In this paper we argue that management learning, as a field of study, has different choices to make than mainstream management research in its conceptualization and treatment of theory/practice. We believe that management learning as a field of practice – and as a journal – has both the opportunity, and a special responsibility, to consider theory and practice in ways that do not reduce the debate to disembodied actors and their assumed different occupational needs. Recent theoretical shifts in management learning have emphasized the relational, site and context specific conception of knowledge and practice and engaged with individuals (whatever their role) in exploring how they come to experience and develop new ways of being and acting in the world. We argue that management learning, when it looks at its existing practice through the epistemic practice perspective, will appreciate the contribution it is already making to advancing theory/practice understanding in management without needing to develop additional collaborative research strategies.
AhmedSHunterSKilicS. (2006) Final Report: Integrating Diversity, Gender, Race and Leadership in the Learning and Skills Sector. Lancaster: Centre for Excellence in Leadership, Lancaster University.
2.
AntonacopoulouE (2009) Knowledge impact and scholarship: Unlearning and practising to co-create actionable knowledge. Management Learning40(4): 421–430.
3.
ArdichviliA (2003) Constructing socially situated learning experiences in human resource development: An activity theory perspective. Human Resource Development Internationa, 6(1): 5–21.
4.
ArgyrisC (2004) Actionable knowledge. In: TsoukasHKnudsenC (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory: Meta Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 423–452.
5.
AshcraftKAllenB (2009) Politics even closer to home: Repositioning CME from the standpoint of communication studies. Management Learning40(1): 11–30.
6.
BeechNMacIntoshRMacLeanD (2010) Dialogues between academics and practitioners: The role of generative dialogic encounters. Organization Studies31(9/10): 1341–1367.
BlacklerFMcDonaldS (2000) Power, mastery and organizational learning. Journal of Management Studies37(6): 238–260.
9.
BlombergJ (2004) Appreciating stockbroking: Constructing conceptions to make sense of performance. Journal of Management Studies41(1): 155–180.
10.
BrownlieDHewerPWagnerB. (2008) Management theory and practice: Bridging the gap through multidisciplinary lenses. European Business Review20(6): 461–470.
11.
BurgoyneJHodgsonV (1983) Natural learning and managerial action: A phenomenological study in the field setting. Journal of Management Studies20(3): 387–399.
CasePSelvesterK (2002) Watch your back: Reflections on trust and mistrust in management education. Management Learning33(2): 231–247.
14.
ChenPPartingtonD (2006) - Three conceptual levels of construction project management workInternational Journal of Project Management24(5): 412–421.
15.
ChenPPartingtonDWangJ (2008) Conceptual determinants of construction project management competence: A Chinese perspective. International Journal of Project Management26(6): 655–664.
16.
CorradiGGherardiSVerzelloniL (2010) Through the practice lens: Where is the bandwagon of practice-based studies heading?Management Learning41(3): 265–283.
17.
CunliffeA (2001a) Everyday conversations: A social poetics of managing. Concepts and Transformation6(3): 295–315.
18.
CunliffeA (2001b) Managers as practical authors: Reconstructing our understanding of management practice. Journal of Management Studies38(3): 351–371.
19.
CunliffeA (2002) Reflexive dialogical practice in management learning. Management Learning33(1): 35–61.
20.
CunliffeA (2008) Orientations to social constructionism: Relationally responsive social constructionism and its implications for knowledge and learning. Management Learning39(2): 123–139.
21.
CunliffeALinsteadS (2009) Introduction: Teaching from critical perspectives. Management Learning40(1): 5–9.
22.
Dall’AlbaGSandbergJ (2006) Unveiling professional development: A critical review of stage models. Review of Educational Research76(3): 383–412.
23.
DeadrickDGibsonP (2007) An examination of the research-practice gap in HR: Comparing topics of interest to HR academics and HR professionals. Human Resource Management Review17(2): 131–139.
24.
EdwardsR (1997) Changing Places? Flexibility, Lifelong Learning, and a Learning Society. London: Routledge.
25.
EikelandONicoliniD (2011) Turning practically: Broadening the horizon. Journal of Organizational Change Management24(2): 164–174.
26.
ElliottCReynoldsM (2002) Manager-educator relations from a critical perspective. Journal of Management Education26(5): 512–526.
27.
EngwallLKippingM (2004) The dissemination of management knowledge. Management Learning35(3): 243–253.
28.
FenwickT (2004) Toward a critical HRD in theory and practice. Adult Education Quarterly54(3): 193–209.
29.
FenwickT (2005) Conceptions of critical HRD: Dilemmas for theory and practice. Human Resource Development International8(2): 225–238.
30.
FerredayDHodgsonVJonesC (2006) Dialogue, language and identity: Critical issues for networked management learning. Studies in Continuing Education28(3): 223–239.
31.
FoxS (2006) ‘Inquiries of every imaginable kind’: Ethnomethodology, practical action and the new socially situated learning theory. Sociological Review54(3): 426–445.
GeigerD (2009) Revisiting the concept of practice: Toward an argumentative understanding of practicing. Management Learning40(2): 129–144.
34.
GherardiS (2009a) Introduction: The critical power of the ‘practice lens’. Management Learning40(2): 115–128.
35.
GherardiS (2009b) Knowing and learning in practice-based studies: An introduction. The Learning Organization16(5): 352–359.
36.
GibbonsMLimogesCNowotnyH. (1994) The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
37.
GirouxH (1992) Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics Of Education. New York: Routledge.
GreyC (2002) What are business schools for? On silence and voice in management education. Journal of Management Education26(5): 496–511.
40.
GreyC (2004) Reinventing business schools: The contribution of critical management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education3(2): 178–186.
41.
GreyCMitevN (1995) Management education: A polemic. Management Learning26(1): 73–90.
42.
HeracleousL (2011) Introduction to the special issue on bridging the scholar-practitioner divide. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science47(1): 1–6.
43.
HeusinkveldSSturdyAWerrA (2011) The co-consumption of management ideas and practices. Management Learning42(2): 139–147.
44.
HodgsonVPerritonLReynoldsM (2005) Introduction to the special issue on learning communities and networked learning: Theory, practice and critique. Studies in Higher Education30(1): 5–10.
45.
HolmstromJKetokiviMHameriA (2009) Bridging practice and theory: A design science approach. Decision Sciences40(1): 65–87.
46.
HughesTBenceDGrisoniL. (2011) Scholarship that matters: Academic-practitioner engagement in business and management. Academy of Management Learning & Education10(1): 40–57.
47.
JessopB (2002) The Future of the Capitalist State. Cambridge: Polity Press.
48.
KayesD (2002) Experiential learning and its critics: Preserving the role of experience in management learning and education. Academy of Management Learning & Education1(2): 137–149.
49.
KeeversLTreleavenL (2011) Organizing practices of reflection: A practice-based study. Management Learning42(5): 505–520.
50.
KieserALeinerL (2009) Why the rigour-relevance gap in management research is unbridgeable. Journal of Management Studies46(3): 516–533.
51.
KorthagenF (2005) The organization in balance. Management Learning36(3): 371–387.
52.
LinMTsaiC (2008) Conceptions of learning management among undergraduate students in Taiwan. Management Learning39(5): 561–578.
53.
LockeR (1993) Management and Higher Education Since 1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
54.
LoveNFryN (2006) Accounting students’ perceptions of a virtual learning environment: Springboard or safety net?Accounting Education15(2): 151–166.
55.
LucasU (2001) Deep and surface approaches to learning within introductory accounting: A phenomenographic study. Accounting Education10(2): 161–184.
56.
LucasU (2002) Contradictions and uncertainties: Lecturers’ conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. British Accounting Review34(3): 183–203.
57.
MaitalSPrakhyaSSeshadriD (2008) Bridging the chasm between management education, research and practice: Moving towards the grounded theory approach. Vikalpa33(1): 1–18.
58.
MartonF (1978) Describing Conceptions of the World Around Us. Reports from the Institute of Education Göteborg Universitet No. 66. Göteborg: Univesity of Göteborg.
59.
MartonF (1981) Phenomenography: Describing conceptions of the world around us. Instructional Science10(2): 177–200.
60.
MartonFBoothS (1997) Learning and Awareness. New York: Laurence Erlbaum.
61.
MartonFSäljöR (1976) On qualitative differences in learning: I – outcome and process. British Journal of Educational Psychology46(1): 4–11.
62.
MartonFDall’AlbaGBeatyE (1993) Conceptions of learning. International Journal of Educational Research19(3): 277–277.
63.
MartonFHounsellDEntwistleN (1984) The Experience of Learning. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
64.
MiettinenRSamra-FredericksDYanowD (2009) Re-turn to practice: An introductory essay. Organization Studies30(12): 1339–1364.
65.
MoisanderJStenforsS (2009) Exploring the edges of theory-practice gap: Epistemic cultures in strategy-tool development and use. Organization16(2): 227–247.
66.
NelsonD (1992) Scientific management in the transformation of university business education. In: NelsonD (ed.) A Mental Revolution: Scientific Management Since Taylor. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 77–101.
67.
NicoliniD (2009a) Articulating practice through the interview to the double. Management Learning40(2): 195–212.
68.
NicoliniD (2009b) Zooming in and out: Studying practices by switching theoretical lenses and trailing connections. Organization Studies30(12): 1391–1418.
69.
NicoliniD (2011) Practice as the site of knowing: Insights from the field of telemedicine. Organization Science22(3): 602–630.
70.
PeltierJHayADragoW (2005) The reflective learning continuum: Reflecting on reflection. Journal of Marketing Education27(3): 250–263.
71.
PerritonL (2007) Really useful knowledge? Critical management education in the UK and US. Scandinavian Journal of Management23(1): 66–83.
72.
PerritonLReynoldsM (2004) Critical management education: From pedagogy of possibility to pedagogy of refusal?Management Learning35(1): 61–76.
73.
PettigrewA (2001) Management research after modernism. British Journal of Management12 (SI): 61–70.
74.
RaelinJ (2007) Towards and epistemology of practice. Academy of Management Learning & Education6(4): 495–519.
75.
ReynoldsM (1998) Reflection and critical reflection in management learning. Management Learning29(2): 183–200.
76.
ReynoldsM (1999) Critical reflection and management education: Rehabilitating less hierarchical approaches. Journal of Management Education23(5): 537–553.
77.
ReynoldsM (2000) Bright lights and the pastoral idyll. Management Learning31(1): 67–81.
78.
RowlinsonMHassardJ (2011) How come the critters came to be teaching in business schools? Contradictions in the institutionalization of critical management studies. Organization18(5): 673–689.
79.
RynesSBartunekJDaftR (2001) Across the great divide: Knowledge creation and transfer between practitioners and academics. Academy of Management Journal44(2): 340–355.
80.
SandbergJ (1994) Human Competence at Work: An Interpretive Perspective. Göteborg: Bas.
81.
SandbergJ (2000) Understanding human competence at work: An interpretative approach. Academy of Management Journal43(1): 9–25.
82.
SandbergJPinningtonA (2009) Professional competence as ways of being: An existential ontological perspective. Journal of Management Studies46(7): 1138–1170.
83.
SchatzkiT (2001) Introduction: Practice theory. In: SchatzkiTKnorr-CetinaKvon SavignyE (eds) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory. London: Routledge, 1–14.
84.
SchönD (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
85.
SegalS (2010) A Heideggerian approach to practice-based reflexivity. Management Learning41(4): 379–389.
86.
ShapiroDKirkmanBCourtneyH (2007) Perceived causes and solutions of the translation problem in management research. Academy of Management Journal50(2): 249–265.
87.
SmeyersPBurbulesN (2005) ‘Practice’: A central educational concept. Philosophy of Education Yearbook: 336–343.
88.
StarkeyKMadanP (2001) Bridging the relevance gap: Aligning stakeholders in the future of management research. British Journal of Management12(S1): 3–27.
89.
TemponeIMartinE (2003) Iteration between theory and practice as a pathway to developing generic skills in accounting. Accounting Education12(3): 227–244.
90.
TylerJ (2009) Moving beyond scholar-practitioner binaries: Exploring the liminal possibilities of the borderlands. Advances in Developing Human Resources11(4): 523–535.
91.
Van de VenAJohnsonP (2006) Knowledge for theory and practice. Academy of Management Review31(4): 802–821.
92.
Van de VenAPooleM (1995) Explaining development and change in organizations. The Academy of Management Review, 20 (3): 510–540.
93.
van WoerkomM (2010) Critical reflection as a rationalistic ideal. Adult Education Quarterly60(4): 339–356.
94.
VinceR (2010) Anxiety, politics and critical management education. British Journal of Management21(S1): 26–39.
95.
WrightAMurrayJGealeP (2007) A phenomenographic study of what it means to supervise doctoral students. Academy of Management Learning & Education6(4): 458–474.
96.
YanowDTsoukasH (2009) What is reflection in action? A phenomenological account. Journal of Management Studies46(8): 1339–1364.
