Management: Theoretical, Practical, or Conceptual?

Abstract

Utilising a case study research strategy, qualitative data and inductive reasoning this research has investigated the appropriation of ideas, theories, concepts and models by management practitioners. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, which were modelled upon the critical incident technique, to examine whether management practitioners made direct, conscious and overt references to academic scholarship when addressing their organisational challenges. Subsequently the insights of ‘intertextuality’ and the framework analysis technique were utilised to examine whether the process of appropriation might be a much more sub-conscious, subtle or covert phenomenon. It has been concluded (i) that management can be characterised as a conceptual discipline; (ii) that it is as least as conceptual, as it is either theoretical or practical and (iii) that at the heart of the management experience is the appropriation of ideas and concepts, rather than theories and models.