As Rynes, Giluk, and Brown make all too clear in their "separate worlds" study, there is a gap between research and practice. Factoring in the other commentaries accompanying that study, readers must wonder whether "gap" is a tad understated. Since there is almost no evidence-informed management or management-informed evidence, more accurate terms are probably "chasm" and "fault line." Chasm ca…
A perfect storm is a conjoining of forces that intensifies effects. This commentary addresses the economic perfect storm that the Unites States and many other developed countries face as they attempt to become globally competitive. Its forces conflate strategic change with the erosion of employment and income security as firms shed labor and old institutional arrangements, in turn degrading qua…
Printed Journal
Mark Learmonth and the author agree on the need for informed debate before (as well as during and ever-after) developing an evidence-based approach to management and organizing. In that spirit and in hopes that broader discussion will follow, Rousseau responds to Learmonth's basic concerns and then addresses the metaissue his commentary surfaces - the process whereby evidence-based management m…
Idiosyncratic employment arrangements (i-deals) stand to benefit the individual employee as well as his or her employer. However, unless certain conditions apply, coworkers may respond negatively to these arrangements. We distinguish functional i-deals from their dysfunctional counterparts and highlight evidence of i-deals in previous organizational research. We develop propositions specifying …
I explore the promise organization research offers for improved management practice and how, at present, it falls short. Using evidence-based medicine as an exemplar, I identify ways of closing the prevailing "research-practice gap"--the failure of organizations and managers to base practices on best available evidence. I close with guidance for researchers, educators, and managers for translat…