ACTION-ORIENTED RESEARCH: AN APPLICATION OF ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR METHODOLOGY TO BLACK AMERICAN EXECUTIVES IN MAJOR CORPORATIONS.

A quick scan of the Academy of Management Journals over the past two decades suggests that the overwhelming majority of articles published are statements about academic pursuits that have had little application to managers in the field. Can any academician this chosen profession point out a half dozen facts that have significantly improved the quality of a manager's life in a corporation? I am hopeful that there are some, but I would be embarrassed if one were to challenge me with that kind of question. Some of our colleagues around the country are apt to agree that the Academy should, if it is to be a viable, contributing organization, experience a second crisis of identity -- the uncertainty as to whether the restitution is to remain primarily a cult of knowledge; a scholary discipline or a medium for the application of views and methods; service or research; community action or enhancement of knowledge. One of the easiest, sometimes initially the most effective, alternatives dissatisfied Blacks have is to cry: "I am being mistreated in this way because I am Black. This is a racist company." Racist behavior is, without a doubt, a reality but organization behaviorists have not come close to identifying it as a serious problem in managerial behavior. Few management researchers have attempted to operationally define organizational racism to the minimum degree necessary to establish methodological research controls. The causes and perpetuation of "upward mobility discrimination" of well qualified minorities are associated with lines of progression, psychological "fit," grooming favorite sons for the top jobs, transfer provisions, and others. Therefore, the remedies of upward mobility discrimination must come not only from changes in attitudes (who among us can wait that long?), but changes in systems of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]