Applied Social Research in Industrial Organizations: An Evaluation of Functions, Theory, and Methods

Abstract

Intervening variables are analyzed for their impact on the transformation of social science intelligence into organization policies. Functions, structures, theories, and methods of applied social research are found to have a direct bearing upon the type and degree of utilization of research results in organizational decisions. Each of the four variables illustrates differences not only in procedures or instruments but also between the values and goals of applied and academic social research. The growing emphasis in academic circles upon methodological perfection and the growing integration of applied social research into organizational policies is bound to widen the discrepancy in values between the two professions, argue the authors. The message for the social researcher who wishes his data to be utilized is implied in the concluding section of this paper, which draws upon the results of a study of applying social science research to organizational change projects in the area of industrial and labor relations in The Netherlands.

How Individual Scholars Can Reduce the Rigor-Relevance Gap in Management Research

“…Moreover, publications that build theory from cases are often regarded as the "most interesting" research (Bartunek, Rynes, and Ireland 2006). Given these relative strengths of qualitative research, it is not surprising that many practitioners accepted it better than they do quantitative research (Van de Vall, Bolas, and Kang 1976). A frequent argument against case-study research is that it could lead to highly situative, individual, and idiosyncratic findings.…”

Taxonomies of Organizational Change: Literature Review and Analysis

“…Research by Van der Vall et al (1976) similarly found that internal policy analysts using relatively unsophisticated models are more successful in getting their policy recommendations accepted.…”

“…Finally, Van der Vall et al's (1976) findings suggest that interventions designed around experimental research may not be as effective from the client's perspective.…”

“…This model is implicit in the majority of empirical evaluations of change efforts (Bowers, 1973;Bowers and Hausser, 19771 Dunn and Swierczek, 1977;Franklin, 1976;Greiner, 1967;Van der Vall et al, 1976;Yin et al, 1977).…”

The Role of Research in a Regional Management Centre

“…Yet Van de Vall's work [2] shows that such research has the greatest utilisation potential. Further arguments for this approach have also been given elsewhere [3].…”