Handbook of Collaborative Management Research

This handbook provides the latest thinking, methodologies and cases in the rapidly growing area of collaborative management research. What makes collaborative management research different is its emphasis on creating a close partnership between scholars and practitioners in the search for knowledge concerning organizations and complex systems. In the ideal situation, scholars and their managerial partners would work together to define the research focus, develop the methods to be used for data collection, participate equally in the analysis of data, and work together in the application and dissemination of knowledge. The handbook contains insightful reflections on the state of the art as well as detailed descriptions of the collaborative efforts of an international group of leading edge academics and their practitioner counterparts. The applications of collaborative research methods included in this volume include those aimed at individual development, organizational development, regional development efforts and economic policy. The insights from the cases suggest that collaborative management research has been a highly effective means of getting at issues that other research methods and intervention techniques have failed to address. The rationale for conducting this highly engaging type of research is explored in the first section of the handbook, followed by sections that offer new methodologies, descriptive cases, views from those directly involved, and issues and enablers about the use of this approach in advancing knowledge and practice. The handbook does appeal to scholarly practitioners as well as practical scholars.

A.B. (Rami) Shani, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Change at California Polytechnic University, USA, a Senior Research Fellow at the FENIX Centre and an Adjunct Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. His most recent work has focused on the theoretical and application of collaborative research in organizations, creating sustainable work systems, creating the learning organization and, action research methodologies in the pursuit of actionable knowledge creation. He is the co-author or book co-editor of Collaborative Research in Organizations: Foundations for Learning (SAGE,2004) , Change and Theoretical Development; Learning by Design (Blackwell, 2003); Creating Sustainable work Systems: Emerging Perspectives and Practice (Routledge, 2003); Behavior in Organizations: An Experiential Approach, 8e (McGraw-Hill-Irwin, 2004); and Parallel Learning Structures: Creating Innovations in Bureaucracies (AW, 1990).

Susan Albers Mohrman, Ph.D., is a Professor and Senior Research Scientist at the Centre for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California. She researches organization design and effectiveness issues, knowledge and technology management, and useful research methodologies. She is the co-author and/or editor of Doing Research that is Useful for Theory and Practice(Lexington Books, 2000); Large Scale Organizational Change(Jossey-Bass, 1995) ; Self Designing Organizations (AW, 1999); Designing Team-Based Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 1995); Strategies for High Performance Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 1995); Organizing for High Performance (Jossey-Bass, 2002); and Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization (Stanford University Press, 2003).

Professor Pasmore is a full-time visiting professor of practice at Columbia University Teachers College where he teachers in the Department of Organization & Leadership′s doctoral, master′s, and executive master′s degree programs.  He is the author/editor of 25 books, including Research in Organizational Change and Development and Creating Strategic Change.  He is currently the editor of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (JABS). Prior to Columbia, Professor Pasmore taught at Case Western Reserve University and held senior positions with Delta Consulting and the Center for Creative Leadership.  He received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Purdue University.

Bengt Stymne, Ph.D., is a Professor of Organization Theory at the Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden and, Director of Research at the FENIX Center for Research on Knowledge and Business Creation in Sweden. He was a cofounder and managing director of SIAR (Swedish Institute for Administrative Research) and has been managing director of EFI (Economic Research Institute) at the Stockholm School of Economics and of IMIT (Institute for Management Innovation and Technology). He is one of the founders of SSES (Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship). He has published books and articles on organization design and strategy, organizational values, industrial democracy, and information technology and management.

Niclas Adler, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden and, Director of the Fenix Program. He is a former Executive Director of the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and board member in seven technology-based and venture capital companies. His most recent work has focused on business creation and renewal in established structures, alternative approaches in organizing complex product development and, action research methodologies in the pursuit of actionable knowledge creation. He is the author of numerous journal articles.