Editorial: Entangling the conceptual, disruptive, pragmatic, and relational

Abstract

Welcome to issue 15.1 of the Journal of Work Applied Management. This general issue is once again an international collection demonstrating the expanding reach of the journal. Yet, as a general issue (as opposed to a special issue), it is unusual to see strong patterns across the submissions accepted for publication. In this issue, we can observe distinct strands in the papersconceptual, disruptive, pragmatic and relational. In some ways, this is not surprising given that the nature of applied methodsin scholarly environments at leastshould have these dimensions.Applied research with such dimensions resists the ongoing claims that "Most business school research 'lacks real-world relevance'" (see https://www.timeshighereducation.com/ news/most-business-school-research-lacks-real-world-relevance). Indeed, there is increasing literature which intentionally entangles the conceptual, disruptive, pragmatic and relational, and is often described as the scholarship of practice (for example, Crist and Kielhofner, 2005; Van de Ven, 2007;Ramsey, 2014). For example, Anderson, Rigg and colleagues have spent some time articulating how these dimensions interact (or refract) to create impact in organisations (Anderson et al., 2017;Rigg et al., 2022). However, these dimensions are not always present in work-based learning or applied methods as they can fall into the technocratic trap of simply improving efficiency of organisational imperatives over societal benefit (Sun and Kang, 2015). The brute circumstances and imperatives of war are an all too current reminder of how other ideological forces drive human behaviour (also see Stokes and Gabriel, 2010).The conceptual domain should not be proxied as simply "academic" or "theoretical" only; indeed, Ramsey's (2005Ramsey's ( , 2011 work reminds us that "theory" can not only direct practice, but inspire it in unpredictable and creative but actionable ways. There are some papers in this issue which can be engaged with in such modes. The first paper is by Nalweyiso et al. (2023), entitled "Theorizing Relational People Management in Micro Enterprises: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective". Here, the authors pull together some interesting conceptual work which helps to explore creative ideation within the context of micro enterprises. Here, the relational tactics of people within these organisations are paramount to the creative climate that is created and the ways creative solutions emerge. This impacts the friendliness of support and how conflicts are mediated and managed. It is possible to see how such conceptual work could inform interventions in micro enterprises for organisational development and growth.The second paper is by Priyashantha (2023) and is entitled "Disruptive Technologies for Human Resource Management: a conceptual framework development and research agenda". The author's work helps us understandand potentially predictthe ways in which digital HRM systems might have major changes on an organisation. Conceptually this can include JWAM 15,1 2