Contextual Expertise and the Development of Organization and Management Theory

Abstract

Generating theory from research settings requires researchers to adeptly engage with the social intricacies of the field. They need to develop a contextual understanding by gaining in‐depth insights into the setting, while retaining a critical distance from it. Researchers must practice this along the entire research journey, from site selection, through data collection and analyses, to theory development and explanation. However, contextual expertise has been assumed rather than actively considered as a critical component in organization and management studies. We lay out steps for understanding the nature of contextual expertise, offer systematic advice for research projects and outline methodological practices across the research process to choose, capture, comprehend, convey, and confirm contextual specificities. The growing social complexity of research settings renders the development of contextual expertise increasingly important for the generation of enriched and more diverse theory. It also has implications for organization and management studies as a scientific community.

Researching violent contexts: A call for political reflexivity

“…Related to this reductionism is the limited attention given to cultural-linguistic, historical, socioeconomic, and political contexts in management and organization theorizing (Gümüsay and Amis, 2020;Jack and Westwood, 2006). This concerns individual researchers and also entire academic and policy communities of practice.…”

Reaffirming opportunities for pluralism in management scholarship

“…Indeed, Xian (2008)-who worked as a translator before becoming an academic-has reported how translation is invariably an act of sensemaking which requires interpretation by the translator. Thus, while language is a facilitator of communication, it also sets parameters for our understanding of the world, creating a need for what has been referred to recently as our linguistic positionality and the biases in our understanding arising from our language (Gümüsay & Amis, 2021). When it is acknowledged that there is not direct correspondence between different languages, it is easy to understand that even-or especially-in the academic world, multilingualism should be a source of new knowledge as it allows for the bringing of different frames of meaning to a situation.…”

“…In a recent treatise published in European Management Review on contextual expertise and theory development in management, Gümüsay & Amis (2021) underscore how the landscape of research in particular projects is essential to theoretical development based on empirical insights. They also note that the investigators rarely engage with the complexities of the settings in which they conduct research, which may include “culture, field, history, or language” (Gümüsay & Amis, 2021, p. 11).…”

“…In a recent treatise published in European Management Review on contextual expertise and theory development in management, Gümüsay & Amis (2021) underscore how the landscape of research in particular projects is essential to theoretical development based on empirical insights. They also note that the investigators rarely engage with the complexities of the settings in which they conduct research, which may include “culture, field, history, or language” (Gümüsay & Amis, 2021, p. 11). Sometimes, it appears that the management community is biased towards aspirations of realizing what Windelband (1998) has referred to as nomothetic formulations that allow the development of formal laws abstracted from general patterns similar to those found in the natural sciences.…”

“…These provide insights into the particular characteristics of a phenomenon in specific cultural contexts that are more likely to be commonplace and in need of understanding. As Gümüsay and Amis (2021) advise, the importance of specific cultural contexts often only become apparent during the processes of evidence collection or data analysis. A European community of engaged scholars has both a requirement to—and a capacity for—being sensitive to the influence of the context as it arises and Gümüsay and Amis (2021) provide guidance on how this may be achieved.…”