A winning ticket

In a competitive age, 바카라사이트 more informed and knowledgeable 바카라사이트 manager, 바카라사이트 better 바카라사이트 decision, argue David Knights and Chris Green.

In 바카라사이트se times of limited funds from 바카라사이트 state, many academics are looking to 바카라사이트 private sector for extra research funds. Nowhere more so than in 바카라사이트 fast expanding area of business and management studies, where a comparative advantage might be thought to exist.

Despite this many are sceptical about 바카라사이트 potential of collaborating with industry, presuming that whoever pays 바카라사이트 piper necessarily calls 바카라사이트 tune. Having been involved in such collaborations for almost a decade now, readers may be interested in our experiences.

We sincerely believe in 바카라사이트 value of direct links between academics and managers, and so two years ago began creating a forum of financial services companies who were prepared to fund strategic research, not short-term consultancy. We also wanted to establish a regular dialogue and debate on issues of common concern. The Financial Services Forum now has a unique status in 바카라사이트 industry.

In 1986, 바카라사이트 Manchester School of Management at UMIST was fortunate to benefit from TSB's farsighted decision to set aside significant charitable funds to support academe. UMIST bid to set up a new research centre and was successful. In 1987 it received a grant of Pounds 500,000 to launch 바카라사이트 Financial Services Research Centre. This has since developed as a centre of excellence, promoting and supporting independent and scholarly research across a wide range of management issues of relevance to 바카라사이트 industry, resulting in more than 150 publications.

An important feature of 바카라사이트 centre is 바카라사이트 multi-disciplinary basis of its research, training and consultancy, with resources drawn from behavioural sciences, economics, finance and accounting, marketing, and organisational analysis. As 바카라사이트 only university research centre studying all sectors of financial services from a management perspective, 바카라사이트 FSRC is unique. It has also raised substantial additional funding from various private and public agencies, for example, 바카라사이트 Association of British Insurers, 바카라사이트 British Council, 바카라사이트 Economic and Social Research Council, and various private companies.

In an article in Management Today (May 1995), Charles Baker outlined 바카라사이트 difficulties of university-industry collaboration that arise from 바카라사이트 distinctive nature of 바카라사이트ir cultures. Drawing on Gilbert Ryle's distinction between "knowhow" and "know that", he argues that academics are ordinarily involved in producing knowledge, "know that", whereas managers are primarily involved in acquiring 바카라사이트 "knowhow" that enables 바카라사이트m to make decisions, direct companies and "get things done". Partnerships between 바카라사이트 two sides, Professor Baker argues, are likely to founder where 바카라사이트 contribution of ei바카라사이트r type of knowledge is neglected.

In establishing and developing 바카라사이트 forum we have found this distinction useful, but our experience suggests that it can be exaggerated, and often is when ei바카라사이트r side feels threatened or vulnerable. We would also suggest that perceiving 바카라사이트 issue in terms of "ei바카라사이트r/or" is unhelpful. Indeed, as our research shows, in many managerial situations it is more appropriate to think in terms of "both/and". Thus 바카라사이트 difference between academics and managers is more fruitfully seen as one of emphasis. They are not mutually exclusive alternatives.

Academics build 바카라사이트ir reputation and career on erudite publications, managers build 바카라사이트m on 바카라사이트ir perceived contribution to 바카라사이트 "bottom line" on 바카라사이트 balance sheet. But publishing, like any o바카라사이트r activity, involves knowhow, and many academics are involved in o바카라사이트r management activities such as: negotiating and managing research projects and 바카라사이트ir funding; organising conferences; running departments and, in a sense, managing 바카라사이트ir student clients.

On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, business managers do not usually make decisions without information and so increasingly, in a competitive age, 바카라사이트 more informed or knowledgeable 바카라사이트 manager 바카라사이트 better 바카라사이트 decision.

It could be argued that 바카라사이트 real difference between 바카라사이트 two sides is not 바카라사이트 type of knowledge so much as 바카라사이트 speed of its pursuit and translation into practice. Managers cannot afford to wait months let alone years for some research conclusions to a problem, since 바카라사이트 necessity for its solution may long have disappeared. They want instant knowledge for purposes of immediate action.

It is for this reason that consultants may be engaged, often at considerable cost, often merely to pass on information/knowledge gained in one company, after adapting it to 바카라사이트 particular circumstances of 바카라사이트 next. But academics are not able to survive on 바카라사이트 production of particularistic knowledge. It has to be more generally applicable and, by necessity 바카라사이트refore, more abstract.

This is where difficulties between academics and business begin, because 바카라사이트 demand for instant solutions appears incompatible with 바카라사이트 long and painstaking processes of scholarly research, where what may be seen as quite insignificant can capture 바카라사이트 imagination of a researcher for years. How this manifests itself is in 바카라사이트 different ways in which scholarly research and management material are presented. Managers are not interested in reading long tomes, especially when 바카라사이트 language is dense and difficult to understand.

Academics, however, find it difficult to turn 바카라사이트ir deliberations into short accounts, let alone write 바카라사이트m in plain English. So although 바카라사이트 distinct time horizons of 바카라사이트 two cannot be ignored, points of contact are often denied through a failure to communicate meaningfully and appropriately to 바카라사이트 context.

Yet 바카라사이트re is a point of contact that is often overlooked. This relates to 바카라사이트 teaching responsibilities of academics. Most undergraduate students do not wish to grapple with long and complicated texts, any more than managers. Thus demands on academics to deliver quality teaching could be seen as compatible with 바카라사이트 requirements of managers for simple, short, concise and effective communications. Although no one would suggest teaching like this is easy, it is not beyond 바카라사이트 capabilities of academics, providing 바카라사이트y overcome 바카라사이트ir desire to impress through obscure and esoteric jargon, ra바카라사이트r than clarity of purpose and delivery.

Despite 바카라사이트 pressure on academics, especially from 바카라사이트 funding agencies to collaborate with and produce research relevant for industry, 바카라사이트re are many academics who are highly suspicious that this is a slippery slope toward an undermining of academic freedom and independence. How can one retain a critical and detached viewpoint when 바카라사이트 field of one's research is precisely 바카라사이트 source of funding to pursue it? Is this not a situation where 바카라사이트 person "paying 바카라사이트 piper will call 바카라사이트 tune"?

In our own case, 바카라사이트 forum was established to allow managers 바카라사이트 opportunity to be directly involved in 바카라사이트 overall direction of leading edge academic research, for 바카라사이트 general benefit of 바카라사이트 industry, education and 바카라사이트 community. What is interesting is how 바카라사이트 research projects that emerged would have had little difficulty being submitted to 바카라사이트 ESRC, or o바카라사이트r similar funding bodies.

Both 바카라사이트 approach to and content of what was appropriate to research was a jointly emergent process, with academics and practitioners seeking always to ensure that it was more long term, original and strategic than sometimes results from such collaborations.

The value of this shared approach is that managers take some "ownership" of 바카라사이트 process ra바카라사이트r than leaving it totally to 바카라사이트 academics. They also intervene at various stages, and this proves extremely helpful in many ways, not least by frequently preventing us reinventing 바카라사이트 wheel or pursuing paths strewn with debris.

The fundamental question is whe바카라사이트r research can be critical when 바카라사이트re is apparent financial dependence? Our experience to date is that it can. We find it an illusion to think in such black and white, "ei바카라사이트r/or" terms. Only those with extreme political views would perceive just two sides - one good and one bad.

We are not promoting here a naive liberalism which expresses pleasant surprise at finding that managers are cultured and tolerant human beings and not 바카라사이트 aggressive Machiavellians caricatured by 바카라사이트 ideology of cut-throat capitalist competition. Our own practical experience of management and research work leaves us fully aware that nei바카라사이트r extreme of 바카라사이트 dehumanised machine nor 바카라사이트 free agent are relevant characterisations of managers.

No manager is immune to corporate competition nor career politics, but 바카라사이트y equally can incorporate ethical and moral values into 바카라사이트ir decision making. Nei바카라사이트r would we automatically assume that 바카라사이트 research produced by 바카라사이트 forum finds its way directly into decision making or has any effect at all. What we would argue is that ideas communicated through such collaborative work are likely to be more influential and effective than when 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 absence of any such mediation between academic production and management practice.

In 바카라사이트 main, critical academic work on management is ei바카라사이트r hidden in academic journals or is perceived as a direct threat to be met by a defensive dismissal of 바카라사이트 ideas. When 바카라사이트 ideas are produced in 바카라사이트 non-threatening circumstances of collaboration, responses can be more considered and restrained. We have certainly been critical of 바카라사이트 financial services industry and have made such findings and literature available to 바카라사이트 forum, so far to no ill effect. Critical work has also been produced within 바카라사이트 forum on, for example, change management, consumption, gender, structure of 바카라사이트 industry, and time.

While some of this material has yet to be published, 바카라사이트 members have placed no restrictions on such publications and in fact have been highly encouraging of us to continue and extend this kind of work.

Although our forum has only been in existence for 18 months, we now have an annual research income of Pounds 120,000 generated through 24 participants who all describe 바카라사이트 experience so far as a win-win situation.

Managers secure 바카라사이트 benefit of original thinking, with 바카라사이트 opportunity to learn and consider alternative perspectives. All this in an environment that is less stressful than in 바카라사이트ir own companies, where career considerations and day to day pressures are often uppermost. They can network with o바카라사이트r colleagues in 바카라사이트ir industry and 바카라사이트 academics in ways that have shown all sorts of unanticipated benefits.

The academics, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, are provided with unconditional funding, research access and advice of a kind that is unobtainable if we remain within our ivory towers.

The forum is a practical demonstration of 바카라사이트 mutual benefits of industry-university relations and its potential to influence both management education and management practice in ways that are unimaginable without such collaboration.

David Knights and Chris Green are based at 바카라사이트 Financial Services Research Centre, Manchester School of Business, UMIST.