Not simply returning to the same answer over and over again: Reframing relevance

Abstract

From its earliest days, the field of business and management studies has wrestled with fundamental questions concerning its nature and purpose: for whom and to what ends is scholarly research ultimately directed? However, amid unprecedented changes to the world of work, over the past two and a half decades these questions have become of central importance to academicians, practitioners and policy-makers. The British Academy of Management (BAM), through the work of its Research Policy Committee and the British Journal of Management, has played a central role in these developments. This paper traces the lineage of BAM's contribution and offers a critical assessment of the current state of play with regard to the so-called relevance problem, arguing that design science and critical realism have the potential to take the field forward by transcending the 'either/or' game into which the rigour versus relevance debate has a tendency to develop. © 2011 The Author(s). British Journal of Management © 2011 British Academy of Management.