Corporate Executives Have No Respect For Academics (Why Would They?)

A chasm problem of research about work.

There’s a literal metric ton of research out there about work, often conducted by academics. Heck, some of it is even used in the above-average white papers that people peddle left and right. The below-average white papers are just cut-and-pasted from top Google results, but I digress.

This makes sense: academic researchers are interested in proving things, and we spend a huge percentage of time at work. Work has interesting variations on teamwork and control and reporting structure and nuance and organization and project development, so it’s a very beautiful tapestry for an academic to dive into. No doubt.

But there are two problems we can’t avoid.

Problem 1: Academics vs. executives

This is how each side typically views each other, with the caveat that every situation is different:

Academics look at execs and say “Whoa, that’s an extremely inefficient way of doing things. They should look at my research. And what’s with the all-consuming focus on money? That said, I want access to their ecosystem to do my work, because I must publish, lest I perish…”