From: Rita Gunther McGrath [mailto:
rdm20@columbia.edu]
PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
Business Policy and Strategy Division
Co-Sponsored by MED, ODC, OMT, ONE, IM and TIM
2002 Academy of Management Annual Meeting
Friday, August 9th, 1-4 p.m.
Location to be announced
"The Intersection between research and practice in management
scholarship"
Come join Clayton Christensen, Clark Gilbert, Rita McGrath and
representatives from a major consulting firm in an important and timely
discussion.
This workshop is designed to address the following questions:
1. How can interaction with the world of practical concerns motivate
high-quality theory building and research? How can the management field
offer a way to avoid the twin perils of producing research with little
relevance, or relevant research with little rigor?
2. What role does discipline-based research play in having an impact on
practice?
3. What are likely scenarios for the future of research and practice?
How
is this likely to affect either endeavor?
4. When is scholarly research useful for practice?
This workshop is intended to offer a forum for discussion of one of the
most
controversial issues in business schools today: namely, the appropriate
role
of practical concerns in high quality scholarship. Some scholars hold
that
generating knowledge, the function of the university, should not be
influenced nor should it seek to influence, the work of practitioners.
Others believe that there is an important role for practical
considerations
in building theory, formulating research questions and influencing
policy
outcomes. Still others believe that practicality is the main standard
by
which research should be judged.
These questions are of particular importance now because business
schools
are at a critical juncture. Enrollment growth in MBA programs, the
traditional core activity of a business school, is flat or declining.
Many
schools have come to depend on the financial returns generated by their
Executive MBA and Executive Education offerings. Funding for research
is
more difficult to come by. Rankings, such as those famously published
by
Business Week and other leading business publications, are seen to have
had
enormous influence on the agenda of the world's business schools,
particularly with respect to excellence and relevance in teaching. And
the
rise of alternative providers, from distance educators, to corporate
universities, might be regarded as extremely disruptive for the
traditional
business school model.
At the same time, many school departments of management report an
increase
in the influence of a discipline-oriented perspective on promotion and
tenure decisions for leading academics. Traditional measures of
quality,
such as influence and impact of the research that appears in premier,
largely American, scholarly journals, is influencing status and funding
decisions for universities not only in the United States but worldwide.
Consider, for instance, the rating system for universities in the U.K.,
which places enormous influence on scholarship, without particular
reference
to how relevant that scholarship is. A further trend is to have many
courses in business schools taught not by standing faculty, but by
adjuncts,
retired executives or part-time practitioners, who bring a great deal of
relevance to the classroom, but not the background of high quality
academic
research.
In short, within business schools, the connection between research and
practice is a controversial and crucially important topic. I would like
to
invite you to join a discussion on this issue. The workshop will be
facilitated and led by myself and Clark Gilbert of the Harvard Business
School with support from Booz-Allen and Hamilton and interested
academics.
The PDW will consist of four segments. The first two cover the
contribution
of practice to theory development and research in management. The
second
two cover the contribution of research to practice in management.
1. A keynote address by Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business
School
on the intersection of practice, theory development and the future of
knowledge in the business school
2. Short presentations/panel discussion on the role of practice in
theory
development.
3. Presentation of a case study of the use of research in practice to
support business objectives.
4. A closing presentation and dialogue by a representative from
Booz-Allen
and Hamilton on the use of management research in practice
As participation will be somewhat limited due to space, please e-mail
your
interest to me at
rdm20@columbia.edu by July 15th, 2002.
See you in Denver!
Rita Gunther McGrath
Rita Gunther McGrath, Associate Professor
Columbia University Graduate School of Business
Armstrong Hall, 2880 Broadway, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10025
Tel 212-854-6155
web:
www.columbia.edu/~rdm20
Fax 609-275-8645
e-mail:
rdm20@columbia.edu