Rigor, Relevance and Challenges in Administration: Tensions Between Research and Professional Education

Abstract

We recover the educational and research trajectory of the administration field in Brazil to discuss current challenges regarding the relevance of scholarly production. The analysis of RAE’s history reveals tensions between research and the tradition of professional training, or even between rigor and relevance: from a journal which reflected the thinking of FGV-EAESP, focused on the emerging class of managers, who lacked specialized and relevant knowledge, to an essential debate forum and scientific publication, now for specialized academic circles. This change was characterized by the progressive introduction of academic criteria and procedures and a growing emphasis on theoretical and methodological rigor. However, the issue of the relevance and impact of the knowledge created suggests important questions to the scientific community. Among the issues we raise there are the following: what problems do we address? How do we do it? What are the contributions of our texts? For whom do we write? Which dialogues with other spheres of society do we promote?