The Career Task before Us

Abstract

Professor Clive Gilson defines for us what organizational scholarship is all about. Clive is renowned for his ability to seamlessly blend good scholarly theorizing with good organizational practicing. Theory and practice must go together for ours is a practical, research-driven discipline, and our scholarship must make our organized lives better. And Clive knows what he is talking about because he has been there and done that. Just as Max Weber once did his time as a hospital administrator, Clive has labored on the front lines of management. He has the insider’s perspective on what is useful scholarship and why useful scholarship is desperately needed in today’s organizations. As you engage Clive’s address, you will find yourself drawn to discerning what you should be doing with your scholarship and how your scholarship will make the organized world better. And that is the task before us all because we have earned both the ability and the responsibility to do good for the organized world. Clive moves us forward with the confidence that we can make a difference.