On Rigor and Relevance: Fostering Dialectic Progress in Management Research

Abstract

The article discusses how to make management research relevant to practitioners. By the early 21st century criticism had emerged that management scholars were bypassing relevance in favor of rigorous papers that were largely read only by other academics. Some have argued that a better synthesis needs to be achieved between theory and practice, but the author maintains the real solution can be found only in changing the system. Rather than writing for the academy, researchers need to identify and study practical issues they find compelling.