2006 Presidential Address QUEST FOR AN ENGAGED ACADEMY THOMAS G. CUMMINGS University of Southern California I propose that the future vitality and success of our profession depends on making sure our research-based knowledge is relevant and useful. This will require the Academy of Management, as the professional embodiment of our field, to be far more engaged with the real world than has traditionally been the case. I identify ways that an engaged Academy can facilitate a closer partnership between researchers and practitioners to produce knowledge that is both scientifically valid and practical. I explore how the Academy’s approach to knowledge transfer can be more visible, assertive, and persuasive. Something’s happening; something’s in the air: Jane Dutton, Kathy Eisenhardt, Syd Finkel- stein, Ranjay Gulati, and Jeff Pfeffer all hitting the pages of Harvard Business Review (e.g., Dut- ton, Frost, Worline, Lilius, & Kanov, 2002; Eisen- hardt & Brown, 1999; Gulati & Oldroyd, 2005; Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006a; Quinn, Anderson, & Finkelstein, 1996), all writing books relevant to practitioners (e.g., Dutton, 2003; Eisenhardt, 1998; Finkelstein, 2003; Pfeffer & Sutton, 2006b; Sawh- ney, Gulati, Paoni, & The Kellogg TechVenture Team, 2001). Bob Sutton creating a popular blog highlighted in BusinessWeek. Bill Ouchi leading a revolution in public school reform (e.g., Ouchi & Segal, 2003). C. K. Prahalad (2005) showing how corporations can help to eradicate poverty in the world. Michael Porter redefining how health care should be administered in the United States (e.g., Porter & Olmsted Tiesberg, 2006). Something’s happening, something’s in the air: The New Orleans conference dedicated to “actionable knowledge,” Atlanta to “knowledge, action, and the public concern,” and Philadel- phia to “doing well by doing good.” AMJ creat- ing a forum to address whether management research matters to public policy (e.g., Rynes & Shapiro, 2005). Yes, something’s happening in the big tent, all right. Academy members are no longer willing to take a back seat to the management gurus and big-time consultants who have the ear of top executives and administrators. Our re- search-based knowledge is finding its way into practitioner outlets and the popular media. Someday it may even sweep clean the manage- ment fads and freeze-dried solutions cluttering the nooks and crannies of organizations. Yes, something’s happening. Academy mem- bers are not happy sitting at the kiddies’ table. They want to be with the big folks who make the policies and implement the decisions. Our sis- ters and brothers in the discipline-based profes- sions have long enjoyed this privilege; the big folks listen when they have something to say. We want the same. Mattering to the real world has been a long- held value of the Academy from its inception in 1936. We’ve devoted a fair amount of conference time and journal pages to it. Academy presi- dents have persistently addressed the drive for relevance. One president, in commenting on how large and diverse the Academy had be- come amid the growing complexity, globaliza- tion, and change in business and society, pro- posed that the time was right to create a coherent approach to linking research to prac- tice. This was the late Harold Smiddy in 1962, when the Academy had about 500 members and the reference was to organizational conditions occurring in the 1950s. As an aside, Harold was an executive at GE; the place seems to attract Academy presidents. And, of course, who can forget back in 1993, in Atlanta, in one of the most misinterpreted Academy presidential addresses on record, when Don Hambrick (1994) asked, I greatly appreciate the helpful comments and loving support in preparing this address from my wife, Chailin Cummings.  Academy of Management Review 2007, Vol. 32, No. 2, 355–360. Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted without the copyright holder’s express written permission. Users may print, download, or email articles for individual use only. 355