Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/57469
E Because AQ policies vary so much by Carnegie classifica- tion, we believe schools have different motivations for the way they develop their policies. For instance, nonresearch institutions might want to bolster research productivity; RU/VH schools might want to provide latitude for a wide range of research methods. More inquiry would be needed to determine how much AQ requirements are influencing administrative policy and what kind of impact these policies are having on faculty productivity in areas such as teaching, service, and scholarship. The Future of Research Many business educators are expressing concern about the kind of scholarly research that's being done—and being rewarded. For instance, a recent report from AACSB's Impact of Research Task Force noted that most schools tend to focus on the type of basic research that appears in peer-reviewed journals, instead of encouraging research that supports practice, learning, and pedagogy. The task force took the position that many existing AQ policies do not do a good job of evaluating quality, impact, and relevance to teaching discipline when considering faculty research—and we have to agree. Even though administrators may prefer to evaluate fac- ulty qualifications through simple systems that allow them merely to count the number of articles that have been published, these systems are flawed. They do not take into account a professor's quality of work, teaching load, ser- vice assignments, or career track. In fact, simplistic count- ing systems might lead business schools to encourage less engagement between their faculty and their community. After all, if faculty must focus so much on how many arti- cles they publish, they may not spend their time in other paths of professional development, such as volunteering for service opportunities or activities designed to improve their teaching. By contrast, more subjective evaluation systems— those that do not rely solely on measuring research out- put—encourage faculty to include other activities in their schedules. We believe that when faculty have incentives to improve their teaching, increase their service to the school, and make contributions to practice, they will become more productive, more well-rounded, and more valuable mem- bers of the management education community. n z Mark D. Hanna is professor of operations management at Georgia Southern University's College of Business Administration in Statesboro. J. Lowell Mooney is professor of accounting at Georgia Southern. E AACSB Affinity Groups—the key to your success. Connect with colleagues who share interests related to school size, program focus, location, or professional field. More than 15 groups provide rewarding opportunities to strengthen relationships and share experiences firsthand. Open the door to a valuable networking channel—visit online today. Advancing Management Education Worldwide www.aacsb.edu BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 41 S D K I S I C O O W I V W T N E T E R E T N H N T O T R R W K H H