Learning by Negotiation: Stake and Salience in Implementing a Journal Management System

Abstract

This research investigates how an international academic journal implements a new journal management system to overcome their knowledge management issues. By adopting a case study approach, the stakeholders involved within the project are identified, and their salience for the organization is mapped. By providing an account of how these stakeholders negotiated each other, the case highlights how these negotiations are learning processes, showing that learning process is not a conflict-free process. The case also shows that the stakeholder salience changes throughout the project, thus raising the importance of viewing these negotiations as learning platforms rather than just arenas of power struggles, to use them as opportunities to identify possible future stakeholders.