The Undervalued Power of Self-Relevant Research: The Case of Researching Retirement While Retiring
挑战管理研究强调客观性的传统，主张研究者应拥抱与自身经历深度相关的自我相关研究，并以团队研究退休为例，说明其能提升研究的丰富性、有效性和方法多样性。
For decades, management research training has emphasized objectivity, typically considered an arm’s-length distance between the research topic and the researcher’s personal interests. This emphasis has led scholars to avoid research topics of deep personal relevance—or at least to avoid acknowledging such relevance. We argue that this headlong pursuit of objectivity has led the field to vastly undervalue what we call self-relevant research: immersive field research on a topic with which the researcher has significant personal experience, and which is important to the researcher’s self-identity. To illustrate, we draw on our own current experience in a team of scholars doing self-relevant research on retirement. We argue that embracing self-relevant research can enhance the richness, validity, and methodological diversity of management research, and can be essential for understanding phenomena involving unusual experiences, high degrees of emotionality, or identity issues. We discuss the advantages and challenges that arise when researchers have a deeply personal connection to the research topic, and we describe measures researchers can take to leverage advantages and mitigate challenges therein. We also highlight the value of engaging in group self-reflection in the course of collaborative research of this type, and discuss implications for the field and individual researchers.