New Scholarship and Research

This chapter will draw on some of the earlier observations made in relation to the way in which research can be used to inform teaching and to discuss the arguable need for researchers, in terms of management research, to focus more on applied aspects and the value of their research outcomes to practitioners. This includes the need for the development of ‘practice intelligence’ for students as opposed to somewhat abstruse academic endeavours that have debatable relevance to practitioners as business schools move through the 21st century. So far, this book has argued that management research needs to move away from the somewhat academic and potentially less relevant perspectives that have been applied in recent times simply to enable institutions to achieve rankings in league tables or for use in determining an individual’s career progression from a less holistic viewpoint. The issues involved have been debated widely over the last ten years or so (for example, Slotte & Tynjala, 2003; Trank & Rynes, 2003; Bennis & O’Toole, 2004; Mintzberg, 2004; Rousseau, 2006; Rynes, et al., 2007; Shapiro, et al., 2007; Burke & Rau, 2010; Mindruta, 2013; Singh, 2013) and yet still, at least in the UK, the focus of research is on quality and academic publication plus success in REF exercises. Additional focus has also been placed on the issue of the use of research to inform teaching.