Ogilvie, John R.

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Organization Management Journal Volume 9 Issue 3 Article 8 9-1-2012 2011 Presidential Address: What Is EAM Doing to Bridge the Practitioner–Academy Gap? John R. Ogilvie University of Hartford Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/omj  Part of the Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, and the Organizational Communication Commons Recommended Citation Ogilvie, John R. (2012) "2011 Presidential Address: What Is EAM Doing to Bridge the Practitioner–Academy Gap?," Organization Management Journal: Vol. 9: Iss. 3, Article 8. Available at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/omj/vol9/iss3/8 Organization Management Journal, 9: 197–200, 2012Copyright © Eastern Academy of ManagementISSN: 1541-6518 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15416518.2012.715470PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS2011 Presidential Address: What Is EAM Doingto Bridge the Practitioner–Academy Gap?John R. Ogilvie11Department of Management/Marketing, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USAMay 13, 2011Welcome to Boston. Since my first EAM [Eastern Academyof Management] conference in 1981, I can’t ever remember aview like this for the luncheon.I am sorry that Steve Meisel couldn’t be here. Apart from hiswit and insight, Steve was the one who talked me into acceptingthe nomination for VP of Program, which leads to the positionof president. I wanted Steve to be here, so I could tell him whatmy wife said to me while giving birth to our daughter, “Why thehell did you do this to me?” When I accepted the nomination, Idid not bother to calculate that I would be giving the presidentialaddress on Friday the 13th. I hope you all are having only goodluck today.This has been quite a year for me and the EAM. I wasmarried less than a week after the 2010 Portland conference,cleaned up and sold two homes, and moved into a third, whichwe are still unpacking. I got my materials together for promo-tion and was granted it. I survived all of this. Thankfully, no onequestioned my birth or educational credentials. I have a copyof my birth certificate if there are any “birthers” in the crowd.I can’t verify that dt ogilvie and I are cousins. Is dt here? Asyou can obviously see, we do have a lot in common, especiallythat wry Scottish humor. We just feel like family; it’s part of theEAM tradition. Even if we can’t prove that we are cousins, Ialso don’t ever remember two other EAM presidents having thesame last name.In its forty-eighth year, EAM, likewise, has gone through anumber of transitions. We finally have online renewal of mem-bership for those who don’t come to the conference. The Boardadopted ethics guidelines in line with those at the Academyof Management. So, next year when you make your submis-sions you will be asked to check a box that states you haveread and agree to comply with these guidelines. The EAMFellows are proposing the creation of a foundation to generateAddress correspondence to John R. Ogilvie, Department ofManagement/Marketing, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave.,Hartford, CT 06117, USA. E-mail: ogilvie@hartford.eduincome for our future. We have a successful InternationalProgram Committee that runs biennial conferences, this year inBangalore, India. We are working to increase the coordinationand integration with EAM-I, especially in the area of financialreporting. In general we are trying to improve communicationand transparency in this vibrant, volunteer organization. On thenegative side, Bill discussed losing the sponsorship of Palgraveas the publisher of OMJ. We have been working on alterna-tives and are trying to increase library subscriptions—a keyfactor in losing their support. Please ask your libraries to sub-scribe to OMJ. Publisher sponsorship is vital to keeping OMJin the databases. [Editor’s Note: Shortly after this speech wasgiven EAM signed a contract with Routledge, Taylor & Francis,making Routledge, Taylor & Francis our new publisher.]The theme that Ted identified for this year’s conferenceresounded in many venues. Expanding Boundaries: The Scholar+ Practitioner seeks to expand the dialogue between scholarsand practitioners, sharing perspectives and questions. Similarendeavors to bridge the gap were championed by James Walsh(2011) in his 2010 presidential address to the Academy ofManagement. Walsh said that this should be the Golden Age ofManagement, but it is not. Business is central in our society, andwe graduate over half a million students in the United States.However, a recent study found that business students prepareless for class than any other major (Glenn, 2011)—somethingto which I am sure many of you can attest.Earlier, in 1994, Don Hambrick raised the question, “Whatif the Academy actually mattered?” Perhaps because we are amaturing discipline with many baby-boomer faculty membersnearing retirement, we are asking these difficult questions aboutour core activities as faculty.Jeff Pfeffer and Christina Fong (Pfeffer & Fong, 2002),Henry Mintzberg, 1996, and Lyman Porter and LawrenceMcKibbin, (1988) had earlier questioned the relevance what doin the classroom. Does what we teach really matter? Havingtaught negotiations courses for 15 years, I feel fortunate tobe teaching in an area with immediate impact. Students arenegotiating all the time and find some immediate value in the197198 J. R. OGILVIEprinciples described. They come back to subsequent classeswith success stories of how they got a better deal by apply-ing course material. It is not quite as easy in my managementprinciples course but the Biz Café simulation, offered by one ofour conference sponsors, Interpretive Simulations, helps. I alsoincrease the relevance by applying what I have learned at EAM,like Drew Harris’s Bubble Factory (Harris, 2007), illustratingcontrol principles while blowing bubbles. But as in assurance oflearning, individual classes do not equal a relevant curriculum.I would now like to shift your attention to a discussion exam-ining whether our research matters. Do we really write aboutthings that managers apply? Does what we do actually improveorganizations and the quality of work life within them? Manywell-known colleagues, like Mike Hitt (1998), Andy Van deVen (2002), Jone Pearce (2004), Denise Rousseau (2006), LarryCummings (2007), and others, have urged us to close the gapbetween academia and practitioners. Are we merely talking toone another, that is, preaching to the choir? Do we impact thepractice of management?I was reminded of the research relevance issue recently whileattending a banquet at my university to recognize those whowere promoted. All of the deans got up and said nice thingsabout those who were promoted. It was then that I learned thatone of my engineering colleagues had developed relays thatboosted the strength of signals on the Internet while crossingthe ocean. That struck me as highly relevant to practitioners—having a real and immediate impact. Our bridges and impactsare not quite so obvious or direct, but they are not invisibleeither.What are the gaps that exist and need bridging? Shapiro,Kirkman, and Courtney in a 2007 Academy of ManagementJournal article described two types of gaps between practition-ers and researchers. The first they termed “lost in translation,”or the knowledge transfer problem. We do good work but prac-titioners either don’t know about it or don’t know how to putit into action. Yesterday Superintendent Burhoe of the CoastGuard Academy said, “If nobody knows about it, does it reallymatter?”The second gap involves a knowledge production problem or“lost before translation.” Here the research questions aren’t rel-evant and greater collaboration is needed between managers andresearchers in designing research projects that ask meaningfulquestions.Action research was intended to address this gap. I did mymaster’s thesis with work groups at Herman Miller in Holland,Michigan, sharing the data and meeting with them to iden-tify action steps. However, I haven’t done such a collaborativeventure since. It is time-consuming and risky. I spent my lastsabbatical at Otis Elevator (where we had a lot of ups anddowns), working on learning and development projects, but Icould never get my busy collaborator to find the time to writewith me, beyond a few conference papers. So, I too, havestruggled bridging the gaps.Ed Schein has a history of asking good questions. Buildingon his legacy, Ilene Wasserman and Kathy Kram interviewedresearchers and practitioners about the interplay between thesetwo realms of activity. In a 2009 Journal of Applied BehavioralScience article they noted that applied researchers are boundaryspanners and see themselves as different, as pioneers.There are also dilemmas in bridging the gaps. This is the roadless traveled. This type of research takes more time and is risky,something that is challenging for the untenured. In Wassermanand Kram’s research, practitioners too expressed conflict withthe scholar–practitioner divide, with one saying, “It’s hard liv-ing in a world that wants you to be one or the other.” YetAdmiral Burhoe (2011) said yesterday, “It is irresponsible tobe a practitioner without being a scholar.”Despite these risks and conflicts a number of people, manysitting in this very ballroom, have strived to bridge the gap.I have selected some works by EAM scholar–practitionersto illustrate how the gap is being bridged. My apologiesfor not including your work. This is a reflection on myEAM experiences and some of the sessions in which I haveparticipated.• First, this afternoon’s plenary session focuses onEileen Fisher, a practitioner with vision and commit-ment, aided by Susan Schor, a former academic.• At another conference, Boston University explainedits long-term relationships with the managers of aNorwegian shipping firm, describing how the relation-ship enhanced both of their lives.• The conference theme identified by Dilip[Mirchindani] in New Brunswick was sustainability.His program helped us to learn what organizations aredoing to be more sustainable and how we can applysustainability principles in our research, classes, andinstitutions.• In this year’s conference, sustainability was docu-mented in a case about the Nissan Leaf by Giapponi,Cavanagh, and McEvoy (2011), as well as in a panelthis morning on bringing sustainability to campus, inwhich Dilip participated.• Sandy Morgan and Bob Dennehy’s (2004) work onstorytelling and communities of practice helps us cre-ate better working places and find ways to communi-cate important lessons to their members.• Allison Konrad’s (Konrad, Kramer & Erkut, 2007;Stickney & Konrad, 2005) work on gender addressesreal and persistent workplace problems, problems thathave a significant impact on people’s lives.• Tim Golden’s work on flex-time and telework ispushing the boundaries of practice and scholarship(Golden, Sardeshmukh, & Sharma, 2010).• A number of ELA exercises bring relevance tothe classroom—from Drew Harris’s Bubble Factory,(2007) to Lynn Miller’s, (2008) comparison ofPRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 199brainstorming and Nominal Group Technique to thewicked problem solving methodologies of Livtin,Stork, and Woodilla, (2010). These activities makethe classroom more relevant and encourage futurepractitioners to think and question as scholars.• Jeanie Forray’s work on the nature of conversationsthat human resource (HR) personnel have in their orga-nizations showed how even small conversations shapehow managers view issues and influences actionsthey may take (Forray, 2001). Clearly, this is bridge-building work.• Most recently (2011), three EAMers published aninteresting article in Human Relations. Anshu andPushy Prasad and Raza Mir looked at the discourseof fashion and the implementation of diversity pro-grams. Being fashionable or au courant was viewedby the consultants who were implementing the pro-gram as helping to facilitate change. However, theseprograms soon became standardized and thus less rel-evant to local issues. These EAM authors were criticaland highly relevant in pointing out the shortcomingsof practitioners and consultants, creating a conundrumwhere relevant research points out the irrelevance ofpractice. The trend-seeking nature of diversity pro-grams created cynicism and resistance to change in theCanadian organizations they studied, an outcome thatwas the opposite of what was intended.Such research involves role conflicts and stretching—sometimes being uncomfortable, going to unfamiliar places.Captain Marcille from the Coast Guard Academy used thephrase, “There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growthin the comfort zone.”A sociology colleague of mine at the University of Hartfordleft his comfort zone and hung out with Puerto Rican gangsin Springfield, Massachusetts, playing basketball with themto win their trust. His award-winning book When the HeartTurns Rock Solid (Black, 2009) chronicled their experiences andexplained the difficulties they encountered. While we may notget this uncomfortable, it illustrates the payoffs from enteringthe discomfort zone.So, perhaps when all is said and done, the dichotomybetween practitioner and scholar is not as great as some sug-gest. In another paper at this conference, Shapiro, Liu, andDuffy (2011) assert that we are actors on a continuum betweenthe two, with the endpoints not nearly as polar as some havedescribed.In closing, I am confident that EAM will continue to bridgethe divide with work that is relevant in terms of scholarship,pedagogical developments, and the development of doctoralstudents.Bridging is what we are all about.Enjoy the rest of the conference.REFERENCESBlack, T. (2009). When a heart turns rock solid. New York, NY:Pantheon.Burhoe, J. S. (2011, May). Keynote: Reflections of a scholar + practitioner:Which comes first? Keynote address at 48th annual meeting of EasternAcademy of Management, Boston, MA.Cummings, T. G. (2007). Quest for an engaged Academy. Academy ofManagement Review, 32, 355–360.Forray, J. M. (2001, May). Sustaining ‘fair organization’: An interpretive viewof human resource practice. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Meeting of theEastern Academy of Management, New York, NY.Giapponi, C., Cavanagh, J. M., & McEvoy, S. (2011, May). The NissanLeaf: Can an all-electric car put a charge in the U.S. auto industry?CASE Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Academy ofManagement, Boston, MA.Glenn, D. (2011, April 24). The default major: Skating through b-school. NewYork Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17business-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1Golden, T., Sardeshmukh, S. R., & Sharma, D. (2010, May). Telework’s impacton exhaustion and engagement: Exploring the role of job demands and jobresources. Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meetings of the Eastern Academyof Management, Portland, ME, pp. 1690–1698.Hambrick, D. C. (1994). What if the Academy actually mattered? Academy ofManagement Review, 19, 11–16.Harris, D. L. (2007, May). The bubble factory. Proceedings of the 44th AnnualMeeting of the Eastern Academy of Management, New Brunswick, NJ, pp.646–670.Hitt, M. A. (1998). Twenty-first century organizations: Business firms, busi-ness schools and the Academy. Academy of Management Review, 23,218–224.Konrad, A. M., Kramer, V. W., & Erkut, S. (2007, May). Critical mass:How many women does a board need? Proceedings of the 44th AnnualMeeting of the Eastern Academy of Management, New Brunswick, NJ,pp. 742–786.Litvin, D. R., Stork, D., & Woodilla, J. (2010, May). Wicked problems: Whenstrategies, models and tools are not enough. Proceedings of the EasternAcademy of Management, Portland, ME, pp. 414–424.Miller, L. E. (2008, May). Evidence-based instruction: A classroom experimentcomparing nominal and brainstorming groups. Proceedings of the EasternAcademy of Management, pp. 1673–1695.Mintzberg, H. (1996). Musings on management. Harvard Business Review,74(4), 61–67.Morgan, S., & Dennehy, R. F. (2004). Using stories to reframe the social con-struction of reality: A trio of activities. Journal of Management Education,28(3), 372–390.Pearce, J. L. (2004). What do we know and how do we really know it? Academyof Management Review, 29, 175–179.Pfeffer, J., & Fong, C. T. (2002). The end of business schools? Less successthan meets the eye. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 1,78–95.Porter, L., & McKibbin, L. (1988). Management education and development:Drift or thrust into the 21st century. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.Prasad, A., Prasad, P., & Mir, R. (2011). ‘One mirror in another’:Managing diversity and the discourse of fashion. Human Relations, 64(5),703–724.Rousseau, D. M. (2006). Is there such a thing as “evidenced-based manage-ment”? Academy of Management Review, 31, 256–269.Shapiro, D. L., Kirkman, B. L., & Courtney, G. H. (2007). Perceived causesand solutions of the translation problem in management research. Academyof Management Journal, 50(2), 249–266.Shapiro, M. L., Liu, L. B., & Duffy, S. G. (2011, May). Theacademic-practitioner debate: A false dichotomy? Proceedings of the48th annual meetings of the Eastern Academy of Management,Boston, MA, pp. 897–921.Stickney, L. T., & Konrad, A. M. (2005, May). Gender-role attitudes and earn-ings: A three year multinational study. Proceedings of the 42nd Annual200 J. R. OGILVIEMeeting of the Eastern Academy of Management, Springfield, MA, pp.1235–1254.Van de Ven, A. H. (2002). Strategic direction for the Academy of Management:This Academy is for you! Academy of Management Review, 27,171–184.Walsh, J. P. (2011). 2010 Presidential address: Embracing the sacred inour secular scholarly world. Academy of Management Review, 36,215–234.Wasserman, I., & Kram, K. (2009). Enacting the scholar-practitioner role: Anexploration of narratives. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 45(1),12–38.ABOUT THE AUTHORJohn R. Ogilvie is currently Professor of Management atthe University of Hartford and past president of the EasternAcademy of Management. He received his PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Michigan State University.His current research interests focus primarily on emotionalissues in negotiation and negotiator style. He can be reachedat ogilvie@hartford.edu.

2011 Presidential Address: What Is EAM Doing
to Bridge the Practitioner–Academy Gap?

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2011 Presidential Address: What Is EAM Doing to Bridge the Practitioner–Academy Gap?

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