>YOUNG SCHOLARS’ COLLOQUIUM IN ACCOUNTI
Aprile 14, 2012
La collaborazione sta cambiando la ricerca scientifica. Ma quest’ultima se n’è accorta?
Aprile 18, 2012
Morten Huse is Professor of Organization and Management, Norwegian School of Management BIThe European Academy of Management (EURAM) is a European based association of management scholars. Similar associations are found in various countries and regions. Some of them are nationally based and located in Europe, as for example the Italian (AIDEA) or the British (BAM) academies of management. Internationally, the largest association of management scholars is the US Academy of Management.
EURAM was established in 2001 to meet the particular challenges we are facing in Europe and to develop collaborations between the various European associations to meet these needs. EURAM and the US
Academy of Management are general associations, which means that they cover most traditional management disciplines. There are, however, several associations that are focusing on certain sub- disciplines. In EURAM we also want to collaborate with European based associations that are focusing on some of these sub-disciplines, for example the European Group on Organisational Studies (EGOS), the European Council for Small Business (ECSB), the European Association for Business and Society (EABIS), etc. Some of these sub-disciplines have relations to the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) at EURAM. The European Academy of Management today has about 1250 members.
What is the role that a European academy of management can play in the future?
I think that we need a community of engaged management scholars, and EURAM can contribute to develop such a community. When I stress “engaged” I am thinking of scholars believing in what they are doing, and also that what we are doing as scholars shall be impactful. Research should not only be an academic exercise or handicraft, and publications should not be the ultimate goal. Our scientific inquiry shall lead to knowledge accumulation and shall have positive impact on business as well as society. A fast developing pressure that academics are facing is to publish. I find it important that we publish and disseminate our research in high quality journals – with quality controlled rigour. However, we must not forget the relevance. This is a challenge that particularly young scholars really are facing these days, and to get published in the journals their universities are recommending, they will often have to leave standards of relevance.
My ambition for EURAM is that it can counterbalance some of the strong fast approaching tendencies of globalisation, and that we can contribute to developing relevant research which European scholars can be proud of.
Which are the most relevant issues to deal with in Europe from the academic perspective?
Issues are relevant from various perspectives. I have already indicated relevance in relation to values creation in Europe both from a business and societal perspective.
We have many good traditions and values in Europe that I highly appreciate and want to develop or at least preserve. Many of the issues and values we appreciate are rooted in local cultures, and I want to keep the best part of this mosaic. I would even like other societies to experience the best parts of the European welfare society. Similarly, we shall appreciate the best part of our academic culture in the various European countries, but also share with each other to develop an understanding of being international and use the possibilities that exist in an international European based community. Furthermore, I will repeat the word counterbalance. There is a need to communicate with our universities and national academic systems that we shall not too fast adopt standards coming from USA. Many US standards are good, and I have personally highly benefited from being influenced by them. But there are also counterproductive and negative standards that we now too fast are adopting. EURAM may have a counterbalancing contribution that helps us reflect over which standards are good and which standards we need to adjust.
One issue I want to place very high on my list of priorities is to develop the EURAM journal (European Management Review) to be the first research outlet choice for scholars from Europe. However, we face challenges on the way to this objective, but many of these challenges relate to turning vicious negatively reinforcing circles to virtuous self-enforcing circles. Some of the dialogues we have started with other associations of management relate to finding institutional ways to turn these cycles.
But we can all on the individual level start to read EMR, submit our best papers to it and through references build on research being published there.
How do you think the development of emergent countries will affect research?
This is an interesting question. A few years ago I spent one year as a visiting scholar at various universities in
USA. The large number of scholars visiting USA from India and particularly China impressed me. One of the interesting observations was the attention my US colleagues paid to the possibilities in China. And a large bulk of the research became centred along the axis between USA and China. The attention from US scholars to particular European issues and challenges seemed to be very low, possibly even decreasing as a result of the US attention to globalization and the possibilities in emerging countries. I think that this may also affect research and publications from European scholars. Especially as long as many European universities give particular incentives to publish in US dominated journal. I can see that the development of emergent countries may result in global rather than international standards and research questions.
What are the key success factors of EURAM?
I hope that the success of the European Academy of Management will be due to the impact it will have on making rigorous and relevant European based research meeting needs in business and society. I think that we can have a larger impact on scholars, businesses and society by collaboration with other associations of management rather than by working alone. For me it is therefore important to initiate such collaborations, for example within Europe (as with AIDEA and BAM, EGOS, EABIS, etc.) and with the US Academy of Management.
Di Donatella Depperu – donatella.depperu@unicatt.it
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