Research Advisory Boards to Facilitate Organizational Research

The authors argue that the currently dominant paradigm for the design, conduct, and evaluation of organizational research is limited. Those limitations hamper the generation and accumulation of significant research and may result in a variety of other dysfunctional consequences. Collaborative approaches to the research process are presented and one, termed the research advisory board (RAB), is discussed in detail. The RAB, a group of scholars who provide guidance with a research project from its early stages, is seen as a mechanism to counter some limitations of the current process. As such, it would complement current procedures to yield a new, more constructive paradigm. We believe RABs would generally improve the quality of research, sharply increase the number of problems that are identified at research stages where they are correctable, lead to early recognition of fatal flaws, potentially increase research creativity, and provide a more level playing field for organizational researchers who do not have other access to collaborative mechanisms.