The relationship between academics and practitioners (professionals in industry) has traditionally been seen as antagonistic.
Academics accuse practitioners of a lack of rigour and practitioners retort that theory is not needed in the ”real world”.
An increasing number of academics are choosing, however, to break out of the constraints of academia and making their insights accessible through consulting activities. This convergence is sometimes referred to as ”pracademia”.
At a recent world congress of the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics, the auditing company KPMG conducted a delegate survey to gain insight into the external professional activities of full-time academics and to probe views about ethical issues that will dominate global discussions in the next 10 years.
There were 100 respondents to the survey: 1% were full-time academics and the remaining 39% a combination of part-time academic practitioners. Only the views of full-time academics were recorded, with the exception of the questions on ethical issues.
On average full-time academics spend most of their time teaching (36%), a little less on research (33%), with the remainder divided between administration (19%) and consulting (15%).
The general feeling was in favour of less teaching and management and more research and consulting. Eighty percent indicated that they derive up to 25% of their annual income from consulting and 14% said that this percentage is between 26% and 50%. Small and medium enterprises seem to be the preferred clients (32%), followed by large corporations (26%) and public sector institutions (22%).
The vast majority of respondents expressed an interest in collaborating with the major professional advisory firms. A total of 73% stated that there is potential for synergy if collaboration is planned carefully, while 15% believe this to be a match made in heaven.
Reasons for the enthusiasm might include the logistical and administrative support and the credibility that the major firms can provide. Only 12% of respondents either did not consider collaboration before or did consider it but were not interested.
The emphasis on careful planning of collaboration is significant, since the traditional antagonism between the two sectors remains intact in many instances.
For effective collaboration, effort should be made from both sides: practitioners should acknowledge that many consulting assignments are often a bit thin as the result of cut-and-paste exercises. Academics should acknowledge that theory should be ”simplified” to make it more accessible. But the combination of academic rigour applied in accessible terms to ”real-world” problems is powerful and one which can add substantial value.
What are the areas in which pracademics are most likely to focus their attention in the field of business, economics and ethics? The environment, including specific references to climate change, was identified as a winner, with almost double the number of votes than any other issue. In order of preference delegates identified the environment, poverty, governance, corporate social responsibility and corruption as the top five issues that are likely to dominate discussions in the next 10 years.
Daniel Malan is the KPMG special adviser on ethics and governance and head of the unit for corporate governance in Africa at the University of Stellenbosch Business School. He writes in his personal capacity