Producing Useful Knowledge for Organizations (New York, Praeger, 1983; San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994)
by Ralph H. Kilmann, Kenneth W. Thomas, Dennis P. Slevin, Raghu Nath, and S. Lee Jerrell (Eds.)
From the Preface
In 1983, Producing Useful Knowledge for Organizations called attention to the most fundamental challenge facing schools in business, management, and administration: to foster communication, collaboration, and partnerships between the academic and practitioner communities in order to identify and solve real-world problems.
In recent years, the irrelevancy of professional schools in business has been cited more frequently—and more intensely. The survival and success of our organizations and institutions are increasingly being threatened. But now it seems that the long-standing wake-up call has finally been heard. With student enrollments, job placements, state support, and federal funding all in decline, business schools are seriously re-examining their mission, purpose, and strategic goals—including their traditional teaching and research agendas. At the heart of this radical effort at academic introspection is the topic of usefulness: If business schools are not useful, then students, faculty, resources, and research will all but disappear. At last, business schools are engaging in this recurring dialogue: What is our business? Knowledge. Who is our primary customer? Employers. What do they need and want? Useful knowledge. How do we reinvent ourselves in order to provide what they want—better and faster than our competitors? Radically improve communication, collaboration, and partnerships with the practitioner community in order to identify and solve real-world problems.
To this end, the reissue of Producing Useful Knowledge for Organizations is very timely indeed. Hopefully, the usefulness of the knowledge contained in this book will be applied to organizations for decades to come. The contributors—who include many of the leading management scholars and practitioners—explore conceptual approaches and research strategies, examine the differences in the perspective of academics and practitioners, and suggest ways in which academic institutions may be redesigned to encourage the production of useful knowledge.
To Order PRODUCING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE
Contributions by:
Chris Argyris
Vincent P. Barabba
Janice M. Beyer
David G. Bowers
Douglas W. Bray
C. West Churchman
Thomas G. Cummings
Andre L. Delbecq
Liam Fahey
Mariann Jelinek
Harvey F. Kolodny
James Kouzes
Edward E. Lawler III
Joseph A. Litterer
Meryl Reis Louis
Tom Lupton
Kenneth D. Mackenzie
John B. Miner
Ian I. Mitroff
Robert F. Rich
Noel M. Tichy
Harrison M. Trice
Mary Ann Von Glinow
Karl E. Weick
Gerald Zaltman