PREFACE

Theory Building in Applied Disciplines has no rival book. It is intended to fill a void. This book concisely presents a one-of-a-kind, five-phase theory-building process that is understandable to a wide audience. Let’s clarify two key terms:

• A theory describes a specific realm of knowledge and explains how it works.

• Applied disciplines are realms of study and practice that are fully understood through their use in the functioning world. Management, organization development, public administration, marketing, highway engineering, leadership, and nursing are just a few of the many applied disciplines.

Applied disciplines address the grist of life—impacting us all on a daily basis. Most applied disciplines are stuck because they

• have not integrated scholarly descriptions and confirmation in practice,

• overinterpret partial theories that lack wholeness,

• celebrate rock star practitioners who are hollow role models, and

• tolerate opinion over inquiry.

Applied disciplines must meet the standards of both scholarship and practice. Applied disciplines are simply not advancing and maturing at a reasonable and acceptable rate given the lack of complete and sound theory. Simultaneously, the presence of bad theories actually destroys good practices (Ghosal, 2005). Progress is much too slow.

The purpose of this book is to present a complete and detailed method for building sound theory in applied disciplines. Unfortunately, most theory-building methods are incomplete, inappropriate, or overwhelming:

Incomplete: Many authors discuss theory as only a hypothesis or something limited to conceptualizing. The full process of theory building and the development phases beyond theory conceptualization are simply ignored.

Inappropriate: Many authors present theory limited by an “ideology” framework such as quantitative, qualitative, or feminist perspectives. The nature of applied disciplines almost always precludes ideology biases. Yet, many individuals wanting to create rival theories choose a limited ideological approach to secure predetermined outcomes. The result is that they miss the opportunity to create sound theory.

Overwhelming: Many authors present exhaustive, tedious methods for developing theory within a specific discipline. These works almost always have scholars talking to a very limited group of other scholars within their discipline with little, if any, generalizability to other disciplines or practice.

This book—Theory Building in Applied Disciplines—is none of the above. Simply stated, there is no rival book. This book directly addresses what theory is, explores its full dimensions, and discusses examples. It presents a theory-building toolbox as a part of each chapter. The primary audiences for this book are scholars and practitioners in applied disciplines wanting to advance the theory of their field, graduate students enrolled in research and theory courses in applied disciplines, and those wanting a practical theory-building reference book.

We believe that theory building in applied disciplines is critically important because (1) so many people and organizations are affected, positively or negatively, and (2) you, the reader, can contribute to theory-building efforts in an applied realm of importance to you.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are very grateful to the University of Minnesota and Colorado State University for their support of our scholarly work over the years, to Dr. Susan A. Lynham for her Chapter 3 contribution, to Berrett-Koehler Publishers for supporting the publication of this book, and for the substantive guidance provided by Steve Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler.

We welcome your comments and contributions for future editions of this book.

Note: See textbookresources.com for support materials for Theory Building in Applied Disciplines.