Is there a theorypractice gap Some thoughts from organizational studies

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Is there a theory-practice gap? Some thoughts
from organizational studies

• Karen Golden-Biddle, School of Business
• Carole A. Estabrooks, Faculty of Nursing
• Kathy GermAnn, School of Business
• University of Alberta

KU03 Colloquium From Theory to Practice Quebec
City September 2003
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In considering this question

• We had ongoing conversations over time about
• What is organization and why does it matter?
• Must knowledge go from theory TO practice?
• What constitutes knowledge and evidence?
• What is the theory-practice gap?
• How did the gap get construed as a problem that
  needs fixing?
• We explored different ideas from our respective
  disciplines of nursing and business

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So we built on these conversations

• To not only answer but reframe the question we
  had originally posed
• So, today we want to share a journey into the
  theory-practice gap that emerged from our
  interdisciplinary conversations
• Seeing the theory-practice gap as ...

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• The theory-practice gap as

• The great divide or chasm between two communities

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• Prevailing view
• two communities metaphor
• (Caplan, 1979 Dunn, 1980)
• The gap exists because we are dealing with two
  communities with very different cultures
• Need to bridge the gap

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Recommended bridging solutions

• Train
• researchers to communicate research more
  effectively understand the practitioner world
• practitioners to support the use of research
  learn how to critically use research
• Provide incentives for researchers and
  practitioners to collaborate on research

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Recommended bridging solutions

• Develop best practices of knowledge transfer
  that can be generally applied
• Integrate intermediaries
• to assist and facilitate the communities
  understandings of each other

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• The theory-practice gap as

• The organizational deficiencies preventing
  practitioners from using research

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• Emergent view
• Because research is used by people in
  organizations, the gap exists because the
  organization gets in the way
• The two communities are OK it is the
  organization that is the problem
• Need to figure out and change the organization

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• In the nursing, the gap is presumed and cited
  often as rationale for knowledge utilization
  studies. It can be viewed as arising from
  differing views of nursing science as

Fealy (1997 1999)
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• Applied
• (Predominant conceptualization, found in writings
  of Ellis, Kim, Lindsay, Walker, and others)
• Theory and practice in opposition, theory to be
  integrated into practice potential for complete
  or near complete integration
• Discourse explicitly couched in terms of the
  theory-practice gap"

• Solutions Need for bridging solutions, emphasis
  on revision of practice domain, use of
  intermediaries (e.g., educators, specialists)

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• Practical
• (an approach with Aristotelian roots exemplified
  by scholars such as Benner, J. Johnson, W. Lauder
  and others also draws on Polanyi). Emphasizes
• Nursing as a practice discipline
• Practice as source of theory

• Solutions Privileges practice domain, suggests
  revision of theorists (i.e., researchers), less
  emphasis on use of intermediaries more on
  recognition of legitimate forms of practice
  knowledge

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• Critical
• (an emancipatory approach with roots in Habermas,
  Mannheim and others exemplified by nurse
  scholars such as D. Allen, J. Thompson,
  Wilson-Thomas and others). Emphasizes
• Critical thinking
• Reflective practice
• Practitioner-as-researcher

• Solutions Difficult to determine. First
  requirement is for adequate explanation,
  revelation of actual nature of theory practice
  relationship. Suggests solutions may be in the
  use of critical thinking, reflection, and
  re-conceptualization of clinician as theorist

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• In organizational studies, two relevant streams
  of work
• Resource Based View of the Firm (RBV)
• Institutional Theory (IT)

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• RBV Knowledge transfer in organizations is
  difficult and/or costly
• High transfer cost of knowledge (Von Hippel 1994)
• Recipients (unit or individual) lack of
  absorptive capacity and willingness and ability
  of organizational units (Szulanski 1996 2000)
• Organizations potential and realized absorptive
  capacity (Zahra and George 2002)
• Solutions Divert resources to developing
  learning capacities of organizational units. Need
  to develop absorptive capacity

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• IT Poor knowledge transfer results from a
  decoupling of the rhetoric and practice of
  evidence-based decision making (EBDM) in
  organizations
• Difficult to align daily practices with general
  and abstract institutional rules (Meyer Rowan,
  1977)
• Institutional rules can conflict with each other
  (Meyer Rowan, 1977)
• Solutions - Difficult because any solution
  results in organizations loss of legitimacy

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• What if we see the gap itself as a sense-making
  device, a cultural category
• Then we begin to see how we treat the gap as
  negative as something to solve and resolve
• And we can alternatively see .

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• The theory-practice gap as
• An opening or pass that connects researchers,
  practitioners and the organizations in which they
  work

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• Novel vantage point
• The gap is connective and is an essential part of
  producing and using knowledge
• Need to get close up so we can see and begin to
  explore.

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• Not only what divides us, but also what connects
  us
• And how these connections are sustained
• Not only what is not working, but also what is
  working
• And how this is supported
• Not only where research is neglected, but also
  where research is being used with great
  enthusiasm
• And how this energizes more of the same

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• Not only people participating in separate
  communities, but also people sharing communities
  of practice that facilitate producing and using
  research
• Not only organizational deficiencies, but also
  organizational strengths that facilitate
  producing and using research

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• Not only researchers as knowledge producers and
  practitioners as knowledge users
• But also researchers as knowledge users as they
  develop knowledge, and practitioners as knowledge
  producers as they seek to manage, organize and
  deliver the best care
• (Estabrooks, Rutakumwa, et al., 2003
  Golden-Biddle, Locke Reay, 2003 Knorr-Cetina,
  1999)

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So, we now would re-title our presentation

• Reframing the theory-practice gap
• Some insights emerging in
• interdisciplinary conversation