Logo image
Back
Beyond rigour and relevance: A critical realist approach to business education
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Beyond rigour and relevance: A critical realist approach to business education

J Syed, J Mingers and Peter A Murray
Management Learning: the journal for managerial and organizational learning, Vol.41(1), pp.71-85
2010
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609350839
url
https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609350839View
Published Version

Abstract

Curriculum and Pedagogy Business and Management critical management studies critical realism management education research paradigm
This article takes a critical realist perspective to understand the research-practice gap in the field of business and management. To investigate issues surrounding the rigour versus relevance debate, we examine how the divergent perspectives of scholars and practitioners can be bridged by a critical realist approach in relation to: (1) the research paradigm: instead of confining their research within methodological purism, scholars may need to deploy any research paradigm to investigate a phenomenon in its context, (2) context and causality: critical realism provides an ontological grounding for interpretivist research reaffirming the importance of a focus on context, meaning and interpretation as causal influences, (3) methodological rigidity: multiple research methods will be more important when addressing research-practice gaps since they are more receptive to interdisciplinary functions and contexts in time and space than traditional methodologies, and (4) ethical aspects of business research highlighting the need to engage with the knowledge agenda of not only the university but also society overall. The critical nature of management studies we contend also helps to explain why at least certain research-practice gaps can be treated as natural because of divergent preferences of scholars and practitioners.

Details

Metrics

5 File views/ downloads
534 Record Views
35 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas
Management
Logo image