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Abstract
In an effort to enhance the relationship between the practitioner's research needs and the researcher's response to these needs, this paper proposes a congruency model of relevant research criteria utilizing Thomas and Tymon's (1982) five components of research relevance. The model poses a series of questions that can be raised by each party as research is conducted, thereby increasing the practical relevance of academic research. Discussion is also extended to how research relevance relates to the scientific research process.
Introduction
The relevance of academic research to practitioners has been a topic of increasing attention in organizational literature over the past decade (Cummings, 1978; Susman & Evered, 1978; Kilmann, 1979; Beyer & Trice, 1982; Corwin & Louis, 1982; Kilmann, Thomas, Slevin, Nath, & Jerrell, 1983; Shirvastava & Mitroff, 1984; McGuire, 1986). In fact, special issues of Administrative Science Quarterly (December 1982, March 1983) have been devoted to this topic. Even the popular press has started to echo the concerns of researchers and practitioners alike as to the relevance of academic research. Business Week's article entitled "Is Research in the Ivory Tower Fuzzy, Irrelevant, Pretentious?" (Byrne, 1990, p. 62) is indicative of the new wave of press attention given to this topic.
Ideally, academic research is supposed to involve two interested parties-the academic researcher and the practitioner. The scenario should be that the practitioner provides the researcher with impending organizational problems, and the researcher, having the time and expertise to study these problems, provides the practitioner with useful and "relevant" solutions. For a variety of reasons, however, these two parties have become more and more isolated so that neither party is serving the others' interests.
Although this can be a problem in any field, there appears to be no argument that the lack of research utilization is particularly striking in the social sciences (Cheng & McKinley, 1983). Already at a disadvantage in terms of funding, social scientists at many institutions have been faced with a loss of grants and other sources of financial support. In an effort to retain their credibility and support, these disciplines are attempting to show a shift in their orientation to more practical, relevant, and utilizable research. Thus far, much of this appears to be "all talk" due to the number...