The Importance of Research
Research has always been central to the philosophy and development of Gibaran Learning Group (GLG), and now the Australian Institute of Business (AIB).
This stems from the interest and experience of the founder of the organization, Emeritus Professor Selva Abraham. Prior to establishing GLG, Professor Abraham worked as a management consultant, during which time he saw the importance of the workplace as a rich source of learning and research. Thus, the formation of GLG was part of an evolutionary process, in which education and research would be inseparable, and also in which the workplace would be pivotal. In turn, the present Gibaran Research Centre is based on more than 25 years of relevant experience.
It was always intended that the organization would be more than simply a provider of courses, important though these are in themselves. Instead, with most if not all of its students familiar with real work situations, the opportunity existed to bring to the classroom a wealth of findings drawn from the workplace. The various curricula are designed to encourage this kind of interaction between the two, so that educational experience is rooted in practical issues faced by managers.
Learning and research thus become inextricably linked, which is why the decision was taken at the outset to include research degrees in the course portfolio. This was a bold and innovative move that immediately distinguished Gibaran from other private providers that concentrate only on taught course provision.
In committing itself to research in this way, other things followed. Time and again, students at all levels have not only discovered productive insights to their own work experience but they have also communicated their findings to a wider community through published projects and scholarly articles. The launch of Gibaran Journal of Applied Management was just one initiative to encourage this process.
Because the higher education provider has a global reach, with a network of offshore teaching centres, it has been possible to develop an international community of scholars and practitioners with a shared interest in work-applied management learning and research.
Research and Teaching
There is a nexus between research and teaching that is evident in the work of the Institute:
(a) First, staff enhance the quality of their teaching by using their own research and experience. This may lead to new course content, to research-based discussions in the classroom, and to assignments that reflect current research and experience. With both researchers and practicing managers delivering materials, students benefit from the resultant blend of experience. Additionally, the various examination papers explicitly call for this blending.
(b) Secondly, apart from their own research, facilitators invariably use materials by other researchers in class. Students are encouraged to read recommended articles in each subject. These readings add currency to student thinking and debate because they overcome the time lag between research and inclusion in a textbook.
(c) Next, students are constantly encouraged to do their own work-based research. One means is through the various course projects; another is through small research-type exercises in class based on the idea of learning through discovery. Further, the Gibaran Journal of Applied Management – using a ‘double blind’ review process – publishes some exceptional student work so that other students and a wider community of scholars and practitioners can learn from it.
- Finally, staff and students are encouraged to investigate or
undertake research that directly addresses education issues. For example, research about student learning styles has had an impact on the way we teach and the writing of study materials.
Work-applied learning and research is incorporated in all of the taught degrees, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As well as assignments in every BBA and MBA subject, there are research projects in both courses.
Moreover, the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) research degree is a professional doctorate where thesis candidates use the case or action research methodology to investigate management practices. True to AIB’s niche philosophy of research, both projects and theses use primary interview data and secondary data from published sources.
In addition to the DBA, the Institute has from early in its history offered a supervised Ph.D. program. This, too, encourages the application of evidence from the workplace and the production of theses which advance knowledge that is of particular value to practitioners.
The best of this varied student research is summarized in the form of case reports and articles for the peer-reviewed Gibaran Journal of Applied Management or other journals.
Research and the Workplace
Gibaran was built on a foundation of work-applied learning and its research is still focused on managers in their workplace, albeit with the higher education traits of critical thinking and academic rigour that distinguish this research from industry training providers.
Research in the Institute focuses on creativity, on relationships between people and their society, and on bodies of knowledge designed to be applicable in the workplace. While the Institute excels in this applied research, it leaves open the possibility of engaging in basic, ‘blue sky’ research in the future.
Much of the research conducted in the Centre is inductive rather than deductive, an approach that is derived from its work-applied foundations. Most published research from business schools is theoretical, even though that is less likely to be read by managers than research with more practical outcomes. Inductive research, on the other hand – which seeks to proceed without preconceptions, preferring to observe organizational behaviour and then to draw conclusions on what it finds – is more likely to be applied in the real world than any other kind.
In other words, the research that is undertaken in the Centre is located within the realism paradigm, aiming at analytical rather than statistical generalization. It emphasizes meaning rather than measurement, and its most common methodologies are the niche ones of action research, case studies, and reflective practitioner research for building theories about managers in their real-world workplace.
In summary, the research culture in the Centre focuses on the workplace because that is more relevant to managers; and this focus fosters integrated linkages between research, teaching and learning by students, and the wider community.
