Toward building a “Brooklyn Bridge” between research and practice: management decision in motion
Management decision (MD) has the distinction of being the oldest and longest-running scholarly publication focused specifically on the area of management. MD represents over a half-century of groundbreaking management science. As the current stewards of the journal, we are proud of the history of contributions made to the field of management. However, we do not wish to simply sit on our laurels. Instead, we are always searching for new ways to provide insight to our readers and to ultimately help managers around the world make informed decisions.
As many businesses have recently learned, 2020 revealed new challenges and exacerbated existing ones, forcing decision-makers into uncharted territory. When business owners and managers search for answers, one area that may be overlooked is the academic field of management. Such gap between the study of management and the practice of management is not new, nor is it unique to the management discipline (Rynes, 2012); nevertheless, unlike management scientists, management practitioners have to transition their management knowledge into action by putting their plans in motion. Under these circumstances, MD sees an opportunity to help build a “Brooklyn Bridge” between management academics and practitioners.
Like MD, Brooklyn Bridge in New York City was the first of its kind. It was the first static passage made over the East River and also represented the longest suspension bridge ever attempted at that time. Although the project took over 13 years to complete, once finished in 1883, the accomplishment was considered a modern marvel (McCullough, 1972). Such sentiment was captured by Hewitt (1965) at the opening ceremony: “It is not the work of any one man [women] or of any one age. It is the result of the study, of the experience, and of the knowledge of many men [women] in many ages…as the latest glory of centuries of patient observation, profound study and accumulated skill, gained, step by step…”. Similarly, at MD, we believe that progress is not only made by building off of the systematic research and theory of many others but also by building off the observations, skills and experiences acquired in the practice of management. One without the other would seem to be pointless, like creating a bridge that no one uses. As Kerouac (1992) says about the Brooklyn Bridge, “And it does one good/To cross it everyday”. This pragmatic view of science considers theory building to be about the discovery of underlying principles of reality that can then be tested in specific environments. Such a perspective often better aligns both the goals of management scientists and management practitioners by focusing on understanding, predicting and controlling human behavior in specific situations (Randolph-Seng and Norris, 2015).
Given that organizational leaders often have to transition their knowledge into action by putting their plans in motion at a moment’s notice, MD is excited to launch our new In Motion section of the journal. This section welcomes diverse perspectives and discourses from both academics and practitioners. It is devoted to deep, thorough understanding of all organizations including for-profits, nonprofits, government and other new types of organizations that arise in our ever-changing environment. We hope to take a deep dive into the toughest decisions people have had to make in an organization to explore the processes that put decisions in motion. At the same time, we also encourage academics to share theory and research findings in ways that speak to the needs of real-life business leaders. Some examples that would fit into this new section include: interviews with practitioners, research translations for practitioners and even real-life cases. In particular, the article classification for the In Motion section is as follows:
Insightful interviews with CEOs or other managers/practitioners/entrepreneurs.
Articles written by practitioners that shed new/different light on management/organizational topics.
Theory and/or research-based articles targeting practitioners/real-life interventions.
Real cases that reflect a dilemma or puzzle that was addressed or needs to be solved.
Although the list above is not exhaustive, manuscripts should be 2,000–3,000 words in length and engage in timely and cutting-edge discussions with both scholars and practitioners. We encouraged you to send a short description of the article to Dr. Chen (Wendy.Chen@ttu.edu) before your formal submission by including the following elements:
The main message that the article intends to convey.
The importance, innovativeness and usefulness of the idea.
A real-life managerial example that the article draws on.
The significance of the managerial lesson(s) and implication(s) to a broader audience that managers in real organizational settings are able to implement.
We believe In Motion will provide an innovative way to transition some of the best ideas from academia into the hands of practitioners and vice versa by not only providing actionable pieces of advice from those putting plans into motion but also through clear takeaways that can be applied from high-quality theory and research. We hope that this new section will not only help organizational managers and leaders make better, more-informed decisions but also help organizational researchers and theorists create better, more-informed theories.
This paper forms part of a special section “Management Decision In Motion”, guest edited by Wendy Chen and Brandon Randolph-Seng.
