Being abstract terms referring to the proposal of explanations and actual encounters with certain phenomena in natural settings, theory and practice can sometimes be seen as incompatible, creating division and conflicts in interprofessional teams. In the conflict over theories’ hypothetical impracticality in the context of management development programs, I would take the pro-theory position. Giving preference to viewing theory as a practical approach to business issues stems from theories’ flexible nature and the ability to inspire innovativeness in decision-making, explain/predict challenges, and cause improvement.
The first reason why this perspective would be more suitable deals with theories’ flexibility and adaptability to businesses’ needs and new data. In Chapter 1 of the course book, contrary to the viewpoint that stresses theoretical assumptions’ impracticality in business, Schindler (2019) argues that good theories support logical decisions and are modifiable, which is conducive to incorporating the most recent practical data in explanatory constructs. This opportunity for modification runs counter to the anti-theory position, according to which theoretical assumptions tend to be distant from the business’s realities and offer nothing more than an unrealistic and static understanding of various organizational processes and aspects of commercial activities.
To continue on the reasons to support this position, in many instances, theories’ status as a practical approach to problem-solving can be explained with reference to their ability to expand the decision-maker’s horizons and inspire change-promoting experimentation in business endeavors. For instance, the resource-based theory places organizations’ internal assets, such as business and market knowledge, in the center of building competitive advantage instead of conceptualizing the latter as a matter of external development (Lagat & Makau, 2018). Explanatory theories often construct innovative and large-scale perspectives on practice problems (Schindler, 2019). This can challenge organizations to alter their approaches to responding to practice issues, promoting solutions that facilitate long-term improvement rather than local process changes to address the issue’s visible symptoms.
Good or accurate and logically consistent theories also represent a practical approach to problem-solving in business due to their explanatory and predictive power. In terms of explanations, constructing business theories, for instance, theoretical propositions focused on the market’s laws, the sources of competition, or the structure of the business’s organizational culture, supports the determination of unobvious conceptual connections that might be related to the company’s current situation (Schindler, 2019). Theories’ being a practical approach to business issues stems from their actual connection to facts as opposed to the perception of facts and theories as mutually exclusive categories. Instead, good theories peculiar to business contexts offer explanations that tie the seemingly disconnected facts together, indicating relationships between diverse manifestations of reality (Schindler, 2019). Representing sets of viable propositions with adequately described systemic connections between them, context-accurate theories facilitate predictions regarding the business’s further development (Schindler, 2019). The resulting opportunity to act strategically adds to theories’ practice-orientedness, making the pro-theory stance beneficial to development.
The pro-theory position would be more suitable in the described scenario since theories’ practicality in analyzing management development endeavors and shedding light on barriers to exceptional organizational performance is evident. Specifically, the social exchange theory posits that organizations’ investment in employees results in the latter’s reciprocal efforts to benefit their workplaces (Lagat & Makau, 2018). If applied to management development efforts, this theoretical principle of reciprocation implies that the development of employee-oriented communication skills in managerial and executive staff can bring maximum benefits in case of employees’ suboptimal performance (Lagat & Makau, 2018). In a similar manner, group dynamics principles stemming from theory, including readjustment, common motives, conformity, and so on, can be instrumentalized in practice tasks, such as management skill improvement programs and identifying gaps in group dynamics knowledge that promote suboptimal internal communication (McCarthy et al., 2022; Schindler, 2019). Therefore, effective theories do not contradict business practice and offer verifiable assumptions, which makes theories a practical strategy with regard to solving business issues.
References
Lagat, C., & Makau, M. S. (2018). Management development: A conceptual framework based on literature review: A research agenda.European Journal of Social Sciences, 56(1), 65-76. Web.
McCarthy, C. J., Bauman, S., Choudhuri, D. D., Coker, A., Justice, C., Kraus, K. L., Luke, M., Rubel, D., & Shaw, L. (2022). Association for specialists in group work guiding principles for group work.The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 47(1), 10-21. Web.
Schindler, P. (2019). Business research methods (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.