Ten roles to support research‐to‐practice in organizations

• Author: Michael Cassidy,Darren C. Short,Mark E. Van Buren,Jennifer D. Dewey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/1532-1096(200023)11:3<209::AID-HRDQ1>3.0.CO;2-#
• Date: 01 September 2000
• Published date: 01 September 2000

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 11, no. 3, Fall 2000 © Jossey-Bass, a Wiley company 209

EDITORIAL

Ten Roles to Support

Research-to-Practice

in Organizations

Much has been written about the relationship between research and practice

(Ruona, 2000), about researchers and practitioners (Dilworth and Redding,

1999), and about research partnerships (Jacobs, 1999; Ruona and Short,

2000). However, this work has not reached the point of describing specific

roles needed to facilitate research-to-practice in organizations, or how aca-

demics and practitioners (internal and external) can collaborate to cover those

roles. Unsurprisingly, this issue is of particular interest to the ASTD Research-

to-Practice Committee, and we would like to contribute to the dialogue by

suggesting ten roles vital to the process. We do not view these as being mutu-

ally exclusive, nor do we suggest that there are only ten—instead, we intend

for these to provide a starting point from which the profession can further

explore HRD research-to-practice.

At this stage we have avoided specifying whether we see these roles filled

by HRD academics or practitioners (internal or external) or others in the orga-

nization, maintaining just that organizations need to have people allocated to

them. The roles and the questions they address are the following:

•Investigator. What is happening in this organization and why, and how can

I apply myself and research to tackling the situation?

•Partner. How can I build an effective relationship with other researchers, my

clients, and key stakeholders to support the use and completion of research

in this organization?

•Translator. How can I describe this research so those working in the organi-

zation can understand it?

•Interpreter. How does the research apply in the context of this organization,

and how could we make it work here?

•Champion. How can I encourage organizationwide involvement in the

research process, and the active implementation of research findings?

•Librarian. How do I and others in this organization store research informa-

tion and gain access to the research-related information we need, when we

need it?