On the Relationship Between Research and Practice

Abstract

This article offers a lively and spirited debate on the pros and cons of relating research to practice. The authors' goal is to illuminate fundamental issues in the debate in detail, consider a variety of prescriptions, and then come to a mindful conclusion about a course of action. The article begins with a point—counterpoint debate to make sure that scholars fully understand the issues in play. Mike Tushman starts off by arguing for an emic approach. He believes that scholars are most effective when they closely work with management and organizations. John Kimberly counters with an etic perspective. He argues that scholars need to keep their distance. Two attempts to make sense of the many issues raised in the debate close the article. First, Bill Starbuck steps back and offers his ideas about what the debate means for continuing scholarship. And then Sue Ashford brings the exchange to a conclusion. She draws on her many years in the dean's office to offer her wisdom about how to best organize business schools in the coming years. In the end, the authors know that there will be nearly as many errors as trials when the world's business schools determine how best to proceed. Their aim here is to minimize the effects of these errors. If and when schools do err, the authors want to be sure that they do it with their eyes wide open.

Challenges and propositions for research in quality management

“…Lagrosen and Lagrosen (2005) and Hietschold et al (2014) In sum, this study aimed to (a) identify the themes of the challenges perceived by QM practitioners and (b) better understand how these challenges are addressed by existing QM research to direct future scholars to bridge the relevance gaps between research and practice, thereby building on previous work in this area (see Carter, 2008;de-Margerie and Jiang, 2011;Hodgkinson and Rousseau, 2009;Huff, 2000aHuff, , 2000bStarkey and Madan, 2001;Walsh et al, 2007). Our study showed the urgent need to address specific QM-related issues regarding the relevance gaps between research and practice.…”

“…Carter, 2008;de-Margerie and Jiang, 2011;Hodgkinson and Rousseau, 2009;Huff, 2000aHuff, , 2000bStarkey and Madan, 2001;Walsh et al, 2007); there is an urgent need to explore relevance gaps to guide academics in the development of QM. However, bridging relevance gaps once identified can be challenging.…”

Responsible management education for a sustainable world

“…The gap then needs to be framed as a knowledge production problem. As a solution, a concept of engaged scholarship has been suggested, where researchers and practitioners interact effectively in order to co-produce knowledge that is relevant to both, research and practice, with academics contributing rigorously developed scientific insights and practitioners deep insights into understanding reality ( Van de Ven, 2007;Walsh et al, 2007;Rynes et al, 2001;Lorange, 2008, p. 71). …”

Best practices: How to evaluate psychological science for use by organizations

“…Research-to-practice tensions are perennial in organizational psychology. For example, these debates have arisen in whether to design business schools as focused on emics (immersed relevance) or etics (scientific rigor) (Walsh et al, 2007). Especially vociferous debates have surfaced recently in Research in Organizational Behavior (regarding the Implicit Association Test (IAT) specifically: Jost et al, 2009; Tetlock & Mitchell, 2009).…”