Knowledge and Practice
The Knowledge and Practice (K&P) group at the University of St Andrews Business School has a research focus on how organisational knowledge and practices are created, shared and used in different organisational contexts. Its researchers draw on multiple fields and disciplines to think critically about the inter-relationship between knowledge and practice, employing a range of methods and theoretical perspectives.
K&P provides an intellectually exciting and supportive environment for the development of research ideas, projects and programmes. Group members undertake research on knowledge and practice in a variety of settings, including:
- creative industries
- entrepreneurship
- health services
- international development
- parliaments
- emergency services
- public policy and policy making
- higher education
- social care
- accounting
- philanthropic foundations
- local government
- sustainability
- non-profit organisations
The Knowledge and Practice group has an inclusive ethos, and this is reflected in the methodological approaches of researchers. Methodologies include:
- interpretivist methods
- discourse analysis
- ethnography
- autoethnography
- video ethnography
- relationally reflexive methods
- academic-practitioner co-production
- documentary review
- affective methodologies
- hauntologies
- poetic enquiry
Members are active in key international conferences such as the Academy of Management, EGOS, British Academy of Management, OLKC, PROS, Research on Nonprofits and Voluntary Action, European Research Network on Philanthropy, and Critical Management Studies.
The research produced by K&P scholars is published in some of the top journals in the field of business and management studies and a wide range of sector-specific journals, such as:
- Academy of Management Learning and Education
- Organization Studies
- Human Relations
- Management Learning
- Public Administration
- Journal of Business Research
- Organization
- Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
Members collaborated to produce an edited collection Knowledge and Practice in Business and Organisations. The book includes a discussion of the group's collective understanding of the main perspectives regarding the inter-relationship between knowledge and practice, and provides a conceptual map of this field of research.
K&P members are also part of collaborative research relationships across the School and University, and make research and leadership contributions to:
- Research Unit for Research Utilisation (RURU)
- Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good (CSPPG)
- Centre for Research in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (CREDI)
- Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP)
- Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR)
- Institute for Capitalising on Creativity (ICC).
If you are interested in the work of K&P, please contact Professor Kevin Orr or Dr Hannah Dean, or reach out to any of the group members.
