Thanks to Kim, Gary and others for so wonderfully stating their positions
on this debate. It comes up every now and then and each time is
interesting to read!
Perhaps one other issue that needs to be considered is how each side
communicates its knowledge. Practitioners may be developing theories and
testing them, but if they do not talk about it beyond narrating their
anecdotes, the knowledge dies there. But a few reflect on it and take it
to a level of abstraction (say, Chester Barnard), or train many on their
concepts and stress those concpets as the cause of their success (say,
Jack Welch), and that makes an impact. Barnard's book and Welch's annual
statements to shareholders reached a wide audience.
On the other side, academics who packaged their concepts in a manner that
lent itself towards ease of use (say, Porter or Prahlad) in a practitioner
world have similarly made an impact. Even if those ideas are not
exclusively theirs, but they have taken what was in the air and made it
usable.
Quite often, consultants and academics, more interested in attaching their
own coinage to the idea, give it a name or a jargon to claim ownership.
That creates more problems for the consolidation or spread of knowledge.
peace,
gopi
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C. Gopinath Phone : (617) 305 1934
Suffolk University Fax: (617) 573 8345
Management Department Internet:
c.gopinath@suffolk.edu
Sawyer School of Management
8 Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108, U.S.A.
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