Abstract
Understanding of organizational ethics phenomena requires complex understanding of organizational practices in their real world contexts. We can try to understand and build theory about these complex real world practices from the points of view of: (1) a traditional deductive, ethics literature-based, literature gap formulation approach; or, (2) an inductive, practitioner-based literature gap formulation approach. This consideration of inductive, practitioner-based versus deductive, literature-based literature gap formulation is related to the discussion concerning “engaged scholarship” and relationships and gaps between theory and practice in organization studies [Van De Ven, 2007, Engaged Scholarship: A Guide for Organizational and Research Knowledge (Oxford University Press, NY)]. However, there is an important difference with respect to the key issue of ethics literature versus practitioner-based literature gap formulation. This article offers examples of the two different approaches and makes comparisons between them. Implications for practice-based organizational ethics theory building, Ph.D. education, and public intellectual work are considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Argyris, C. (1957). Personality and Organization: The Conflict Between System and the Individual. New York: Harper and Row.
Argyris, C. (1964). Integrating the individual and the organization. N.Y.: Wiley.
Argyris, C. (2003). A life full of learning. Organization Studies, 24, 7:1178-1192.
Argyris, C. (2004). Reasons and rationalizations: The limits to organizational knowledge. N.Y.: Oxford University Press.
Argyris, C. & Schon, D.(1974). Theory in Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bartunek, J.M. 2007. Academic-practitioner collaboration need not require joint or relevant research: Toward a relational scholarship of integration. Academy of Management Journal, 50: 1323-1333.
Bartunek, J.M. & Louis, M.R. 1996. Insider/outsider team research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Bateson, G.W. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. N.Y.: Ballantine.
Boyer, E.L. 1990. Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities at the professorate. Princeton, N.J.: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Empson, L.: 2007, My Affair with the “Other”: The Interpenetration of Research and Practice. Paper Presented at the Third Organization Studies Summer Workshop, ‘Organization Studies as Applied Science: The Generation and Use of Academic Knowledge about Organizations,’ Crete.
Evered, R. & Louis, M. 1981. Alternative perspective to organizational science: “Inquiry from the Inside” and “Inquiry from outside”. Academy of Management Review, 6: 385-395.
Fromm, E.: 1955, The Sane Society (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York).
Hirschman, A.O. (1958). The strategy of economic development. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hirschman, A.O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Hirschman, A.O. (1998). Crossing boundaries: Selected writings. N.Y.: Zone Books.
Kubie, L.: 1958, Neurotic Distortions of the Creative Process (University of Kansas Press, Lawrence).
March, J.G. (1988). Decisions and Organizations. Oxford: Blackwell.
Mohrman, S.A., Gibson, C.B., & Mohrman, A.M. 2001. Doing research that is useful to practice: A model and empirical exploration. Academy of Management Journal, 44: 357-375.
Plowman, D.A., Baker, L.T., Beck, T.E., Kulkarni, M., Solansky, S.T., Travis, D.V. (2007). Radical change accidentally: The emergence and amplification of small change. The Academy of Management Journal, 50, 3: 515-543.
Said, E.W. 2003. Humanism and democratic criticism. N.Y.: Columbia University Press.
Simon, H.A. (1982. Models of bounded rationality. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Van de Ven, A.H. 2007. Engaged scholarship: A guide for organizational and research knowledge. N.Y.: Oxford University Press.
Van de Ven, A. H. and P. E. Johnson: 2006, Knowledge for Theory and Practice. Academy of Management Review, 31, 802–821.
Weick, K.E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Whyte, W.G. 1984. Learning from the field: A guide from experience. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Wiertz, C. & de Ruyter, K. (2007). Beyond the call of duty: Why customers contribute to firm-hosted commercial online communities. Organization Studies, 28, 3: 349-378.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nielsen, R.P. Practitioner-Based Theory Building in Organizational Ethics. J Bus Ethics 93, 401–406 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0229-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0229-3