Negotiating reciprocal relationships: Practices of engaged scholarship in project studies

• Published in: International journal of project management 2019-10, Vol.37 (7), p.884-895
• Main Authors: van Marrewijk, Alfons, Dessing, Nick
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Engaged scholarship; Knowledge gap; Methodology; Practices; Project studies; Reciprocity
• ISSN: 0263-7863; 1873-4634
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.07.001

Engaged scholarship is frequently being advocated to bridge the knowledge gap between academic scholars and project practitioners. Through the methodology of engaged scholarship academics establish a reciprocal relationship with the project community while adhering to the standards of quality scholarship. Notwithstanding its growing popularity, in project studies we do not learn much about the practices involved in engaged scholarship, neither is the concept theoretically well developed. We argue that, to further the project studies debate, methodological reflection on the reciprocal relationship between academics and practitioners is needed. For this purpose, we provide an analytical framework containing four elements; goals, negotiation practices, reciprocity typology and outcomes of project studies. We then use this framework to analyze three engaged project studies. The paper contributes to project studies with an enhanced concept of engaged scholarship containing three types of reciprocity; generalized, balanced and negative reciprocity. Furthermore, we found that a reciprocal relationship is negotiated and changes over time. We identified four mechanisms that negatively impact the academic and practical outcomes of engaged scholarship studies. •Elaborate the engaged scholarship concept by differentiating between three types of reciprocity; generalized, balanced and negative reciprocity.•Introduce an analytical framework to discuss the engagement, containing; goals, negotiation practices, reciprocity typology and outcomes of project studies.•Reciprocal relationships are not stable but change over time.•The academic and practical outcomes of project studies are influenced by four mechanisms; over-engagement, consultancy on the cheap, drifting apart, and politicization.