Revisiting impact in the context of workplace research: a review and possible directions (original) (raw)
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This paper introduces the special issue focusing on impact. We present the four papers in the special issue and synthesize their key themes, including dialogue, reflexivity and praxis. In addition, we expand on understandings of impact by exploring how, when and for whom management research creates impact and we elaborate four ideal types of impact by articulating both the constituencies for whom impact occurs and the forms it might take. We identify temporality as critical to a more nuanced conceptualization of impact and suggest that some forms of impact are performative in nature. We conclude by suggesting that management as a discipline would benefit from widening the range of comparator disciplines to include disciplines such as art, education and nursing where practice, research and scholarship are more overtly interwoven.
The pursuit of organizational impact: hits, misses, and bouncing back
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Conducting impactful research is a cornerstone of good academic practice. It increases the likelihood that research outcomes are used to generate positive change, e.g., by improving working lives, and delivering improvements in the management, operation, and performance of organizations. This, in turn, makes research relevant, representative, and credible. However, undertaking impactful research is challenging, especially when considered alongside other competing academic pressures and research goals. The purpose of this paper is to consider different approaches to creating impactful research in organizational psychology, and to propose that each approach can help meet different research goals. In particular, we introduce and reflect on the value of building long-term partnerships with organizations to create research impact, and consider lessons that we have learned from doing so. To do this, we conceptualize impact delivery as a socio-technical challenge, and demonstrate this using examples from our collaborations. We conclude with recommendations for those who seek to deliver research impact while grappling with these competing pressures.
Achieving wider impact in business and management: analysing the case studies from REF 2014
Studies in Higher Education, 2017
Universities, across the globe, are increasingly judged on social and economic impact. An important initiative in the UK is the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, which assessed the wider impact of university research. The Impact Case Studies, produced for REF2014, provide a rich new source of information to explore the wider impact of Business and Management (B&M) research. Each B&M case study, from a structured sample of 194, was read and analysed for this paper. The detailed findings show significant differences between subdisciplines in demonstrating impact and illustrate why some research reaches a wider audience. The findings show a relatively low level of Mode 2 knowledge production, but a wide range of levels and types of engagement with research users across disciplines. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to building more nuanced theory on modes of knowledge production and in relation to policy and academic practice.
SageOpen , 2014
U.K. policy is to embed “knowledge transfer as a permanent core activity in universities.” In this article, I propose an agenda for analyzing and informing the evolving practices of communicating university research insight across institutions, and for analyzing critically the ways in which “research impact” is being demanded, represented, and guided in current policy discourse. As an example, I analyze the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) “Step-by-step guide to maximising impact,” using the concept of “recontextualization.” The analysis illustrates that the availability of relevant social science research does not ensure its use, even by the research funding council. It suggests that while a rationalist, common sense representation of communication may be functional in making research impact appear achievable within existing funding, it may be potentially counter-productive in terms of ensuring that research contributes to society. A recent project is cited to illustrate some of the intellectual challenges that are not indicated in the ESRC guide, and which demonstrate the value of social science insight.
2018
This presentation will address the purposes and evolving formats of the case-study approach to research Impact measurement. Using examples from the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework, it will explore the nature and scope of the claims case studies typically put forward, and the kinds of data that make for more and less persuasive evidence of the impact claimed, its scope, and its significance. Brief attention will be paid to the question of how best to represent collaborative research, and to ongoing debate about how best to secure that quality of research remains the primary goal of research assessment.
Achieving impact: exploring the challenge of stakeholder engagement
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
There is an increasing expectation from research funding bodies that projects in working life and policy research (and other fields) should demonstrate clear and demonstrable impacts on policy and practice. In turn, many also argue that impact, beyond scientific impact, can be leveraged by stakeholder engagement. But what do we mean by stakeholder engagement in the conduct of working life research? What are the challenges associated with stakeholder engagement in large, interdisciplinary projects? How are stakeholder engagement and impact linked in this domain? This paper addresses these questions by reflecting critically on a Horizon 2020 project QuInnE that had a dedicated work package that sought to investigate explicitly the forms of stakeholder engagement in working life research and how these might be linked to various forms of impact. Experiences from the project, however, suggest that these endeavours are easier said than done. The paper elaborates on various lessons for collaborative researchers not least that impact can be registered even when engagement is lower than expected and, moreover, that ad-hoc engagement can be a more realistic and productive ambition than engagement that is pre-planned and systematic.