Discussion: View Thread

Presenters:

Howard Aldrich, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Jay Barney, The Ohio State University

Anne Miner, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Moderator:

Ted Baker, NC State

 

Some scholars treat theoretical perspectives like hats: they put them on and take them off depending (seemingly) on their mood and how the wind is blowing.  Oftentimes, this results in treating theory in a shallow manner, ignoring the fact that at fundamental levels, different theoretical perspectives often imply very different and even contradictory assumptions about how the world works. At the extreme, we observe authors treating theory as simply that stuff that journals require you to wrap around your results. To be sure, some scholars have created rich and productive research careers by embracing eclecticism and the opportunistic search for new ideas to bring to their work. Too often, however, theoretical eclecticism is based less on any admirable openness to new perspectives and more on not really caring enough to commit to exploring and developing a core set of ideas.

An alternative approach is to maintain consistent application of a core set of theoretical ideas across a variety of problems over major periods of one's career. Such a commitment can, of course, be a form of paradigmatic blindness: the inability to see the limitations of one's perspective or admit to contrary findings. Clearly, some scholars get stuck in a theoretical rut and increasingly create work that interests neither themselves nor readers. In such cases, disengagement from and disillusion with research become understandable.

When done well, consistent application of a core set of theoretical ideas across a variety of problems over major periods of one's career can be a source of coherence, meaning and long-lasting engagement with one's overall research project. One of the profound freedoms of an academic career is to engage in serious and sustained investigation of questions that one finds personally important. One's passion and even one's identity can be authentically engaged in one's work in a way that makes "counting hits" or pursuing projects based on anything other than real interest unattractive. Developing a coherent perspective that allows one to discover and learn new things and interesting new ways to look at the world provides a basis for remaining vitally engaged with research over long periods of time and helps one to become involved with a meaningful community of practice. The value of maintaining a theoretical core to one's work may be particularly high in young and multi-disciplinary fields, in which the broad scattering of perspectives and research priorities continually threatens the coherence of both the field and individual scholars' streams of work.

In this PDW, Three varied exemplars of this approach – Howard Aldrich, Jay Barney and Anne Miner – will engage in a moderated town hall-style conversation with one another and with audience members as a way of exploring and signaling the benefits of a career strategy that embraces a commitment to exploring a core set of ideas across a variety of problems over major periods of one's career.

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