Applying Management Research For Policymaking To Create A Better World

Abstract

Policymakers are regularly named as one of the targeted audiences of management research. However, Aguinis, Jensen, and Kraus (in press) found that policy implications are underutilized and not part of organizational behavior and human resource management’s zeitgeist because only 1.5% of the articles (i.e., N = 61) from a sample of journals included such issues. Consistent with the conference theme, the goal of our panel symposium is to discuss how together we create a better world—specifically by using management research for policymaking. To achieve this goal, our symposium includes panelists who are purposefully diverse in terms of research interests, ontological perspectives, and geographic location (i.e., combined, they are members of more than 10 different AOM Divisions). As such, panelists will address issues of interest to both micro and macro management researchers, and those from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Again, the symposium will have both a past and a future orientation. Regarding the past, panelists will address existing research and theories that can be used for policymaking to create a better world; what worked, what did not work, and the limits and possibilities for reviving and renovating past policy options. We can certainly learn from policy successes and failures in the past, at the same time as considering novel policy options at firm, social, economic and governmental level in the future. Regarding the future, panelists will also address what research should be conducted (i.e., which topics, theories, types of research designs) so that results are useful for firm and societal policymaking that will result in creating a better world. Overall, we hope our symposium will serve as a catalyst for a better understanding of what types of management research-informed policies are useful for creating a world in which we will all be better off together.