One of the articles I wrote was just published in the current issue of the journal Advances in Developing Human Resources — Practitioner Perspectives on the Gap Between Research and Practice: What Gap? This article was several years in the making, and I am thrilled all our efforts have finally come to fruition.
I will repeat the abstract:
The research-to-practice gap within HRD is an increasingly important focus of research.This study empirically investigates this issue from the perspective of practitioners, who are directly asked about their use of research. Results suggest that practitioners use "research," though the term is not used in the same way that those who engage in academic and scholarly research use it. This peer-reviewed research is perceived to not be reaching practitioners, who instead turn to their own communities of practice to meet their research needs.
The biggest surprise with our findings is how the term “research,” as in “we are doing research,” means so many different things to different people. I hope this work helps move the discussion within the area of scholar-practitioners along.
Congratulations again on the publishing – it’s such an interesting topic, which I am pursuing myself – the “gap” between research and practice – although in a different way than the abstract here shows. But your findings are so interesting that it was really worth the long run toward publishing – seen from one reader’s point of view 🙂
Looking forward to reading the whole article!
Thank you, Vigdis. Appreciate your kind words and positive thoughts in my direction. Interested to see how you make use of this in your own work.
As I am replying to you a few weeks after you posted this, I will be talking about this some more in a new blog post tomorrow. Interested (as always) in your perspective.
Jeffrey