David Denyer

Using qualitative research synthesis to build an actionable knowledge base

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the qualitative synthesis and use of existing management research to inform management practice.Design/methodology/approach – Three methods of qualitative synthesis, each with contrasting methodologies, are presented and their potential contribution in the management field explored.Findings – Professional practice could be improved if practitioners had better access to the products of a large body of management research. Evidence‐based reviews of the literature in the management field could form a crucial bridge between research and practice. The task of reviewing and synthesising qualitative studies comprises a key challenge.Research limitations/implications – The key issues in conducting qualitative synthesis are highlighted and the barriers and enablers to the application of the product of qualitative synthesis in practice are discussed.Originality/value – The paper stimulates debate about what counts as an effective synthesis of qualitative research an...

Alternative Approaches for Studying Shared and Distributed Leadership

Scholars hold different perspectives about leadership which are not limited to a formally appointed leader. Of the abundance of terms used to describe this phenomenon, shared and distributed are the most prevalent. These terms are often used interchangeably, resulting in confusion in the way that shared and distributed leadership is conceptualized and investigated. This paper provides a historical development of this field, challenges existing conceptions and reveals inconsistencies and contradictions that are seldom acknowledged. Four distinct approaches to the study of shared and distributed leadership are identified in the literature, each embracing different ontological views and leadership epistemologies. Individually, the four approaches offer valuable – yet partial – understanding. Comparing and contrasting the assumptions and insights from the four approaches raises fundamental issues about how we think about leadership in terms of research, practice and development.

Co‐producing management knowledge

The division between academic knowledge and its relevance for practice is an enduring problem across many fields. Nowhere is this division more pronounced, and resolution of its negative features more required, than in academic management research and its relationship to management practice, for the advent of the knowledge revolution requires that organizations capitalize on all available assets including knowledge assets when improving performance either by increasing efficiencies or ensuring mission delivery in the medium term. How companies might achieve this has become a key question. This paper reports the “co‐production” model of knowledge creation and transfer through a novel case of this in practice. It outlines how academics and managers can work together using a “systematic review” of the science base to synthesize management knowledge and ensure its transfer. In doing so it offers management academics and practitioners a new model for the production and application of knowledge.

Lone scholar or community member? The role of student networks in doctoral education in a UK management school

Doctoral education in the UK embraces both independent self‐directed study and collective shared learning. The extent to which individual doctoral students remain isolated, or become integrated into a network of doctoral students, is a function of the attributes of the individual and the nature of the doctorate and its mode of delivery. Using the techniques of social network analysis, this cross‐sectional study investigated the extent of the connections between doctoral students, and the purposes these connections served amongst the doctoral community, comprising full‐time and part‐time PhD and Doctor of Business Administration students at Cranfield School of Management. The study shows that ties between students served multiple purposes. Generally students were connected to others studying in the same mode and who entered at the same time. Connectivity was unaffected by nationality or gender.

Towards common ground and trading zones in management research and practice

The purpose and nature of management scholarship is contested, evidenced by debates about the ‘academic–practitioner divide’ and attendant remedies for addressing it, including mode 2 and mode 3 research, engaged scholarship, evidence-based management and design science. In this paper the authors argue that, without a culture of dialogical encounter, management scholarship will never be able to emerge from its adolescence, and management will not develop into the profession that it should and can become. The central proposition is that the highly fragmented landscape of management (practice and scholarship) lacks sufficient capability for dialogue among the plurality of actors situated across that landscape. Developing the dialogical capability ultimately required to break this fundamental impasse demands, first, a shared sense of purpose and responsibility (akin to the Hippocratic Oath in medicine) and, second, institutional entrepreneurship to establish more and better ‘trading zones’. Drawing on the philosophy of pragmatism, the authors further this endeavour by identifying and proposing key elements of a statement of shared purpose and responsibility. Finally, they explore the nature and characteristics of successful trading zones, highlighting particular examples that have already been created in management studies.

Impact and Management Research: Exploring Relationships between Temporality, Dialogue, Reflexivity and Praxis

This paper introduces the special issue focusing on impact. We present the four papers in the special issue and synthesize their key themes, including dialogue, reflexivity and praxis. In addition, we expand on understandings of impact by exploring how, when and for whom management research creates impact and we elaborate four ideal types of impact by articulating both the constituencies for whom impact occurs and the forms it might take. We identify temporality as critical to a more nuanced conceptualization of impact and suggest that some forms of impact are performative in nature. We conclude by suggesting that management as a discipline would benefit from widening the range of comparator disciplines to include disciplines such as art, education and nursing where practice, research and scholarship are more overtly interwoven.

Crossing the sea from They to We? The unfolding of knowing and practising in collaborative research

This article addresses how knowing and practising unfolds in collaborative research amongst practitioners from a large consulting and business services group and academics from a UK School of Management. Dialogue enabled actors to cross between theory and practice by providing a ‘space’ for support, challenge, exchange and experimentation. However, this ‘space’ was fragile and the insensitive actions of one individual, driven by institutional pressure to exploit the project for competitive advantage, resulted in withdrawal and the re-establishment of traditional divisions. Our view is that collaborative research is not necessarily an exercise in producing, transferring and implementing research findings but is better thought of as knowledge integration through a dialogue of theory and practice. The article contributes to the ongoing debate about the relevance of management research and the theoretical development of knowledge co-production.

Linking Theory to Practice: A 'Grand Challenge' for Management Research in the 21st Century?

This article does not have an abstract.

Does risk matter? Disengagement from risk management practices in information systems projects

Risk management and ‘routine-based reliability’ is considered fundamental to project performance. Existing theories of project risk management do not fully explain why project managers stop practicing risk management information systems (IS); however, constructs drawn from organisation theory offer insights into how and why such disengagement occurs. The study examines risk management practices in 21 IS projects within 10 organisations. By focusing on risks that resulted in significant events and mapping backwards over time the practices associated with those risks, we identify that in all but five projects the manager had disengaged from prescribed risk management before executing risk responses. In most projects, the majority of formally identified and assessed risks remained unallocated and untreated. A laddering technique was used to help explain why this transpired. We found five key underlying beliefs that governed project managers’ risk management attitudes and actions.

Leveraging value in doctoral student networks through social capital

UK higher education policy relating to doctoral-level education assumes that student networks provide the basis for informal learning and the acquisition of necessary skills and information. Through semi-structured interviews with 17 doctoral students from a UK management school, this study investigated the value of these networks to students, the facilitators and barriers to network formation, and the causes of network formation and demise. Networks provided three opportunities: academic discussion, benchmarking progress and personal support. Networking was perceived to be most valuable when conducted face to face. Loss of formal structures and increasing independence of research projects over time contributed to network fragmentation. Network cohesion was enabled by ‘physical presence’, ‘shared experience’ and a sense of ‘common purpose’. Suggestions for the development of structures to support cohesive doctoral networks are made.