Collaboration and the Production of Management Knowledge in Research, Consulting, and Management Practice

For managers looking for management knowledge beyond their own experience, academics and consultants are two main resources. In this chapter, we focus on academic researchers and management consultants as producers of management knowledge and ask what the two can learn from each other. We suggest that there is a strong potential for collaboration in the triad manager–researcher–consultant, but we also acknowledge the institutional forces that make it difficult and discuss how they may be overcome. The chapter begins with an investigation into the knowledge-creating systems of academia and consulting, goes on to successful examples of knowledge creation in collaboration, and ends with a discussion of the tensions to be overcome, especially in the collaboration between academics on the one hand and practitioner-managers and consultants on the other.

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