The Launch of a New Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Background Welcome to this new journal the Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. The field of Work and Organizational Psychology has a long and strong tradition in Scandinavia. Typical studies within this field have focused on work environment issues, such as psychosocial working conditions, meaningfulness and influence at work. The focus on intervention and evaluation of work and organizational initiatives focusing on the improvement of working life has also been important in this research tradition. In a European and global context, there are relevant and prestigious journals covering the research field, such as the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, and Work Stress (just to name a few important journals) In addition, the Scandinavian region also has their relevant journals such as the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment Health and the Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies. However, we believe that there is a need for a journal focusing on Work and Organizational Psychology issues in particular, and with relevance for a Scandinavian context. In this respect, we want to emphasize that our view on Work and Organizational Psychology is that it is a field in the cross section of many disciplines. Thus, bringing together findings and scientific advances in the field means broadening the scope and inviting researchers from many different disciplines. Consequently, researchers with a background in for example Psychology, Sociology, Business Administration, Work Science, Economics, Medicine, Epidemiology, and Education, have proven to engage in research questions relating to the Work and Organizational Psychology field. Thus, maintaining the methodological and stringent tradition of Work and Organizational Psychology, we encourage contributions from researchers from many closely related disciplines, as the research question must be at the center of the journal's interest. The Scandinavian tradition is, as mentioned above, related to research issues with a specific focus on working conditions and the work environment. However, from our point of view Work and Organizational Psychology has a focus of studying the individual in relation to its environment, the working life. This is done both by focusing on the individual and by focusing on the organizational and the societal environment, or by focusing on the interaction between these fields. With this journal we want to preserve the stringent research tradition but include issues from the whole spectrum of working life. In short, we encourage studies that focus on the relation between the individual and working life, whether it being with a traditional working conditions focus or an interest in more upcoming topics such as sustainability and ethics in working life for example.