ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses upon the issues and associated opportunities and constraints faced by academic management researchers undertaking research that is immediately useful and relevant to practitioners. It takes as its starting point the emphasis given to the academic-practitioner interface by the relevance debates of the past decade and government policy initiatives to support knowledge transfer from academia to practice. As previous chapters have revealed, a substantial body of literature arguing the need for relevance in management research now exists (for example, Huff and Huff 2001; Starkey and Madan 2001; Rousseau 2006; Van Aken 2005). Although this highlights possible reasons for management academics deciding whether or not to undertake research at the interface and issues associated with such working (for example, Bartunek et al. 2006; Pollit 2006; Macbeth 2002), the actual realities have been discussed less widely. When discussions occur, they highlight differences between management researchers and practitioners in their orientations. Here the focus tends to be on potential tensions and constraints management researchers may face (for example, Buchanan et al. 1988; Learmonth 2008; Macbeth 2002), rather than also considering potential opportunities such interface research may offer along with issues that might need to be addressed (for example, Cornelissen 2002; Maclean and Macintosh 2002).
