Professional, scholar, or knowledge worker? Identity construction of Chinese management researchers amid the research-practice gap

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 8; p. e0306833
• Main Authors: Liu, Shubo, Lv, Mengna, Huang, Qiuli, Wang, Yiduo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 29.08.2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Business schools; Careers; China; East Asian People; Education; Feasibility studies; Female; Group identity; Higher education; Higher education institutions; Humans; Identity; Knowledge; Male; Management; Methodology; Narratives; People and Places; Professionals; Qualitative research; Reflexivity; Research methodology; Research Personnel - psychology; Researchers; Role models; Schools; Science Policy; Social constructionism; Social Identification; Social identity; Social Sciences; Socialization; Study and teaching; Workers; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306833

We move beyond discussing the desirability and feasibility of bridging the research-practice gap to introducing an identity perspective to explore how Chinese management researchers make sense of the research-practice gap and what kinds of career identities are constructed. We conducted a qualitative study among 34 Chinese management researchers working at or studying for a PhD at research-oriented business schools in China. The findings show that management researchers in typical Chinese higher education institutions prefer constructing a single identity (i.e., professional, scholar, or knowledge worker identity) rather than a hybrid identity such as "academic-practitioner" as studies of their Western counterparts suggest. Moreover, before seeking and emulating role models to construct their desired career identities, researchers in China studying management reflexively search for referent groups by identifying either with a narrow disciplinary group (US mainstream management researchers or traditional intellectuals) or a broad group of knowledge workers. Furthermore, this study delineates how researchers with varying career identity narratives adopt corresponding identity work strategies (i.e., redefinition, defense, and distance) suggesting that identity work strategies do not always lead to achieving or preserving positive identity.