Welcome to the new editorial team

Citation

Harding, N., Ford, J. and Lee, H. (2011), "Welcome to the new editorial team", Journal of Health Organization and Management, Vol. 25 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhom.2011.02525aaa.002

Welcome to the new editorial team

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Health Organization and Management, Volume 25, Issue 1

I cannot remember exactly when it was that Jackie Ford and I took over the editorship of Journal of Management in Medicine from David Hunter, but it was at least 12 years ago. At that time, the journal was struggling to attract sufficient good papers, despite the very hard work that Professor Hunter had put into it. One of the first tasks that Jackie and I then did was persuade the publishers to change the title of the journal to Journal of Health Organization and Management, and the change of title broadened the journal’s scope and proved the launch pad for developing JHOM into a widely read, truly international journal that attracts papers and readers from all over the world.

There have been many changes in the succeeding years. The Nuffield Institute for Health which had hosted JMM/JHOM largely disappeared during a restructuring at the University of Leeds, and following the move of first Jackie, and then myself, to Bradford University’s School of Management, the journal’s links with Leeds were broken. Jackie, now Professor Ford, stepped down as co-editor in 2007, and Dr Hugh Lee stepped into the breach. There have been numerous changes in the editing team at the publishers, but we have worked with only two administrators, Jan Wakefield and Jodie Boyes, both still at the University of Leeds, who we thank wholeheartedly for their sterling work with an often absent-minded editorial team.

Throughout these changes JHOM’s mission, of broadening the debates about the organization of health and its management, remained the same. We were able to foster the work of new researchers, including masters and doctoral students. We contributed to breaking somewhat the hold of positivism over the sub-discipline, and have welcomed feminist and poststructuralist thinkers into the lists of published authors.We have seen greater willingness to experiment with the newer and arguably more progressive research methods, although it often felt as if grounded theory is still the avant garde in the discipline.

New public management was reaching its prime when JMM became JHOM, and the legitimacy of management in health organizations was still in question. That is no longer the case, but the major questions have changed little. How can health services best contribute to improving the health of citizens? That is the major practical question that remains unanswered. How can we, as academics, understand these things, “health”, “health services” and “health management” and their place in culture? This more intellectually oriented question should perhaps never be answered, for if it were then we would have stopped thinking and questioning.

We are proud to hand over a thriving journal to the new editorial team, who have exciting plans for taking JHOM forward. We will continue to supply the issues for 2011 with the new editorial team currently receiving papers for the 2012 volume of the journal. There is still a lot of work to be done if JHOM is to become ranked with major management journals, but the new editorial team possess the insights and ideas that will achieve this. We wish them all the best, and look forward to making a contribution, in whatever way we can, to that endeavour.

Introducing the new JHOM co-editors

Dr Helen Dickinson

Dr Helen Dickinson is a Lecturer in Health Care Policy and Management at the Health Services Management Centre and a Senior Researcher for the Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham. Helen heads HSMC’s health and social care partnerships research programme and is Director of Academic Programmes. Helen’s research interests are around inter-agency collaboration, leadership, priority setting and decision making and the role of the third sector in health and social care. Helen has authored, co-authored or edited seven books on these topics including the Better Partnership Working book series.

Dr Suzanne Robinson

Dr Suzanne Robinson is a Lecturer in Health Economics and Health Services Management (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham. She enjoys a wide portfolio of research interests around commissioning, service improvement and patient and public involvement with a particular interest around priority setting in health and social care. Her PhD explored the validity of quality of life measures used to inform priority setting decisions. Suzanne also co- leads the commissioning and priority setting work streams at HSMC and is Chair of Academic Programmes.

The new JHOM Associate Editors

Professor Russell Mannion

Professor Russell Mannion is Professor of Health Systems at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Oslo and the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Russell has published widely in health services research and provides policy and economic advice to a range of national and international agencies.

Dr Iestyn Williams

Dr Iestyn Williams is a Lecturer at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. He co-leads HSMC’s commissioning work programme and currently sits on the editorial board of Health and Social Care in the Community. Before joining HSMC, Iestyn worked in NHS management and as a service development worker in the third sector. Iestyn is widely published in both academic and practitioner books and journals. His particular research interests include: priority setting in health and social care; theories of policy decision making; health care in an international context; innovation in health care organizations, and; public sector partnerships.

The new editorial team have now taken on full responsibilities for JHOM. Please join us in welcoming the new editorial team to the journal.

Contact e-mail address for the new editorial team: jhom@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Nancy Harding, Jackie Ford, Hugh Lee