Development Of Management Research Research Articles

What Makes Research Possible? The Management Studies Research Division at the London School of Economics

Purpose – The paper examines a scarcely known research initiative, the Management Studies Research Division (MSRD), established at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1964, but moribund by 1972. Design/methodology/approach - The paper seeks to identify the conditions of possibility that facilitated the MSRD’s emergence and ultimately led to its failure. Findings – In the early 1960s, a growing social and political awareness of the importance of good management, combined with the availability of both public and private funding, encouraged management research in the UK. The MSRD had some institutional support at the LSE, but it also needed a “champion” to set it up, raise money and manage the unit. This champion was Harold C. Edey, Professor of Accounting at the LSE. Difficulties in finding and retaining good management researchers, when many universities were developing business and management teaching and research, inhibited the MSRD’s survival. Research limitations/implications – Although the paper studies a single management research unit, it identifies conditions of possibility for management research to take off and thrive, or otherwise, that are likely to be relevant for other times and places. Originality/value – The paper describes a largely unknown episode in the development of management research in the UK, and proposes various factors as helping to explain both the success and the ultimate failure of a management research initiative.

Individual choice of management research agendas

Purpose The main research attempts guiding questions about management research agendas had been relevance questions versus rigor questions. Researchers have also attempted to set management research agendas in particular sectors. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no research, however, has addressed the infrastructural and foundational questions of what moral priorities and ethical principles should guide the future development of management research. Because the Islamic theological approach is a “transcendental values integration” approach, it presents a potentially viable source of reference particularly for scholars interested in ethical philosophical paradigmatic approaches. Islamic literature has presented guiding principles as to how to balance priorities through the Jurisprudence of Priorities (Fiqh Al-Awlawiyyat). The purpose of this exploratory conceptual paper is to synchronize the Islamic background literature on the jurisprudence of priorities with management research development and agendas. The research is exploratory in nature. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual, merging Islamic literature with management research for the development of a framework to potentially guide management researchers in prioritizing their research agendas. Findings The research resulted in the conceptualization of a framework aiding researchers in the prioritization of their research agendas. Research limitations/implications The research has implications for management scholars who are interested to prioritize their research projects and agendas. The research presents a schematic diagram and guiding framework through which scholars can reflect on their choice of research topics. Practical implications The research is also relevant to funding agencies as they devise the funding priorities in the management field. Originality/value This paper addresses the unique and foundational question of what moral priorities and ethical principles should guide the future development of management research. The authors build on a religious-philosophical approach, drawing on the Islamic jurisprudence of priorities as a literature base. The authors, therefore, address the key principles of responsible research regarding how it can be relevant on the infrastructural level to society and how the benefit to key stakeholders should be tackled. To the authors’ knowledge, this was not done in previous literature.

Cultural Diversity and Management Learning: A Study on Tagorean Leadership in Philosophy and Action

A development in Management research is observed in recent years: interface of literature and management. The paper highlights the possibility of constructive impacts on human development through philosophy and experiments of Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate literary genius from India (1913), in the field of education. The essential equality of all, preservation of cultural diversity, and the infinite possibility of deepening our understanding of each other form the core of Tagorean values. Tagore was a visionary and, throughout his life, he tried to bring about a radical change in society through education which would enable the world to come together—irrespective of diversity of language, identity, race, nationality, or religion. He recognized the need to promote a culture that fosters intellectual, social, and cultural growth in the global community. Using the classic example of Tagore the paper will examine how embracing of diversity in leadership and organizational development can contribute to holistic effectiveness through the introduction of non-conventional and alternative learning as advocated by Tagore that makes him all the more relevant in the present globalized context. The paper will also attempt to outline a learning path and unfold a voyage from knowledge to wisdom for leaders and organizations in future.

A review of action research - An approach for change and development in management study

This paper introduces action research as an approach for change and development in management research based on its outstanding characteristics and discusses the application notion of action research by critically reviewing its strengths and limitations as well as representing an example case to demonstrate how to employ it in practical setting. Finally, the author draws attention to bias avoidance in action research by introducing three effective practices to mitigate against sources of bias.

As corporalidades do trabalho bailarino: entre a exigência extrema e o dançar com a alma

O contexto de desenvolvimento das pesquisas de corpo na Administração requer uma investigação que permita uma compreensão corporificada (não representacional) desse campo do conhecimento. Para isso, refletimos sobre estudos de corpo e corporalidades nos campos da Administração e da Dança (ballet), assim como informações de uma etnografia realizada em uma importante companhia de dança brasileira, a Dançar Companhia de Dança (nome fictício). O objetivo deste artigo é investigar como os bailarinos da Dançar corporificam (embody) seu trabalho bailarino. Apontamos para três importantes processos de corporificação do trabalho bailarino, quer sejam: a corporificação das dores e lesões, a corporificação de um tipo de corpo e de movimentação corporal e, por fim, a dificuldade de corporificar o dançar com a alma. Compreendemos que tais corporalidades se constituem a partir de um contexto mais amplo do que o da organização Dançar, pois incluem questões de hierarquia e disciplina, assim como composições sócio-histórico-culturais do campo da dança. Sob a perspectiva prática, analisamos que a exigência - organizacional e do campo da dança - por tais corporalidades acarreta tanto o uso extremo do corpo bailarino, quanto a vivência limitada da dança por esses trabalhadores artistas.

Management Research on Reciprocity: A Review of the Literature

AbstractAlthough reciprocity is fundamental to all social orders, management research offers few reviews of the concept’s theoretical origins and current applications. To help bridge this gap, we elucidate the dominant understandings of reciprocity, ask which areas of research emerge from them, and explore how they interconnect. Our bibliometric methodology detects four clusters of management research on reciprocity. Across these clusters, authors subscribe mainly to substantialist ontology, marginalize morally oriented motives consistent with relational ontology, and largely assume that benefit-oriented motives underlie reciprocity. We outline the advantages of a moral-oriented relationalist concept of reciprocity and discuss potential areas for its development in management research.

Beyond Rigour and Relevance: The Underlying Nature of Both Business Schools and Management Research

This paper aims to develop further the common distinction that is made between rigour and relevance in management research. The debates around this issue have also been closely linked with the critique of Business Schools and in particular the nature of both their students and their teaching. A more critical look at not only the history of these issues but also the institutional nature of the Schools suggests that the underlying tensions are both more complex and also more intractable. The range of challenges to management research not only in terms of relevance, but also in terms of interdisciplinarity and the nature of disciplinary rigour combine with additional issues about the nature of managerial knowledge and expertise and a wide range of stakeholders to produce a complex environment in which neither market forces nor institutional incentives will necessarily produce the desired outcomes. However, a wider appreciation of the importance of overall engagement with the range of stakeholder groups and the continued importance of codification and teaching if combined with less of an overall focus on any single set of incentives and objectives is much more likely to aid the further development of management research.