Provocative theory and a scholarship of practice

Abstract

The relationship between theory and management practice is an ongoing debate. This article identifies two current understandings of that relationship—explanation and sense making—and offers a third, ‘provocative’ use of theory. Drawing on social constructionist ideas, a provocative theory is articulated as a relational process whereby academic theory ‘speaks into’ management practice. Having outlined the intellectual roots of provocative theory, two illustrative case studies are used to show how a provocative theory worked as managers engaged academic scholarship within a practice of inquiry to improve their managerial practice. These two stories illustrate a scholarly engagement with academic theory, as the two managers exhibited an engagement with ideas, a practice of inquiry and an attention to moment-by-moment relating within practice. These three processes are argued to constitute a scholarship of practice, where scholarship is seen in amidst moment-by-moment activity of evidence-based management.