Contrary prescriptions: recognizing good practice tensions in management

Organization Studies, Jan, 2003 by Chris Huxham, Nic Beech

Abstract

This paper is concerned with rethinking the notion of 'good management practice'. It explicates a way of framing management theory in terms of tensions between apparently contradictory pieces of good practice advice. The relevance of this, as a practical conceptualization that could usefully inform managers about the kinds of considerations they might take account of in both their day to day and longer term management thinking, is explored. The emerging theoretical framework is elaborated in terms of some characteristics of, and language about, tensions tog ether with possible levels of use of the concept to inform practice. It is suggested that the use of the approach necessarily implies a view of the user as a reflective practitioner.

Keywords: tensions, good practice, reflective practice, management theory, emergent theory, collaboration, discourse

This paper is concerned with rethinking the notion of 'good management practice' and its relationship to theories of management. It describes an exploration of a way of framing management theory that deliberately seeks to be capable of enhancing management practice. We also discuss how the theory may be used to do this. The framing is in terms of tensions between apparently contradictory pieces of good practice advice and we argue that its potential contribution is as an enhancement to reflective practice.

The exploration was carried Out using an emergent theorizing approach. It arose out of the two research programmes that we have been pursuing, independently from each other. Since these have provided the foundations of the paper, it seems appropriate to embed our introduction to the concept of tensions in a brief description of the two research areas. For ease of writing we shall refer to the work here as Chris's or Nic's. However, much of this work has been carried out with colleagues whose contributions have been very significant (see note at end of article).

The Emerging Idea of Tensions

Chris's research is concerned with the development of practice-oriented theory about inter-organizational collaboration. It focuses on issues associated with convening, designing, managing, participating in and facilitating collaboration. The object is to create theory that will be of value to practitioners involved in partnerships, alliances and other collaborative organizational forms (Huxham and Vangen 2001). The research is predominantly carried out through an action research approach of the type specified by Eden and Huxham (1996a, b). This approach is similar to ethnography in the sense that its theoretical insights are drawn inductively from naturally occurring data (Marshall and Rossman 1989). It differs in the sense that the researcher actually intervenes--for example as a facilitator, consultant or sounding board--in the organizational situations being studied, working with participants over matters of genuine concern to them. Each intervention provides an opportunity to collect research data and to try out the developing theory in a practical situation. Action research therefore tends to highlight issues of fit and pragmatic implementability of theory. The approach has been exemplified in Huxham and Vangen (1998) and Huxham (2002).

Out of this research has developed an accumulation of conceptual theory about the inherent characteristics of inter-organizational situations (e.g. Eden and Huxham 2001; Huxham 1993a, 1993b; Huxham and Vangen 1996, 2000a, 2000b; Vangen and Huxham 1998). One overwhelming conclusion from this is that collaborative arrangements are inherently difficult to manage and tend towards a state of collaborative inertia in which the rate of output seems slow and even successful outcomes are achieved only after much pain or hard grind. It is not surprising, therefore, that there are frequent demands from practitioners for guidance on how to make collaborations work. In general they appear to be looking for some 'magical solutions'--the key to good practice.

The focus on tensions arose out of deliberation about how the emerging conceptualizations could be framed to help to address practitioners' espoused needs. A common approach to this by other researchers is to seek to identify attributes, conditions or factors which, if present, will determine the chances that the collaboration will perform well or badly (e.g. Doz 1994; Faulkner 1995; Gray 1985; Kanter 1994; Lorange and Roos 1993; Long and Arnold 1995; Pearce 1997; Sink 1996). At face value such approaches appear to be striving to identify success factors (Mattesich and Monsey 1992) that could be turned into clear pieces of good practice advice for practitioners. For example, trust between partners is frequently identified as a precondition for success in collaboration (e.g. Das and Teng 1998; Lane and Bachmann 1998; Sydow 1998). The implication for practice would appear to lie either in the selection of trustworthy partners or in the need for trust building at the start of a relationship. Many guides to good practice have been produced, often by government bodies or consultants, and these do indeed often stress these points (Audit Commission 1998; Shaughnessy 1994; Winer and Ray 1994).