ABSTRACT
Some of the challenges and controversies surrounding management research are well articulated in what has come to be referred to as the ‘rigor and relevance’ debate (Rynes et al. 2001; Starkey and Madan 2001; Huff 2000). This debate has raised important issues in relation to research practice. It has highlighted the need for management research to be more applicable to management practice and to be more refl ective of the effects of research on life in organizations. It has also highlighted the need for rigorous investigation supported by sophisticated methods for data collection and analysis. These issues are also refl ective of the core problematic that underpins management research. Van de Ven and Johnson (2006) point to at least two aspects of this problematic. Firstly, the knowledge transfer problem, which refl ects the inability or unwillingness of management scholars to translate their insights for practitioners. Secondly, the epistemological and ontological distinctions between relevant and rigorous knowledge that are not fully understood. These problematics reveal that the rigor and relevance debate refl ects diverse understandings about different communities and their identities which may explain why this debate has been characterized as an ‘existential crisis’ in management research (Gulati 2007).
