Title: The Spirit of Science and Socially Responsible Scholarship

Speaker: Professor Anne S. Tsui

Founding President, International Association for Chinese Management Research

Founding Editor-in-Chief, Management and Organization Review

Time: September 18, 2013, 3:30 – 5:00 pm

Location: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, North Building, Room 106

Abstract 

Science has a noble purpose of discovering truth and improving the human condition, a goal shared by both physical and social sciences. Neither, however, appears to describe the nature of scholarship or scholarly activities that we observe in our academic communities around the world. Using the management discipline within the business school as a case in point, I analyze the dominant research culture that focuses on counting the number of articles in a set list of A-ranked journals as the major if not sole criterion for evaluating the contribution of a scholar’s work. The implications of this mean counting culture include the research-practice gap, homogenization of knowledge production process and outcomes, uncritical acceptance and application of theories, and disillusionment among young scholars. These problems reveal the loss of the spirit of science leading to counterfeit scholarship that serves no one except the researchers or the research institutions themselves. I propose a focus on socially responsible scholarship to avert this self-destructive course. Socially responsible scholarship has three priorities: 1) developing management models that focus on net value to society rather than present value to shareholders, 2) genuine attention to the context of scholarship with a specific focus on solving issues important to society and developing meaningful theories to explain the contextually important puzzles, and 3) engaging in scholarship that is not only scientifically sound but includes respectful engagement of both the research literature and the research participants.

Your participation is warmly welcomed!