Reinventing the future: adding design science to the repertoire of organization and management studies

Mainstream research on organization and management is largely modeled after the natural sciences and the humanities. It aims at understanding social systems and, as such, has produced a vast knowledge base. However, this knowledge base has been criticized as fragmented and lacking relevance for practice. Two recent developments have produced the possibility of reinventing the future of organization and management studies: the increasing interest in design science research and in evidence-based management. First, we discuss how the actor perspective and solution-orientation of design science research can lead to more relevant research output. Second, we explore how the use of this research output in evidence-based management – typically via a design-oriented research synthesis – can decrease fragmentation by drawing together various strands of research and, moreover, lead to more relevant and interesting research questions, aiming at understanding as well as solution design. Adding design science research to the repertoire of organization and management studies can create a virtuous cycle toward a future in which these studies matter more than they do now.