Impact of American Centrism - Essay Example

SALEH ALOTHMAN Week 7: Learning Set Participation Word Count: Discuss the debates around the impact of American-centrism on knowledge creation and consider how these have influenced your approach to and engagement with knowledge. Fourcade (2006) placed stress upon American-centrism as a progressively more global cohesive economics profession. Economics does not have an official closed system of licensing. Because of this its globalization as a profession has moved to work in accordance with principles and practices from the United States. This has the effect of turning American based business schools into global institutions and so resulting in an international merging within the economics profession. Clegg (2002) discussed the impact of professionals within business schools. His discussion is concerned with the Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ). This contains extensive involvement on the part of American professionals, who, as contributors far exceed those from elsewhere. This has been has been credited to the fact that it is closely associated with Cornell Business School, as well as other American business schools. Organisational theory is a major focus of Clegg’s argument. Considering the writing of Hinings and Greenwood (2002) questions are asked about such things as organisation theory. Such things as the effect and impact of large organisations upon wider society, and the role they should play are discussed, and how these place controls upon the organisations concerned. There is also discussion of the place power plays within organisations, as well as the importance played by schools of business, a topic I have myself discussed earlier. This brought me to an understanding of how research must aim to produce findings that are both capable of being utilized by companies and which can be comprehended by industry leaders. This provides links between the schools and the businesses they seek to serve. . As stated by Bennis and O’Toole (2005) business schools need to benefit from knowledge which is already available as well as new data. However within the work place environments this can become especially complex. In order to deal with this increase in complexity it is necessary for the business schools to arrive at a better comprehension of ways in which knowledge can be used in order to increase the competitive edge, (Syvertsen, 2008) It was thus recommended by Bennis and O’Toole in 2005 that the schools of business need to place more emphasis on research. Also important, state the authors, is the use of undergraduate programmes, because in the search for new knowledge it is such programmes which produce questions and to overturn or discard knowledge already in place. The creation of fresh knowledge needs theories to be arrived at, requires theory building as well as the ability to form and analyse concepts, make experiments and test ideas. Pratt (2008) discussed qualitative research as found in North American academic journals. He considers the differences between methods used by researchers and whether they produce quantitative or qualitative research. Grey (2010) provides evidence about American schools of business and how, from the 1950s onwards, they were able to establish their own academic journals with regard to organizational studies. By comparing the findings of research within these American journals with that produced in other places it can be shown how the Administrative Science Quarterly is dominant, but that when it comes to organisational studies, non –North American countries are building up an increasing presence. I have attempted in this section to show how important is the fact of American-centrism when it comes to knowledge creation. I did this by discussing various pieces of writing about research produced by authors from North American, and also by considering the interactions between business schools and organizations. The creation of knowledge is obviously and both the schools and the businesses need to seek new knowledge, and enhance their knowledge bases on a continuous basis. My aspiration is to become a true scholar-practitioner, with the stress being on the practitioner. However the debate during the Week 7 readings focuses perhaps rather on the scholarly part of the equation; how people obtain tenure to teach in the business schools of North America; as well as the strategies used in order to get their qualitative research results published in the leading American journals; and how ranking systems for schools and journals can have an influence on the subjects chosen for research by academics. I have suspected for quite a while that some academic researchers work to produce knowledge for other academics rather than working for the benefit of business practitioners. The Week 7 readings confirmed this idea The whole debate may be of interest to academics who are trying to break away from the noticeable American centred way of knowledge creation following positivist/quantitative outlines, but is less relevant to me with my Module 3 problem. Use Bell and Bryman (2007) to identify the potential ethical issues involved in researching your own workplace-based problem and suggest ways you could increase knowledge co-production through the development of more reciprocal relationships with research participants. Bell and Bryman (2007) stated that management research is of great interest for businesses, as well as other organizations and professionals. On the other hand there is no great stress on ethics within management research. They argue that this is because business schools are not equipping students with the necessary skills or understanding required in order to deal with ethical matters. This can be considered to be a failure and is linked to weaknesses in the ethical practices amongst college faculties who rely on internal regulation and monitoring, rather than a set of externally imposed codes. Instead, there are simply guidelines which are concerned with relationships with the students. Bell and Bryman are concerned about research ethics in relationship to management and the debate about this. They talk about several drawbacks in the field of management research and its lack of ethical codes. I am in support of students researching within their place of work. Rowley (2003) agrees with this point of view. From an academic point of view the aims have been stated as being to : Enhance understanding by students of how they should go about analyzing evaluating theories in a critical manner. Encourage them to use theoretical ideas and models as a way of making sense of their particular organisation. Enabling students to prepare a report or dissertation that clearly shows their ability to make links between theory and work place practice. Rowley (2003) also outlines the problems faced by students when it comes to conducting research in their particular work place. They must struggle with: the procedures needed to apply theoretical patterns and ideas models in the work place environment. any research designed in order that they can collect data and then go on to , analyze and interpret it. being able to reflect upon their own learning, and as needed, any changes in the development processes within their organization. designing their reports of the actions or experience that they, and their company , have met with. The debate here centres upon action research being the optimum method if students are to be encouraged to attain the habit of being a researcher within the workplace, as it provides them with a method that teaches them how to critically appraise their own practice. I support the idea that research within the workplace is important. At the start of the module I described some of the difficulties that we as a company were meeting in the workplace. I anticipate being able to carry out research in this field in order to come to a better understanding of the problems in an in depth way, and also being able to provide the management with suitable recommendations required in order to improve the work place situations, based upon research data. Based on the inputs and discussion that is ongoing in the University, I feel that we are being shown the right way to carry out the research and achieve good results to enhance our workplace problems. I need to learn to create knowledge for my own organisation, having gained from the literature studied. This can then be used to assist colleagues to deal with their various goals. It will help them to decide who should be responsible for various tasks, as well who should make decisions It will also assist them to resist any be hoped that my colleagues will be able to see themselves as “collaborators in all aspects of an investigation” (Bell and Bryman, 2007, p 73). Reading about ethics in Week 7 was valuable and gave me some insights which I will need to take into consideration in the future when I face a problem which involves participants in research. possibility of silo mentality i.e. concentrating on one aspect to the exclusion of others .(BP Trends 2011) It is to The ethics in research Week 7 reading is valuable and gave me insights to be considered if in the future I choose a problem involving research participants. I would have to think about how to incorporate their particular needs and interests when it comes to such matters as collaboration, informed consent, anonymity and so on, as described by Bell and Bryman, ( 2007, p 72) when discussing the design and carrying out of research projects. Based on the issues covered this week, do you imagine yourself publishing the research findings from your DBA research and if so, how might you go about this? The publication of my DBA thesis is something I am looking forward to, going on to write various papers and taking part in conferences. In these ways I will have the opportunity to receive critical reviews and as a result of these will consider any oversights and inadequacies in the research I have done for my DBA. I would be enabled to conduct more research within my company as well and within other financial companies in Kuwait. In such ways I will my studies. There is also the possibility of opening a professional research company which could interact with various companies in Kuwait. References Administrative Science Quarterly, available from http://journalseek.net/cgi-bin/journalseek/journalsearch.cgi?field=issn&query=0001-8392, (accessed 6th August 2011) BELL,E. and BRYMAN,A.,2007, The Ethics of Management Research: An Exploratory Content Analysis, British Journal of Management, 18: 63–77 EBSCOhost [Online]. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/detail?hid=105&sid=446561bf-3152-405d-87fd-f6972fd2d38e%40sessionmgr115&vid=45&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=buh&AN=24165542 (Accessed: 7th August 2011). BENNIS,W. and O’TOOLE, J. ,2005, How business schools lost their way, Harvard Business Review, May: 96-104. BUSINESS TRENDS, 2011, Silo thinking, available from http://www.bptrends.com/resources_glossary.cfm?wordid=1585D3FD-1031-D522-3C41C050AD12C6DA ( accessed 7th August 2011) CLEGG, S. 2002, Lives in the Balance: A Comment on Hinings and Greenwoods Disconnects and Consequences in Organization Theory? Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(2002): 428-441 EBSCOhost [Online]. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/detail?hid=105&sid=a3b38ce2-447e-46b9-b225-4ecdafa76f4a%40sessionmgr104&vid=3&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=buh&AN=9026000 (Accessed: 7th August 2011). FOURCADE, M 2006, The construction of a global profession: The transnationalization of economics, American Journal of Sociology, 112: 145-194 GREY,C., 2011, Organizing Studies: Publications, Politics and Polemic, Organization Studies, 31(06): 677–694, Sage Journals [Online]. Available from: http://oss.sagepub.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/content/31/6/677.full.pdf+html (Accessed: 6TH August 2011). HININGS,C. and GREENWOOD, R., 2002, “Disconnects and Consequences in Organization Theory?”, Administrative Science Quarterly, 47(2002): 411-421 Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/detail?hid=105&sid=a3b38ce2-447e-46b9-b225-4ecdafa76f4a%40sessionmgr104&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=buh&AN=9025992 (Accessed: 7th August 2011). PRATT, M., 2011 Fitting Oval Pegs Into Round Holes: Tensions in Evaluating and Publishing Qualitative Research in Top-Tier North American Journals, Organizational Research Methods, 11(3): 481-509, Sage Journals [Online]. Available from: http://orm.sagepub.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/content/11/3/481.full.pdf+html (Accessed 6TH August 2011). ROWLEY,J., 2003, Action research: approach to student work based learning, Education + Training, 45(3): 131-138 SYVERTSON,C., 2008, What is the future of business schools, European Business Review, 20(2): 142-151 Read More