Can not deserialize instance of java.util.ArrayList out of VALUE_STRING

do you try

[{"name":"myEnterprise", "departments":["HR"]}]

the square brace is the key point.

Setting this attribute to ObjectMapper instance works,

objectMapper.enable(DeserializationFeature.ACCEPT_SINGLE_VALUE_AS_ARRAY);

from Jackson 2.7.x+ there is a way to annotate the member variable itself:

 @JsonFormat(with = JsonFormat.Feature.ACCEPT_SINGLE_VALUE_AS_ARRAY)
 private List<String> newsletters;

More info here: Jackson @JsonFormat

This is the solution for my old question:

I implemented my own ContextResolver in order to enable the DeserializationConfig.Feature.ACCEPT_SINGLE_VALUE_AS_ARRAY feature.

package org.lig.hadas.services.mapper;

import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.ContextResolver;
import javax.ws.rs.ext.Provider;

import org.codehaus.jackson.map.DeserializationConfig;
import org.codehaus.jackson.map.ObjectMapper;

@Produces(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON)
@Provider
public class ObjectMapperProvider implements ContextResolver<ObjectMapper>
{
   ObjectMapper mapper;

   public ObjectMapperProvider(){
       mapper = new ObjectMapper();
       mapper.configure(DeserializationConfig.Feature.ACCEPT_SINGLE_VALUE_AS_ARRAY, true);
   }
   @Override
   public ObjectMapper getContext(Class<?> type) {
       return mapper;
   }
}

And in the web.xml I registered my package into the servlet definition...

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>...</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>com.sun.jersey.spi.container.servlet.ServletContainer</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
        <param-name>com.sun.jersey.config.property.packages</param-name>
        <param-value>...;org.lig.hadas.services.mapper</param-value>        
    </init-param>
    ...
</servlet>

... all the rest is transparently done by jersey/jackson.