The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education.

The article examines the debate over the appropriate character of management education in university-level business schools. The debate is found characterized by a constant struggle between those who fear academic purity has compromised the relevance of the education offered, and those who fear focusing on short-term problems limits the teaching of fundamental knowledge and the value of research. This debate takes place within all graduate-level professional schools no matter the discipline. All parties agree that synthesizing and balancing experiential and academic knowledge is the ideal solution to the argument, but practical means of achieving the goal remain elusive. The enduring conflict between the advocates of academic and empirical knowledge may well be the synthesize the debaters seek.