remember the film Melancholia by Lars Von Trier. At this moment (I am writing in the first week of April in the city of São Paulo), it is not possible to predict the direction the pandemic will take in Brazil. As with academic journals, our articles and forums, organized in six annual editions, are planned well in advance. Our issues for the year 2020 are all underway, as well as some editions of 2021. In this sense, the number of submissions may decrease next year due to the pandemic. However, we expect that scientific production in business administration will grow creatively in the coming decades. Although we do not have a crystal ball to predict the changes that may occur in practice and research, the ongoing debate suggests several profound changes in several areas. These areas, which make business administration complex in global times, include the following: organizational behavior, wherein leaders and engagement are essential in times of crises; work organization; social media marketing and retail, as the online world has boosted consumption through deliveries; humanitarian logistics, which had already developed after Hurricane Katrina; behavioral finance; companies and human rights; business social impact; sustainability in a broad sense along with the UN Sustainable Development Goals; health management; and public-private partnership. It looks like the 21st century has really begun now. Will globalization be rethought? Will our travel around the planet decrease? Will education in business schools be rethought? Although this is a distressing situation, we have many questions and no answers about how the situation will evolve. However, scientific research is being strengthened, which encourages all of us-professors and researchers. The post-pandemic world will be rebuilt, and several initiatives are being taken in this direction: Scientific journals in several fields have already published calls for papers that address this new scenario. National and international research centers are partnering to develop joint projects. Funding agencies are providing financial resources for projects. Thus, although people are going through a harrowing period, creative possibilities have opened up for research on new forms of management.
Focusing on the field of Organizational Studies, the forum presented in this issue comes in handy. How can we integrate our studies with those of colleagues in Latin America? Can and should we rethink the principles that have guided the research so far? The president of Fapesp, Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz (*) (*) Professor Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, President of Fapesp, leaves office in April 2020. Interview granted to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on April 7, 2020. Site accessed on April 7, 2020: https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/equilibrioesaude/2020/04/vamos-sofrer-menos-se-nos-basearmos-na-ciencia-mas-ela-nao-faz-magica-diz-brito-cruz.shtml , states that the internationalization of research is fundamental for the development of science. This issue, dedicated to Latin America, questions the principles that guided the growth of Organizational Studies in this region. It includes the following works: “Organizational Studies in Latin America: Towards a research agenda,” by Diego Szlechter, Leonardo Solarte Pazos, Juliana Cristina Teixeira, Jorge Feregrino, Pablo Isla Madariaga, and Rafael Alcadipani; “To think from Latin America in dialogue with the organization of decolonial social struggles: Exploring possibilities,” by Maria Ceci Misoczky and Guilherme Dornelas Camara; “Organizational Studies in Latin America: back to the rough ground!” by Diego René Gonzales-Miranda; “Experiencing Agreste: Trials for research about people and business in a peripheral context,” by Marcio Sá; “No politics, no society: Questioning the justification of entrepreneurship in Chilean public policies,” by Oriana Bernasconi and Juan Felipe Espinosa-Cristia; “Tupi, or not Tupi that is the question”: Amerindian perspectivism and Organizational Studies,” by Sergio Eduardo de Pinho Velho Wanderley and Ana Paula Medeiros Bauer; and “Organizing the Organizational Studies in Chile: History of the creation of the Minga Group,” by Gregorio Perez-Arrau, Alvaro Espejo, Marcela Mandiola, Nicolás Ríos González, and Juan Pablo Toro.
This issue is concluded by the essay, “Where did we come from, where are we going? A collective self-criticism and desirable horizons for Organizational Studies in Brazil,” by Marcio Sá, Rafael Alcadipani, Ariston Azevedo, Ariádne Scalfoni Rigo, and Luiz Alex Silva Saraiva. These authors also address the theme of this forum.
Happy reading and take care!
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(*)
Professor Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, President of Fapesp, leaves office in April 2020. Interview granted to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on April 7, 2020. Site accessed on April 7, 2020:
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Translated version
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
15 May 2020 -
Date of issue
Mar-Apr 2020
