1,720,983 research outputs found
Beyond Boundaries. Reconceptualizing Exchanges between Management Scholars and Practitioners
No full textThis paper challenges orthodox understandings about the existence of a theory-practice gap in organization science and points out the limitations of, and uncertainties behind, seeing management academics and practitioners as two separate communities with different systems of expertise (i.e., theoretical and practical expertise). Based on an ethnographic study of two groups of academics and practitioners in an executive master’s program, the research articulates a process view of how academics and practitioners, in particular, and individuals belonging to different occupational communities, in general, exchange expertise across boundaries. Findings suggest that academics and practitioners can resourcefully deal with exchanges that are pervaded by information shortage, differences and misunderstandings, thanks to their exceptional ability to develop provisional relations: temporary, open-ended and malleable relations that draw on the broader systems of relations in which they are entangled elsewhere. Accordingly, theories and practices are not exclusive systems of expertise but common resources for instrumental exchanges; when called to interact, academics are easily able to pass from theory to practical theorizing, as practitioners can switch from an involved practical mode to a quasi-theoretical one. These findings contribute to boundary spanning literature by discussing the issues of exchange multiplicity, hybrid systems of expertise, and continuous transformation through relationalit
From Gaps to Tangles: A Relational Framework for the Theory-Practice Debate
No full textThe article contributes to a better understanding of the relation between organization theory and managerial practice. It examines different literatures to identify positions in how organization theories relate to management practice in the theory-practice debate. It finds positions are founded on a similar set of dichotomies -academics versus practitioners, rigor versus relevance, cognition versus action and science versus commonsense- that propel a debate that moves in circles instead of forwards towards new areas of inquiry. However it is shown that dichotomies are often exaggerated because of the excessive focus on theory-practice gaps and the lack of attention to theory-practice interrelationships. To demonstrate how dichotomies may be reconciled, the paper proposes a new position - entanglement- according to which relations between scholarly and managerial theories and scholarly and managerial practices constitute iterative processes in which organization scholars and management practitioners resourcefully combine action and cognition and science and commonsense to create hybrid and dialogic knowledge according to multiple systems of relevance -institutional constraints, personal interests and contexts of cross-boundary interaction. Therefore the paper proposes a research agenda to study such process-based manifestations and discusses implications for the theory-practice debat
Putting Space in Place. Multimodal Translation of the Grand Challenge of Regional Smart Specialization from Policy to Cross-sector Partnerships
Full text linkPlace-based policies tackle grand socio-economic challenges through differentiated, context-sensitive interventions. However, they often run the risk of under- or mis-performing. This work studies how grand challenges translate from policy to cross-sector partnerships through place. By focusing on the place-based policy of regional smart specialization (RIS3), I investigate how the setup of science and technology parks mediates the practices of the actors in the translation chain: a transnational policymaker (macro), a regional broker (meso), and a local partnership which served as prototype for the regional policy (micro level). I document two types of practices-emplacement and space configuration-enacted at each level, and show how their interplay transformed the grand challenge from a cautious ideal at the macro level which balances risk and responsibility, to an optimistic and risk-prone approach at the partnership level. The study contributes to the policy and cross-sector partnerships literatures by documenting a two-sided effect of place-based policy and a consequent risk of ethical reversal, from an early attractor bringing partners together to a later accomplice keeping the partners together despite evident signs of failure. By adopting a strong multimodal approach, I also distinguish four types of multimodal outcomes-ideal type, prototype, virtual model, and lived artifact-which perform the two-sided effect and bring about the risk of reversal. Practical implications include a redistribution of the burden of failure from the CSPs implementing the grand challenges to the institutional fields in which these are bred
Backing up emergency teams in healthcare and law enforcement organizations: strategies to socialize newcomers in the time of COVID-19
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic is putting significant pressure on emergency teams in healthcare and law enforcement organizations. In order to provide rapid backup, new workers must be socialized rapidly and effectively. In addition to considering the pros and cons of various newcomer socialization strategies and tools, healthcare and law enforcement organizations may need to design hybrid socialization strategies at the light of four essential processes of emergency teams: roles, knowledge, interpersonal relations and emotion management. We suggest that emergency teams based on the combined resources of old-timers and newcomers where the more experienced team members contribute actively to the socialization of new members can have unexpected positive effects on the team
FROM CRYPTO TO SOCIETAL CHANGE: SENSEMAKING, INSTITUTIONAL BOUNDARIES AND THE PROMISE OF BLOCKCHAIN
No full textAre academics and practitioners that different after all? An entanglement perspective for the theory-practice debate in management
No full textThe article contributes to a better understanding of the relation between organization theory and managerial practice, by providing a systematic review of the theory-practice debate and proposing a new integrative position called entanglement. A careful analysis of the debate highlights a dichotomist pattern (science versus commonsense, rigor versus relevance and cognition versus action) that propels a circling debate. To reconcile dichotomies, we propose an entanglement position that re-conceptualizes relations between academics and practitioners as loops of trans-epistemic boundary work. We identify three loops that explain how and why academics and practitioners alternate between science and commonsense (legitimation), translate standards of rigor into multiple systems of relevance (mobilization), and form common action-cognition meshes (enactment). We show that not all loops require the same relational effort, which explains some of the contrasting findings in the theory-practice debate. We try to advance the debate by proposing new research directions for each loop
What drives alignment between offered and perceived well-being initiatives in organizations? A cross-case analysis of employer–employee shared strategic intentionality
No full textThis study investigates the conditions of alignment between an organization’s business strategy, the well-being initiatives (WBIs) offered to employees and employees’ perceptions of the latter. We conducted a comparative study on the conditions of alignment between offered and perceived WBIs in three companies with different business strategies. Findings highlight that the alignment between offered and perceived benefits depends on what we label as ‘shared strategic intentionality’: (1) how employers’ use their understanding of the organization’s business strategy to craft WBIs and (2) employees’ perceptions of WBIs at the light of the attributions about why their employers offer WBIs the way they do, and of the broader understanding of the organization’s business strategy. We contribute to the Strategic HRM literature by proposing an integrative position with respect to the macro (i.e., employer-focused) and micro (i.e., employee-focused) research traditions. Our position has the advantage of looking at employers’ intentions and at employees’ attributions of intentions simultaneously and unravels the central role of business strategy in shaping their alignment. From a practical standpoint, not only do we bring a more nuanced understanding of the strategic HRM challenges faced by employers and employees in settings with different business strategies, but also initiate a discussion about the traps and best practices associated to configuring effective WBIs in organizations
From gaps to tangles: A relational framework for the future of the theory-practice debate
No full textThe article contributes to a better understanding of the relation between management theory and managerial practice by providing an integrative and historically contextualized review of the theory-practice debate among management scholars, and by proposing a new integrative position which we call entanglement. The integrative review reveals that since its origins in the 1950s up to the last decade, positions in the debate have shifted according to a rigor-relevance pendulum, portraying academics and practitioners as members of distinct, closed communities. To advance this debate, we propose an entanglement position which re-conceptualizes relations between academics and practitioners as trans-epistemic networks of interest within which knowledge can travel via three different boundary spanning strategies: legitimation, mobilization, and enactment. By showing the different degrees of relational intensity (i.e. required boundary spanning effort) of these strategies, we reconcile and integrate contrasting findings in the theory-practice debate. We advance the debate by proposing new research directions in relation to each strategy
Collaboration and identity formation in strategic interorganizational partnerships: an exploration of swift identity processes
Full text linkWe investigate how collective identity formation processes interplay with collaboration practices in an inter-organizational partnership promoting regional innovation. We found that initial collaboration challenges are dealt with by setting up an early ‘swift identity’ which is associated with material artifacts to increase its strength and stability (‘swift identity reification’). However, as the partnership evolves, the reified identity becomes misaligned with partners’ underdeveloped collaboration practices. To ensure realignment, new attempts at reification are performed, as partners buy time for learning how to collaborate. Our findings contribute to extant identity research by proposing alternative (i.e., ‘swift’ and ‘reified’) mechanisms of identity formation in contexts characterized by both heterogeneity challenges and integration imperatives. They also integrate the debate about the role of identity formation in the evolution of interorganizational partnerships. For both literatures we highlight the important role of materiality
The journey of great expectations: A study on how institutional expectations impact collaboration expectations and collaboration enactment in hybrid interorganizational partnerships
No full textOur research is concerned with the role played by expectations in hybrid interorganizational collaboration projects. In particular, we look at how organizations participating in public-private partnerships negotiate broad and ill-defined goals and expectations set by policymakers to carry forward heterogeneous expectations about the partnership. We empirically study a hybrid partnership in which public and private actors came together with the broad goal of supporting regional innovation and fostering knowledge exchange. We use a process-perspective derived from the sociology of expectations to analyze the generative and transformational role of expectations, that is, how expectations shape dynamics and outcomes of hybrid collaboration. In particular, we document that the tendency to create ad-hoc material objects or spaces (in our case, a regional science park) can lead to vicious self-reinforcing mechanisms that push partners away from the initial collaboration goals. Notably, too many expectations and promissory commitments associated to an already configured physical space may lock partners in rigid and repetitive interaction schemes, especially when the configuration of the space is not backed up by social centrality— willingness and ability to modify pre-existing organizational structures. We offer contributions to a better understanding of collaborative dynamics in partnership failure and a more nuanced understanding of policy goal-setting through hybrid private-public partnerships
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