What to Study in China? Choosing and Crafting Important Research Questions
What to Study in China? Choosing and Crafting Important Research Questions
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1740-8784.2007.00073.x
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发表时间：
2007-07
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
A. Tsui;Shuming Zhao;Eric Abrahamson
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Tsui;Shuming Zhao;Eric Abrahamson
任何研究的第一步都是决定研究什么。选择正确的问题对于产生相关知识至关重要。这并不是说相关性应该从属于严谨性。它们都很重要。一个相关的问题，经过严格的分析，产生有效的知识，既推进理论，又为实践提供信息。对不相关的问题进行严格的研究可以推进理论，但不能为实践提供信息。本文的目的是提供一个关于如何选择和制定重要研究问题的讨论，并分享对中国重要管理挑战的调查结果，作为指导未来研究的可能主题。对选择正确问题的担忧并非中国管理层所独有。超过25年前，Campbell et al.（1982）以题为“研究什么”的专著启发了组织行为学，人力资源管理和工业/组织心理学领域，其中作者确定了学者确定重要问题的不同方法，并列出了一系列有趣的主题来指导有抱负的学者。任何学者的恐惧之一是，在一个研究项目上花费了几年的时间，却在期刊投稿时发现审稿人和编辑并不太关心学者的问题。另一个极端是通过选择“热门话题”来追逐时尚。这种做法的危险之处在于，潮流来来去去。它们不一定是管理者面临的最重要的问题。对于国内外的学者来说，在中国这样的背景下选择正确的问题进行研究尤为重要，以确保所产生的知识不仅符合严格的标准，而且还能满足管理者寻求如何在这种动态背景下进行管理指导的迫切需求。
The first step in any research is to decide what to study. Choosing the right question is essential for producing relevant knowledge. This is not to say that relevance should be subordinate to rigour. They are both important. A relevant question which is analysed rigorously produces valid knowledge that both advances theory and informs practice. A rigorously performed study on an irrelevant question may advance theory but does not inform practice. The purpose of this essay is to provide a discussion of how to choose and formulate important research questions and to share the results of a survey on important management challenges in China as possible topics to guide future research. The concern over choosing the right question is not unique to Chinese management. More than 25 years ago, Campbell et al. (1982) enlightened the fields of organizational behaviour, human resources management and industrial/ organizational psychology with a monograph titled 'What to study' in which the authors identified different ways by which scholars identify important questions to study along with a list of interesting topics to guide aspiring scholars. One of the fears of any scholar is to have spent a substantial amount of time on a research project over several years, only to find out at the time of journal submission that reviewers and editors do not care much about the scholar's question. The other extreme is to chase fads by choosing 'hot topics'. The danger in this approach is that fads come and go. They aren't necessarily the most important problems that confront managers. Choosing the right question to study in a context like China is particularly important for scholars both inside and outside of China to ensure that the knowledge produced will not only meet rigorous standards but will also address the urgent needs of managers in search of guidance on how to manage in this dynamic context.