asq-topic-selection

Topic Selection & Fit (asq-topic-selection)

When to trigger

• You have an interesting phenomenon but are unsure it rises to an ASQ-level puzzle
• The idea feels descriptive ("X happens in organizations") rather than surprising
• You can describe a finding but not yet say why a smart org-theory reader would be wrong about it
• You are choosing between ASQ and AMJ/SMJ/Organization Science as a home

What ASQ rewards

ASQ publishes deep, often counterintuitive insight about organizations and the social structures around them. Since its 1956 founding (by James D. Thompson at Cornell), the journal has prized organizational ideas drawn from sociology, psychology, political science, economics, anthropology, and management — not a single home discipline. The bar is not "is this interesting?" but "does this change how we understand organizing?" A finding that merely raises firm performance (the SMJ test) or cleanly tests a hypothesis in a new sample (a common AMJ profile) is not yet an ASQ paper.

Fit test — a strong ASQ paper usually has all four:

1. A puzzle, not a topic. There is a tension, anomaly, or contradiction that existing theory cannot explain or predicts the opposite of what you find.
2. An organizational/sociological core. The phenomenon is about organizations, organizing, fields, categories, identity, status, networks, institutions, careers, or coordination — not a generic psychology or pure-economics question.
3. A surprise. The reader's prior is overturned or meaningfully complicated.
4. Generativity. The insight opens new questions; it is a theoretical lever, not a one-off finding.

Sharpening the puzzle

Run the idea through these prompts before any data work:

• Anomaly framing: "Theory T predicts A, but in setting S we observe not-A. Why?"
• Inversion: "Everyone assumes mechanism M produces outcome O. When does M produce the opposite?"
• Boundary breach: "Construct C is treated as fixed/given. What if it is produced, contested, or fragile?"
• Cross-level surprise: "An individual-level intuition fails at the organizational or field level (or vice versa)."

If the best you can do is "no one has studied X in setting S," that is a gap, not a puzzle — keep digging or move to a different journal.

Method follows the question

Decide which engine the puzzle needs — this previews asq-methods:

• How / why a process unfolds, identity/meaning, emergent dynamics → inductive / qualitative (grounded-theory, ethnographic, historical, comparative case). ASQ has published field-defining inductive work — e.g., Barley's (1986) observational study of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments, and Weick's (1993) interpretive analysis of the Mann Gulch disaster.
• Whether and how much a relationship holds across many cases, with identification → quantitative (panel, event-history, network, archival, experiment)

Do not pick method first and reverse-engineer a question. Unlike journals where the quantitative hypothesis-testing template is the default expectation, at ASQ a single deep ethnography or a historical case can be the whole paper if the insight is profound and the craft is high.

Contribution claim (one paragraph)

Draft the claim now, in this shape:

"We study [puzzle] in [setting]. Existing work in [conversation] expects [prior]. We show instead that [surprising insight], because [mechanism]. This reframes [construct/process] and matters for [organizational consequence]."

If you cannot fill every slot, the topic is not ready.

Checklist

• The idea is stated as a puzzle/anomaly, not a topic or gap
• The core is organizational/sociological, in ASQ's wheelhouse
• There is a genuine surprise that overturns or complicates a prior
• The insight is generative (opens questions), not a dead-end finding
• Method is chosen because the puzzle demands it (qualitative is fully first-class here)
• A one-paragraph contribution claim is drafted with every slot filled
• You have 2–3 recent ASQ articles you can name as conversation partners (not just AMJ/SMJ pieces)

Anti-patterns

• "Gap-spotting": "X has not been studied in context Y" with no theoretical tension
• Phenomenon-chasing: a timely topic (AI, gig work, ESG) with no organizational mechanism
• Confirmation papers: confirming established theory in a new sample — no surprise
• Method-led framing: "we have great data/an elegant model, now what can we ask?"
• Wrong wheelhouse: a pure micro-cognition or pure-finance question dressed in org language

Output format

【Puzzle】one-sentence anomaly/tension
【ASQ fit】organizational core? (yes/no + why)
【Surprise】what prior is overturned
【Engine needed】qualitative / quantitative + why
【Contribution claim】the filled one-paragraph claim
【Next step】asq-theory-development